Welcome to the Financial Freedom Mastermind podcast. Today we are joined by John uti, who actually, for for many of you out there who may not know, this was one of my former teammates at Temple. Now, he was way more successful than me. All right. I was just out there, you know, trying to survive. But this guy was out there crushing it, and John is a licensed realtor out in Houston, Texas. He's a seasoned Airbnb super.
And he's been that way for seven years with experience hosting guests from all over the world. He believes that balance is the key to success, both in business and in life, and is constantly striving to find the right balance within all elements of his personal algorithm. John is a former N F L D lineman that successfully transitioned into the entrepreneurial world.
And tonight we're gonna get the honor to be able to walk through his story and understand some of the success points, some of the different tips and strategies for making it on the business side, and also just a little bit about what he's getting into around the world. So, John, Thank you for joining us, man. Yes, sir. Thanks for having me it's been a little while. Good to catch up with you.
We've been I guess communicating vicariously through praise and other individuals that are mutual contact. So it's good to, actually directly my, face to face once again. So appreciate you for having me, man. I'm looking forward to it. Dude, absolutely. And, and before we even jump into your story, man, can you tell us where you are right now, where you just came from, ? Well, I'm in wa, I'm in the Washington DC area.
I'm in Pentagon City to be precise, literally as I look out the window, I can see the Pentagon right now. But I just landed about two and a half hours ago in dca, Ronald Reagan National Airport from Liberia, which is you. the diaspora of my family's heritage. I was out there for about three weeks, prior to 2020, the pandemic. I was making a custom of going out there once a year for at least about a month time, just, you know, getting a grasp of what's going on out there.
I have a, a hard work store out there that I'm a partially owner with, with a buddy of mine. So we, it is, you know, kinda like a mom and pop shop, a miniature version of Home Depot, you know, right now. Main industry out there is home building, so we just try to take advantage of what the market need was.
So just go out there and kind of get in tune with what's going on and actually, as if we dive into it during my stay right now, I actually just made a, a land purchase out there as well, so, Dope. Dope. We're definitely gonna dive into that because this is huge. I know that a lot of people during the pandemic, their eyes were awakened to kind of, you know, the, the motherland if you, if you will. Right?
And a lot of people started taking trips back, and, and when you really see it, it's like, man, there's opportunities everywhere. And if you just know some of the contacts that you can tap into and, and kind of who to connect with it really could turn into a major opportunity down the road. Right. And so, Before we jump into that though, I know like kind of where we left off right was we both played at Temple, right?
And you actually made it to the next level and were able to play in the N F L as a D lineman, and then you made the transition from N F L to business, and you did that successfully and have been crushing the past couple years. Can you talk to us about one, what was it like playing in the N F L and and what was the difference between like college, how, how much did it increase when you went to that N F NFL level ? That's a great question. Well, first of all, I was starting off at Temple.
Obviously. We played together at Temple. We were brief roommates. There were, when I actually first transferred to Temple initially for that first summer. That are quite some strategical battles on on Madden. . . We ain't gonna say you won though.
We ain't, we ain't gonna talk about, we're not gonna say won Willy for another day, but you know, we definitely of the upper ilk of Madden players, so, you know, that's definitely just at Temple obviously we had a lot of guys that transitioned to the NFL as well, especially that first year I got there my junior year and just seeing guys like tight here. You know, Adrian Robertson, resting peace to him. And just a lot of guys that we play with there.
So I always just, when you're in the vicinity of the guys that's making it to the next level, always just gives you that belief. Also, my older brother played in the NFL for seven years as well, so I always just had that self-belief that if he can do it, I can do it. And also attempt to seeing other guys get there definitely gave me that confidence that I can make it to the next level. Got there undrafted.
So obviously that's a little bit more of a uphill battle than, you know, being a first, second, or third round draft pick. So I was just able to, maneuver and adapt and, try to get it into where I can fit in and, you know, Perfect my craft. I'm not gonna lie. When I first got there initially, I was like, man, I, you know, it's not looking favorable for me. And as the weeks progressed through training camp, through spring practices and things of that nature, I just started to say, Hey, I, hey.
I don't think there's that much of a difference between me and the guys that are, that are here. You know, a lot of times there's back stories that play into your position of how you get there, but once you get there, you get that opportunity you need to run with it. And I was able, unfortunate, you know, Had some pretty good pre-season games and I was able to stick around. You know, my first year we went to Super Bowl, we did lose.
My second year was actually panning off for me to, you know, get some significant playing time. Unfortunately, I tore my Achilles in the sports world, as you know, that's one of the Achilles heel, no pun attendant when it comes to injuries. So stuck around for another year following that, did the rehab thing. It took a lot longer than our. That we initially anticipated and tried to come back and that explosion just wasn't there.
