The beautiful thing about real estate is that there is endless room for growth. While some jobs have a capped amount of opportunity, real estate encourages constant advancement. Today’s guest, Gus Ofili, began his investing journey after the pandemic and now has nine properties with twenty-three units.
Gus turned to real estate after deciding to leave his nine-to-five at a bank. He didn’t hate his job, in fact, he was doing very well, but there wasn’t adequate room to grow. Gus started realizing he was getting passed up on opportunities by people who dedicated at least a decade of their life to the bank. He couldn’t see himself taking ten years of his life for a career milestone—so he quit.
Initially, real estate intrigued Gus because of the thrill he got from negotiating. He started taking classes to become a realtor while working his nine-to-five. As an agent, he sold fifty homes in his first year, seventy-one in his second, and 108 in his third year. While he did exceptionally well as a realtor, he wanted a backup plan and knew investing would be a fundamental part of his real estate career. He had the opportunity to sell a five-unit house, but when the first appraisal fell through, he began to see potential in the home, decided to buy it, and as the saying goes—the rest is history.
Ashley:
This is Real Estate Rookie, episode 201.
Gus:
Now that I got into real estate as an agent wise, I knew it was time for me to have a backup plan. I can’t just be a realtor. What if I break my leg? What if something happened to me? I need something as a foundation to back it up. And the more I started diving into the podcast that you guys do, speaking to my mentor, things along those lines, I knew that investing was going to be a key part of my journey to eventually where I don’t have to be an agent and just sling houses all day, I can start focusing on my time on developing houses and making money off of that.
Ashley:
My name is Ashley Kehr, and I am here with my co-host, Tony Robinson.
Tony:
Welcome to the Real Estate Rookie podcast where every week, twice a week, we give you the inspiration, information, and amazing stories you need to hear to help you kickstart your real estate investing journey. Something else we like to do from time to time on the Real Estate Rookie podcast is read some of the amazing reviews we get from some of our listeners. But I’m going to switch it up today because we got a less than amazing review. I just wanted to share with you guys. I got a good laugh out of it. This one is from Rexy Poo Poo, and Rexy said, “I’ve listened to this show since the beginning, and I’ve learned some interesting information. However, one thing that’s always bugged me is the host.” And that’s me and Ashley. “Individually, they seem okay, but together, they completely ruin the show. They try to force the most boring unfunny banter I’ve ever heard from a pair of host. I’d rather they just skip to the interview instead of including their awkward, superficial ribbing at the beginning of each episode.
Tony:
“I’m not sure if the issue is a lack of chemistry or what, but it misses the mark so hard. Now I only listen to the episodes with the topic is about situations I’m actually curious about.” So, Ash, I don’t know what it is. Maybe we got to work on our chemistry with one another. Do you feel like it’s superficial? I mean, I genuinely like you as a person and feel like we genuinely get along together, right? This isn’t like some TV show, we’re friends on air, and then we hate each other as soon as we stop recording.
Ashley:
I feel like the worst part is that we don’t have enough time to actually talk together, so we do use the intros to actually find out what’s-
Tony:
Catch up.
Ashley:
… going on with each other.
Tony:
Yeah, like what’s happening, right?
Ashley:
But also, there’s the reviews about my fake laugh. Unfortunately, I do laugh all the time and just like this.
Tony:
Yeah. So guys, if you are listening and you actually enjoy the show, we would definitely appreciate it, give us an honest rating and review. And if it’s more reviews about how me and Ashley don’t have chemistry, then I guess we’ll have to work on that. But luckily for us, there are lots of reviews out there that say that the show is helping folks. The more reviews we get, the easier it is for us to reach more rookies. So if you haven’t left an honest rating review yet, do us a favor and leave one.
Ashley:
And maybe they just need to attend a Vegas pool party or a conference happy hour with me [inaudible 00:02:57] to see we do have chemistry.
Tony:
Yeah, we do get along with each other, right?
Ashley:
Yeah.
Tony:
Let’s get into the boring banter, I guess really quickly, Ashley. What’s going on in your life? What are some updates in the business?
Ashley:
Super boring. I just closed on a property today. Well, I-
Tony:
Congratulations.
Ashley:
… handed in my funds, it probably will close in a couple hours. It’s a property I got under contract back in October, November. It’s a woman that’s, I think, 102 years old. She was getting wood delivered to her house, and the guy that was delivering was like, “You cannot live like this,” and called social services, everything. Her family out of state, they ended up listing the house for her and she went somewhere. And so, just getting signatures and people that can sign on her behalf, everything has taken a really long time. We’re finally closing today. It is a hoarder house. We did the final walkthrough yesterday. It’s my first ever hoarder house. I’ve been through other people’s, but this is the first of my own. Lots of treasure.
Tony:
Congratulations.
Ashley:
Darrell, my business partner, we went through it with my son Colt, my six-year-old, and just going through everything and looking at what’s treasure, what’s junk. My preference is just dumpster, throw everything out, don’t even take the time. But there’s a couple really big old stoves in there. I think maybe just post a picture on Facebook Marketplace and say, “Hey, free, but you have to come and get it out of the house,” and that saves us having to haul it out.
Tony:
Dump it.
Ashley:
That’s something I learned from James Dannatt with the house that we’re flipping together. There was an old hot tub out back, and same thing, he just listed online, “Hey, free, you just have to come and get it,” and it was gone. So if you have things you need to get rid, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.
Tony:
Another person’s treasure. Yeah, well, congratulations, Ash. I’m glad that you guys got another one under contract. What’s the plan for this one? Is it going to be a long-term rental or…
Ashley:
Yeah, it’s going to be a short-term rental.
Tony:
Oh, cool.
Ashley:
It’s very close to a ski resort by us-
Tony:
Oh, awesome.
Ashley:
… so it’s going to be our little ski cabin. It has a pond. It has a goat barn, and it’s on 10 acres.
Tony:
You said a goat barn?
Ashley:
Yeah, the lady had goats in there.
Tony:
The have barns for goats? I didn’t know-
Ashley:
I mean, it could be a barn for anything, but she has it made for goats with a little stall in there. Then there’s a little door, they can go out into a pen. Actually, when we were going through the house yesterday, she must have had it as a farm where you could come and you could milk the goats. She called it Gypsy Woods. She had little blue ribbons in there, like a first place ribbon, and it said, “I milked a goat at Gypsy Woods Farm,” or something like that. That’s maybe one thing I’m going to save, and I’m just going to hand them out to all our friends.
Tony:
Yeah, I milked a goat. When you come to BPCON, I need you to rock a shirt that says, “I milked a goat.” That would be-
Ashley:
Well, we were actually thinking, “Would that be an Airbnb attraction?” Because-
Tony:
Totally, we’re going to go.
Ashley:
…. we’ll probably talk more on this, is Airbnb’s moving towards experiences-
Tony:
Totally.
