EYL #114 Follow The Money feat. Jude Bernard

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All right, Gods, welcome back, ey L. We got another exciting episode.

That's a fact. That's a fact.

So anytime we get to talk about real estate, it's exciting. It seems like an every time we talk about real estate, there's always a different avenue. There's so many different ways to make money within real estate. So this is the first time that we really had somebody from the city, from New York City that was really big in real estate as an investor. So Ju Bernard is a huge, huge,

Yeah that sounds it's called talk.

So yeah, the properties Echo. The properties together valued over forty million dollars. I mean, if you're familiar with the parts of New York City, if you know, you know Brownstones in Brooklyn Best Die Area and then Harlem, you know that you know, on the low end one million, one point five million, on the high end two point five three million, four million dollars, Like, it's not uncommon for Brownstones to go for that.

He has a very.

Unique story because he's one of the guys that, like when Jay Z said, I could have brought a dumbo, I could have brought a what he said, I could have brought a cribin dumb I could have brought a building in Dumbo for like million, that same buildings where twenty million half filling Dumbo. So he's one of these guys that actually had an opportunity to invest early and and you know, before the areas really started to get gentified and changed, and he just you know, set on it and it worked.

Out for his favor.

So he has a story to tell, He got a lot of gyms to give, and it's a great, great conversation to have because a lot of times we speak about being on the wrong side of gentrification and not taking advantage of certain things and like getting in when it's too late. But he actually got in before it actually started to change, and he saw the whole process, and he learned a lot along the wave, created systems

Okay, what made me get into the game? I was just short, you know, like I just didn't have like my nine to five just wasn't cutting it. You know, this was like back in the mid to late nineties when when there was the bottles and and and any at any minute, Diddy could run into the into the spot and you know say buy the bar out and buy the bar out, and you're just sitting there holding your hindeken all night, and you know, I just didn't want to be that dude, you know, I did not

I learned.

I learned very very early in the game, I'm not about that life, you know, being a New York dude in Albany County jail.

It was just like, Nah, this ain't this ain't for me.

So I was just like, I can't be in the streets because that that don't work for me. I ain't got no hot sixteens, no hot runs. And my jump shot is I wouldn't even say decent. It's on a good day, mediocre, mediocre at best. So the only thing left for me to do was try to find my way in business. You know. So I was I was working at Verizon at the time, and I was working on my MBA, you know, and I was I was planning on going the whole corporate route, but I was

So when I.

Met this dude, this dude in my class one day, we were just chopping it up and he was a real estate broker and he was telling me, yo, if you got if you got good credit, if you got good credit, you could buy a crib.

And I was just like, how am I going to do that?

Then he you know, walked me through the whole faha process and this, that and the other, and that's when I was just like, but I don't have no front money to do it.

So that's when I pulled.

I pulled money out of a student loan because although Verizon was paying me, paying me to go to school, but I could still take student loans out. So you know, I took I took like a hustle. I took like I took like a twelve thousand dollars, twelve thousand dollars loan and I bought one hundred thousand dollars crib for like three percent down.

They'll send you the refund check, send me the.

Refundcheck scale exactly.

It was. It was, it was faha, It was faha.

The very first joint.

So you took twelve So how much was it? You said, twelve thousand dollars loan.

It was a twelve thousand dollars loan.

When everything's when everything was all said and done, I probably came out of my pocket like like ten grand.

What year it was this, This was ninety seven, so three down?

Yeah, crip. Crip was one hundred thousand dollars.

So three thousand. And then closing costs, all of.

That closing costs and all the other little thing.

Cost ten thousand.

Yeah, and then okay, and then then my you know, then the next crib came available, like a few months later. That was right next door. So I did it again.

Where is this that?

This was south side Queens.

So Queens is the Queens is the origin of your real estate journey.

Those were the first two cribs I ever bought. I bought them in Queens. I didn't I didn't know anything about it because I was actually living in Queens at the time.

I was living in Rosedale.

So I copped those those two cribs and then and then my man put me on to the refinance hustle.

So on the first crib you did the student loan refund right, second crib, same thing, or we just took the profits on the first.

Second crib, same thing, more student loans, next semester, did it again.

Yoh, that's crazy. I remember getting that refund check.

It was like, if you take out a loan, right, and then if somebody's paying for it, they reimburse you. And I think I bought like I bought like a pair of Tams and some Jordans.

Nah, I wasn't thinking right.

And then I rocked. I rocked that same hustle for like two years where I was where now. I found out that if I paid, if I paid it upfront, if I paid the money out of my pocket, then I could apply for financial aid. Right. I applied for financial aid, and then I got that money, and then I took the little student loans, and then I took the receipt of when I paid my money, and then I gave it to the job and they got reimbursed it, and then they reimbursed me.

So it was student loans brought your homes.

Yeah, that's how I got started, beautiful stories, you know, that's how I got started. I probably statute of limitations is probably it was nineteen ninety seven. You know, good luck anybody went prosecuting.

But that's how I got started.

Okay, So all right, so two homes. Then you say you got turned to the to the REFI game.

Got turned onto the refi game. So cribs that I bought for one hundred grand, now now I could refight them because the values were like at one hundred and fifty like a year later because I bought them blow market and stuff like that, and so now I got all my cash back plus another I mean plus more cash. So so it's like two years into the game, I was like already one hundred grand.

Strong came into the strong, yeah exact, but I always use that because that one hundred grand is like I had a home akery line of credit.

I ended up buying a crib. I ended up buying another crib that where me and my boys used to live at. You know, I bought a two family crib, and then I had the mortgage was like two thousand dollars a month. The mortgage was like two thousand dollars a month.

I had.

I was renting upstairs for fifteen hundred, and each one of my boys was giving me five hundred plus.

I was renting the basement for six hundred dollars, so.

I was put like, I was pretty much living in a party house and getting like fifteen hundred dollars.

He's the dude that Nipsey was talking about, right, He was like, Yo, he's the guy who's in school making more than his teachers.

He's a guy, yo.