So after that happened took about a year of just trying to, you know, gather my thoughts in it and seeing where the next step was. Somehow I fell in the realm of the sales world, something that I feel I have an extra neck for. I feel I've had a pretty diverse upbringing around a lot of different environments. My family's from West Africa, similar to you.
And just from that cultural standpoint, you know, that household is much different from what you're experiencing in a neighborhood or at school. So I guess that kind of just like, you just kind of cultivate a natural night to adapt to different cultures of different people and different customs of how people engage with, with each other and interact. And that's kind of what sells, you know? That's the main element and aspect of sales being able to, you.
Find that mutual ground with individually, get them to, like, you, trust you show that you have a, that you're articulate, you're to say of that given whatever it is you're selling. So I was able to do pretty well with that. Whatever you can name, I've sold it and uh, drive fairly well in each, in each role, you know, has some cell manager roles as well, was able to build some capital up and then transition into the real estate.
My first and John, before we get into the real estate realm, cause this is huge, right? But I want to take it back just a little bit cuz that transitionary period that you talked about is one that a lot of people struggle with. I didn't make it to the heights that you did. And I even struggled with it Right. That first year when I was done playing. It's like, dude, you've been playing football and sports your whole life. My whole life. Exactly. That's my identity.
You know, Hey, what is these athlete, right? And then it's like, okay, that first year I'm looking at tv. I'm like, dude, I'm not out there. I I gotta change this. And so you mentioned that you took that year of time to kind of just dig deep and, and look within, and I know that's a huge theme throughout your whole story. What did you do during that year and, and, and how did you start to really make that transit? because a lot of people struggle with that. That's a complex and elongated answer.
Really what I really picked up, two things I really picked up that year that's not even really in relation to the real estate world. One is yoga. And just gimme that balance, that knowledge of self, that grounded state of mind. And it just have, it has endless benefits. And then also I picked up reading. . So when I told my Achilles, I was like, man, lemme pick. I want, I really wanna pick up a habit that's going to, you know, pay dividends, you know, that you can't even, that's incalculable.
And reading was it for me. The first book I read was, think of Ro Rich. Mm. I read Outliers and I read Alchemist, and then it just kept going, kept going, kept going to this. I'm always reading a book at every single given time in the year 2020, not to, for, for too far ahead. In 2020, I read 40 books. All, all in some sense of, you know, self-help business, real estate, all within that niche. So that is at a young age, we know why we're at Temple , you know.
The student assistants used to be behind us in regards of, you know, reading and staying on top of your academics. And you know, obviously football is at the top of your mind, but I wish I was an avid reader as I am right now back in those days.
So, man, and hindsight's 2020, but the fact that you've got it going now and, and some of the books you mentioned Think and Grow Rich the Alchemists, these are like mindset changing books, and if you really take some of the lessons from them, you can go far. Yep.
. And so with that, you mentioned that you made the transition to sales, which is a lot of people, you know, with that sports background and me included you've got that competitive nature and you've had to compete, you know, the whole time to kind of get to where you are in sales is, is just that. And you've had to communicate, you know, leadership skills, teamwork, things of that nature. And so it's a nice transition to.
. And so from there you said you did the sales, you did a little bit of sales, management, things of that nature. How did you start to come around to real estate? Was it one of the books that introduced you or, or how'd you get into real estate? To be honest with you, I have a aunt and I guess, funny enough, she was actually just on a flight with me just now randomly. I saw her on my flight coming here right now from Liberia. I didn't even know she was in
Liberia, . I was sitting here when I was going to the luggage area at jfk. I was like, what the hell? So, yeah. But she, she's in the tri-state area in New York New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and she's been in real estate, I wanna say, since the early nineties. And she's, I wanna say she has at least 30 doors. So just seeing her the lifestyle of the forest, her to live, I've never seen her.
She's always moving at her own pace and everything she doesn't like, and that's because, you know, her real estate portfolio covers her expenses and. and I just see, you know, like I said, the lifestyle force her to live. And I was just, was always intrigued by it. I always just caught my eye at a young age and I was like, man, that's a goal. You know, that's something I wanna pursue.
Even beyond, even if football worked for me in the grandness aspirations that I had with it, which would've been, you know, playing the NFL for 10 years and X, Y, z, I still would've pursued real estate at some point. So when those was cuts short, and I obviously you gotta, you gotta pay to play. So I had to build up some capital and I was fortunate enough, you know, to have a natural neck in the cells realm thing. And that was it. I was just intrigued by it.
