{"id":97501,"date":"2018-03-19T00:02:54","date_gmt":"2018-03-19T06:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/renewsblog\/?p=97501"},"modified":"2023-04-26T05:02:35","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T11:02:35","slug":"biggerpockets-money-podcast-12-overnight-success-10-short-years-david-greene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/biggerpockets-money-podcast-12-overnight-success-10-short-years-david-greene","title":{"rendered":"How to Become an \u201cOvernight\u201d Success in 10 Short Years with David Greene"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While <strong>David Greene<\/strong> is a long-time real estate investor, best-selling author, and one of the top real estate agents in California today, his career started in the most unlikely of places\u2014as a busboy at a restaurant.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Learning how hard work and hustle, combined with a willingness to identify and serve the needs of others, took him from busboy at a restaurant to a college graduate with $95,000 in investable liquidity. After becoming a police officer, David Greene began building a real estate portfolio on a median income in one of the most expensive markets in the country\u2014the Bay Area in California.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">David\u2019s approach of extraordinary frugality, discipline, adaptability, and competitiveness have launched a superstar career. If you want the same for yourself, be sure to listen to today\u2019s show.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/biggerpockets-money-podcast\/id1330225136\" 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=BIGPOC8593966672&#038;light=false\" 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><strong>Scott: <\/strong>Welcome to BiggerPockets Money Show, Show Number 12.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cSo I think I kind of always had that in the back of my mind that money isn\u2019t what like, it wasn\u2019t all that matters, right? But not having it will bring a lot of stress and strain into your life that doesn\u2019t have to be there if you do so I kind of understood that like, money isn\u2019t evil. It\u2019s also not the goal of life. It\u2019s a vehicle that can get you the goal of life. I didn\u2019t have any clue how to grow it. No one showed me anything. I just had this drive that I didn\u2019t want to be broke\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>It\u2019s time for a new American dream, one that doesn\u2019t involve working in a cubicle for 40 years, barely scraping by. Whether you\u2019re looking to get your financial house in order, invest the money you already have, or discover new paths for wealth\u2019s creation, you\u2019re in the right place. This show is for anyone who has money or wants more, this is the BiggerPockets Money podcast.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>How\u2019s it going, everybody? I\u2019m Scott Trench and I\u2019m here with my co-host, Miss. Mindy Jensen. How are you doing, Mindy?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>Scott, I have having an excellent day today. How are you doing today?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>I\u2019m doing fantastic. This is one of my favorite shows. I know I say that a lot but this was one of my really favorite shows. I want to be David when I grow up.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>I want to be David when I grow up, too. He\u2019s such an amazing person. His investor story is fabulous. He started off in this kind of dead end job and instead of looking at it like, uh, this job sucks. I hate it. Whatever. I\u2019m just going to show up. He\u2019s like, how can I be good at this? How can I master this job? And he takes that approach and puts it at everything he does. How can I master this? How can I master that? Oh, you know what? I don\u2019t want to master this. Let me go someplace else.<\/p>\n<p>And he didn\u2019t start off with a ton of money. He started off with a ton of drive. And just took that and ran with it. And this is yeah, absolutely, one of my top two favorite shows. I really loved the Sarah Wilson show, Episode 6, just because her story is so incredible. So if you haven\u2019t listened to that show, go to BiggerPockets.com\/MoneyShow06 and listen to Sarah. But you might want to listen to David Greene\u2019s show first. This is really inspiring. It caused me to invent a new word. At the end of the show, you will hear me say my new word. I think I\u2019m going to add that to\u2014<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>New word?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>Reinvigorated. What was\u2014I can\u2019t even remember it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>I can\u2019t remember the word. I don\u2019t know. I was like, I\u2019ll look forward to hearing this word again, too. No. This show, though, is for you. You are ambitious. You really want to build a foundation, which is capable of sustaining an incredible career and a large investment portfolio, a large personal net worth, right?<\/p>\n<p>David Greene\u2019s story of hustle will work for you if you want to immediately move towards financial freedom. But more than that, it\u2019s really laying the foundation for superstar success down the line. And so listen to this episode with that in mind and see what you can apply to your own life in order to kind of repeat those results because what he does, it\u2019s a recipe. It\u2019s a formula for success. And superstar success.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>Superstar success. You know, we try at the beginning of the show to say who the show is really for and honestly, this show is for anybody who wants to make money.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>Yep.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>For anybody who wants money or for anybody who has money or wants to have more.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>And yeah, this is the approach to get ahead quickly in life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>Yeah, this is great. Okay. So let\u2019s bring David in because again, we can tell his story for him or we could let him do it because he knows better.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>First, let\u2019s hear a word from today\u2019s sponsor.<\/p>\n<p>Betterment is an online financial advisor that can help you strive for higher returns. They combine a low transparent fee structure with advice that\u2019s in your best interest. When you sign up for the platform, you\u2019ll be asked about goals and given recommendations and advice about how and where to invest. They will present with investment options that they believe are well-suited to help you meet those goals. Remember, investing involves risk.<\/p>\n<p>But Betterment might be great for someone that wants to invest passively in an index fund portfolio for the long-term and it can also be great for folks that want to help at saving for shorter-term purposes, like for example, the next down payment on the next rental property you\u2019re going to buy. They\u2019ve got advice and plans for all of that and more. And BiggerPockets Money podcast listeners can get up to one year manage-free. For more information, visit Betterment.com\/BP. That\u2019s Betterment.com\/BP.<\/p>\n<p>All right, big thanks for sponsoring today\u2019s episode.<\/p>\n<p>David, welcome to the BiggerPockets Money Show. How\u2019s it going?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>It is going awesome. I\u2019m excited to be here. This is a pretty cool product.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>Yeah, I think it\u2019s going to be great. I think your story is going to be particularly interesting because one of the things that\u2019s cool about employing the principles of personal finance and wealth-building from an early age and getting started with that right foundation is it can lead to massive success down the road, which I think it would be hard to argue that you\u2019ve experienced anything other than massive success with your career. You\u2019re a famous author with your book in the background there, I see.<\/p>\n<p>And for those of you watching the video, and you\u2019ve got a bunch of long-distance real estate portfolios, your top agent, so today we want to hear about how you built the foundation for that, how you started out this journey. I think you have a really cool story there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Thank you, Scott. I think in my personal opinion, like how I built the foundation is way more important than like what I\u2019m doing right now. I think that\u2019s the coolest part of my story and my favorite part to talk about.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>Awesome. Let\u2019s start from the beginning. How did you start your career? What was your financial position and salary going into your first job, or where do you see the beginning as?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Honestly, the beginning for me happened before I ever graduated college, so when I was going to school, I was commuting to a college from Mindy\u2019s hometown in Turlock, CSU Stanislaus, and I was living at home with my parents so I didn\u2019t pay any rent, I was eating their food, I basically had to pay for gas and a gym membership. I didn\u2019t even have a cell phone for most of that time.<\/p>\n<p>And I was saving up as much money as I could because I knew at some point, I wanted to buy a house. I didn\u2019t know that I wanted to be a real estate investor but I knew that I needed to own a home and no one was going to give it to me and I needed to start. And what I would do is I just worked my butt off to be the best waiter at the restaurant that I worked at. So I worked at the most expensive place in town. I worked my way up from a busboy to a host to a server, then I became the top server in the restaurant and then I would start to get like the parties of 20 or 25 that would come in.<\/p>\n<p>And then I became like a manager of some of the other servers, so as a perk to that, the boss would give me the best tables and the biggest tables and I just saved every dime that I could make doing that. And then I went through reconstructive surgery where they had to put my ankle back together from a basketball injury and when I came back, I actually drove, instead of to a restaurant in a city I lived in, I drove to one of about 50 minutes away that was even nicer, closer to San Francisco where the prices were higher.<\/p>\n<p>And it was kind of like a re-evolution where I had to learn all about fancy wine and how to prepare meat with steak and it was very stressful. I was the youngest server there by far. These were like adults that had families that were supporting their kids through working at this place but it forced me to kind of like master the situation I was in and I did. And I did really, really well at that restaurant, too. We made really good money.<\/p>\n<p>So long story short, when I graduated college, I had all my school paid for because I went to a cheap school. I had my car paid for so I didn\u2019t have a car payment, and I had about $95,000 in the bank that I had saved up during that period of time.<\/p>\n<p><strong> Mindy: <\/strong>Oh, my God. You were plus $95,000 as opposed to negative $95,000 graduating college.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Which is where all my friends were, right? So that\u2019s kind of like the first area where I did really well, that had exponential returns. Instead of graduating college in debt, I graduated college with a lot of money that I eventually turned into even more through real estate.