Ashley:
… and that’s what they want to showcase on the platform. So, do we actually have goats there, pay some neighborhood teenage kid to come and feed it and take care of it every morning and every night? And then if you stay there, you get to…
Tony:
Get to milk the goat.
Ashley:
… milk the goats.
Tony:
I love that idea. You just got to figure out the liability piece. All you need is one Airbnb guy talking about how the goat bit him or something like that.
Ashley:
Tony, I’m so glad we think alike because that’s always my first instinct. I went to Crash-O-Rama, like a race car thing where they don’t stop unless someone’s life is in danger and they just keep going. I’m like, “Oh my God, what’s the liability of this?” Then they let people bring their own cars onto it.
Tony:
Oh, yeah, I couldn’t sleep in that. I couldn’t sleep in that.
Ashley:
My first thought, “Liability.” So what about you, what’s boring with you?
Tony:
Yeah, so some boring updates for me. We closed on another property… two properties actually last week. We just started the rehabs on those. Things have been moving so fast. Right now, we have a couple of listings we’re finishing off. By the time we finish these two, we’ll be at 18 total active listings. And then we’ve got another four rehabs we’re working on. And then we’ve got, I think, another five properties under contract. Over the next 12 weeks, we’re going to be at almost 30 listings. It’s been-
Ashley:
That’s insane.
Tony:
It’s been so crazy, right? But I’m happy because the team’s growing. We hired some folks, that’s helping with all this growth. But overall, just really excited for where the business is going this year. We’re still working on the Big Bear deal, hoping to get that closed out here shortly as well. That’ll add 23 units all in one fell swoop. Yeah, 2022 is going to be a good year for us. I’m excited.
Ashley:
Yeah. I’m so proud of you and Sarah and Ohmid. You guys are just doing amazing, and it’s been awesome to watch your journey and get to know you guys.
Tony:
No, I appreciate that.
Ashley:
But also you have something coming up, I saw too on social media. This is how much time we don’t have to talk because we haven’t really talked about it, but you have something coming up in the fall.
Tony:
Yeah. The short-term rental space is still so new. There’s not a whole lot of conferences and stuff dedicated to short-term rentals. We went to one a few weeks ago in Nashville, but Sarah and I decided like, “Hey, why don’t we try and throw our own short-term rental conference?” We got that happening in September 11th to the 13th. You guys can head over to strsummit.com if you guys want to check that one out. But we’re super excited. Going to be a smaller somewhat intimate event. We’re limiting it to 250 folks, but it’ll be a cool time to learn all things short-term rental.
Ashley:
I will have a vendor booth set up for people interested in putting a goat on their property. I will bring a goat and you can get a ribbon that says, “I milk the goat at the Short-Term Rental Summit.
Tony:
There you go. That’ll be the one thing that draws in the crowd, right?
Ashley:
Yeah.
Tony:
We’re excited for that, but obviously, it’ll be a good time. And then literally a month later after that is BPCON. So that’s happening in San Diego. We’re going to be really busy with conferences here in the fall time. You’re actually going to hear in today’s episode, networking and meeting the right person at some of these events can literally change your life. Gus found someone that changed his life through a meetup. We’re always happy to be able to create some experience for folks to get to know other real estate investors.
Ashley:
Yeah, so let’s bring on today’s guest, who is Gus. Gus started out working at a bank, hated it. Very similar to me and Tony trying to work in the corporate world. He got stuck and couldn’t find a way to move up the ladder. He became a real estate agent. And from there, he grew his network, he grew his social media, and turned himself into an actual investor. So now he’s doing both acting as an agent and an investor, but I think it’s really interesting how he’s found all of his deals. He calls it very random, which it is, but it’s the power of referrals and word of mouth and just talking about what you want to do.
Ashley:
Gus, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining us. Can you get started with telling us a little bit about yourself and how you got started in real estate?
Gus:
Hey, everyone. So my name’s Gus Ofili. I’m a real estate agent, and I’m a long-term hold investor. Originally from Connecticut, came up to the State of Maine to go to the university. Basically, I forced my way to be an entrepreneur. I was working at a bank right after college where I was doing great. As time would go on, I would be passed on to other individuals who’d been at the bank for 10, 20, 30 years. I got to a certain point where I was like, “Hey, I’m looking at how these people have been here for so long. I don’t even know if I even like this job.” At that time, I started to shift my brain over to thinking about working for myself. I ended up thinking about getting into real estate as far as not even becoming a real estate agent, just buying a place like a duplex or something along those lines so I could start my journey that way.
Gus:
So, I went on to venture into that. I met a realtor. When we went to go bid on a particular property, that’s when I caught the bug during the negotiation process, when we were going back and forth. I was like, “Man, I’m getting a thrill of just negotiating back and forth. Maybe this realtor thing is a lot cooler than I thought.” So that’s when I went to go ahead and start the class. I was doing the class while I was still working my nine to five. So when I was doing the class, I remember the teacher told me, “Hey, if you’re going to be an agent, you got to do it full time.” And then I was at a crossroads. Either I was going to do it full time and be successful in that, or I was going to try to do both of them at the same time.
Gus:
And then I got a key call at the office one time, and it was with an older person who told me that they couldn’t afford their monthly bills because they were living off of their social security and their retirement. I sat back and I thought to myself, “I’m busting my butt my whole life to get to a certain point where I’m going to be living on a budget.” And to me, that didn’t make any sense. So that was the final straw. I gave my two week notice. My employers actually laughed at me and said, “The economy is going to tank. You’re going to be back here. Don’t quit. Work your way through the last two weeks in case you want to come back, we still want you.” But I knew I was cashing out because I cashed out my 401(k) right after I left, and I banked on that. I never looked back ever since. Sometimes I send them some emails letting them know how good I’m doing.
Tony:
I love that, Gus. And congrats to you, man, for betting on yourself. I can’t remember which episode it was, but Ash and I did a rookie reply on how I lost my job back at the end of 2020. And it was the same thing. I was at this crossroads where I could either go out and try and find another job where I was underpaid and not fully utilizing my capabilities, or I could go out and really focus full time on our real estate business. Betting on myself literally changed my life, so kudos to you, Gus, for having that confidence in yourself, man.
Gus:
Thank you. I appreciate that.
Tony:
So, Gus, before we get too far, can you just give us an overview of where your portfolio is at today?
Gus:
Yeah, so the key thing is I started after the pandemic. So right now I have nine properties, six that are up and running and two that are currently being rehabbed and one that’s going to be rehabbed, but we haven’t started on that, and that last one is a flip. The other eight that I do have are all long-term hold investments. That would put me at 23 units total.
Ashley:
That’s awesome. Congratulations.
Tony:
Yeah. So we got to dive into this story a bit, right? Ash, I’m hearing 23 units since the pandemic. So Gus started giving us just the backstory, right? So you have this job at the bank, you go out, you get your real estate license. And you said this was after the pandemic. What year was this when you started?