But the thing about that is, so it's like a year and a half into the into the game. I'm making money on real estate, trying you know, working partying, and also trying to get my MBA at the same time. And I'm not taking that city. I'm not taking that as seriously as I should because I'm making money. So I roll up, I roll up to class one day late again, and the teachers just like, hey, mister Bernard, if there's some place you'd rather be, why don't you be there?

Right?

And I thought about that the whole time, So you know how the teachers give you like that break. At forty five minutes into the class, I left, you know, I left my bag, my books, all of that. I just left, you know, got in the car and bounced. And I didn't officially withdraw nothing like that. I just I was like, you know what, you're right there, someplace i'd rather be.

I'd rather I'm gonna do that words of advice.

So that's that's when I made the official decision that this was my life.

What what? What school did you go to?

Saint John's University?

Okay, you know, like literally my bag, all that other stuff, it was just still there, still there, nice.

Nice. So all right, so you so you said, I'm and it's using your master's program.

I was trying to get my master's at that time NBA.

Yeah, trying to get a master's in business administration. Was trying to get a management degree because I was working at Verizon. I was a manager there, so I was trying to go up the corporate ladder.

So all right, so at that point you quit, did y'all? You quit school and you have two properties?

You said that by that time, I had like four properties.

Yeah, and then all right, so now you're just doing real estate full time at this point.

No, I'm I'm still at Verizon, still doing my thing at Verizon.

But you know, tell the truth.

I had to take a step back because I was gambling at the time too, you know, like I got this thing right here says never again twelve thirteen oh four. You know, because I was gambling heavy, so I ended up those first two cribs. Those first two cribs that I had, I had to sell them to pay gambling debts.

What was your sports or blackjack?

I'm doing blackjack, I'm doing and dice games.

People don't realize that gambling is an addiction. I know few people that have lost their families, lost homes, lost their freedom because of gambling. It's not something that's talked about enough. I'm gonna talk about drug addiction a lot, alcoholism, but millions of Americans, people all over the world suffer from gambling.

Can you talk about that a little bit?

First of all, you're right, it is an addiction. And I didn't even respect it as an addiction. I was just like, looking at It's just something that is something I did, and I was good. I was making money when I was making money, but when I was losing, I was losing money, big money, you know. And I had tried. I had tried like gamblers Anonymous and all that other stuff. And I remember going to a gambler's Anonymous meeting and looking at these dudes telling these stories.

But I was.

The Linux Lounge back in the Days Hall in Harlem. One day I found myself in the back room with the Lentless lounge. My man to me in there, and I had there was the dice game going on, and I went down there. Four So I went down there, and you know, I was with my man, just went out there and humble. We didn't go there for that,

Smiling Welcome to New York.

So then I was just like, ill.

Had cool, So dude, start making best. I got three grand on this. I was like, yo, put your money on the floor. It's like, nah, I'm good for it.

And so they was live and I hit them with trips.

For their money.

Paul this, No, No, that's not how That's not how it all. So dudes was just the ass betting, like because they.

Knew I was by myself, what are you gonna do?

What I'm not going to do is so, so I basically had to give every dollar back to walk out of there.

So you knew that they was asked anybody's not familiar. That's when somebody's betting with no intentions of actually paying with their betting. So psychologically you knew you had a decision to make either you call their bluff and like, okay, I'm leaving. You know that they're not going to pay you. You're in Harllow, You're from Queens.

From Brooklyn, but living in Queens.

A long way from home.

And this is this is nineteen ninety something.

Dangerous, not gentrified, different.

Magic psychologically, it was like, to just keep it respectful, I'll lose the money. I'll play until I just lose. So I don't just have to make this awkward situation. I could just at least I could just not get killed out here, exactly.

I could.

I could front like I like, I made a decision.

That that's calculated decision. That's a calculator. You calculated it very well, you know.

But it's the same calculated decisions that you make every day in real estate, you know what I'm saying, Like all the time, it's like do I take this l right here and live to fight another day or do I keep going mm hmm.

So at what point do you do you really hit your stride in real estate and kind of like hit.

It out the park.

So again, I always say, I came into this game one hundred grand strong. I had a crib in Rosedale, the crib where I lived with my boys queens exactly. So I pulled one hundred grand out of that. And you know, like whenever cats get some real doe what they want to do. They want to open a bar, all right, Like I told.

You that was my first barbershop.

Barbershop, wrecord label, laund sneaker Stone. So I was trying to open I was trying to open up a bar in downtown Brooklyn, right. So I met this real estate broker and he he basically was like showing me around, and then I told him, you know, I let him know how much money I was holding, and he basically was like, yo, I have an opportunity for you.

So he brought me to this crib in Clinton.

Hills, right, Jersey, Brooklyn Hills, Brooklyn, and I ended up buying a Brownstone for like four hundred thousand dollars you know.

You know, ten percent down, ten percent down, forty grand. So I copped that joint and I ended up copping the joint next to it, like three or four months

Yeah, and you just get Are you getting rental income from them? Are some of you flipping?

No at, I didn't get into I didn't get into the flipping.

Okay, so rental income right now?

Yeah, this is straight rental. So and I still owe them credits cribs now, you know, so I was taking you know, taking home makering lines of credits out and just buying more and you know, balling out, you know. So so now this is like two thousand and six, two thousand and two thousand six, two thousand and seven.

You know, that's when I bought the big crib in Jersey.

Of course I gotta do that.

You know.

You know, interesting thing about Clinton Hills, you know, interesting historical hip hop fact. So the late great Christopher Wallace, you know a lot of people think he's from bed Stars. He said the love is one from Beeford Stoveson. But his actual house is on a borderline and technically it's in Clinton Hills.

Yes, it's not even it's not even on the borderline because it's safe.

I try to get him the benefit.

Because you got, you got.

He's like six blocks from bed Stocks. Yeah, little known fact, exactly.

So, And the New York Posted a did a story because you know, you said it's his his mom had the one where it's not it's not it was never a one room shot. Not sure why he said that, but it's a that same apartment right now is is

So it's crazy.

So I'm gonna take you back to a true story back on Biggie's block. Right, So this is like two thousand and two thousand and two, two thousand and three again. I'm on the corner of Saint James and Fulton, you know that little triangle over there, the same I don't know if anybody ever saw that like that, that freestyle Biggie was doing.