And I, one thing that also intrigues me in, in real estate is just how wide the spectrum is. You know, for whatever your natural proclivities and characteristic or attributes that suits you. There's a role and a hat that you can wear in the real estate realm, whether that's a consultant, you know, an agent fix and flip an investor, a property manager, you know, it's, there's gonna be a role that fits your strengths in real estate in somehow some way.
Absolutely, and, and to your point, like real estate is such a great industry. Everybody interacts with it in some way. You have to lay your head down somewhere to sleep at night, whether you're renting a place, whether you're purchasing a place. And so if you can find a skill that you kind of jive with that works within your character and use that within this realm. You could be super successful.
And one of the things that, that really intrigued me is the fact that you've been an Airbnb super host for seven years, right? I don't even know, I think seven years ago, that might have been the first time I even tried an Airbnb, right? I didn't, I, I didn't know like, hey, listing anything like that, how'd you get into that space? So that was also just a, I guess, serendipitous unfolding. So I was living in Houston at the time. I wanna say it was like 20.
It was right before the Super Bowl came to Houston, so it was like 20 16, 20 17 or something like that. And I left getting ready to move back to Denver. Cause that's where I first got my real estate license was in Denver. Obviously I played there. Once I got injured, I moved back to Houston and I was like, man, I just like Denver. You know, it's kind of relaxing. It's not as.
Bubbly as Houston is from a, you know, entertainment standpoint, but just from a peace of mind and focus and just the clarity and tranquility standpoint is the place to be. So I was like, man, I wanna go back to Denver. And it just so happened I had a lease for apartment in Houston and I thought I, I don't know where I got confused at, but somehow I didn't put in my 60 day notice in time. And when the lease was up, I was like, okay, I'm moving to Denver.
And they're like, oh no, you didn't put your 60 day notice. You have to pay for the next two months. And at the, at the time my girlfriend was living in Denver, so I was like shoot, what am I gonna do for the last two months or the least? And then that's just when I was starting to hear the re of Airbnb. So like, oh, okay, well I guess I'm gonna try to put on Airbnb and see if somehow they can least pay for half of the rent. And you know, I can muster up the of the other half to pay for it.
And fortunate enough, this was right when the Super Bowl was coming to Houston, like literal. I put it on there. The day I put it on there, I got like bookings requests back to back to back, to back to back. I like, whoa. And it's been rolling ever since. And for the audience listening, bear with me. I'm pretty jet lag. I'm trying to mush . I'm, that's why. And yeah, we appreciate you, man. 25 hours. Constant flights to, to even be sitting in front of us today.
I, I don't, I don't know how you're up right now, . I'm just pushing through it. As soon as we get off Hey, come on now. No, no. But, but to that point, so that was the start. That was the origin story of it. But this was still the early days of Airbnb, right? Like it was kind of the wild, wild west. Now it's fully established. It's like a hotel chain. Marriotts are trying to copy. Yeah, but what, what, how did you grow from there?
Did you keep doing the arbitrage model or did you buy some places? What, what, what was the next step? I just, I stuck with arbitrage. I stuck with arbitrage from, what was that, 20 16, 20 17, all the way until fall. The latter part of 2019 was when I first got my first property that I put full on every Airbnb that I owned from, for that, about two and a half, three year span. It was all through arbitrage.
Speaking with landlords, you know, having to pay a little bit higher on the lease, having put a little bit more on a security deposit. Just showing them my profiles, showing 'em my reviews, you know, giving them that peace of mind that, hey, you know, that this is a business here. I'm not some cavalier or maverick guy to just, you know, I'm trying to do something underneath your property. I'm gonna take care of it. I'm gonna be responsible.
I'm being very scrupulous on, you know, who I'm alone and coming to these properties, I'm reading the reviews. I have a standard of who I accept. They have at at least of 4.6, 4.7 stars, at least four reviews. I'm trying my best to accept guests that are from out of town, not locals. Cause obviously locals have a higher.
Chance of having, you know, parties or get togethers cuz they're from the area as opposed to either town who are likely there for a business weekend or for a family gathering or something like that. So, . And John, I love this and I, I'm gonna ask even a little bit more. You gave kind of like the, the synopsis of how you would talk to owners, but some of the members of the Financial Freedom Mastermind group are actually actively trying to do this. And I'm not, I haven't done the arbitrage model.
I know a couple people that have. I'm happy to be able to hear your story about how, but this strategy that you're using is one that a lot of people want to implement just to start getting some cash flow going and they're nervous about like, Hey, how do you even approach an owner? Or Where do you even find these owners? Like, can you start there? Like, where'd you find the owners that you wanted to approach to talk about doing this rental arbitrage?