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>Holy cow. Okay. So let\u2019s go back to this restaurant story. Because I actually have heard this story before and I want you to share it with everybody because this is such an awesome story. I was a waitress and that\u2019s a job that is not the most fun thing in the world. I think that everybody should be a waitress at least once\u2014or a waiter. Not being sexist.<\/p>\n<p>At least once in their life to really learn what it\u2019s like to be in the service industry, what other people are like. Sometimes, people treat you like crap. I\u2019m bringing you food that you\u2019re putting in your mouth. You should be at least polite to me. You\u2019re going to swallow this food. You might want to be a little nicer. But aside from that, how were you a successful waiter? What made you rise from busboy to host to server to best server?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>So the first job I had at that really nice restaurant, I noticed that the owner was like obsessive compulsive. If she walked by your table and there was a cracker wrapper that you didn\u2019t pick up from their soup cracker, she was pulling you aside and yelling at you. And all the other employees would like hide when she would come by. They were all scared of her. They didn\u2019t like her. They talked bad about her. And I felt like if she\u2019s this obsessive compulsive, then this restaurant must matter to her a lot. There\u2019s a reason she\u2019s like that, right? So rather than running away from her, I ran to her.<\/p>\n<p>Her name was Laurel, and I\u2019d say, Laurel, tell me what is it that you want in the restaurant to make it run better? What is it you wish we were all doing more of? When you come in and you see this, what drives you crazy? And she\u2019d say, well, I can\u2019t stand when I come in and the wine glasses are spotted, that nobody wiped them down. And no one is going to wipe down the wine glasses just because they don\u2019t get paid for that, right? So I\u2019d come in 15 minutes early so that she would see me wipe down wine glasses when she first walked in and I would notice the look on her face was like, I like that guy, right?<\/p>\n<p>And then I would go to her whenever I had free time and say, hey, teach me about whatever you think a waiter should know. So she\u2019d take me into the kitchen and we\u2019d go over the cuts of meat and she\u2019d talk to me all about everything she learned about the restaurant. We\u2019d go in the bar and I\u2019d memorize the nine different types of glasses. Now, I was completely stupid. I did not need to know what cocktail goes in what glass, but learning it and then she would hear me teaching the new people that information, it made her feel like David is looking out for me. He cares about my business so now I care about him, right?<\/p>\n<p>And then the other thing I would do is most people, human beings, they care about their needs and that\u2019s all. And we think that that\u2019s how I\u2019m going to get ahead, is by not worrying about other people. I\u2019m just going to do me. Well, when my tables were taken care of, I\u2019d go grab water and fill up everybody else\u2019s tables\u2019 waters. Or I\u2019d ask the other waiters, hey, can I make your salad for you? Can I make your dessert for you? When their food was up, I would go grab it and run it to their table and ask their customers if they need anything and if they did, I would go tell the waiter, hey, your table needs steak sauce or your table needs another knife, or something like that. I\u2019ll drop it off for you.<\/p>\n<p>So now they\u2019re telling my boss every time they see her, I love David. That guy is so amazing. He\u2019s just the best, right? So what\u2019s happening is this lady who everybody couldn\u2019t stand is hearing nothing but how great I am, which now makes her feel like if everybody else in this restaurant\u2014I\u2019m the only one she can trust and I\u2019m like a 20-year-old kid working with 35 or 45-year-olds and I become the favorite.<\/p>\n<p>And that is totally something anybody can do in any job that you have if you care about serving the person that you\u2019re working underneath and being the best you can at your position, right? I never was thrilled to be a waiter. I was honestly one of the most shy people you\u2019re going to meet. I was terrified the first time I had to talk to a table. I did not have the gift of gab at that time at all, right?<\/p>\n<p>But I knew what hard work was and I had been a basketball player, a big hustler, and I always wanted to be the best basketball player I could be. I didn\u2019t want to play basketball anymore after that surgery. I just took all that drive and applied it to the restaurant world instead. I said I\u2019m going to be the best here.<\/p>\n<p>And eventually, I mean, you\u2019re making, working part-time, going to college. I was trying to make $45,000-$50,000 a year and this was like, 15 or 20 years ago at the time, which is good money for a small town where I lived and I\u2019m saving like almost 100% of it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>So this speaks to the kind of mindset that you had that I just think is absolutely brilliant. So I worked for Laurel. I didn\u2019t work for her, I worked for like 20 of her. And my response was not the same as your response. I was not like, oh, I wonder how I can make her happy. I was like, ugh, I can\u2019t stand her. And there were several restaurants that I didn\u2019t last very long in because I didn\u2019t have that same mindset.<\/p>\n<p>That is brilliant, to look at a job and I mean, I don\u2019t want to knock being a waitress because you could make a ton of money being a waitress or a waiter\u2014again, I\u2019m being sexist, I\u2019m sorry. But you can make a ton of money. But nobody wakes up when they\u2019re five years old, oh, I hope I get to be a waitress some day when I grow up. There\u2019s no formal training for it. It\u2019s not like it\u2019s a no-brainer thing but to look and see, oh, I don\u2019t see her as this terrible person.<\/p>\n<p>I see her as somebody who really cares about this. How can I make myself be very valuable to her? That\u2019s so brilliant and there\u2019s so many things you can do with that, like take that mindset and put it into your life and I bet you\u2019ve been a successful person because of it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Well, thank you, Mindy. That\u2019s very nice to think.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>No, I think what it speaks to though is in that situation, other people would have failed in. Other people were failing in and you were like, hey, I\u2019m not going to allow my circumstances to force me to be unsuccessful. I\u2019m going to adapt to the system, the situation that I\u2019m in, and become successful. That\u2019s a recipe for success in almost any business and in any field and that\u2019s why you\u2019ve been so successful, I think, in so many different careers that you\u2019ve had.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>I think that is the number one key to success, is quit trying to make the world be what you want it to be and go figure out where the world is and adapt and be good in that world, right? So I think the biggest thing that I did to make more money than other people in restaurants, outside of everything I just said, is that I would notice that most servers were inefficient with their movements. They would go to the kitchen, get a cup of soup, bring it back. Go to the kitchen, get a knife, bring it back.<\/p>\n<p>Whereas I figured out, if I go to the kitchen and grab five things and put them on a tray and come out and go in like a circle throughout the dining room and make mental notes\u2014they need water, they need ketchup, they need a knife, they need to have their table cleaned off, then go back into the kitchen, grab everything I needed to make another round. I was literally five times as efficient as the other servers, which I why I always had time to be filling up waters, okay?<\/p>\n<p>Then you would notice that when the hostess was stressed out because she had nowhere to seat people, she needed a seat, I would go and see what tables looked like they were done and I would very politely put a little bit of pressure on them, like it\u2019s time to get moving and we need your table, right? And then I could go back to the hostess and say, I\u2019m the hero. Table five is going to be opening up. I\u2019m going to get a bust for you because the busboy is going to be busy, right?<\/p>\n<p>So who is she leaning on when she has a lot of people that she needs to seat and she doesn\u2019t know who to give them to? Everybody else is panicked because they can\u2019t keep up. I\u2019m looking cool and under pressure because I\u2019m more efficient and I\u2019ve won the hearts and minds of all the people that I\u2019m working with. Boom. All the tables are coming to me.<\/p>\n<p>When I got really good was at the end of the night, when everybody\u2014in restaurants, everybody shows up like bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and then after a couple of hours of getting your teeth kicked in, you just want to go home and like most people don\u2019t live a very healthy life in restaurants. They want to go party, they want to go drink, they want to go whatever. They would all be thinking about getting off and being done and I would say, hey, do you want me to stay and pick up the last tables?<\/p>\n<p>And what I found is that in the beginning, like five servers were there. They would sort of seat you in a rotation, like, one through five. Well at the end of the night, when everybody wanted to go home, everything would just go to that last guy. So I got good enough at my job that I could keep up with a large number of tables. I could literally double the number of tables that I had in the night which would double my income, right?<\/p>\n<p>And it was like, I didn\u2019t understand why they were always going\u2014why do you even come into work if you\u2019re just going to leave after four or five tables when I can do nine or ten and make twice as much money as you, and then I would just pay the busboys extra so they can help me keep up if I got busy, right?<\/p>\n<p>And I\u2019m telling you, a lot of those principles work in the real estate world now. I don\u2019t try to skimp on people\u2019s commissions because I don\u2019t try to skimp on bonuses. I make sure my wholesalers get paid. I don\u2019t try to skimp on it because I want them bringing more deals to me just like I wanted the busboys to be looking after my stuff if I got busy so I paid them a little more.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>Yes. That is so brilliant and I knew very few people who would do that. They always looked at tipping out the busboys as this thing that they had to do. I had one woman who, I loved her to death but she was terrible at tipping out the busboys. She\u2019d lie about how much money she made so she didn\u2019t have to tip them out. Like they\u2019re working really hard. They\u2019re cleaning my tables so I can get more people.<\/p>\n<p>We shouldn\u2019t make this all about being a waitress show but there\u2019s a lot of hard work that goes into being a waitress that people don\u2019t understand. And I keep saying waitress. I\u2019m sorry. Apologies to everybody who is a waiter or whatever gender you choose to identify with. Scott. But I mean, there\u2019s a lot of these principles that go into just general life principles.