Yeah, when they had the exactly with the tims on with this, they put it in Juicy.

Too, they exactly. So I'm I'm on that corner. This is before I bought the cribs in Brooklyn. I'm on that corner rolling dice because that's what I do. So we're out there, we rolling dice heavy. Like there's like at least twenty dudes out there, all thugs, you know. And I was comfortable out there because this is Brooklyn, Brooklyn exactly. I'm comfortable.

Exactly.

So I'm out there rolling dice heavy and there's a cipher.

You know what I'm saying.

It's like twenty twenty dudes all in the circle, and the dude just smoking blunts and forty ounces old old e and Saint I.

And for the people that are under twenty five or forty ounces an alcoholic beverage.

That will give you cancer. Right, So we're in the cipher, like and what happens was what happened was the dice are on the floor, right and right in the middle.

Here comes this this.

White girl who's jogging with her headphones on, who runs right through.

The cipher, kicks the dice and keeps it moving.

And and what what happened was what I looked around, was that nobody said anything, but everybody nobody believed what just happened. And that's when I knew that this was her neighborhood now, and these were our wires, right, change your life exactly because I looked at it. I looked at it, and it's just like yo, she just kept it moving like no fear in her heart, no nothing and to do and nobody say nothing to her.

But that's when I knew. That's when I that's when.

I started looking at that area a little differently. You know, That's when that's when things changed for me over there. That's when you know I got I got this this philosophy right that the only way you make money is when you're able to see things that other people can't see. So when you see opportunities that other people can't see. Right, And the other thing I always say is like when you do things that other people are not willing to do right. So at that little dice game, it opened

Were coming in the neighborhood. Right, So like if I.

Saw if I saw a Starbucks opening up, I was just like, yo, I need to be around here, because like it was like copying somebody else's homework because you know, they did they marketing analysis.

So if they if they felt comfortable enough coming into this neighborhood, then I should feel comfortable enough to start investing in this neighborhood exactly.

So when I saw.

I initially, I initially like, you're familiar with Brooklyn, So it basically like the big money.

Was Fort Green.

Then then the next big money was Clinton Hills, and then the next big Money was a bad star, right, so I got in. I got in on on the Clinton Hill side like when it you know, when it was still a little there's still a little bit money to be made, right, So when I saw when I saw like like these coffee shops and and.

The t store that's on Biggie's block.

Now you know what I'm saying that on the corner of his block there's a tea store.

The great thing is like people like the New York Post is a great article for anybody if they want to read it. And they was interviewing like the neighbors. It's like it's like all hipsters and tech people and they're like, yo, it's hard to even imagine those lyrics that he rapped about now like on his block like it was, it would be hard to imagine that, Like

You know, who don't get no love for being on that block?

Who's that?

Who?

Do you know who else was.

On that block?

I don't Saint James. Between Gates and Green chub Rock legend.

Most people that's his block, right across the street from Big got overshadowed.

It's a big shadows, a big shadow.

Exactly, another big man that could rap Rock.

I think that's the first time I heard NOAs when he was on like back in the Really Game, I think chub Rock was on the record. I was like, who's this guy talking about way automatic guns and nuns?

Rock? So all right, so you see the gentrification taking place.

You have the the moment in the Dice Game where it's like, and that's a good point that you bring up too, because it's like it's unfortunate, but nobody should have crime brought a part of it.

Nobody.

But like you see in neighborhoods like we'll commit crime against each other all day, where you never commit crime against anybody that doesn't look like us. Even Nipsey Hustle said that, like reprogrammed to actually go and train to hunt and do violence and disrespect people that look similar to you. But when you see somebody that looks opposite to you. You're not even gonna play around with that because you're scared really like of repercussions that come with that.

Yeah.

The consequences, Yeah, serious consequences. So you saw that happening in your brain. So you're like, all right, did you want to just double down? Like now I got to actually really double down on my investment strategy and bodies property before it too late.

It you know, I it'd be very easy for me to tell you right now that you know, I had this master plan and I saw that and this is how I was going to execute and this is the plan and this was the road map that.

Got nah Son.

You know, just happened.

It's happening. You're you know, like that's the beauty. Like when people come on these podcasts, right, everybody chrono you know, wants to chronological chronological I can't say the word chronologically chronologically define everything that they did, right, but nobody highlights all the mistakes and the dumb shit that they did.

But I was still trying to figure it out, still trying to.

What some of the mistakes that you made. Because you're right, people can learn. Just like they learned from information, they can also learn from mistakes. What's some of the biggest mistakes that you made?

A lot of the cribs that I sold too early, sold them too early, like one eighty four I ustill got the address eighty four Madison, all right, So one eighty four B Madison. I bought that crib for like four hundred thousand dollars when it was worth seven hundred thousand dollars.

And I sold it.

I sold it for nine hundred thousand dollars in a few months. And at that time I thought I was like the smartest dude in the world, you know, because I coppt that joint. And there's a story behind that joint too.

Is that the one with the Nate but you brought it because somebody else wanted it? Can you tell that story? I think that's good. That's a good strategy. I was listening to that. Can you tell that story?

All right? So I have gotten a phone call about about that one particular property right, that one particular property. But you know, and just like any other game, just like you know what other you know what I'm saying, what other podcasts are doing, and who the players are

Hundred thousand dollars.

So I bought that crib with no intention of doing anything with it except to extort the guy who owned.

The other two the other because he wanted the whole block, because he wanted to Plus, it just gives them power, you know, like to have monopoly.

You get three in a row, you know, like I'm still chasing three in a row, like I've got you know, I got a couple of joints where I got.

You know, two in a row before you get the hotel exactly.

So I basically use you know, I had no I had no desire for that building. It was not within the confine, you know, it's not It wasn't where I was working at the time. But I got it, didn't do any work to it, and held it and him and I just went back and forth for a few months until he gave me, you know, he gave me the nine hundred grand. And the thing is, it's not it might seem as if I turned four hundred and

Like, so when I heard you speaking about that, it was like this, do you have some reasons to buy?

Obviously cash flow is what you were doing equity, so.