Well fortunate for me, I'm, I'm a licensed real estate owner. I mean, I'm, I'm a licensed real estate agent, so I was just looking at MLS and see, you know, properties that, you know, had long days on the market from a rental standpoint. So, obviously the longer they've been sitting, you know, the more flexible that owner is likely to be. So I would just look for something that's been on there for about 60 days and then also crunch, some numbers.
From, other properties in the area, what they're running for, and if it's below what it should be running for. If I can entice the owner with adding you know, two 300 from what the market rent should be and if it still fits my projections to where I can still make money and still pay my cleaners and everything like that, and I just shoot them an email, Hey, I see your property here has been seen for about 60 days. Lemme tell you about what I. , I'm a super host on Airbnb.
Only about 12 to 14% of hosts on Airbnb become a super host. So that should kinda give you some credentials on, you know, my capabilities as a host. You know, I've been hosting for X amount of times, I haven't had any issues in, in relation to this or that. I'm willing to put actual security deposits and give you that peace of mind in, in an unforeseen incident where this was to happen. You know, this will cover that incident plus, plus more.
You know, just kind of, it's there's no, I guess, Cut and dry pitch to them, you know, and just get a feel for that owner, the area, the market, and just try to, you know, butter 'em up as, as far as making 'em comfortable for wanting to lease their property to you. And a lot of times you'd be surprised there it is a number of games and just like in sales, you know, each nose and you're getting closer to that.
Yes. So I don't, I, I definitely want to project as if oh, every single homeowner I pitch to is a yes. It's coming. I would say it's probably close to the 20, 30%. But when you're in Sales for so long, you know that no. Just bounces through here and you're just looking for that. Yes. So, absolutely, and I love that. I love it because I, I've had one or two people reach out for some of the properties. I even have Louisville to do this. But they did not approach it in the way that you did.
It was more, Hey, I'm new to this. I'm looking to get in. I'm like, guys, the new to this automatically. They wrote it out. I need you to have, I need you to come like have some experience with this before I can trust you with it. Man, I don't wanna, I don't wanna see my, my, my house on the news, but I like how you Exactly. I like how you came in and you gave kind of the credentials, Hey, I've done this before, and you tested it with one of your units to make sure it works.
And then you came and, and kind of leveraged that to get bigger. That's pretty. now, John, switching gears a little bit. So the other piece that you mentioned is that you are a realtor. And so I know that you have, and I've been looking at the site, a homeware exchange where you're able to help people buy and sell their homes, but you're also able to help rehab and things of that nature.
Yeah. Do you mind kind of describing that business model and how you're bringing value to those clients out in Houston? Okay. So pretty much home exchanges is like a. for Hitter Monster. Pretty much I just want to be your one stop shop in regards to if you're a real estate investor, you're looking to get into real estate investing. So obviously I have my license in Colorado, Texas pc, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and going to keep expanding.
I'm actually looking into getting into Florida, maybe Atlanta. Just being able to hold your hand for whichever. If you're just looking to just buy or sell your home, I can guide you in that manner. If you're looking to get into risk estate investing, I have a wholesale background as well. We can probably dive into that a little bit as well, please, as to what wholesale is. I work for a firm called New Western Acquisitions.
They're like the largest wholesale firm nationwide, or have 50 locations in it nationwide. They've been around us 2000 and. , they pretty much run the largest real estate investment database nationwide, so just working for them. It's like I went to wholesale and university, but getting paid to do so, so I can guide you in in that sense as far as finding deals that has a lot of meat left on the bone for these investors. And then obviously I'm, I fix and flip myself.
So. as far as renovations, I can guide you in that aspect as well. So I have contractors in the Houston market and the DC market as well. So what does, what is your port? You mentioned that you fix and flip, you're able to guide people, you do some whole selling, which kind of goes hand in hand with the fix and flip, right? Especially the last two years. Yeah. So what does your portfolio personally kind of look like now? Like you mentioned you got that b and b in 2019.
Yeah. You mentioned that you got a couple flips going. What does that look like on a, on a month to month or year to year? Which is overall, so I, I own three properties all in the Houston market. I don't stay in any of them. I'm, I live in a, in a two bedroom apartment. When I first bought my first house, I live in there for like six months, and I was like, man, I don't, I just feel tied down.
You know, I, I move a lot and, you know, I don't have a family yet, so it's like there's no need for me to be in, in this big house, just for the, you know, just it's kind of like a morale or just like, , I don't know, cliche thing to do. Oh, I'm, you know, I'm an adult now, so lemme go ahead and get a house . And once I got the house, I'm like, man, okay, I don't need this. So this is just an expense . Exactly. It's an expense. Exactly.