Gus:
I started investing after the pandemic. As far as real estate, I jumped in as an agent in 2019. 2019 I jumped to be an agent, and that’s my life. The biggest thing I did is I saw what other real estate agents were doing around the area. I also wanted to size up. I’m very competitive. Sometimes that’s a flaw on my character, but it’s also a good thing in my character because it keeps me pushing. I would meet with realtors before I decided my brokerage, who I was going to go with, just to size them up and see if I was able to go ahead and do the same job. After I met with four or five, I was very confident I would be able to do the job.
Gus:
I added a bunch of realtors on social media not to see what the houses they were selling, but I wanted to know what they were doing on social media and what could I take from each particular agent to create my own self. That’s when I hit social media the hardest. I’m in the State of Maine. I want everyone to know this when I say this next part. Instagram isn’t the biggest thing up here. Facebook is the biggest thing up here. I started doing videos. I had a video with my family and we’re talking about finding the best real estate agent and that I’m always available. And so, we had a video, it was the middle of the night, and the phone calls and I pick up the phone saying, “Hey, this is Gus from ERA Dawson. How can I help you?” I just did videos like that to put eyes on me. Then I would share it on my personal page.
Gus:
Now, I knew once I get the eyes on me, now it’s time to show the closings. Once I got closings, then I already had the eyes on me, that’s when I took off, because people, they want to be interested in the person and they want to know you’re doing the job the best way and you’re actually doing the job. My first year as far as being a real estate agent, I did 50 transactions. That was in 2019. Now, the year of the pandemic, I did 71 closings. My mindset was, all the money that I’m going to get is I’m going to translate that into buying investment properties. So of course, I got your regular home expenses at that particular time, but I cashed out my 401(k), so I was living off that and I would just store all the other money.
Gus:
Now I didn’t know about a lot of this stuff, how to purchase homes, so my traditional thought was going to commercial lender and buying a property through them. They told me 20%, and they needed two years of taxes because I switched over from being an employee to being independent myself. So after that two years passed, I knew I was going full fledge and I was going to go embark on my journey. And that’s where you guys helped me out and Clubhouse also helped me out later on.
Ashley:
Let’s talk about Clubhouse, what that is real quick, because I don’t think that’s as mainstream as a lot of other social media.
Gus:
As much as you guys have been for me, Clubhouse has also been that for me. That’s every single morning I jump on the app. It’s like a… The kids use it now, I forget what… Discord. It’s a Discord, it’s an app like that. Actually, it’s across the world, but a lot of people in the country, they join in in the morning, there’s a room, and they’re just talking everything real estate, all day, every day. There’s multiple rooms throughout the day. That kept me so focused as far as on the investment side. I think that’s why I was able to accumulate the amount of properties I have because it didn’t make me scared, because I was hearing everyone else what they were doing. I was like, “Man, if he’s doing it, I guess everyone else is doing it.” And I would take on bigger things than I think I was even ready for. Even the people around me in my state, they were looking at me like, “Gus, are you sure? That’s a big project.”
Gus:
Then I would take the project onto Clubhouse and have that conversation, like, “Yeah, man, go for that. If you don’t want it, we’ll take it.” I’m like, “Whoa, okay. This is giving me the courage and the confidence I need to start getting these bigger projects.”
Tony:
Yeah, Ash, we did a Clubhouse room I think sometime during 2020 as well.
Ashley:
Yeah.
Tony:
Clubhouse is really cool, right, because it’s almost like a podcast but it’s live. There’s definitely, I think, a strong community of real estate investors on there. I haven’t been on there as much lately. Is Clubhouse still active, Gus? Is it still happening?
Gus:
Okay, so I wasn’t on Clubhouse at the beginning, so I don’t know how the beginning was, I heard a lot of people were on it. But it’s still active. It’s still knowledgeable. Actually, I do follow you when I first joined, but you never barely come on, so I could get that. But there’s tons of other people. Grant Cardone’s on there a lot. There’s tons of other people that I’m able to learn from and I get to ask multimillionaires, of course you want to do your fact checks on these individuals, but I get to ask them questions. I’m a kid that… I’m not a kid, I’m a man actually. But I’m a guy that lives in the State of Maine asking these multimillionaire questions and they’re giving me answers. You can’t get any better than that in my opinion.
Tony:
Yeah. Just one last thing on Clubhouse before we move on, you mentioned it, but being able to connect with the larger network outside of who you know in your immediate area, I think there’s a lot of value in that because for a lot of people that are listening, you guys are new investors. Maybe no one else in your circle is investing, and it can feel like a really lonely journey. So whether that’s Clubhouse, whether that’s the BiggerPockets forums, whether that’s the Real Estate Rookie Facebook group, might just find a way to connect with your tribe and find some of those folks who are on that same journey as you.
Tony:
Gus, I want to go back because you mentioned social media as the platform that you use to kickstart your career as an agent. I love the idea, but I know a lot of agents when they get started, they’re cold calling homeowners. They’re door knocking. Maybe they’re sending out mailers or they’re trying to get like an ad on the bench bus stop. What was it that made you think that social media was the right path to use, and why do you feel that it works so well for you?
Gus:
I mean, you just think on how everyone functions. When you wake up, the first thing you do, you probably yawn and you check your phone and see who emailed you or what’s going on on Facebook, what I missed on Twitter or Instagram. That’s the biggest thing, people are jumping on their phones. So those other things, my company told me, “Hey, do these things, door knock, cold calling, this and that. I’m like, “Nah, I’m going to go ahead, I’m going to make a bigger splash. I’m going to go ahead and reach out to the people directly, make content where they’re going to go ahead and chime in or they’re going to watch or they’re going to share it and get my name bigger that particular way.” I wouldn’t switch it now that I look back. And sometimes I look at my videos from the beginning, it is a little cringeworthy, but that’s what got me to where I’m at now. So anyone who’s listening out there, social media is the biggest key out there. As time develops, there’s going to be new things, but that’s the number one, in my opinion.
Ashley:
Gus, now that you’ve built this social media presence, you’re a real estate agent, how does that transition into investing? When did you actually decide, “Okay, I’m not going to just sell houses, I am going to actually start buying them.”?
Gus:
Since I joined into being an agent, everyone’s been talking, “The market’s going to crash. The market’s going to crash.” And I’m like, “The market’s going to crash? I’m hot right now. If the market crashed, I don’t know what I’m about to do.” So like I said, I had thinking about investing before, and I ended up not pulling the trigger because I was scared, before I got into real estate at all. But now that I got into real estate as an agent wise, I knew it was time for me to have a backup plan. I can’t just be a realtor. What if I break my leg? What if something happened to me? I need something as a foundation to back it up. And the more I started diving into the podcast that you guys do, speaking to my mentor, things along those lines, I knew that investing was going to be a key part of my journey to eventually where I don’t have to be a agent and just sling houses all day, I can start focusing on my time on developing houses and making money off of that.