That was your chess move. That was your chess move. Then you said there's some portfolio fits. One thing I found very interesting it was like, obviously two thousand and seven affected the real estate game like no other than our generation. But you kept all your properties by hook and by crook, Like how did that happen?

So first of all, like I literally I literally lost everything, right, So, like two thousand and six, I was like a hood billionaire, you know, like I was. I had a network of three million dollars. You know, three million dollars is like.

A billion dollars a billionaire a fact, yeah, very close to a billion, right.

So but like when everything, you know, I was over leveraged. I was spending, you know, I was in, I was in. I was in the clubs, you know, four thousand dollar nights like maybe two three times a month, you know, fifteen hundred dollar nights more than that?

What clubs were you frequency at this time?

So many from Club Cheetah to Club all.

Of that, you know, all of that. I don't know how, I ain't actually, but I guess all the Black Diamond parties back in the day and.

China Club, China Club.

A few times.

I was going to clubs when I was a little kid, like twelve years old. My brother was a promoter and I had a fake out and I always looked older than I was, So I remember these clubs like all of the all of the clubs when I was like twelve years old, but that might have been like speed.

Was the Yeah, I was there spending money, you know, like just just getting caught up. You know what I'm saying.

You were the guy we were watching with our cups.

And just like just like when I you know, later, I was watching Puff with my cups right right, So it was just like the same way that promotes, you know, made me want to go out and do more. Hopefully you know other people did that as well. But anyway, I lost everything by like two thousand and two thousand and eight, right, and I had a whole bunch of cribs and every last one of them was just like underwater because I had pulled too much cash out. You know, I had I had this big house in Jersey that

And.

Yeah, the dough dough was you.

Know before before we had Instagram models, we had the Kse Sleigh models in those magazines.

Yeah.

Yeah, So I had a couple of exactly.

So I had I had a couple of levels on the payroll, so literally lost you know what I'm.

Saying, literally.

So a couple exactly.

So So after that, I woke up one day and I was just like, yo, I went from positive three million to like negative a million when I did the math, you know, and I remember but just being in my crib waiting waiting to have them come, you know, Like I got.

All the foreclosure notices and stuff.

Like that, and that's when I basically got on ground, you know, Like I had like probably like forty or fifty thousand in cash left, and that's when I got on my grind. And I I really think that I worked for like for like the next two three years without a day off, you know, like I was doing everything. I had stopped gambling by then. I had opened this

So I did that for a while.

I ended up going to going to India getting a hair connected and I started a hair company weaves. Yeah. Yeah, like I had the number three. I had the number three hair Indian hair company in New York City for like a year or two.

Well known fact.

Select strands, selectans exactly. So I was doing that.

I was. I had a I had a card game going. You know, I had a card even though I wasn't gambling, but I knew, I knew the general gamblers. So I was just like, yo, I this card game going.

You know, so folks, yo, yo, what's up? Yeah, yeah, I about to run this game ya playing? Just bring your money exactly.

Okay, So you just had to do what you had to do is just get back with and you kept them all.

You kept but you were able to keep your properties by doing all these side hustles, all.

These sizes, twenty four hours a day. I was i Airbnb in my crib.

This is the early stages.

Yeah, that's when it was called home away and vrbo, you know all that other stuff. So I was doing that, you know, like letting people stay in my crib like five hundred dollars a night while I was sleeping on a friend's couch.

You know, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Did what I had to do.

And then you survived. Let me ask you this as far as the helock, let's bring it back. You spoke about the helock, and we spoked about helocks before a little bit. But you want to talk about helocks a little bit, like the benefits of it and maybe like some things that people may be aware of. There's a home equity line of credit, right, different from a refine.

Yeah.

No, So so basically you take a helock when you have some equity in the property, and it's it's either a secondary lian or it could be a primary line depending on how much on how much equity you have, and it's like it's basically like a credit card.

Or checking account on your CRIB.

So you're not paying interest when you're not paying interest when you don't owe them any money. But when you take the money out, you're paying interest on it. So it's like, so let's say you have a CRIB and it's worth a million, and.

You have half half a.

Million on your mortgage, right, and so now you could take up to eighty percent on the helock. So that's three hundred thousand dollars a home aquer line of credits. So you you have a lean on your property for three hundred thousand on that helock. But unless you're using it, unless you're using the whole thing.

You don't have to pay.

And that's the good thing as far for mindersating, correct me if I'm wrong, as far as like with the REFI, it's essentially like a second mortgage on your home exactly, and you have to pay the interest no matter what interest and principle.

Interest in principal, no matter what.

But you get the money where the home equity line of credit, you take the.

Money out as you need it, as you need it. It's just available to you exactly.

So are the interest rates high?

The interest rates are typically around what what what the regular regular thing is, what what you normally save on is the closing course, because there's typically exactly so with with the homemaker line of credit. You always gott to just do the math on all right, I'm gonna be

Cancel it when you couldn't get it. That's something that yeah, MG Matt had said that before. He said that before COVID. He was like, yo, yeah, He's like, you know, take it out, yeah, because it's like monopoly money, like if the value of your home goes down, and that's going to affect your refine and your your helocks. So it's like he said that, like co COVID, you never know, they can just it's not like it's guaranteed they can

That literally happened.

I went to the bank in January because I was going to refile, and I hit mad. I'm like, yo, run me some numbers on the refile and I'll run me some numbers for the helock. And I went back to the bank in March, helock wasn't available anymore.

Yeah, I was like, oh damn.

So so back in March, I had like a million in changing helocks and I pulled it all out because I was just scared, like I didn't want to wake up one day, because that happened to me back in two thousand and seven where I woke up one day and my heelock or my helocks were gone. So I took this cash out, but I just I didn't want to just sit with it in the bank, So I ended up putting it in the market at that time when the market was at this lowest in March.

In March, you put a million dollars in the market. Yeah, and what stock did you put it in?

Amazon? Tesla?

Apple?

Nah, Amazon Tesla?

This V G T G T talk about that A lot of this alum v F.

I A X which is a Vanguard, which is a vanguard, t ts Ian which is a Chinese, which is a Chinese one.

Why I double n that one? They make me no real money.