It's, it's, it's a liability, but whereas when you put somebody in there, it becomes that asset. So, and I'm all about having access. So pretty much put somebody in there, saw the benefits of it, the cashflow that came from. Was decent. Hey, I like this. I wanna keep doing it. So over the years, I, right now I'm at three. I'm actually getting ready to purchase another house this year. And shoot, I, I just follow and just study a lot of real estate investers.
Like if you, on my YouTube channel, it's all real estate. Real estate. Real estate. If you go on my social media pages, if you going down my feed, it's gonna be nothing but real estate investors, flippers, you know, financial literacy guys and stuff of that nature. A lot of them always talk about, you know, freshman, sophomore, junior, senior real estate investing, I guess ilks. And you know, the freshman is like wholesaling. Sophomore is like fixing the flipping.
Junior is buy and hold and then, you know, senior is like commercial, like development. So right now I've been on a sophomore for about a two year span. I'm finally, you know, this year getting ready to get into that mode of buying. and doing the Burr strategy, which I'm sure you're familiar with. You know, you buy, rehab refinance and repeat. So it is kind of like a, it sound in a synopsis. It allows you to just what one wave of capital continue to add the portfolio.
Sounds simple, but it's not easy. But yeah, I love it, man. Right. That's where I'm at right now. I love it, man. Literally, I did it. I did it semi backwards, right? I did, I and not even backwards. I, I kind of jumped right in the middle because I was in the medical sales realm and you know, I was up in Boston for a couple years selling medical devices and it was going well, thankfully. And so I just poured a lot of that capital into just buy and hold, buy and hold, buy and hold.
Cause I literally didn't have the bandwidth. But now in recent years, like the last two. I've started to invest in more fix and flips, not as the main person, but as, you know, one of the money bringers and, and kind of bringing other people into it. Yeah. And it's been eyeopening the type of returns that you can get pretty quickly. Yeah. Now the market shifted a little bit. Yeah. To where what you just mentioned about the burr strategy could be solid, right?
Yeah. Because the values, the appraisals are still there, but it's just what are people willing to pay, right? Yeah. And I can't speak for the Houston market, but around the country, I, I talked to a couple guys out in Phoenix. You know, recently and they're like, Hey man, my finish is on finance. Hit yeah, hit. Yeah. But to that point, what have you seen over the last year, right, with the interest rates rising, things of that nature in your Houston market?
I know it's one of many, but, but you living there, what have you seen there and what does it look like today? Has it slowed down a little bit? Has it stabilized what he should? It's, there's still, I believe it was like a 3%, 3% growth over the last two years. , which obviously is down from the astronomical growth that we were seeing over the last prior three, four years, which was abnormal and just you know, not realistic to be obtained for a long period of time.
So it's more so like a correction. But they're still, it's still growing. You know, it's still up 3%, which, From the nineties, early two thousands, 2010s was ideal figures. So just cuz we kind of got spoiled in the market the last 5%. Cause I bought my first house in 2019 and within like its first two years it gained like $75,000 in equity. Which obviously it's not, you know, that's not normal.
So if you, you know, we were getting scored from a real estate market, you know, you can just, anybody that's just getting real estate and was just getting rich or just getting, making money effortlessly just because of the times. So I, what I've seen more so is just, it become, it's becoming more scrutinized and becoming more of a specialty. You have to be more scrupulous with your numbers, your figures, like if you're flipping, you have to do.
. You can't just throw a lipstick on the pig anymore. You know, you have to, you know, do high, not highend finishes, but precise finishers or, just something that makes, it, makes it pop. , that's what I'm seeing anymore. Same agreed. Like the lipstick on the pig is, is sitting on the market now. Cause people are getting in there and saying, Hey, there's other options. Whereas two years ago, year and a half ago, it was like, Hey, please just let me get in. Right? So it's good.
It's balancing a little bit. Now it's like, hey, you actually have to do, do the work. Right. Which is good. Exactly, exactly. And might need to knock down the wall. Create an open space concept. You know, just like be creative and be innovative with, with those houses that you, that you're getting. . Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And soon here in a couple minutes, I wanna open it up to the audience for any questions.
So please feel free to throw that in the chat if you have questions or do a chat live and we'll bring you on. But before we move into that, you mentioned something at the top that we have to come back to. You were in Liberia, this is where your family's from, right? And you've been actively actually invest. back in West Africa. This is something that I, I know I've talked to praise about.