Ashley:
Gus, you mentioned some mentors. How did you find them, and what did they provide for you getting started as a rookie investor?
Gus:
Okay, so when I became an agent and I’m doing my marketing, a buddy that I went to college with said, “Hey, Gus, I’m going to this… ” We call it a meetup. “I’m going to this meetup. There’s going to be a lot of heavy-hitters in the area.” Actually, he called it the BiggerPockets meetup. I was like, “What’s BiggerPockets?” He’s like, “You don’t know who BiggerPockets is?” And then that’s when I got introduced to you guys.
Gus:
But I went to the meetup, and I met so many people. We got down the business right when I went there. “What do you do?” I was like, “I’m an agent.” I was brand new at this time. And they were like, “What are you seeing as far as the market?” I didn’t even know how to answer these questions. One guy was like, “Hey, I’m thinking about listing my trailer. You meet me tomorrow, 7:00 AM in the morning, I’ll list it with you.” I was like, “Holy Toledo.” I’m like, “I just went to this meeting. I’m about to get my second listing.” Before that, listings were harder to get by. Buyers were easier to get. Listings a little harder for someone who’s new. I met him 7:00 in the morning, and he’s like, “You’re a man of your word. You showed up. I made it early on purpose after we might have been having a little fun the night before.” So I met him that morning and ever since then, me and him have had a big bond together as far as him being my mentor, giving me advice, giving me things he’s done. He’s written a book. It’s just been an awesome relationship.
Tony:
I just want to add one thing, that is a prime example, Gus, of the power of networking. We encourage everyone who’s new to go out there, find your local meetup, find your local [inaudible 00:24:02] and just start talking to other people that are in the same space. I’ve shared many times in the podcast that my life changed because of a meetup. I only started investing in short-term rentals because of someone that I met at a meetup. And you, Gus, were able to find your second listing, a potential mentor just by having a conversation at a networking event. So man, I couldn’t think of a better example of what happens when you get out there and you start networking, Gus. So kudos to you, man, because I love seeing that.
Gus:
Thank you.
Ashley:
When did the first deal take place? So you start going to meetups now, you have a mentor. And how did you decide what strategy you want to do? You said you have some buy and holds, you have a flip going on. What helped you decide as to what strategy you would take on for your first deal?
Gus:
Now, do you mean my first deal as far as investing?
Ashley:
Yes. Yeah.
Gus:
Okay, so my first deal investing wise, so I got a call from doing my sponsor ads. An individual wanted to see a house and had seven to 10 storage units in the back. So I go ahead, I show him the property. And then he tells me, “Yeah, I got this five unit, it’s in the college town, I’m thinking about selling.” At that time, I was thinking more as an agent. I was like, “Man, a five unit, I can make X amount of dollars off of that.” So I was actually trying to sell that property at first. We were actually under contract, I was getting both sides, and the deal fell through because it didn’t appraise. And then I’m listening more to BiggerPockets and I’m like, “He does have that five unit. It does have opportunity. I did see the inspection report.” So I messaged him back. I was like, “Hey, I’m thinking instead of maybe paying me so much commission, how about I purchase that?” And he was like, “Are you sure?” I was like, “Yeah.” Now, I’m making the story sound way easier than it was because I was probably trembling when I was calling him, and the whole process probably the night before-
Tony:
I was going to say let’s pause in that, right? Can we dive into that a little bit? Because I think, you’re right, we do gloss over that initial conversation a lot of these podcasts. But let’s drill down on that, what were you thinking before you called him to pitch him that offer, and how did you, I don’t know, break through that fear and actually move forward with pitching him on it?
Gus:
So I was representing the buyer side and then he kept on saying, “Man, this is a great deal, man. I can’t believe you found this.” He was saying all those things. I was like, “Is it a great deal? Okay, I didn’t even know.” He got the inspection report, he’s like, “It’s not much I got to fix on this at all.” And I’m like, “Oh, man, he got a good deal here.” Now, when the deal didn’t go through and he wasn’t able to get the financing and then I start thinking about my journey. I’ve been looking at smaller places, duplexes, things like that. This is a five unit. I’m like, “Man, I got the money. It’s a little bigger than what I thought. I got the inspection report. This is an investor around the area who has tons of properties and he’s saying this one’s great. Why am I going to pass this along?” That’s when I finally broke through and I would say… And this is the biggest part. I think this is what keeps me moving.
Gus:
My fiance and my brothers, they’re the ones that are always going to encourage me because I think I can sometimes stop myself where they could see it from the outside and see how good I am or how talented I am. And they’re like, “Gus, just do it. What do you got to lose?” And I’m bringing up a million reasons why. And they’re like, “Gus, it’s a win. Everyone’s telling you it’s a win.” I’m like, “You know what?” I made the phone call and then we put it under contract.
Ashley:
Gus, I have to ask, how did you make the deal work when it fell through for the first person when they went to go get that appraisal? Was just saving that 6% commission enough to make the deal work, or did you make an all cash offer? How was your offer different than somebody else where they couldn’t make it work?
Gus:
I wish I could have made it all cash offer, I would’ve gotten it cheaper. But, no, so he used one commercial bank, and they told him no. But they didn’t bring an appraiser to go inside the house. They did, I think it’s called a book appraisal, something along those lines.
Tony:
Like a desk appraisal.
Gus:
Yeah. They just look at other comps, and they don’t actually go in the house. The bank I was going to, I was very adamant about them getting their appraiser going into the house. I didn’t know it was going to go through. I was crossing my fingers, hoping when that appraiser comes back it hits the number it needs to hit. Even if it didn’t, I felt like I would’ve put the money in to make the difference because that was a very good investment. Still right now before the project I’m working on right now, it’s my best money maker. So I would’ve probably made the difference if that was the case, but that’s what made me go ahead and put that through. The bank actually appraised 10K higher. So people out there, one bank might tell you no, but you go to another bank and they’ll give you the opposite information, so get multiple opinions on things.
Tony:
Not even just the bank but the appraisals too, right? Ash, have you had to challenge any appraisals recently?
Ashley:
I never have, but our friend Tyler Madden, who we had on recently, he had just challenged an appraisal and got it a lot higher than what it actually appraised for, yeah.
Tony:
Totally. I’ve had two issues with appraisals recently. The first one, the property came in $30,000 under what the contract price was. We were able to successfully challenge the appraisal. I pointed out some flaws in that appraisal’s initial report. And then we had another property where this one we actually did have to had to get like a different lender, but it was a $100,000 difference in the appraisal.
Ashley:
My God.
Tony:
It was $530,000 with one appraiser, and then $630,000 with a second appraiser. My point in sharing that is that appraisals are more art than science, and you can have the same people or two different people walk the same exact property and you’ll get two totally different opinions of value. So if your first appraisal comes back lower than what it should be, don’t be afraid to really put the onus on your lender to go out there and challenge that appraisal for you. And if all else fails, then find another lender.