And I put it baba. Yeah, I didn't make no real money on that, like because I got that in about two hundred and it's like two fifty now.

But that test is a little different, yeah, hit a little different.

So you so you so all right?

This is just important for people to understand because it's like you always got a plan for worst case scenario, so when you saw them, it's like, all right, COVID is hitting this about to get crazy.

Don't panic.

Let me let me gather this much money as money as I possibly came out of my house before they shut this he locked in.

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Do you get a million dollars? You say?

Okay?

Stock market crashed literally crashed, and probably a good time to put money in the market might be abotto, you put it in at a low point.

Guy rockets. Over the next couple of months, what did that million turn into?

He said, my CPA, it might advise me not to I mean, well, how about this, how about this?

How about this? Not what it turned into?

How did you allocate the million equally throughout those assets?

No?

Oh, you just dumb, like, yeah, I'm putting one hundred thousand in Tesla.

Tesla, Tesla, mad At Tesla because I only put I only put like, I think, like fifty grand in Tesla. Okay, you know, like and I had put I put like half a million. I put like half a million in Amazon Amazon, right, and that that one.

Did well, that did great. But I'm just I'm running the numbers.

But if that half a million would have been in Tesla after it ran up to like fourteen hundred, then split.

I know, I know, I know, But what can you do?

Money?

Part of the game, part of the game that I've that I've learned is you know, you got to keep looking forward the next thing, and you know, like there's always opportunities and you'll never you'll never ever.

Get all of them.

It's impossible, exactly. Like you you know, there's a you got a handful, you know what I'm saying, and you, you know, to pick something up, you always have to, you know, let something go to pick something up. So you're hoping that what you're picking up is greater than what you're letting go.

And you leverage a lot of time, people say like which one is it better? In real estate? Stocks? But you leveraged both that you could do both.

You could you leverage your real estate to put money in stocks, and then you could take the money out of stocks and buy the more real estate. And it's like it's a combination. It's a one two punch. It's not like only do real estate, it's one of the only do stocks. And that's a perfect example. You leverage money in real estate, put it in the stock market, made a bunch of money in the stock market, and then you know, yeah.

So like things kind of cooled off, like Amazon is cooled off, like I've been I've been waiting.

I'm just like, yo, come on, come on, four thousands, come back to the game.

What happens hard exactly, But we're stuck at that thirty two, y'all, like we've been stuck at.

I mean three months.

This is the season though, this is the season for Amazon, so you know, sit, let's let's talk about s R s ROS.

Yeah, I was actually going the s ROS because you got an interesting story about that.

What is an s R First and foremast.

Single room occupancy in New York City where it's a Class B apartment. So it's not it's not like the Class A apartment. Like there's a lot of rules and regulations that the city, the city pretty much comes down and tells you what you can do, what you can't do. The HPD house, the Housing Preservation Department tells you all the things you can and can't do with your s RO.

So the Class A and what SRO is the difference? What are some of the differences.

Is it like it has to have a full bathroom or have bathroom some of the differences.

Well, an apartment, an apartment, you need a bedroom and bathroom in the kitchen. In a class a apartment, in a in an sro, you need you need a bedroom and you need access to a bathroom and access to a kitchen.

Okay, you know what I'm saying.

So you don't you.

Don't necessarily have to have a have your your bathroom and your kitchen in your unit.

So this feels like almost like college dormage exactly. Okay, So it's like we could have the we could have a quad with bedrooms and shared bathroom, share.

A single room occupancy. So and the thing about it, so now, over the last few over the last decade, you know, like when when the market has gone crazy and and and you know, the values of these brownstones and buildings and.

Stuff like that.

Skyrocketed, the city has put things in the place to protect, to protect the people, protect the tenants.

Because we're living in a blue state.

State, you know, out out in Texas, California, I mean Texas, Arizona and stuff like that. Florida, Arizona's blue now, but typically the red states, you don't pay your rent, gotta go right, But you know, New York is not. It's not that type of place, its not that type of party.

Harassed and sell don't care.

Sell it got their money, so they put that three year you know, that three year ban on me. Oh so I basically paid this, you know, I paid a million plus for a Brownstone and I can't do anything with it.

I couldn't do anything with it for three years.

So I'm just sitting on this thing, paying hard money on it, paying hard money on it until September of twenty twenty one.

That's when you could maybe do renovations.

To it, renovated, flip it, do whatever it is.

It going to be more lucrative because I'm thinking, let's I mean, I'm sure there's like a square footage requirement that needs that they need to have for the SRO, and so I'm thinking like maybe an apartment that you could get twelve hundred for.

Right I can't do anything like I can't bring more people in because if I bring people into rent it now, I'm risking in twenty two.

Yeah, but.

I don't like where the money's at in New York City right now is getting these stones and converting them into luxury you know, luxury town homes where where you know people could people spend big money on them. So I could turn around and sell it for three and a half four million dollars.

Yes, you're not leave looking for the rental income of more units, looking for the like yo, somebody's coming in to buy this for one point one exactly.

Okay, well, no, somebody's coming to buy somebody's coming to buy this for four.

Million, four million. I'm sorry, what was I talking about?

One point one?

No, No, one point one is what I paid for it. So now I'm sitting here and I'm paying, you know, like ten ten grand a month, ten grand a month on a property that I can't do nothing.

With, you know.

But it's a it's a you know, it's it's a decision I'm that I'm making. I'm saying, all right, I'm paying. I'm losing ten grand a month, but I'm losing ten grand a month, but I know when the time comes, I'll be able to sell this for four million.

So it's just another version of your chest move exactly right.

But as the taxes the tax laws, well yeah.

So so now i'm paying interest. So that's one hundred and twenty grand and interest that I'm paying every every year. So if I sell a property, if I if I sold the property, or or if if I if I sold if I sold my Amazon stock, so instead of paying capital gains on X, it'll be X minus one twenty thousand.

So because you're taking loss and you're depreciating the assets exactly because you're losing money on it.

I'm losing money on I'm losing money on this end. Well not even losing money. It's a business expense. So you know, you're you're taking your deduction from your business expense and so that brings that brings your taxable income down, which it's what keeps what keeps money in your pocket.