<\/p>\n<p>So moving on, we\u2019ve exhausted\u2014well, we haven\u2019t exhausted it. There\u2019s a ton of things you can talk about being a waitress. How did you make the transition to police officer? You went to school to be a police officer, I\u2019m assuming? I don\u2019t actually know very much about being a police officer.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>So when I was in college, I actually had a lot of anxiety about what to do because I just didn\u2019t know. And I hated that feeling of not knowing what path I wanted to be on. I knew I wanted to be successful. I knew I wanted to do well and I felt like my brain was going at 20,000 RPM but I couldn\u2019t actually get the car in gear to go anywhere. It was like, I just wanted to do something and it was driving me crazy. I didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n<p>My last semester there, these women came in and they were, what would you call it, like recruiters for the Department of Health and Human Services, looking for fraud investigators, and it was like, we needed people to do a job and it was like, I need a job, what do you need to do? They said, you need to have your minor in criminal justice and then apply by the state. So I was a psychology major and I realized if I needed a minor in criminal justice, I needed to take new classes. I was supposed to graduate after the next semester.<\/p>\n<p>So I had like one more semester left. And I went to the Chair of Criminology and she said, I\u2019ll tell you what, David. If you can have this many units in criminal justice, I will let you have a minor. They won\u2019t have to come from all these different categories. So I realized I had already taken one class and I needed eight. So I had to take seven classes on top of the two or three that I had to take already. I had to get like the dean of the school to sign off on letting me take 30 units or whatever it was, right?<\/p>\n<p>In order to get that degree. And the cool thing was, by the time I was a senior, I had figured out how college works. I knew when a teacher says, you need to go read chapter three tonight, that doesn\u2019t mean you need to read chapter three. That just means they\u2019re telling me that. I just needed to know when the tests were. I need to know when the papers were. And that was an insanely high workload to try to keep up, especially commuting to school.<\/p>\n<p>But what I would do is I would go to class. I\u2019d make friends with like a nerd. I\u2019d have them take notes for me while we were in class. I\u2019d be typing up my paper for the next class. I\u2019d print it off at the library, go turn it into that class, get the notes from the nerd that had taken them for me and that\u2019s what I would study for the test that was coming up like next week. And I just got really good at knowing what\u2019s the 20% of things that I need to do to be able to pass college rather than thinking I had to do all of it.<\/p>\n<p>And I was able to do that and still work like four days a week at this really nice restaurant and keep saving money because honestly, that was more important to me than the degree. I didn\u2019t even know what I was even going to do with a degree but I knew I could be making money at this restaurant.<\/p>\n<p>So when I graduated, I found out that I missed the deadline by like a week. I couldn\u2019t apply for that job. It was like incredibly discouraging because I had just done all that and I missed it for a week. I spent about two weeks just like sulking around and hating the world because of it. And then my grandma saw an ad for the newspaper that said they\u2019re hiring deputy sheriffs. I decided I wanted to be in the FBI so I thought, eh, I\u2019ll just go be a deputy for a couple of years and then I\u2019ll just go to the FBI. I thought it would be that easy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>That\u2019s how that works.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Yeah, basically, that was kind of how I backed into being a cop. And when I decided I wanted to do it, it was just like this overwhelming fire took over and it was like, I wanted it so bad, I could not stop thinking about it. At that point in my life, I was very afraid of rejection. I hated doing anything I wasn\u2019t going to be good at. I avoided anything I thought I would fail at. I was very insecure in a lot of ways.<\/p>\n<p>And I had to apply like to 11 different departments and go through a pretty lengthy application process, tons of written tests and physical agility tests and backgrounds and all kinds of stuff before I finally found someone that would hire me. The day that I got hired, I just knew I worked so hard to get here. There\u2019s no way I\u2019m not just going to go give everything I have to this department and that was kind of how I ended up become a police officer.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>So were you in a city or were you in a county deputy?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>I was a county deputy and I started off working in the jails so I worked like the high security jail in the county, which is kind of where all the top recruits got to go. And eventually, I worked my way into getting to work in intake and that\u2019s where they bring in the people that just got arrested and usually have like the most rebellious attitudes still. It\u2019s kind of the hardest place to work.<\/p>\n<p>Once they get up to like a module or a pod, they\u2019ve kind of been like indoctrinated a little bit with what they can or can\u2019t get away with and for the most part, they\u2019re pretty well-behaved and when they\u2019re first coming in intake, they\u2019re trying to break in wild stallions all day long. So that also had like a really big impact on my personality, in areas that I had to grow, in ways that I had to realize like man, I am just not strong enough to live in this environment. I\u2019m going to have to make changes if I want to adapt here.<\/p>\n<p>And experience like that is really good for a young man, as far as like, I think I was able to do it because of those experiences I had before, basketball and being a waiter where I knew I could adapt into an environment that you put me in. I don\u2019t have to run and hide from things that are hard and find something that\u2019s easy, which allowed me to grow even stronger in that world, which had taken that kind of a mindset into the business world helps me a lot now.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>I think that\u2019s fantastic. Everything you do, you do 100%, it sounds like, in terms of your career, life, everything. Let\u2019s talk about the financial side of this. So you graduated college with $95,000. And you get this job at the jail as a deputy. What are you thinking financially? How are you thinking I\u2019m going to grow my financial position and what is your reason behind wanting to do that?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>We grew up not having a ton of money and I would remember seeing my mom go ask my dad for money for new shoes or to take us to McDonald\u2019s. And then I\u2019d see them fight like viciously about how we couldn\u2019t afford it. And I just hated knowing that I felt like I was sending my mom to the chopping block to go on our behalf and that sick feeling of guilt I would have every time I asked for a toy, mom gets yelled at.<\/p>\n<p>And I somehow knew as a little kid, this all has to do with money. If we had money, this would not be a problem. And I just made these agreements with myself that I will never be broke. I will never get to the point where money can cause this much pain again. So I think I had that kind of always in the back of my mind that money isn\u2019t what\u2014it\u2019s not all that matters, right? But not having it will bring a lot of stress and strain into your life that doesn\u2019t have to be there if you do.<\/p>\n<p>So I kind of understood that like, money isn\u2019t evil. It\u2019s also not the goal of life. It\u2019s a vehicle that can get you the goal of life. I didn\u2019t have any clue how to grow it. No one showed me anything. I just had this drive that I didn\u2019t want to be broke. I ended up getting my first rental property\u2014I talked about that on the BiggerPockets podcast, Episode 169. I just backed into that, too. I had a buddy who was buying a house and he ended up not able to buy it and he was going to lose his deposit.<\/p>\n<p>So I went and looked at it and I bought it instead and boom, I\u2019m a landlord. But this was in like 2009 when the market had just crashed. So I\u2019m saving and I\u2019m saving and I\u2019m saving as I\u2019m watching home prices go up. Like, I\u2019ve got to catch up with it. And then they crashed and now I have all this money that I don\u2019t have to spend on just one house. I could go buy like four of them, right?<\/p>\n<p>So I\u2019m saving money as a deputy and I had saved up all this money from working in restaurants and I\u2019m buying like a rental property or two every year. Not sure this is what I want to do but kind of like, hey, this is cool. It works. I\u2019m renting out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>So I have a couple of questions here real quick. What year did you start in the workforce?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>I started as a deputy in 2008.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>So that was the year that you graduated college, or the year before, around some time as well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>I graduated in like 2006. So it was like a year of trying to get hired and then a six-month police academy and then a little bit of a wait and then you\u2019d actually go into work.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>Is it like the movie?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Which movie? Which one? Police Academy? Yeah, I wish it was like the movie. It was six months of hell.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>So you\u2019re in the police academy and what\u2019s like your financial position when you start the job and what\u2019s your savings rate as you\u2019re in that position?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>So when I joined the Academy, I moved and I rented a room from someone on Craigslist for $500 a month so I was really close to the Academy. And they paid us, I think it was like $3200 a month or $3300, which is not very much in the Bay Area. That\u2019s like, more than half of that would have went to rent for just an apartment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>All of that would have gone to rent.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Yeah, pretty much. It was really bad. And this is, I\u2019m not really proud of this but like I was so thrifty that I think I used the same sandwich bag for like all six months of that Academy, because I didn\u2019t want to have to drive to Safeway and buy new ones. I was like, I need to go home and study because I didn\u2019t want to get yelled at the next day, so I would just buy lunch meat and bread and like a granola bar or something. And I would take it in a big every single day and you would only get like 22 minutes to eat your lunch and change out for the next part of the day.<\/p>\n<p>So you\u2019d be like eating and changing at the same time. So a sandwich is like all that I would have had time to eat anyways. And I was so focused on doing well in the Academy that I didn\u2019t think about, what do I want to go spend money on this weekend? I\u2019m bored. What should I buy? It was literally like, that doesn\u2019t matter. I just need to do the best I can with where I am now. So I was saving money throughout the Academy when everybody else was kind of dipping into their savings.