He's, he's super passionate about doing something potentially in Nigeria at some point, but how did you really come about getting into these opportunities and, and what made you purchase this land? I, I'm genuinely interested in kind of what the dynamics look like and how you were able to pull this off because it's, it's huge. Yeah. Well, I'm fortunate to have, you know, family members that still live in Liberia, you know, like close nuclear family members that still live in Liberia.
And also, you know, this is my entrepreneur minded. So, you know, it's I'm just taking advantage of those connections and relationships that I have over there. You know, I actually live in Liberia from what, fifth grade, sixth grade, and seventh grade. I was born in the us, like raised in the US my whole life. I was born in Philadelphia. But like my parents just want to, me and my middle brother go back over there just like, I don't know, experience the culture or whatever.
And I remember when they told us, when I was like in fifth grade, they're like, oh, you up the Liberia for the summer . They kinda lied to us and I'm still kinda mad to this day. They're like, oh, you just Liberia for the summer. , they were all cool, whatever. And then we on a pack of summer bag and we never came back for like three years. that's the way to do it. . Yeah. Like that. That's messed up.
But I was mad at the time, but looking back in hindsight is like one of the best experiences that I've ever had. Like, I just came back today from Liberia, like to the, like those three years I live over there. I'm still friends with guys from that time span that just fortuitously happened to be like, you know, pretty. Substantial business individual.
Like one of my closest friends when I was over there in like sixth and seventh grade right now is like one of the top tier native oil and gas distributors in the whole entire country right now. So, you know, like I said, I just was fortunate to live over there those three years and have relationships with kids that I went to school with or like people that I knew are like, you know, top tier business individuals over there right now.
So just taking advantage of those relationships and the way they can guide me and steer me. To feel comfortable to do business over there cuz a lot of people, you know, you going over there, it's like a foreign land, you know, it's like a whole different world, literally. So just being able to have that, my dad lives over there when my dad lives in Houston, in Liberia. He goes back and forth and he's in business as well over there.
So just being able to have those relationships with people to guide me and pick their brains and, you know, get their sense of how formidable you think it's opportunity, is it, what's your, you know, hunch on this opportunity. Does it make sense? You know, can you reach out to this person that you may know and see, let them do their due diligence? So definitely my relationship's definitely helped me. I don't wanna make it seem as if I'm just going out there blindly and just making it happen.
But, you know, obviously I still have some aptitude of my own that makes a coming to fruition. But definitely I have connection out there also. Absolutely. And that's, it's, it's using kind of the keys and the things that you have around you to kind of move into opportunities. And I have no doubt that if you hadn't done what you've done, even us based with some of the investing opportunities that you've taken advantage of, yeah, it'd be hard to feel comfortable going all the way out of country.
Right? Course you gotta start, so start where you are, start taking steps toward that financial freedom in your future, and then it starts to open up other opportunities that you may not have thought were even there. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. And so before we open it up to questions from the audience, I had one last thing for you, and it's just a question that we ask every guest.
It is, what are some of the goals that you have for this year and how can our audience help you achieve some of those goals? Hmm. What I have for this year what I, as I just mentioned, I'm, I'm shifting my strategy towards the buy and hold side of things. So I would really. to do the brrr strategy with three properties this year. So I wanna buy my buy the first of this year, within the next 35 ish to 40 days. Buy it, just do a very cosmetic re renovation on it.
Get a renter in there refinance it, get that capital back, buy another one and just keep that bar rolling. You know, I'm in a position to where. That refinance money I could put all towards that next house and that next house and that next house and not have to, you know, try to factor in, you know, pay myself out of anything from it.
So obviously my realtor hat is going to, performing in with, within that realtor hat is going to allow me to utilize all my investor side of funds and putting 'em back into the business, putting it back into the business, putting it back into the business. Obviously I have to you. Bring some deals to the closing tables to allow to afford that to happen.
So just performing from a realtor standpoint and allow all my investment side of things to just put 'em back a hundred percent into the investor side of things, not taking a dollar out of it. Outside of that, grow my client base from a consultant and renovation standpoint.
While I was over, there's, I'm in DC right now and the Liberia, the Liberia Embassy is in, obviously in Washington DC and I'm working right now trying to work my magic and putting in and out there in the space that I'm going to renovate the Liberia Embassy. Yeah. That'll be dope. That'll be dope. And I look forward to what happening. Yes, sir. . No, this is cool. This is cool. John, again, we appreciate you for joining Men.
Now we're gonna open it up to the audience for questions, and I think we have Kareem calling in. How's everybody doing? Kareem. How you doing, man? What's up Kareem? How you doing? Doing Nate, how you doing, John? Yes, sir. Thank you so much. Yeah, absolutely. Happy to, to start us off with with questions. I I wanted to know more about DS D S L R loans. Are they a good option to scale from, from the first. To second property.