So in the real estate game, you wear many hats, yes, and that obviously has happened over time. Right, So your initial one was you're the landlord. Yes, So at some point you decide to become the developer, then you become the broker, and then you also become the contractor.

What was that process what led to you?

And at one part I was a mortgage broker like a man Matt.

So what was the thought process that inspires you to say, you know what, I can do this, I can do this.

Let me do this too, just just trying to keep it as much money in house as possible, you know, like once you get the team together, you get the team and everybody's working, you know, for the common goal. Uh, it doesn't make it doesn't make sense to to pay somebody to do something that you could do yourself. It's it's cheaper, you know. And and the more people you the more people you interact with and you connect with on different levels, the more opportunities that come come about.

You should buy this building and let me fix it.

You know. So it's just different, you know, like different ways to make money.

Every time you saw another position, it was like cut the middle man, cut the middle man, cut the middle man.

And it's more opportunities, more opportunities, more opportunities. And like each each hat that I wear, I have a whole network, and so I'm talking to people and I'm you know,

So at this point, are most of your deals what kind of financing? Are you cash or are you doing traditional financing?

Hard money? How are you financing your deals?

Whatever makes sense, you know, like if if it's say like I always do the math, right, So if it makes if it makes sense for me to use cash, I'll use cash. If there's enough, if there's enough meat on it where I can can use hard money, I'll.

Use hard money.

You know, if if if time is not a big deal, and I can go get traditional financing and it'll you know, like this is a house that's gonna praise and and there's a kitchen in the bath and all that other stuff, and and I.

Could go to a you know, to go.

To Chase or somebody like that. I'll do that. Those are those are my favorites, you know. But most of the time, when there's deals and opportunities, there's usually a reason why you're getting a deal and an opportunity. And nine ten times is that that it's it's a deal because traditional financing won't do it. So you're either stuck. You have a decision to make. You're either gonna use hard money guy, you're gonna use your cash, or or

So yeah, Rick Ross is famous for having three seeds right color clarity.

That's that's his thing.

But you have an interesting analogy for your four seas and real estate and while they're important, can you go over it? So you had credit, collateral, connects, and character why they're all important?

Credit? You know, like like if the banks, if the banks ain't messing with you, you're dead in the water. You know, like you need that money. You know, you need your credit. It's like one of your most valuable assets. You know you're able to leverage, right, m Collateral you need either cash or something you need.

You need to be able to.

Prove that you have a track record, you have you have skin in the game. You know, like I had lost I've lost money in business dealings where I was messing with people who didn't.

Have any skin in the game, so they just walk away.

So it's very important that that you have skin in the game. What's the credit cash connects? Like, it's not it's not it's not bs when they say your network is your network, you know, it's just like the more people you know, the more people, the more the more deals, the more opportunities, the more things that come your way. Right, That's like to me, that's the most important thing. Your connects.

I paid out.

I paid out like like it did, like everything went cool because I didn't want to burn that bridge, you know, like, oh yo, reinvested in this, You're gonna make excel, You're gonna make X out of this. You know, and I'd rather pay him that, knowing that I could go back to him one day then come back. Yo, it didn't work out.

Yo, you know what I'm saying, it's not gonna be worth Yeah, yeah, Rick.

I think that's Carol City cartel. If I'm not, I know.

But then he says, I mean when you're talking about diamonds.

Let me ask you this as far as the because you're a developer, landlord, you're a broker, contractor.

So how important is it.

For people to learn all aspects of real estate? Or do you think it is important for people to learn all aspects of real estate?

You know?

Back when I when I was doing here, right, I went to India. I went to India and I learned How.

Did you get to India?

Yo?

In my mind, I want in my mind, all I can think about is American gangs?

How Vietnam?

How did you go to India to get to get here? How did that happen? All?

Right?

So I told you things were really bad. So things are really bad. So what do you do when things are be bad? You know, you have a big ass party at your house.

That's an option.

So remember that was my next guest.

Remember I still had this big ass house and you know, out in Jersey.

Yeah, so as well, why not if you lose it, at least you have some good memory.

Exactly. So I have this pool party, like two hundred people at my crib, this, that, the other people in the pool, this, that, and the next day editions straight stunting. The next day I'm cleaning filters out and I'm pulling.

Out hair, hair all over, right.

And I'm just like, yo, who did this?

Right? So so I'm not I'm not looking at the pictures to figure out what what girl left?

What I had?

What girl, you know, shedding, shedding my hold? And then I realized it wasn't one girl.

It was a whole collection, every girl in it.

I was just like, Yo, that's where the money is at.

Shout out to all women who just spey, thank you.

Thank you, saved your life, saved my life. But so I ended up like doing a little bit research about this. And this was around the time Chris Rock had that good hair thing.

Yeah.

And then so I'm trying, like the internet wasn't popping popping like it is right now, like you could get anything like like that no matter. So I literally had to go to India to get me a connect, to get me a good connector, U was, I basically have to buy retail and and pretty much make a small margin.

So sight unseen, you just went to India and just like figure it out when you get there. Where'd you go to? And I hair capital of the world, the hair capital of the world. Yeah, you got to meet somebody there and they speak English, Yeah, pretty much, they speak English.

Okay, So I got the So I basically got the connect got a couple of connectors.

Like Frank Lucas I'm thinking going to be.

So I go out there and you know, I started buying it. I started buying from somebody and and that didn't work out, and bought from somebody else, you know, until you know, like you know, my first shipment was always great.

And then I sent you know what I'm saying.

I sent I had a first ship for like, you know, ten keys or something like that, right, and that's.

Great, all right?

And then so I was just like, all right, send me over fifty keys.

Right, that's right, fifty keys of bundles.

Fifty keys of bundles. They coming in four package.

When we titled this please fifty keys of bundles.

So that over you.

Yeah.

So so what ended up happening was like when I bought the fifty keys, it was just like it was like five keys was good and it was like forty five keys of garbage tongue.

It wasn't getting no, Yeah, they sold they sold you.

A bad product exactly. So we got screwed over in India a few times.