<\/p>\n<p>Then I started working as a deputy and you get a pretty healthy raise. We probably went up to more like $4000 a month or something at that time, maybe up to $4500 or so. And I just kept renting a room but I rented it from a different cop. So I found a guy. Everyone at work was saying, Juan just bought a house. He just bought this huge house. Juan was stupid with money. He did not need a house that big. So I called him one day and congratulated him on his house and I\u2019m like, hey, what are you doing with it? And he was just like, oh, it\u2019s just me and my wife.<\/p>\n<p>He actually had a wife that would like travel on cruises and work as a contortionist in the circus on the cruise, so she\u2019d be gone for like nine, ten months at a time. And he just had like this five-bedroom house that he just lives in himself. So I was like, do you want to make another $300 a month? And he said, how? I said, let me rent a room from you. And he said, okay. Like $300 a month was stupid. He could have gotten like two to three times that by renting it. But he just didn\u2019t care about money. He didn\u2019t know how it worked.<\/p>\n<p>So I got to move in with him and I actually dropped my rent and got closer to work and had a better living situation. I didn\u2019t have five people living in a house with me. It was just me and him and I just started working overtime. We\u2019d get three days off every weekend and I usually worked two of them and then take one day off.<\/p>\n<p>So I got close to probably increasing my income by 30-40% by working overtime and I just kept saving money. Now, I didn\u2019t know exactly what I was going to do with it but I knew I wanted to do something great and I was going to need money to do that.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>That answered my question.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>How long were you working before you bought your first property? You said you started working \u201908 and you bought your first property in \u201909?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>It was like one year after I started working, which was right about how long I needed to get a loan. I had to be one year in that profession. So I bought my first one in \u201909. I bought my second one in 2010. I bought one in 2011 and then a fourplex in 2012. And right around the time I bought that fourplex is when I realized, dude, this is where it\u2019s at. This thing is making me like a 30% return on my money. I need a lot of these. And that was actually how I learned what ROI even was. I didn\u2019t read BiggerPockets at that time. I didn\u2019t know much about it. I just did the calculation in my head and I was like, I\u2019m going to make this money back in three years. That\u2019s got to be pretty good.<\/p>\n<p>And at that time is when California prices took off on me. It was too late. You couldn\u2019t buy houses anymore. They were just raising like $20,000 a month. It was stupid. And that ultimately led me to learning how to invest out-of-state because now that I had this bug, I wanted to buy real estate but it was too expensive where I lived and I had to find another way.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>Okay. So let\u2019s talk about your first couple of properties. Let\u2019s just gloss over the numbers really quick. What did you buy them for? What were they renting out at? Have you had any problems with these properties?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Yeah. So the first one I bought, I paid $195,000 for. It rented for about $1400 so it\u2019s still cash flow at that point because interest rates were really, really low. And my only problem I\u2019ve ever had was that first house that I decided to manage on my own. Stupid idea. I was worried about the $100 bucks I was spending on property management. Not the thousands of dollars I could go making at work, working overtime and letting somebody else deal with it. The tenant took me for a run. I talked about that on the podcast, 169. Like he was just better at being a tenant than I was at a landlord. He was a professional and I was not. So he ripped me off pretty good.<\/p>\n<p>And then the next time, I used a property manager for everything and I paid $183,000 for the second one. That one rented for about $1500 and then the third one, I bought for $135,000 and that one rented at the time for about $1100. My fourplex, I had bought for $250,000 and that one, at the time, each unit rented out for $800. So I had a total of $3200 on that fourplex.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>Where is that fourplex for $250,000 in the Bay Area?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Well, that was in Manteca. So that\u2019s probably like an hour and some change east of the Bay Area. And it was very distressed. It hadn\u2019t been rehabbed. The tenants were rough. The agent who was showing me the home, she actually owned it. Got bit by a dog of one of the tenants while we were looking at the house and I went and sat with her at the hospital for a couple of hours as they like cleaned it out. And she sold it to me for $20,000 less than what she was asking because she was so happy to like, hung out with me that whole time. But those rents then maybe have like skyrocketed so much.<\/p>\n<p>The one that I first bought that was renting for like $1400 or $1500, that one is at like $2150 now. The one that I bought for $183,000 and rented for $1500, it\u2019s at $1950. The third one, I rented for like $1100, that one is up to $1650. So they cash flowed good at the time but they were like extremely good now. What was $200-300 a month is now like $900 a month on some of them.<\/p>\n<p>So I have been able to refinance those, put it on a 15-year notes, pay them off a lot quicker and they still cash flow really, really strong and that\u2019s one of the cool things about being ready with having capital. It\u2019s like you put yourself in a position where you can enjoy that future game instead of looking back and saying oh, I wish that I had bought when I could.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>So how did you\u2014you\u2019ve got these properties. What an incredible story of how you just hustled, saved up the money, continued to be frugal, and found opportunities and exploited them. How did you transition out of your profession as a police officer and what was the tipping point where you were like, I need to leave and go pursue this career?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Yeah, that\u2019s a really good question. So, what I did was, once I realized I wanted to be an investor out-of-state and I bought my first couple and I realized, hey, I\u2019m actually getting good at this and I\u2019m starting to get some attention for it, it was right around the same time that being a police officer changed in the country. The political landscape changed, the lock\u2014we went from being people that little kids would wave at to like three-year-olds would flip you off because their moms and dads were teaching them cops hate them.<\/p>\n<p>So we were getting in trouble just because it was like trendy to show, hey, I got a cop in trouble. You should vote for me. The mayors were putting a lot of pressure on the police. So the job was becoming less fun, much less rewarding. It actually started to feel like self-preservation. You\u2019re just trying to keep your job all the time. And at the same time, I\u2019m seeing real estate is actually a happy place.<\/p>\n<p>So I kind of switched around and I started working as much as I could, trying to set records for the most hours anybody had ever worked, working 90 hours a week, sleeping in my car, saving every dime. I\u2019m still renting rooms from cops at this time so there were periods of times where I could be saving like $10,000 a month because I would live at work, be on the clock all the time, and had zero expenses, right?<\/p>\n<p>So at that rate, I could buy a house every three to four months with the houses I was buying in Arizona. And then Arizona got to be too expensive so then I moved over to Florida and that\u2019s when I learned how to BRRR and when I learned how to BRRR, it was like, what I thought was doing well completely just supercharged exponentially increased. I went from buying two to three houses a year to two or three a month if I could get the financing right.<\/p>\n<p>I got more affiliated with BiggerPockets. I did the podcast. I started getting a lot of people calling me all the time and wanting advice and my buddies would start to hit me up when they wanted to sell their house and asked who I knew. And I realized, I should just get my license and start helping these people. And when I did that like a year into it, I got so busy doing that that I couldn\u2019t keep up with that job and my police job and I had to make the decision and I just finally realized that like there\u2019s not really much more I\u2019m learning being a cop at this point.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve done everything I wanted to do. I\u2019m not growing anymore. It\u2019s just comfortable. Being an agent is super scary but I think that that\u2019s like the new situation I need to be in that\u2019s going to force me to grow and adapt and get better. So about a year ago is when I made that decision, like hey, I\u2019m going to go be a real estate agent instead of being a cop and continue to use that money to buy real estate.<\/p>\n<p>Now for me, a lot of the stuff I learned as an investor works at being an agent. There\u2019s a synergy to how those two things work together and so I\u2019ve done really good at being a real estate agent and the things that I learned being an agent, like the business skills, worked really good in my investing world, the way I\u2019ve learned to talk to people. The way I\u2019ve learned to incentivize people. The way I\u2019ve learned to guide people. I start taking that to my property managers, my lenders, my contractors. Their business grows better, I get a better result, and I usually end up getting deals coming back my way as a result of that.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>An overnight success.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Yeah, exactly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>90 short hours every week and you can be an overnight success, too.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>This story is just absolutely incredible. I think about what you just went through here. You started with frugality. You saved everything you could and you made the best of the situation you were in, which was as a waiter. You didn\u2019t take the highest income-producing route after that and go into something else. You got a salaried median income job as a police officer and continued busting your butt, living frugally, and giving yourself the opportunity for success.<\/p>\n<p>Then, you began investing that systematically in things that you learned as much as you could about. And then eventually you began seeing clear side streams that you can exploit alongside that and you just continued to do that and grow and grow and grow, and now you\u2019re an overnight success entrepreneur with tons of properties around the country. I mean, that\u2019s how you do it, right? There\u2019s no other way. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything else you could have done to increase your odds of success, or is there? Was there something that you messed up here?