I was asking specifically about the D S L R loans and if if they're a, a viable option to, to scale from, from the first property to the second one. Okay. I'm not too familiar with DSLR loans, to be honest with you. You. , I got you on that piece. So, so I think you mean like D S C R, right? D S C R, like debt service ratio loans? I think So this is the type of loan I may have. Yeah. I'm sorry if I messed it up. It's it's a type of loan where they, they value the, the rental.
Revenue that's created by the, by the property basically. You don't, they don't check any of your personal financials, you know, situation. Yeah. Okay. It's a solid way to to scale up, especially when you start to hit that, that limit of how many conventional loans you can get. I can tell you that last year I hit that limit , I hit that limit because I had two short-term rentals that were still less than two years.
And so the mortgage was still weighing on my conventional, and they're like, dude, you got like six grand worth of mortgages with no quote unquote income. Cause you have to have two years of the Airbnb before they'll count. And so long story short, the art house, which I think you've seen, I bought that with the D S C R loan and at the time you were able to put down 15%, which was awesome.
Now I think they're up to like 20%, but it's a great way to keep buying real estate without all the hassle of having to, you know, give over a drop of your blood, you're firstborn, and then also all the documents that they. Thank you. You first born , . It's, it gets, you know, it gets crazy, man. Kareem, did that help? Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. And if there's like, any creative ways to, to scale. So, as you know, Nino, I'm, I'm still in like property number one.
Doing short term rentals John. And starting to, to go really well, starting to go on like cruise control a little bit knock on wood. So I'm just, I'm starting to think it's been six months already, almost, and I'm starting to think, what, what should my goals be in the next six months towards scaling? What's your equity situation for that property? I'm sorry, can you, can you elaborate on that a little, like your equity situation?
So I would say, like, for me, something I've utilized is a HeLOCK, which is a home equity line of credit. Yeah. So I was fortunate to buy, like I said, buy a house in 2019. Yeah. At a certain point. And within that next two years, the value went up so much that what I owed on it and what it's now worth within the two year. That gap in between us. So let's say for Easy map, I bought it for 300,000 and the value has gone up 70,000 within that two years.
So that 70,000, that's positive, you can get a loan on that $70,000 from the bank up to 80% of that, which is a home equity line of credit. So now you have 50,000, $55,000 that you can use to play to go buy a property with no money out of your own pocket, but you're just using that equity with that's in the home. to purchase a property.
So now if you're doing the bird strategy, so you buy the house, you renovate it, once you refinance and pull that money back out, you pay that HeLOCK back, that whole equity line of credit, and now you can go do it again and again and again and again, which is what I'm doing in my current situation right now. So I'll definitely suggest looking at just uh, looking up, he locks and seeing what your equity is in that property. Right. . Got it.
Yeah. It's only house that you bought if you use the FHA loan or not. Obviously FHA loans, you know, is only 3.5% down. You know, that gives you extra by power as well. And something I wish I would've did, cause one of my properties I use used the FHA loan. Obviously with it don't having to be 3.5% down, you want to utilize that for more, for a bigger buy. More so a lot of guys suggest using, utilizing that for like a multi-family purchase, which is something I wish I would've.
. And to that point, kind of piggybacking off of that he just reminded me, actually I sold the house that I had a FHA on, so I got my FHA back. I could use that. Sure. I think I will this year. at some point. But, but to that point, Hey, come on now. That's, that's how I got started. But that heloc, the HELOC piece is huge. I think we've talked about it before Kareem, but my personal house, I took about a hundred K HELOC on it, and that's what I used to invest in different flip deals. Right?
Okay. So I invested in short term projects that other people are working on right to, to get that return back. And then I use the cash to invest in more real estate. But it could be an option. It just depends on where the equity status is at to John's. and with the interest rates that were rising and things of that nature, we just gotta take a look, right? We gotta see like, hey, what have people bought other houses around the neighborhood for, and has it been increasing constantly?
But does that answer your question or have you been saving up funds and things of that nature for the next house? I'm, I'm spread super thin now after, after this house and my other business. So I, I, I didn't get a chance to like, put anything aside from those businesses. . And I was just wondering if the HELOC sounds like it's a really good opportunity for short, shorter engagements than like an Airbnb or like a, a long-term hold.
Cuz otherwise you'll just be in increasing your monthly expenses to pay for that eloc as well, right? Yeah. Agreed. Agreed. So, and I think we got a question here, and John, I'm gonna kick that to you in a second. But to that point, for the HELOCs, the main benefit is there's always that gap. Like when you buy a house, that's a personal house, you have to put down 5% or three and a half, right? If you buy an investment property, they make you put down 20%.