Yeah, personally, habitually yeah, habit app Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We started, we did, We did an app and this guy completely screwed us over, ran us for like twenty.

Thousand, thirty there was it, thirty thirty bands.

Then we hired another Indian to go fly from his part of India to the other part of India.

Yeah, he screwed us over and.

Then they went on holiday for three weeks.

A lot of money in India.

He was on he was on Zoom calls with him FaceTime.

What'sapp, Like what'sapp calls at like one o'clock in the morning because it's like, you know, one o'clock in the afternoon over there, and they acting like they don't really speak English.

Good, it was a whole.

Ordeal when they want to Yeah, yeah, it's tough.

We should have called you man, it's now, it's real, and it's like all of these stories bring back so many memories because it's like I always say, hustling isn't a hobby. If you're an entrepreneur, you got to get the job done by any means necessary. And it's like even what us like dealing with merchant Pakistan and like we interviewed Derek Grayson. His thing was in China and you gotta wire these people money and you're like hoping

And really it really can run off with them, Yo, what can you do nothing on the plane?

You know? One of the one of my my best flips ever was I had gotten a call. It was like maybe two thousand and two thousand and ten, like my man, my man in my man somewhere, ain't gonna say where caught me up. He was working at the dock someplace and he had a container container full of toilet paper. Right He's like, yo, I get I get you this container for like literally a container for for like for like twenty five hundred. It's like something in the system where the like like he's like, Yo, I've

That would have been perfect during COVID. Yeah, at the beginning of COVID exactly.

So I'm just like, yo, I did the math.

I was just like, Yo, that's that's like one.

Hundred thousand dollars worth of toilet paper. What paper there? Right? So I'm just like all right, So now I'm calling people, you know, I'm calling like people. So my man tells me he has a connected like where he supplies all the bodegas and and like, you know, I could this and that I ended up. I ended up like sending sending the thing to Panama, like and made like seventy five hundred.

Dollars on the deal, right, But.

I like my whole thing was like, so I'm sending you twenty five hundred dollars and I've never seen this toilet paper and you're telling me you're sending it to Panama and somebody's gonna send me ten thousand dollars back.

And he's like yeah, And I was just.

Like rolling the dice.

But it worked, right, But.

Love it, love it, you know, But but that's the way you lose money too.

That's a fact.

It worked.

Don't try this at home, but it will.

It worked out. But the truth of the truth of the battle is like the best like the best cons right, the best con games is when they put the upside in front of you and all you're looking at is the upside potential without the downside risk. Right, So what you know, what I'm saying made off what I'm saying all all them great scams is like, oh, I'm just looking at the upside, you know what I'm saying, Like if but bottom line is if it's too good to

Yeah, they had a lot of a lot of stuff go like ppe, like masks, Like you can buy these masks, and it's like it's always history, always repeat yourself, and there's always an opportunity for somebody to make money. But you gotta be careful because like you said, I mean those kind of things you hit, but you're going to strike out more times than nothing.

Wait for your pitch and and like right now, I'm big on taking risks, but it has to be a calculator risk, and it has to be a calculator risk, and it has to like I have to have a definite plan to control my downs side risk. You know, got gotta have those stop losses in place.

Stop loss that's you know, that's important in all aspects.

Stop having in place, you know, and like as as you progress, you know, the more you go, like you got to constantly adjust your.

Stop losses, you know what I'm saying.

The other day. The other day, I I'm involved in this business and I rolled up on the scene and it was like a lot of high risk behavior.

Going on and you're analyzing the location.

And then I was just like, yo, I'm making money, but I have to shut I got to remove myself because you know, one my reputation to insurance.

You know what I'm saying, you get killed, Yeah, that's yeah.

It's just like, yo, this is.

This is crazy dangerous, very dangerous behavior.

It was you know, there was nothing the fairy is going on, but it's just like like you get every uncomfortable Yeah, every step, every step you're take in life, you gotta you know, like like you ain't got I think Jay hasn't said as a line with like yo, I ain't gotta be in the projects all day or something like that.

All they talking about how being in the projects all day. Yeah, that sounds stupid to me.

So at some point, like as you elevate, you can't be doing the same things you were doing and you can't take the same risks.

I'm saying, no, it's very true, and rest in peace to one of our biggest inspirations. Nifty hustles great and it's an unfortunate situation. But sometimes you stay around too long. Jealousy, envy, just and just random things happen in certain neighborhoods where it's you have to elevate and like you can't stay in the same and ironment that you might have grew up in that you once felt comfortable. At some point some one, things that make you used to feel comfortable

Yeah, it's just like like keeping it real or or keep you know, like you One of one of the things that I always try to try to try to say to myself is I'm not going to be loyal and I'm not going to be faithful to my old self.

You know what I'm saying.

Yeah, it's just like, yo, just because I said it, Just because I said it, you know, five years ago, two years ago, you know, doesn't mean that it has to stand true, you know, and you know, not for nothing, never give my heart to something like whatever.

Yeah, and it's just like you and now he's married, he's married.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the evolution, but it's the saying it isn't that same lineage of the growth of him and just us listening to the music, it was like we watched them at that point, we watched him become a mature husband and father and the same line It's like, yo, I ain't worked that hard to be the same.

Yeah you can't. You can't be scared to contradict yourself.

What I'm saying.

So the betterment of yourself, right right right.

Like.

That's how some backwards.

That's also true, and you can do that the next day if I don't feel if I don't feel the same way I felt yesterday, I changed my mind. At any point in time, you could reserve the right to change your mind and completely become a different person. That's why I don't. I don't really get into politics too much because the whole things that you said twenty years ago, like you said this, I was, it was nineteen eighty four.

Now I wouldn't do that now. I can't help.

You can't hold me accountab before what I did when I was twenty eight.

Yeah, it's it's wild man, Like, if if.

You ain't growing, you staying the same, right, So.

Let me ask you this, speaking about growing, let's end it out on this. You have a nonprofit, the Brooklyn Bank. What is the Brooklyn Bank?

The Brooklyn Bank. The Brooklyn Bank is like my give back right. So here I am and keeping it real one hundred percent right. I make my money buying properties cheap and selling it to people high and unfortunately most of the people that I sell to they don't look like me. So I love my people. I care about my people. So what I what I did was I went and I actually bought the building, the Brooklyn Bank eight nine six decal bet Stye, real bedsty not you.