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>The only thing that I would have done different is that I would have learned to BRRR sooner. So if I had focused a little more on education and a little less on just pure hard work, I might have been exposed to some ideas that would have made more sense and then maybe connecting with people that had done this before that liked me, that would have probably helped a little bit because they might have come up with some ideas. But the reality is, if I would have tried to go big quickly, I probably wouldn\u2019t have had a foundation in place to sustain me and I would have lost a lot of it.<\/p>\n<p>When I hear people telling me, David, I want to do what you\u2019re doing in real estate, I want to kind of copy your shoes, I\u2019ll even ask them what they\u2019re doing right now and very few of them are trying to crush it in the spot they\u2019re in. In fact, most of them are unhappy where they are and they\u2019re looking at real estate as their escape route, like I want to get out of my unhappiness and I want to go into real estate. They haven\u2019t learned to control themselves. They haven\u2019t learned to control their budget.<\/p>\n<p>They haven\u2019t learned to control their work ethic or their emotions and they think that they\u2019re going to walk in and they\u2019re going to control and asset worth hundreds of thousands of dollars that they could potentially break them. And they\u2019re going to lose. You have to be already doing good at what you\u2019re doing before you try to take the next step up or that step isn\u2019t going to sustain you. And that is where I feel like BiggerPockets, that\u2019s why I love the podcast you guys are doing. That\u2019s the skills people need. I mean yes, real estate is a vehicle that gets you there but it doesn\u2019t mean you know how to drive it just because it\u2019s been handed to you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>I love it. I completely agree with everything you just said. The whole point of this is real estate should be something that helps you advance your financial position. When you become dependent on it exclusively for your sustenance, that\u2019s when you\u2019re at risk. That\u2019s when I think the danger occurs is when you\u2019re over-leveraged and you\u2019re allowing real estate to control you versus real estate to advance your position and be a part of it. You are going to be successful regardless of this.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re saving $10,000 a month. Your next property\u2014maybe you win, maybe you lose on it. You do everything you can to give yourself an advantage and have it advance your position. But if it does go badly, you\u2019re fine. That\u2019s one bad piece of the puzzle. A lot of people are doing exactly as you said. They\u2019re not controlling themselves and they\u2019re investing from a position of financial weakness instead of strength.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Yeah, and you\u2019re going to have a bad experience if you do that. You\u2019re going to live in fear and anxiety and you\u2019re going to worry about everything. Those are the people that when you hear like the naysayers like, oh real estate is a scam and you\u2019re going to lose a lot of money, it\u2019s because you\u2019re doing what you\u2019re discussing, right? Even the types of properties that you buy, I talk about in the book <em>Long Distance Real Estate Investing<\/em>, if you\u2019re just starting off, go to a market with a really low barrier entry, very low price points, high price rent ratios where even if you screw up really bad, you\u2019re still going to end up with a strong cash flowing property and kind of learn how to swim in the shallow end. Don\u2019t just jump into the big end and try to start a syndication on your first deal. And then worry why you hate your life and you\u2019re terrified all the time, right?<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m in a position right now where I have enough cash flow. I could retire if I wanted but I couldn\u2019t have the life that I want to have, right? So what happens is the security and the safety that comes from that cash flow allows me to take bigger risks that are no longer risky. That risk is mitigated by the cash flow that I have coming in and then as I play in that medium shallow or medium area of the pool and I get good at it, that will open up doors to take bigger risks furthermore that I don\u2019t have to worry about losing everything because I just gave it my all in one shot.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>And by the way, you consider that the shallow end because you saved up $95,000 in college on a median income waiter job and had a huge savings rate, right? That\u2019s not the shallow end for the guy who is making the same income but saving $400 a month. That\u2019s everything he\u2019s got and then some. So that\u2019s the key distinction that you kind of approach this whole thing from a position of such strength.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Yes. You need to change the way you look at money. That needs to be the first thing that you do. I wrote a blog post on my website, GreeneIncome.com and I talked about, money is like an apple. There\u2019s people that look at an apple like a source of food that I can eat and feel good right now, and there\u2019s people that look like an apple as a source of seeds that I can take out and I can go plant, right? And if you start to look at the seed aspect and you plant more trees that grow to produce more apples that have more trees, you get into this exponential return of money.<\/p>\n<p>If you look at it like it\u2019s a food that I deserve to eat and be immediately gratified, you\u2019re eating your future. It\u2019s like a horrible way to think, right? I remember one day in the restaurant when we were slow, talking to my buddies, who would all smoke week and drink beer\u2014that\u2019s what everybody did when they were like in college working in a restaurant and I calculated how much money they spent a year on just alcohol and weed, nothing else. Not even food.<\/p>\n<p>And for four out of the five of them, they were spending $23,000 a year. As crazy as that sounds. That\u2019s how much they were spending on that stuff. Now, if you took that times the four or five years you\u2019re in college, boom, you\u2019re leaving with $80,000 to $100,000 that anyone could save with the money that we were making.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>So what about the guy who is not willing to do this? So you know, I kind of approached my life from a similar perspective with you\u2014how can I optimize in all these different fronts and give myself the strongest possible financial foundation? I agree completely. But what about the person who\u2019s already got that lifestyle that wants to kind of repeat the success? What do they have to do to give themselves the good odds of doing that?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>So let\u2019s look at an organization that\u2019s already successful and try to model and that\u2019s what I think you\u2019re saying. So what I hear you saying is, I want to have the success of the New England Patriots but I don\u2019t really like getting tackled. It hurts. I\u2019m not willing to put my body on the line, right? That\u2019s not my thing, bro. I don\u2019t have that chain of toughness. I can\u2019t work that many hours. I like to have my leisure time or whatever. I don\u2019t want to put myself in a position of uncomfortability. You can still make it but if you\u2019re not willing to get tackled, you\u2019re not willing to run at practice, you\u2019re not really willing to work in, you better learn to be the best damn like coach that you can on that team.<\/p>\n<p>And you better understand that sport better than the athletes that are playing it so you can still bring value to the owner, get hired, and work in that industry, right? There are people that will be much more successful than me because they\u2019re lazy but they have the confidence to go learn one thing so good that they become the guy that can do that thing and they\u2019re hired to be the quarterback coach. That\u2019s all they do. They just work with quarterbacks and they will always have a job because there\u2019s always going to be a need for like a quarterback who has the skills. He\u2019s willing to put in the work but he doesn\u2019t know it. He doesn\u2019t want to learn it, right?<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s guys that can do that with investing. You can be the guy that\u2019s like super good at raising money or get super good at analyzing deals, right? You go find someone that has a ton of money and you have such a good presentation for analyzing properties and finding deals that they partner with you and all you have to do is that part.<\/p>\n<p>You can\u2019t do it if you\u2019re also not willing to get really good at understanding the vehicle. You either have to be willing to work really hard or you have to like become a super sharp knife that can just slice right through this stuff. But it\u2019s going to have to be one or the other. You can\u2019t just be a fan sitting in the stands and wondering why can\u2019t I get on the team and play in a game.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>That\u2019s such a good analogy. I was going to say, if you\u2019re not willing to get tackled and be the New England Patriots then you\u2019re going to turn into the Chicago Bears.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>That answered my question, by the way. What a thorough response to these.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>Yes. So what I\u2019m hearing you say, David, is that you have to do the work. You can\u2019t just sit there and do nothing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Yeah, but there\u2019s so much different work you can do. It doesn\u2019t have to be the work you hate. I\u2019m not a super social butterfly type of a guy. I go very deep in the relationships I have but I have a hard time meeting new people. We just did the Meetup the other day in Colorado, right?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>I don\u2019t believe you at all.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>I had to turn it on for like three hours of that and when I got done, I just laid on my bed staring at the ceiling of the hotel like I felt like I just worked out and I had nothing left to give.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>I\u2019m the same way, yeah.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>I could do it for a period of time but it will drain me and I\u2019m exhausted and if you try to talk to me at that point, I\u2019ll probably snap at you or be really short with you and be like, David seems so nice, now he\u2019s really rude. I just don\u2019t have that much to give so what I do is I pick and choose my spots in the areas where I know I\u2019m not strong and I only worry about the stuff for the most part, my 20% that I really love. Analyzing deals, putting together big picture type of a look at things, building a system, identifying talent, and teaching it how to help me accomplish whatever my goal is in helping it in its place.<\/p>\n<p>Everybody has something that they like about investing. You might not be good with numbers. You might not be good at analyzing properties but you\u2019re a great people person and you can connect people. I know lots of people that make way more money than me and they\u2019re just really good at connecting people. It kind of makes me sick. I wish I could do that sometimes. But that\u2019s not me, right?