Gus:
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I’ll say this one last part too, what made me comfortable making the deal… So when I got into real estate, I took a 401(k) out and I was doing my marketing online. A property management team actually reached out to me and were like, “Hey, we want you to help us lease apartments.” So while I was being an agent and I didn’t know if that was going to pan out or not, I was doing that on the side. So that made me understand the rental market a lot better also. So now that I have this property in front of me, the biggest thing that was glaring was these rents are a lot lower than what they could get, especially being in a college town. So that was another thing I want to add in that made me confident on pulling the trigger on this particular home.
Ashley:
Let’s talk about that because Tony and I always harp on, if you want to get into real estate, get even a side hustle in real estate, and becoming a leasing agent is a great one, even if you’re just doing showings on Sunday and it’s part-time. What did it take for you to be a leasing agent?
Gus:
Like I said, just them seeing me grind on the social media. I’m going to give everyone a tip, especially if you’re an agent. Facebook Marketplace, you got these barter pages. Sometimes once you post on those pages and you’re continuously posting on those pages, people get familiar with you, and that’s how the property management team got familiar with me. And so, it was a quick transition on to do rentals instead of posting houses that I got for listings on there, posting potential apartments that I’m renting out. Now, I would say when I started posting the apartments, that helped me on the real estate end, because now I’m posting a lot more on those barter pages what I knew was going to be a huge benefit for me. But yeah, so they found me on social media. I don’t want to say that, but I wasn’t getting the biggest amount of money doing this, but it was money coming in while I was still waiting for my real estate end to flourish and get a great return.
Ashley:
Gus, could you give us maybe three things that you learned from being a leasing agent that a real estate agent may not know and something that has helped you with your investing?
Gus:
Yeah. One, how to vent individuals who are going to rent out the apartments. There’s particular questions that I asked right at the beginning that made me either want to move forward with this individual as far as even taking them onto the showing. The biggest thing is, also, I get to see their Facebook. Not that I’m judging anyone, but if it’s public knowledge, I’m able to go ahead and take a look at that.
Gus:
Another thing I would say is I’m meeting individuals who aren’t ready to buy yet. Either they’re just moving to that particular area, so not only am I helping them finding a place to rent, but now I have those people on drip campaigns that they’re going to transition over to buying homes. So in a year or two years later, those individuals I helped as renters, they’re getting my drip campaigns, which I don’t have to call them every other week or things along those lines. Those campaigns keep me in front of them. Now, when it’s time for them to go ahead and purchase a home, who’s been in their face the whole time? The drip campaigns and the social media, because I normally add them also so they could see what I’m doing as far as real estate wise.
Gus:
The third thing I would say is, being with that property management team opened up so many more doors for me as far as people I met. I was able to sell higher price homes because those individuals that worked at that particular company would introduce me to people and it put me on a different plateau to a degree. So those are the three things that stand out to me. I don’t know if I answered your question right, but I got sweaty palms right now so I’m just trying to spit out as much info as possible.
Ashley:
No, that was great, especially for being put on the spot. I think those three things are awesome, that you can learn from being a leasing agent as you’re getting started into investing, just learning how to vet an individual, setting up that drip campaign so that if you have another end game, like you wanted to sell them a house down the road, you’re taking advantage of both of that. And then also, getting to know the property management team, and that was a big part for me too. As being a property manager for an investor, I got access to his network and getting to know people and connect with them. So that was great. That was really awesome, Gus.
Tony:
I think I’ve shared this before, but I worked as a leasing agent after college for two months. I wasn’t there very long, obviously, but yeah, I think there’s such insights that you gain by being firsthand in a company that already has most of their stuff figured out, right? You can take and adopt some of those things and apply them in your own business.
Tony:
Man, Gus, I just want to recap, right, because we’re moving fast here, but it’s like you have this job where you’re trying to climb the corporate ladder. You make this decision to bet on yourself. You literally bust your butt and hustle for a couple of years so you can build up your own business, right, get yourself working as an entrepreneur. And then when you finally have the time or when you finally have the financial ability, you start buying your first investment property. And then it’s just like massive scale from there. I want to dial in a little bit more on how you’ve been able to scale, because you get that first investment in property, you said it was a five unit, right, but you went from five to, you said 23 is what you have right now. Walk us through that journey. After closing that first one, how did you knock out so many more properties in such a short period of time?
Gus:
All right, so when I was a real estate agent, I go back to this, I sold 50 my first year, 71 my second year, 108 my third year. So the funds were coming in. So August 2020, I brought the five unit. January of 2021, I brought a three unit. I fixed two of the units up and increased the rent. The rent, they were getting fairly low rent. It was like 1,400. I increased the rent to 3,000. So that was my second investment, and I put 20% on that one. My third investment, I put 20% on that one. That was in March of 2021. That was a three unit. Now I’m starting to notice, yeah, these 20 percents are really adding up here. But I think my fourth one was when I did my first [inaudible 00:37:27], and that was after a long time of hearing you guys talk about it, me doing research.
Gus:
I’m like, “Okay, so if I buy it cash and I do my numbers right, I run the comps, and it comes out to this number, I get 80% back on that particular number, that would cover what I purchased it for and what it took to fix it.” I was like, “Okay.” I found the place randomly. All my deals sometimes are randomly. It’s not stuff I’d be looking for, especially the ones that I find that are off market. So I found this house, 70,000. I hired a general contractor who I’m still working with today, so that’s another relationship I made that I’m very thankful for.
Ashley:
I want to ask you about that because that is the hardest… As soon as you mentioned you’re going to do the BRRRR strategy, I wanted to ask you this because this is the hardest part about doing the BRRRR strategy is finding a contractor and managing the rehab. So how did you find your contractor, and how did you manage the rehab?
Gus:
Our insurance agent is in BNI. I guess they have meetings, they meet up, and then they try to help promote each other. Randomly, he promoted a contractor, and I’m looking for a contractor because I told you my second property, I did some fixing up to that one. It wasn’t a BRRRR, I just put some money into it, and I went through hell with it. The contractors were the worst. So, I’m still looking for a contractor. So he shared this guy’s page, said he was a great guy. So that tells me that this guy’s respectable in the area. This is not just Joe Small you find maybe on Facebook Marketplace or anything along those lines. This is a respectable guy in the area. So I met with him, he’s like, “Yeah, I know you, you’re all over Facebook.”
Gus:
I was like, “Sweet. So that makes it even better because he probably thinks I’m this big time investor where I’m starting off in my career. So maybe he’ll go a little harder for me in the long run.” He met with me at the house. He did a phenomenal job. I was just going to do simple stuff. I told him what my budget was. He was able to take this place, okay… And Tony, you actually shared this on one of your podcasts, I was rookie of the month or something, and you shared it, it was a clip. I actually stole the clip and put it on my social media.