Know, real best.

So so basically, so basically I started to nonprofit where I have a building where I I do financial literacy programs. Like tomorrow, we we giving out toys to the kids Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, we literally gave out a thousand turkeys and a thousand things of bags of groceries.

And stuff like that.

So that's that's my personal gift back, you know, my my opportunity to kind of even it out. Like the Brooklyn Bank. What what it's really about is about financial literacy, financial empowerment, and economic empowerment. So I'm really big on teaching, you know, whether whether it's budgeting, whether it's saving, whether it's credit, whether it's real estate, whether it's it's stocks.

Just trying to share the information.

Because you know, like you guys do a really great, great job on this platform of making the information available to those to those who probably could not get it elsewhere you know, and you make you know, you bring, you bring, you bring the right people on where it's it's not foreign. And that's the problem. A lot of times people think think that these things are out of

So is it is it an event space or is it like almost like a community center where anymore.

Of a community center people can come in through it.

And we were doing events, we we kind of put that on pause, like like right now I'm focused one hundred percent on doing doing community things. And we're going into schools and you know, bringing in financial literacy stuff.

So you just partnered with a school.

Yeah, we partnered with a school the other day. I didn't research on you guys. I saw you guys.

We've been in the school for years.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm a teacher.

Okay, So that's dope. But that's really what I'm trying to do. You know, Like like there's a in regards to money, right, like whether whether you have ten million, twenty million, one hundred million, or a billion dollars, right, the price the price of a steak is a price of a steak, so everything else is excess, right. It's like, so that's kind of I'm you know, I'm blessed that I'm at a point in my life where like another check does not change my life, you know, not change

Now him shout out to him, Oh g free, Yeah, yeah him if he wants a bigger plane.

But it's just like I'm at a point in my life where I'm comfortable, you know, like like I don't want to I don't want to be the dude in a Ferrari if everybody can't have a Ferrari, you know, because then then you're looking crazy, you looking like what I'm saying, you looking like lunch, They're.

Gonna put you on the menu.

Yeah.

So you know, at everybody got Borghinis in Atlanta exactly. That's the best.

That's that's gonna be tough.

There's no COVID in Atlanta.

Top that also might be true.

That's fact effect.

So that's that's the Brooklyn Bank to me, you know, like it's a community. It's it's it's and it's funny because like when I talk to Brooklyn Banks, a lot of times people just think about the physical location, which is cool, you know, because I'm sometimes still in awe of it.

It's just like, yo, dude, you got you own a bank?

Yo?

It was was it a church? First, or was it a bank church?

It was a bank, yeah, like it was built. It was built as a bank. Like the whole thing is is like sixteen inch cement in concrete and bricks right with a vault woul a vault and everything. And then in the eighties they started using it as a church when when the bank went under shout out to economics. When the bank went under, they started using it as a church. And then I took you know, I got

So more employees Atlanta might argue that that might be shout out to Shout out to Blue Flint, shout out to Magic City, shout out to twelve.

Support black business support businesses.

I digress brolex, I.

See tell the look up because it's snowing and tousies digress.

Okay, there you have it, ladies and gentlemen.

It's been a pleasure man, and once again, thank you for teaching that class on Eyo University.

That was dope.

And tell them about that your experience. I know you you answered questions for like an hour and a half, Like how was that teaching it?

It was dope because like prior to like I kind of have it in my in my head how I go about analyzing the deal. So prior to that, I've never really written it down, written the formula down, and and and and wrote it down, and so I'm like looking at like, hey, this is this is real, you know, this is what I do. And it was It was very It was pleasing because like the sometimes sometimes I talk to.

People and it's just like they don't get it.

But it was good to be in in a a platform, you know, where your earners like this is what they do, and this is what they're trying to this is what they're trying to do when and they're not. The questions were intelligent questions and they you know, you know, you as a teacher, you know how it feels.

Like when every every question is a good question.

Exactly exactly, Now, yeah, I understand because like when when sometimes when a question this phrase, you can tell somebody's been critically thinking. And that's important, right because it's like, all right, I know that that's coming from a place of of wanting to know, not just I just wanted to say something, and so shout at the earners that asked all those We watched the presentation. It was pretty dark.

I didn't get a chance to watch the whole question answer, but they told me it lasted two hours, which is longer than usually. So I know that there was a bunch of questions and answers, So that's dope. They said, most everybody got their question answers, so that's dope.

Yeah, Like, you know, my goal, my goal, my personal goal is like like I said, I've made a lot of I've made a lot of mistakes. You know, like there's there's no reason why I'm not sitting, you know, sitting on nine figures right now, except that I made a lot of mistakes. And you know, my goal is to make sure that people don't necessarily make the same mistakes that I made. You're gonna make your own mistakes.

That's a fact so big.

How can people contact you social media handles? What's the information? Brooklyn Bank or any other initiative that you want to make the public aware of?

Two places you can get in touch with me. You can get in touch with me at the Brooklyn Bank. That's the Brooklyn Bank as it's spelled, and you could hit me on I g at mister Jude Bernard m R dot j U D E B E R N A r.

D Thank you Troy Housekeeping item.

Yeah, shout out to everybody on Pertreon dot com. Y'all know that's our proud to paid program. We referenced NIPPED and that's where we got the idea from. So again, rest in peace to NIP. Shout everybody in crenshall shout shout out to everybody that showed us love out there when we visited the West And obviously you know if Tier five members. You get access to E y L University where you can get some good knowledge from some solid professors man, and the exceptional exceptionals top of the line.

Man.

We are very excited to have it and seeing everybody wearing it is is a testament to hard work, man.

So salute to all y'all.

Yeah, and once again, shot at you all university. And that's people ask like, what's the difference between this and the podcast, and it's like our question and answers with somebody that you know has forty million dollars in real estate. It's not something that you get to do every day and to have a PowerPoint presentation and stuff like that. So these are different things that we bring to EU A university and we're very, very proud of that platform.

Peace.

Peace.

Peace.

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