<\/p>\n<p>You might be incredibly shy, have zero people skills like stare at your shoes and chew on like cardboard or something but you\u2019re weird. But you\u2019re a genius when it comes to analyzing things, right? Like you can look at a spreadsheet and feel like a fish in the water and do something that other people are intimidated by. Strengthen that one skill it is that you do have and then find someone to partner with that needs you and you won\u2019t mind putting in the work when you like the work, I guess, is what I\u2019m saying, right?<\/p>\n<p>Some people can\u2019t work 90 hours a week like I could. They would just go crazy. That doesn\u2019t mean that you shouldn\u2019t do anything. There is something that you like doing 90 hours a week. You do have to put in the work but that doesn\u2019t mean it has to be something that you hate. There\u2019s so many things when it comes to business and real estate investing that there\u2019s something out there that you do like and you\u2019re good at. Otherwise, you wouldn\u2019t be like listening to this podcast in the first place.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>Such a good\u2014wow, I\u2019m so glad I had you on, David. I\u2019m so glad that it was my brilliant idea to bring you onto the show. So you have mentioned BRRR a couple of times and not everybody listening is a BiggerPockets member. Can you explain BRRR and how you used that? You said once you discovered BRRR, you just took off? Can you explain how that works and what it stands for?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Yeah, BRRR is a way of purchasing property. It\u2019s like the order in which you do the work and when I combine that with long-distance investing, it\u2019s where I started\u2014my net worth just started growing incredibly fast. They are two underutilized ways of understanding how to invest in real estate that when you master them, doors open for you that you didn\u2019t even know were there.<\/p>\n<p>So BRRR is an acronym. It stands for Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, and Repeat. All it is, is the order in which you go through the process. First, you buy a house, then you rehab, then you rent it out, then you refinance it, then you repeat the process. Now, that\u2019s in direct opposition to the traditional method, which is buy a house with financing up front, then fix it up, then rent it out, then go to repeat it. And the difference is, when you do the traditional method, you add value to the property but your value is stuck in the property as equity. When you use the BRRR method, you add value to the property, then you pull that money back out of it so that you can reinvest it again.<\/p>\n<p>This is something that I\u2019m spending a lot of time teaching on and studying and really like drilling down on how I become a master at all five of those levels that the BRRR and R because I know that like, that forces me to become the best investor I can. Like, buy. How do I buy the best deals, paying the least amount of money, in the areas that have the most potential upside?<\/p>\n<p>The rehab\u2014how do I get cheaper rehab for more value? How do I add value to the house through my rehab? How do I add bedrooms and bathrooms? What\u2019s the cheapest way to add a bedroom or a bathroom? When do I put a roof on? When do I not put a roof on? The rented out\u2014how do I know what areas the rents are going to be increasing in over the next five years versus the ones that will be staying stagnant, etc. So by forcing yourself to master the BRRR method, you will eventually force yourself to master real estate investing overall.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>I love it. Can you give us a quick example of a recent deal so that people can kind of grasp the concept in a practical sense? Like how much money you put into a deal, fix it up, what\u2019s it worth?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>That\u2019s a great point and I can never do this in California. So I have to go to other states where it works. So the last deal I bought was a really, really good one. I bought it in an area that is like up and coming in Florida. It\u2019s kind of like where all the hipsters are moving into. It used to be a rough area and now, all these like 22 or 23-year-old hipster kids, they all want to move there. So value is increasing and there\u2019s not a lot of inventory. I bought a two-bedroom, one bathroom house that is completely tore up. It needs completely new flooring, holes in the drywall. It needs a new roof. HVAC doesn\u2019t exist. The kitchen was half remodeled and they didn\u2019t finish it. It was like a flip somebody ran out of money to buy. So I think I bought this thing for like $47,000. Horrible, right? The ARV on it as it stands right now is about $95,000.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>After Repair Value.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Exactly. The After Repair Value. What it will be worth after it\u2019s completely fixed up. Right away, that\u2019s a really good deal. It needs probably I\u2019d say $30,000 as is to get that thing fixed up without a new roof, maybe $38,000 if I add the roof. But what I\u2019m doing is, it has a Florida room. So in Florida, they have these areas of the house that are not part of the square footage of the home. They\u2019re like an enclosed patio so that you can sit outside and the bugs won\u2019t chew you up, right?<\/p>\n<p>The cool thing with Florida rooms is you\u2019ve got a foundation laid. You\u2019ve got framing put up and you\u2019ve got the roof that extends over it. It\u2019s basically just no drywall, but it\u2019s just windows and this one has electrical already run through it. And it\u2019s a big-sized Florida room. So what we\u2019re doing is we\u2019re taking that Florida room, we\u2019re attaching the plumbing from the other bathroom that\u2019s very close to it, making it into a master suite. So we\u2019re creating a bedroom and a bathroom and it\u2019s only going to be like $6500 to do the actual addition and maybe another $5,000 for the bathroom.<\/p>\n<p>So for $11,500 bucks, I\u2019m adding about 400 square feet to this house, adding a bed and bathroom. Now, in these houses that you\u2019re buying, a 2\/1, 1100 square feet type things, now I\u2019m making it a 3\/2, closer to 1450 square feet. The comps that the appraisers are going to use to determine After Repair Value just jumped up huge because a 2\/1 sells for way less than a 3\/2. Nobody really wants a 2\/1 anymore, right? So now instead of having an ARV of $95,000, I\u2019m probably looking more at $135,000.<\/p>\n<p>So I added, what\u2019s the difference? Like $40,000 more in value to that house by spending $11,500 to add this bedroom and this bathroom on. That\u2019s a deal that once it\u2019s fixed up and I pull my money out, I\u2019ll be all in for around, what\u2019s the math on that, $80,000 or $90,000 and it\u2019s probably going to be worth $135,000 on the conservative end. So I\u2019m going to get back more money than I put into it after I go get a loan on it.<\/p>\n<p>The bank\u2019s going to let me borrow 75% of what the appraised value is, which is my ARV. I\u2019m going to get back more cash than I put in and have a place that cash flows and it\u2019s basically been rebuilt from the ground up so my cap ex is going to be very minimal for the next ten years. Now, that is a way better way to invest but it takes more work. You\u2019ve got to be willing to do a big rehab. You can\u2019t be scared about it. You\u2019ve got to have the vision to see, can I add a bedroom or a bathroom?<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ve got to have good agents that tell you they know this area and they know that 3\/2s would sell for this much money and you\u2019ve got to be willing to go for a four to five month period of rehab without having any income coming in, right? There\u2019s a lot of things you\u2019ve got to have in order to do it. But it\u2019s so worth building up to get that because like, who wouldn\u2019t want a rental property that you\u2019re getting paid to own with cash flows?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>And you\u2019ve got to have the $70,000-$80,000 to go in and buy the deal, which comes right back to that whole financial foundation thing, right? This is a tougher deal if you don\u2019t have that money in the first place. And you have to all that work at the same time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Yes. The only reason I can buy that house for the price I\u2019m paying for it is that it won\u2019t qualify for conventional financing because it\u2019s in such bad shape. So as a cash buyer, immediately, I eliminated 95% of my competition because only 5% of the investors out there can pay all cash, right? And I\u2019m in Florida, where $50,000 goes really far. That\u2019s a lot of money in Florida. It\u2019s nothing in Denver or California. So I basically found inefficiencies at every single level and I\u2019ve maximized each one of them and at the end they all come rolling back to me and I get way more money in, or back than what I put in and it\u2019s cash flowing property. Now, you multiply that times two or three houses a month and can consider how much money you\u2019re adding to your net worth and cash flow every year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>You are remarkable, sir.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>What\u2019s the name of your book again?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong><em>Long Distance Real Estate Investing: How to Buy, Rehab, and Manage Out-of-State Rental Properties<\/em> and I talk in that book about these systems that we\u2019re talking about, like how you maximize them at every level.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>That book, by the way, is fantastic. I read it recently. Actually, I read it and then I listened to the Audible version as well and it blew my mind and it\u2019s something that I\u2019m going to attempt to transition and replicate over the next couple of years myself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Thanks, Scott.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>Yeah, so I just want to add before we get to the last segment of our show which is the new <em>Famous Four<\/em>. I want to add that I am so excited about real estate just every single day and I am renewedly excited. That\u2019s not even a word. I\u2019m going to make it a word. Use it in a sentence. It\u2019s a word. I am renewedly excited again. I want to be like, what is the city in Florida? Because I want to have a second house but I can\u2019t afford San Diego and Florida is just as warm. I want to go do this and I\u2019m excited to do this so yeah, let\u2019s talk after.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>That\u2019s awesome. I\u2019m excited at my job.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>Yeah, you did. I\u2019m like so excited again. Reenergized. That\u2019s a better word than renewedly whatever I used. Okay, so with that awkward transition, let\u2019s go to the segment that we call the <em>Famous Four<\/em>. These are questions that we ask every guest every single time\u2014what is your favorite finance book?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong><em>Richest Man in Babylon<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>Yes, that\u2019s mine, too.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>I\u2019m telling you, like every kid should have to read that in school. It\u2019s so many of the world\u2019s finance problems would be fixed if people just read this super short, easy to understand, easy to read book. It\u2019s like a magic pill.