Tony:
Gus, that’s why your name sounds so familiar because you were a Rookie Rockstar.
Gus:
Yes, that’s what I was. Yes.
Tony:
I was like, “I know Gus’s name from somewhere,” and it’s because you were a Rookie Rockstar one of the previous episodes.
Gus:
So that same property was the property that he did for me. He made it phenomenal. And we were within budget too. That was the biggest thing that he looked out for. He was like, “Gus, I could charge you more for this. I’m thinking we do this instead.” I’m not a contractor, I’m like, “Hey, bro, whatever works.” Maybe at that time it wasn’t the best, I should know more at that particular time, but I did it. That was the truth. He was like, “Here’s how we can help you out. We’ll do X, Y, and Z.”
Gus:
He finished the project. I was into that project with nothing out of my pocket at all. The rest of the money, I think it was about 2,000 that was left. That’s 2,000 I don’t need. If it was a larger amount, I would’ve took that money and moved it over to another home, but it was a perfect BRRRR situation. I rented that place out for 2,800 everything included, and it’s my second highest producing property right now. So now that I’m looking, I was like, “Man, the BRRRRs are making more sense than the 20%.” I probably bought one more four unit for the 20% amount, and I knew that was my last one. So right now where I’m in, everything has been BRRRRs right now. Now, also I would say, I had to pivot. I was buying BRRRRs that were two units, four units. Then I had to pivot to single family homes because I’m not finding anymore multi-units anymore. So I got to go with single families now. So right now I’m working on two single families. Hopefully they work out for me.
Ashley:
I want to talk a little bit about the property management side now. We touched on rehab. Did you use the property management company that you were working with as a leasing agent, or did you decide to self-manage because you got a glimpse into their systems? How did that kind of work out for your properties?
Gus:
I was going to be my own property manager at the beginning until there was a flood, I mean, in the toilet and I got there and the girl looked at me like I knew what I was doing, and I was just going to call a plumber. So she looked at me and I’m watching it flood, I’m like… And she’s like, “What are we going to do?” I’m like, “I’m going to be right back.” We got it fixed, but I knew with being an agent trying to find properties for myself, I knew I couldn’t be a property manager. I didn’t want to take on too much. So that’s when I went to my old guys and said, “Hey, can you guys take care of this for me?” And then they were right behind me, and they manage all my properties.
Gus:
Now, I will say this, as an individual who leased out apartments himself, there’s some apartments, I want to stretch the money. So instead of having them do it, I’ll do it myself. There’s a particular property I just recently bought that I managed to stretched out the money and wanted to get maximum dollar. I knew how they go ahead and rent things, it may be an issue for them. So I was like, “Let me go ahead and rent this out for myself.” Now, did it take longer probably than I wanted to? Yes. But I wanted to get top dollar for these particular units, so I knew I had to put in that work in myself, and I was able to go ahead and get that accomplished.
Ashley:
Can you give me an example of why that would be different? What are the things you did different than the leasing agent or the property management company does that you were able to get that extra rent?
Gus:
All right, so they’re going to watch this. They use a special metric to go ahead and get renters into their place. Now, I don’t have to use that same metric because it’s my place. I just have to be comfortable and do my due diligence with that particular person. It’s in the college town, and most of my investments are in the college town. As long as I meet the person, they fit the criteria of the questions that I’ve asked them, and their parents co-sign with them, that puts me in a great situation to be able to get them to sign. I think this is a huge thing too, if you’re post-grad or seniors, I think that’s a big plus because that tells me that your younger years of going buck wild are behind you and you’re more focused on getting the goal done as far as graduating. So for those particular things, to me, it’s somewhat easy to find, but that’s just me, myself. I think I’m a great person as far as reading character and reading people, so I’m going off my guts, no systems, just what I think.
Tony:
Well, Gus, congratulations on that amazing growth and scale. Like you said, I’m glad you mentioned earlier that sometimes you’ll send a note back to those old bosses and just let them know how well you’re doing, right? But I want to take one specific deal, if we can do a deal review for one of these deals. So do you have one in mind?
Gus:
You want one that’s already rented out, because one of the projects I’m working on is probably going to be my best one?
Tony:
Yeah, whichever one you want. We can go with that one. Yeah, if you want to go with that, let’s roll with it, cool. I’m going to hit you with some rapid fire questions first, Gus, just to set the table for our listeners, and then we’ll go to the details from there. So what type of property is this?
Gus:
It’s fourplex.
Tony:
Gotcha. And what city is it located in?
Gus:
It’s in Old Town, Maine
Tony:
Old Town, Maine. And what was the purchase price?
Gus:
70,000.
Tony:
All right. Fourplex, Old Town, Maine. Sorry, Ash, I’m blinking on our rapid fire questions, what else am I forgetting to ask?
Ashley:
Oh, what strategy is this going to be, short-term rental, long-term rental?
Gus:
Long-term rental.
Ashley:
Okay. And how did you finance the property?
Gus:
I bought that one cash.
Ashley:
Okay. So if you want to kind of… Oh, and then one more thing is, where did you get the deal from? How did you find it?
Gus:
A client I helped sell their home introduced me to their parents. Their parents had that property. It’s been empty for 10 years. Like I said, all my ones have been random that I’ve been able to find.
Ashley:
I want to ask you about that real quick before we actually go into the details of the deal. Are you telling anyone and everyone that you’re looking for these properties or are you asking, “Hey, if you know anybody that’s selling property, let me know.”? Or are these people just randomly mentioning it to you and you’re not even broadcasting or telling anyone what you’re doing?
Gus:
This is how I think, I tend to think when you’re talking to someone who’s in real estate, you tend to bring up everything you know as far as in real estate, or people that you know that are looking to do something or accomplish something. So this individual, I’m listing their property and they’re telling me, “Oh, my parents got this place. It’s a dump. This and that, that and this.” Then I start asking questions, “What is it?” And he’s like, “It’s a four unit.” “Where is it?” “Old Town, Maine.” Now, Old Town is the same town that I invest in. That’s the university. So, Orono and Old Town are right next to each other. Those are the college towns.
Gus:
So I say, “Hey, I can list that for you and sell it for you. You know what I mean?” So my intent is to sell it to him if it doesn’t fit my criteria. So when I met with his parents, we went to the particular property. I brought my GC with me. I was like, “I’m bringing my GC with me to see how bad the property is.” Now we go, we take a look at the property. My GC was like, “Take it, take it, take it.” So my thinking is, “What do you guys would want to sell it? What would satisfy you?” They give me a price. I say, “You know what? We don’t even have to put it on the market. Here’s what I’ll do, and I’ll take it.” They created the price and then I purchased it from there.
Ashley:
That’s awesome, Gus, and I just wanted to prove a point there that just talking about real estate, talking about what you want to do, and listening too to other people, that’s a great way to find deals, just the power of referrals of somebody saying, “Hey, I heard somebody say they were talking about sell this and I know you buy real estate,” and making that connection. And so, just tell anyone and everyone what you want and what you’re looking for. That shouldn’t be your only lead source, where you’re just waiting for people to bring you deals, but it definitely adds a lot of value when you do get the freebies that come in or like to come. Okay, so let’s continue on with your deal. You want to give us the story, talk about how you found it, how you got it, and then talk about maybe the financing of it and go into the details and where it’s at now.
Gus:
Yeah. One thing I want to shed light on is I’m saying a lot of things and I want people to check out my social media because everything’s documented on my Facebook business page. This particular property I bought for 70,000. My GC, I originally told you guys about originally, he’s the one that came with me, said, “Thumbs up. I got some big plans for this.” So we put it under contract. We have an appraiser come to see it. My GC writes up a whole foot plan for the property. We added an addition onto the property. So, this four unit had nine bedrooms for the whole building. We added an addition to add on extra bedrooms and a laundry room also. So the laundry room’s going to have two sets of washer and dryers that are going to be coin-operated.
Gus:
Now, with that being said and done, the appraiser comes in, he appraises the place for, I believe 430. So I’m able to go ahead and get 80% of that 430. That keeps me roughly around where I need to be. I’ll be giving out a little bit money on it, but what’s 10,000? At the end of the day, I’m going to get a property that’s going to produce 7,000 a month, and the mortgage, taxes, insurance on the property is going to be just below 3,000. To me, that’s a win.
Tony:
Wait, Gus, can I clarify? So you bought this property for $70,000, right?
Gus:
Yes.
Tony:
And the appraisal came back at $430,000.
Gus:
Yes.
Tony:
You’re saying that real calm and collected, man. That is one of the biggest spreads I think I’ve heard on this show. I mean, give us an idea of what the rehab looked like. Is this going to be a $60,000 rehab job or a $300,000 rehab job?
Gus:
Oh no, it’s going to be a huge rehab job. We’re looking at 270, 280, around there as far as rehab wise. I think that’s my GC being modest. But like I said, I’m probably going to be in it for some money. So that 80% I’m probably going to go over that amount just barely. But to me, that’s well worth it. Some BURRRRs are going to be perfect, some BURRRRs are going to make money. This one I’m going to put money to it, but it’s going to be a perfect property for the area it’s in and the cash flow I’m going to make over it.
Ashley:
I think we don’t touch on that enough, that it’s okay to leave money into a BURRRR that you can still make a great return and you can still have a good cash on cash return and you can be cash flowing, and the more money you leave into the deal, they’ll lower your monthly payment. And so, if you can afford and the numbers still work leaving cash in, you can still jump up and down that it’s a great deal. Because I think sometimes people, they hesitate and try to justify, “Well, it wasn’t a perfect deal, I’m leaving money in.” It still can be a great deal and put money into it. So congratulations on that deal, Gus.
Gus:
I want to say one thing to what to Tony said now. Now, remember, this deal, I didn’t find this deal. Well, I wasn’t looking for the deal. The deal came to me. So I could let that deal go because my numbers aren’t perfect or I could try to make it work to the best of my capabilities. It was a huge rehab project. I’m not going to lie and sit here and tell you something different. I was scared. This goes back to me going on Clubhouse, as far as I’m bringing this house up to people on Clubhouse way before I even decided to move forward with it, and everyone’s like, “Go man, do it, do it.”
Gus:
And they’re talking about doing way bigger deals, investing way more money into their deals. So it made me feel comfortable with them telling me to move forward, my general contractor telling me to move forward, my brothers, my fiance. So I want to put a full circle on everything I’ve been saying for me to be able to move forward on the project that’s going to be close to 300 grand on it. Now, my GC did say we could tear this down and rebuild, but I decided not to listen to him.
Tony:
Gus, last question for me on this deal is we know you paid cash for the 70 grand, but what are your plans to finance this almost $300,000 rehab?
Gus:
Like I said, the commercial department sent an appraiser out to my property. They appraised it to finish. So the property wasn’t finished, they were just going off my blueprints. That’s how we were able to get the 430. So after it’s said and done, because right now we’re in the paying interest section of the-
Tony:
Gotcha. Gotcha. So you’ve got construction debt for this property.
Gus:
Correct. Correct.
Tony:
Gotcha. Okay, that’s awesome, man.
Gus:
I’ll be at a 4.75 interest rate because of when we initially started the process, which to me right now, looking at interest rates where they are right now, that’s still a win.
Tony:
[inaudible 00:53:32].
Gus:
It is on five years for that particular interest rate. So there’s no telling where the interest rates can go. I think that’s the parts sometimes we don’t shed light on. It could get real bad in five years, but-
Tony:
Well, one additional follow up to that, Gus, so just to make sure that I’m understanding the loan part and the listeners are as well, so basically the bank is saying, “Hey, we’re going to lend you all of the money you need for your purchase and your rehab as long as you stay under 80% of the after-repair value.” Now, are they fronting you the money for the rehab or is it a draw system where you have to pay out of pocket, then they send an inspection, and then you get reimbursed?
Gus:
All right, so there’s no inspection. Basically, when my guy sends me the invoice, I forward the invoice to my banker and my banker cuts a check to pay them directly.
Tony:
That’s awesome. I had a very similar setup when I started investing in Louisiana where I pretty much had no money out of pocket for the rehab. The GC would just get paid out directly from the bank and they would front everything. Gus, I guarantee after this episode airs, you’re going to have so many people reaching out to you asking what bank you’re using out there in Maine because that’s a pretty solid deal, man.
Gus:
Definitely a great bank. They’ve been real flexible. Okay, I’m going to say this last thing. You guys didn’t ask about this, but I think this is another good thing. I was paying out of pocket cash to buy some of these BRRRRs. Now I’m at the point, because I learned from you guys, I learned from the other avenues, credit. Now I have business credit where I have credit lines now. So that’s going to open up a new door for me where I could get four to five properties and have my team working on those. You know what I mean? So I’m going to upscale quite a bit because of the business credit. I suggest everyone out there definitely talk to your bankers about it because it’s going to open a lot more doors for you.
Ashley:
Well, Gus, thank you so much for diving into that deal with us and sharing how you were able to get that property done. We’re excited to see the finished product. So make sure everyone checks out Gus’s social media, and we’ll be able to follow along.
Ashley:
Okay, so we’re going to move on to our rookie request line. This is where you can call in and leave us a voicemail and we will have our guest answer the question on the show. You can call in at 188-5ROOKIE. Today’s question is from Jeff. “Hey, love the show. My name is Jeff, and I’m calling from Rhode Island. I have an opportunity to buy an investment property. It serves as a college property, more so we rent to college kids to a local university nearby. It also serves as a beach town where in the summer you can rent for vacationers. My question is, would you have those college kids just cover the mortgage, charge them enough rent where the mortgage is covered in taxes, property insurance, all that stuff, and then you really don’t have much cash flow coming in and hope that in the summertime you could charge upwards to 2,500 to 3,000 per week. So just curious about any experience with college renters and then the unique case where you can also have vacationers from June up to August. Thanks.”