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>Yes. And It\u2019s a hundred years old and every single bit of it is still relevant today. It\u2019s crazy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>I think it\u2019s like $3.00 on Amazon. Like it\u2019s the cheapest book I\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>I thought it was 4,000 years old.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>It might be 4,000 years old but it was first published in 1920.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>You\u2019ll get that terrible joke after you read the book. What was your biggest money mistake?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Biggest money mistake was oh god, that\u2019s a really good one. This is going to sound odd to a lot of people. It was thinking that being conservative was the same as being safe. And they\u2019re not. I was scared. I should have been buying houses in the downturn as fast as I could because everything I bought cash flowed and needed like zero work. It was like the best time in the history that I\u2019ve ever seen to buy homes. And I didn\u2019t buy them because I talked myself into thinking, I need to be able to pay every single mortgage for six months all at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>If every tenant quits going in, there\u2019s no reason to be that conservative. I thought being conservative was keeping me safe and what it did was it ended up costing me a ton of money. Realistically when you\u2019re saving $10,000 a month, there\u2019s no reason that you should be scared of vacancy in a property where I\u2019m spending $900-$1000 a month if I have a vacancy.<\/p>\n<p>What I should have done is have more confidence in myself, bet on myself, and trusted that I would find a way as a single guy who was willing to do whatever it took to make those payments.<\/p>\n<p>Probably if I would have bought four houses a year instead of one, every one of those houses has gone up by a minimum of a quarter million since I bought them. I mean, some of them more than that, right? So you can imagine over three years, buying three extra houses a year, each of them going up a quarter of a million, the difference that that would have made in my future.<\/p>\n<p>What it taught me is that, don\u2019t confuse being conservative for like safety. Not buying a deal which you can convince yourself is the safest way to not lose money can actually cost you a ton of money if you look at what it would have made you over a period of 30 years.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>That\u2019s awesome. The way I look at that concept is in terms of risk. And risk is not the probability of having volatility in your portfolio. The risky option is the one that\u2019s going to leave you definitely far less wealthy over time. And you took more risk by not buying more properties when you had a good thing going than you would have if you had just stayed out of it in that particular scenario.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>You\u2019re totally right.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>You\u2019re keeping your risk, your volatility risk manageable because of how you are living your life and running your personal finances at the same time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Yep, that\u2019s exactly right. So now, moving forward, I have tried to ask those questions. Rather than saying, what could I lose by doing this, I try to say, okay, what could I lose by not doing this? Some things that grow exponentially just giving you a six months\u2019 head start can have a huge impact on your future financial situation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>I love it. Fantastic.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>I love it, too. Wow. Okay, what is your best piece of advice for people who are just starting out?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>My best piece of advice is to stop looking at your money like an apple and start looking at it like a seed. Change the way you think about money. I\u2019m a very competitive guy. Scott, you play rugby so I\u2019m sure you can kind of relate to it, right? In order for me to do my best, I have to turn everything into a game and I have to find some way to keep score. That brings out my competitive juices so what I do is I said every dollar I make is mine to keep until I give it to somebody else. How do I limit the ways that I\u2019m letting other people get their hands into my money?<\/p>\n<p>Going out to eat. Going to movies. Taking a girl on a date when you know that this isn\u2019t really going to turn into very much. Those are all things you just throw away and if you multiply it over the next five years, it\u2019s a lot of money that you\u2019re dumping. Find a way to keep as much of your money as you possibly can and then to make as much of it as you possibly can so that when the opportunity comes, you\u2019re ready and you don\u2019t miss it. I think everybody\u2019s biggest fear shouldn\u2019t be if I lose money, it should be what if an opportunity comes and I can\u2019t get it because I was $5,000 short?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>Love it. Yeah, I didn\u2019t buy anything in 2008 because all of my money was stuck in one house.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>And that probably burns you alive now.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>I wish I had a different 2008.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>All right, well here\u2019s the toughest question of the <em>Famous Four<\/em>. What is your favorite joke to tell at parties?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Oh man, I usually try to avoid jokes at parties.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>I told you it was the toughest question.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>I know. If I find myself in a situation where I\u2019ve got to tell a joke, I\u2019ve said something stupid and I\u2019m trying to back my way out of it. What is my favorite joke to tell at a party? I don\u2019t really have much coming to mind right now. I usually get asked for cop stories so that\u2019s an easy way to get out of it as a cop. Somebody will want to know\u2014<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>What\u2019s your favorite cop story?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>What\u2019s a funny one that I can actually say on the air? Something that happened. Oh man, I am going blank.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>It\u2019s Super Troopers dazing, you know.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Oh, I know. There\u2019s so many good ones but I can\u2019t share a lot of it. All right, so in the police academy, we had a recruit that was not really much of a physical threat. He was kind of like a very short, stumpy, bald white guy. He looked a lot like those little\u2014you know those little Ukranian toy where there\u2019s like a doll inside of another doll? Have you seen those before?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>Oh yeah, the Russian, yeah.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Whatever you call those. He was shaped like one of those. And he would\u2014<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>How did he get into the police academy?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Well, it\u2019s hard finding cops right now. This is a sidenote, they\u2019re literally recruiting Best Buy Geek Squad officers because they do not want like aggressive take charge because they\u2019re so afraid of the bad publicity. So they\u2019re going to Best Buy and trying to get Geek Squad guys to try to sign up to be cops. Kind of a crazy world. But this guy, he had this crazy waddle when he ran and he did it with his arms. So he looked like a tiny little T-Rex that would just like move side to side as he ran.<\/p>\n<p>So one day, we were all lined up and he had forgotten to take off his hat when he went inside the building. There\u2019s like a million things you\u2019ve got to learn and they\u2019re kind of teaching you to always have your brain\u2014you\u2019re never on autopilot. So we run into the building and everyone takes off their hat and he forgets to take his off. So he gets called out while we\u2019re all standing at attention and we\u2019re standing there for like 20 minutes, not moving, not breathing, can\u2019t scratch an itch. I guess you\u2019re breathing but you\u2019re not like making any sudden movements. Can\u2019t scratch an itch, can\u2019t like keep your weight off your feet, nothing.<\/p>\n<p>And then we hear, and you better buckle that chin strap, too! And like the door flies open and he comes waddling in in a very fast pace right into the room. And he\u2019s wearing like this ridiculous plastic helmet like a little child\u2019s Halloween costume of like an English Bobby type of a cop, right? Like a really shiny, it didn\u2019t have a bill on it, it was like a straight little helmet and a little plastic chin strap that he then grabs and he\u2019s trying to buckle it as he\u2019s running.<\/p>\n<p>Everybody is like trying as hard as they can not to laugh and you\u2019re hearing this explosive laugh come out of people\u2019s mouths and like they\u2019re spitting on each other as they\u2019re trying not to laugh. And then they come in and yell at us for laughing and we\u2019re all doing pushups and as you\u2019re doing the pushups, you cannot stop laughing.<\/p>\n<p>It was the funniest visual that you could ever imagine, right? And I remember doing pushups and thinking, I think my abs are going to give out before my chest because this is like the funny\u2014I can\u2019t even think about this laughing because it was so funny. And like our rallying cry for the rest of the year was like, you better buckle that chin strap, too! It was like Remember the Alamo. That was a pretty good start.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>That was awesome. I love it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>That was much better than the jokes we usually get on this show. Scott is a very big fan of the pun.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>All right.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>A pun is a terrible thing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>I can see Scott being the kind of guy that would like read a book of jokes of puns before he goes to a party because you\u2019re never going to catch him unprepared. He hopes he never has to use it but if it does come up, he\u2019s got like four waiting that he can employ at any moment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>I don\u2019t have any today so I\u2019ll have to buckle down and figure that out for next time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>You need to buckle that chin strap. Scott is very smart and Scott has a hundred just tucked in the back of his head. And he makes the worst puns all the time and he\u2019s just right on. You can\u2019t\u2014he\u2019s very prepared. He\u2019s the Boy Scout of puns.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>All right, well, where can people find out more about you, David?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>My website is GreeneIncome.com. It has an \u2018e\u2019 at the end of Greene. That\u2019s where I usually post articles that I write, all the stuff I submit on BiggerPockets goes on there, podcasts that I have been on. What we started doing is every time I buy a house, like once a month I release a house and I say how I bought it, what I paid, how the rehab went, here\u2019s some pictures. This is my ROI. This is the plan. This is what we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n<p>So the people who are trying to get used to real estate investing but they\u2019re scared can kind of follow along and see how my deals look and it gives them like a sense of confidence and like this is\u2014you\u2019re maybe not going to hit these on your first try but this is like the gist of how you should start processing information when looking at deals. And then I\u2019m also on Facebook at DavidGreene24. That\u2019s the handle.<\/p>\n<p>And then honestly, BiggerPockets is a really good way to get a hold of me, too. I love that community. I remember when I was first getting into real estate investing, BiggerPockets was the source of comfort like I\u2019m not crazy, there\u2019s other people doing it, too. And I think every time I do one of these podcasts, that\u2019s my goal, is to create that with the listeners. Like hey man, you should pursue this. It\u2019s worth it.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a way you can lose money but there\u2019s also lots of ways that you can make money and really, real estate can seem risky but of any investment vehicle there is, this is probably like the safest one that you can get into. So I like to be a part of BiggerPockets and hitting me up on there, you\u2019re likely to get a response.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>Awesome.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>Awesome. And we will put links to all of this in the Show Notes for this show which can be found at BiggerPockets.com\/MoneyShow12. So David, thank you so much for being a guest on our show today. Thank you for sharing your money story. I think that the mindset ideas that you have are just phenomenal. I wish I would have met you when I was a waitress.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Aw, that\u2019s very nice, Mindy. Thank you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>You were like 9, so.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>I appreciate you guys.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>This was a legendary show with every possible aspect of personal finance and showing how what you\u2019re doing all these things right just put you at such a good position to have great opportunity and huge success down the road. So I hope you enjoy it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Thank you, guys. Nothing I did is something only I can do. Anybody can do the same stuff that I did and I hope the listeners understand that.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>I hope so, too. Okay, well, shall we get out of here?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>All right, guys. Thank you so much.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>Okay, thank you so much. Bye, have a good day.<\/p>\n<p><strong>David: <\/strong>Bye.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>All right, that was Mr. David Greene, author of the book on <em>Long Distance Real Estate Investing<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>Where is that available, Scott?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>That is available on BiggerPockets.com\/something. We\u2019ll put it in the Show Notes but here is a copy of the book. Again, I thought it was a fantastic book. The guy, besides putting together his approach to personal finances, once you have that financial foundation built, this is definitely something to consider and it\u2019s something that I\u2019m going to seriously consider for myself in the future. Although I have not taken action on the book quite yet. I just finished it like two weeks ago.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>Yes, and I just looked it up. It is BiggerPockets.com\/LongDistanceBook.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>Ah, thank you. But yeah, I mean this is an approach and a mindset and a person that I really admire and I think embodies the correct way to kind of go about giving yourself super high odds of success in finance and life, in your career, in everything and if you are starting with a median income or around that, this is something that you need to kind of keep in mind about just doing all of the things that David just talked about.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>Yeah, I liked one of the last things that he said before he left was this isn\u2019t something that I\u2019m the only person that can do. This is absolutely repeatable. This is repeatable many times over and I\u2019m just so inspired after talking to him. Like I said, I am always excited about real estate. Now, I\u2019m renewedly excited about real estate, just from talking to David for an hour. I can\u2019t wait to go out and talk about real estate again.<\/p>\n<p>So on that note, Scott, shall we get out of here?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott: <\/strong>Let\u2019s do it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mindy: <\/strong>Okay, for Episode 12 of the BiggerPockets Money podcast, this is Mindy Jensen, over and out.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Watch the Podcast Here<\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How to Become an \u201cOvernight\u201d Success in 10 Short Years with David Greene | BP Money 12\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rxQIf0Ewizs?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 <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/biggerpockets-money-podcast\/id1330225136\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">iTunes<\/a> by leaving us a rating and review! It takes just 30 seconds.\u00a0Thanks! We really appreciate it!<\/p>\n<h2>Podcast Sponsor<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"no-display appear alignright wp-image-97545 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/betterment_logo-300x68.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"68\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/betterment_logo-300x68.png 300w, https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/betterment_logo-768x174.png 768w, https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/betterment_logo.png 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><strong>Betterment<\/strong> is an online financial advisor that can help you strive for higher returns.\u00a0Don\u2019t let high 401(k) fees drain your savings. Rolling over an average 401(k) to a Betterment IRA could mean 60% lower fees.<\/p>\n<p>Get a clear view of your net worth by syncing your outside accounts, such as bank accounts and other investments. You can also see how much your outside accounts are costing you in fees and uninvested cash. Visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.betterment.com\/bp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Betterment.com<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>In This Episode We Cover:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>David&#8217;s <strong>foundation<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Graduating with <strong>a lot of money<\/strong> due to his work in a restaurant<\/li>\n<li>His number one <strong>key to success<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>How to become <strong>the best<\/strong> at what you do<\/li>\n<li>Transitioning to a <strong>police officer<\/strong> career<\/li>\n<li>How be bought his <strong>first rental property<\/strong> while working as a police officer<\/li>\n<li>Common <strong>misconceptions<\/strong> regarding real estate investing<\/li>\n<li>Why you should be the &#8220;<strong>quarterback coach<\/strong>&#8220;<\/li>\n<li>How to create a strong<strong> financial foundation<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Focusing on <strong>what you&#8217;re good at<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The <strong>BRRRR real estate investing<\/strong> strategy<\/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=\"\/renewsblog\/biggerpockets-money-podcast-06-fearlessly-paying-massive-student-debt-30000-year-sarah-wilson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BiggerPockets Money Podcast 06: Fearlessly Paying off Massive Student Debt on $30,000 per Year with Sarah Wilson<\/a>\u00a0(Podcast Episode)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/renewsblog\/2016\/04\/07\/bp-podcast-169hustle-persistence-build-wealth-real-estate-david-greene\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BiggerPockets Podcast 169: Using Hustle and Persistence to Build Wealth Through Real Estate with David Greene<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Books Mentioned in this Show<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/get.biggerpockets.com\/longdistancebook\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Long-Distance Real Estate Investing<\/em><\/a> by David Greene<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2pi8nKU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>The Richest Man in Babylon<\/em><\/a> by George S. Clason<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Tweetable Topics:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Money isn&#8217;t evil, but it&#8217;s also not the goal in life. It&#8217;s the vehicle that gets you the goals in life.&#8221; (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=%22Money%20isn&#039;t%20evil,%20but%20it&#039;s%20also%20not%20the%20goal%20in%20life.%20It&#039;s%20the%20vehicle%20that%20gets%20you%20the%20goals%20in%20life.%22%20BP%20Money%20Podcast%2012%20biggerpockets.com\/moneyshow12%20%40biggerpockets\" target=\"_blank\">Tweet This!<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The reality is if I would have tried go big quickly, I probably wouldn&#8217;t have the foundation in place to sustain me.&#8221; (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=%22The%20reality%20is%20if%20I%20would%20have%20tried%20go%20big%20quickly,%20I%20probably%20wouldn&#039;t%20have%20the%20foundation%20in%20place%20to%20sustain%20me.%22%20BP%20Money%20Podcast%2012%20biggerpockets.com\/moneyshow12%20%40biggerpockets\" target=\"_blank\">Tweet This!<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Stop thinking of money as an apple, and start thinking of it as a seed.&#8221; (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=%22Stop%20thinking%20of%20money%20as%20an%20apple,%20and%20start%20thinking%20of%20it%20as%20a%20seed.%22%20BP%20Money%20Podcast%2012%20biggerpockets.com\/moneyshow12%20%40biggerpockets\" target=\"_blank\">Tweet This!<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Connect with David<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/users\/Ryu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">David&#8217;s BiggerPockets Profile<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/davidgreene24\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">David&#8217;s Facebook Page<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David\u2019s approach of frugality, discipline &#038; competitiveness have launched a superstar career. If you want the same, be sure to listen to today\u2019s show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":353007,"featured_media":97522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6473],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biggerpocketsmoney"],"acf":[],"comment_count":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97501","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\/353007"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}