Gus:
So just listening to the question now, he said about renters going into the place and they were just covering the taxes, insurance, and mortgage and not having any cash flow. Is that correct?
Ashley:
Yeah, so he’s saying if he just rented it to break even to college kids from September to June when they’re done with college, and then over the summer, July and August, have it almost as a short-term rental-
Gus:
Short-term rental, okay.
Ashley:
… it appears, yeah.
Gus:
Okay. Then if that’s the case, then why not? You’re looking at the deal. It seems like he’s already breaking it down and he’s just getting confirmation on, should I pull the trigger on this? If you’re going to be able to make 2,500 a week in the summer and it’s in an area where you feel confident that you’re going to be able to get that, then I would pull the trigger on that. Let the college kids carry the mortgage and then where you’re going to go ahead and cash out is in the summertime. But just make sure that what you think as far as what you’re going to be able to get for the short-term rentals in the summer, make sure those are legit numbers and make sure you’re doing your due diligence at the end of the day.
Ashley:
Yeah. To add onto the due diligence part, is look at what the market rent is in that college town. What are other college kids paying for rent? Because maybe you can actually charge more than what it would cover the mortgage and your expenses. So I think look at that number and figure out the rent you can actually charge, do your research, instead of just saying, “You know what? I just need enough to break even, that’s what I’m going to charge.” So look at that market rent.
Ashley:
And then also, I know when I was in college, that a lot of the college properties that you could rent where you would start your lease in August and then it would end in July. So it was actually a full year lease because school usually starts in August for college and then would end around May/June time too. So look what that is, and then if you are going to do it as a short-term rental, you’re going to have to furnish it over the summer. So makes you add in your cost of, are you going to bring movers in and furnish the whole place for two months and then pay the movers to take all the furniture back out when the college kids move in. So factor in that you’re completely changing strategies and you’ll have to have those expenses in the fall and the spring to switch your house to change gears.
Gus:
One thing I would say also is he said break even in the college town. That tells me that the house is at a higher price where it’s more beneficial for the short-term rental than it is for the everyday renter, long-term renters. Just want to throw this out to that person, maybe continue to look at deals and weigh your options. Are there any other better options you and compare those deals to other deals that are around to make sure that’s the best way you want to go about that.
Tony:
Yeah, that’s the beauty of investment in real estate, there’s always multiple options, multiple exit strategies, multiple ways you can make money with the same property. So appreciate your insights there, guys. As we start to wrap things up, Gus, we got one last big segment for you, and this is our rookie exam. These are the three most important questions you will ever be asked in your life, so Gus, are you ready for them?
Gus:
Let’s go.
Tony:
All right. Question number one, what’s one actionable thing Rookie should do after listening to your episode?
Gus:
I think Rookie should start having conversations with people in multiple fields as far as a leasing agent, a real estate agent, an investor. The more well-rounded you are as a investor moving forward, the more benefit it’s going to be for you. And not just those things, builders. Get in contact with as many people as possible because it’s going to go ahead and make you a better investor at the end of the day and make you more money in the long run.
Ashley:
The next question is, what is one tool, software, app, or system that you use in your business?
Gus:
I’m not going to sit here and lie. I mean, I use a notepad on my phone, but other than that, I don’t have CRMs. My partner at the agency, the broker’s probably going to get mad, but I do everything on the fly. That could be a bad thing, but I don’t have any systems. Most times I give my stuff over to my bookkeeper. She organizes everything for me, and I push along that way. I want to be able to give the truth on here, and my truth, so I don’t have any systems, sorry.
Ashley:
Hey, outsourcing, using who not how by having a bookkeeper, I think that’s a great example right there.
Tony:
I love that response too, Gus, because I think oftentimes, especially for rookies, they overcomplicate getting started. You did over 100 transactions as an agent with the Notepad app on your iPhone, right? So it shows what’s possible if you just focus on getting things done. So appreciate the transparency. So last question for you, Gus, where do you plan on being in five years?
Gus:
So, and I’ve been talking about this a lot with a lot of people, is I want to be able to start developing. That’s my goal. I think in a year’s span of short-term rentals, because there’s a lot of money to be able to be made in short-term rentals. So I think I have my foundation down after this year with the long-term rentals as far as that money coming in. I want venture out to short-term rentals in my area after that. Then I want to venture outside of my state as far as the money that’s out of there. And then my probably end goal is developing new builds, which I’m working at and hopefully in five years I’ll be able to do that.
Tony:
All right, awesome, Gus. Appreciate you, man. I think you aced the exam. Really appreciate you sharing your insights there.
Tony:
So last segment here is our Rookie Rockstar, and today’s Rookie Rockstar is Anna Robinson Brambau. And hopefully I got your last name right there, Anna. But Anna says, “Closed on our first investment property yesterday. Thought I’d share how much work it is. Actually… ” Sorry, let me say that again. “Thought I’d share how we made it work as I’ve seen others do before.” So Anna is a local realtor, and the seller was referred to her from a friend who needed to sell quickly to help their mom out. So really similar to some of your situations, Gus. But anyway, Anna hit a snag with the roof. So as she was obtaining financing, the roof came up that it was at the end of its life and it needed to be replaced in order for the insurance to cover it, which obviously is tricky. Apparently they’re in Florida, so we know what the weather gets like in Florida. But they increased the purchase price by the total cost of the roof, and the roofer got paid at closing with the seller’s proceeds. That’s really cool. I’ve actually never seen it structured that way before. But Anna says, “The appraisal came in at $370,000 with $2,700 market rent.” They have a tenant moving in next week at $3,000 per month. So Anna, congratulations, way to get creative with the closing process and make sure you still got the deal done.
Gus:
Great job, Anna.
Ashley:
Well, Gus, thank you so much for joining us for this episode of the Real Estate Rookie. Can you let everyone know where they can find out some more information about you, reach out to you, and of course, follow along on your journey?
Gus:
Yeah. So guys, if you want to reach out to me, it’s Gus Ofili, that’s O-F-I-L-I, my last name, on Facebook. Gus Ofili ERA Dawson, that’s my business page on Facebook. Now, you may not see many followers on my IG, but I just started it, and that’s Gus Ofili realtor. I mean, Gus Ofili real estate agent on IG. So check me out there. I’m down to help anyone out that’s looking to get some advice on things.
Ashley:
Thank you, Gus, so much.
Ashley:
Well, I’m Ashley at Welcome Rentals, and he’s Tony at Tony J. Robinson. Thank you guys so much for listening, and we will be back on Saturday with a rookie reply.
Ashley:
(singing)
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Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.