What a HELOC allows you to do is access the rest of that equity based on whatever it appraises for, right? And they give you that money as a line of credit. But to your point, it's, it's basically like having a credit card. It's a credit card with a lot less interest. Most credit cards are like 20, 25%, but the HELOC changes with the, the prime rate.
And so a firm example is, . When I got my HELOC in December of 2021, it was at 5% and it was locked in for six months, and then it adjusted with the prime rate. Mm-hmm. , when I looked at my HELOC the other day, I think it was like 9% or 10% like it, it's crazy because it's, it's gone up because interest rates have gone up. And so now it's like, all right, do I wanna pay 10% of this? So I personally only use it for six month or less projects where I know it's gonna be a quick.
And say, I'm gonna get a 15% return on something. If I'm paying 10% interest or 8% interest, I'll just keep the delta. Yep. And John, I know you've used the HELOC before. One question your way from the chat, do you need to leave 20% for the HELOC on that property? Yes. Well it's not definitive, but for most HELOCs that I've been familiar with, yes, that's the case. But obviously it's, it's all based off your lenders curriculum. But from everything that I'm privy of, yes you do.
And, and have you been getting HELOCs on, on your investment proper? No, on my primary residence. Primary. Okay. Yeah, my primary residence. Yeah. Nice, nice. But it, but there, there are HELOCs for investment properties. That's, which is something I'm looking into right now, actually from my other two houses that I have. That's something I haven't done yet, but I definitely like, you have to find like specialty lenders. I have some notes on my phone if I were to go through it.
Cause I went to like this mastermind and some of the guys in there were like, show me like different lenders that do that for investment properties. John, please, you gotta send me those contacts, man. Cuz I have a couple that I want to tap into that have had since, you know, like 20 17, 20 18 that have gone up significant. I just literally, I just haven't sat down and actually started calling people and saying, Hey, can you do it ? But if you have somebody, that would be awesome. For sure.
For sure. I'll look through there. My question to you were those other two properties, are there any I don't know, any other meetings you've tried to look in, look into outside of the helo to kind just utilize the accurate that you haven't to him, 'em, with the other properties that I have. Yeah. I've, I've had people call and reach out about refinancing and things of that nature. Okay. But I was like, ah, I'm not looking to, to pull the money really out of there.
And I think it was, it was really what it was, is I was working a full-time W2 while taking on the realtor piece while everything else. And this is definitely an excuse. I tell people not to make a thesis, but I was, I was like, you know what, man? I don't feel like filling out all that paperwork for a refinance. I'm like, this is gonna take forever.
Yeah. And so and so I didn't do it at that time and now I'm looking back like, dang, I could have refinanced and taken something from a four to a three. It was just timing. Timing was everything back then. Yep. , what is the difference between doing a HELOC on an investment property versus a personal property, and why do you need a specialty lender? Yeah, so for your personal property, it's a much simpler process, and that's the standard route and realm of doing HELOCs.
Home equity loan credit, you know, is simply used for your primary home. There are, there are lenders that utilize it for, in investment proper. But since you're, since it's not your primary residence, they're a little bit more scrupulous on, on the process of you, of you getting approved for it. True. Agreed. And, and it has a little bit to, it's almost like the same reason why, and we're gonna go to Alpha in two seconds, but it's almost like the same reason why.
You can put 5% down to buy your primary residence versus having to put 15, 20% down to buy investment property. An investment property. From a bank standpoint, your primary residence, if you stop paying, they're gonna kick you out in the street and that's your family. Like if you had an investment property over here and a primary residence and you came on hard times, you'd stop paying the investment before you stop paying your primary residence, right? That's, that's where your family stays.
So that's why they were like, Hey, we can take a little bit. . So with the HELOC, that's putting a little bit more onto that same property, and so it's easier to do it with your primary. Cuz again, that same logic plays like, Hey, this is your personal residence, you're gonna take care of it, you're gonna pay this as opposed to an investment property. You could let that go to the wayside and, and there's a little more risk there. Yep. A question for you, John, about the wholesale career.
Can you talk a bit more about your wholesale career? How did you get started with New Western acquisitions and do you need a license to work with them or for them? Yeah, so when I first got my license in Houston, I started off with New Western as a wholesaler. It's something wholesale just in general is a great way, I would say is one of, one of, one of the fastest and efficient ways to build capital.
For your investor pursuits, unless you have a high paying sales job or a high paying, you know, job on the side, but just wait. If you're new into real estate, the fastest way to gain capital for your aspiration as an investor is wholesale. You know, sometimes my first deal I did believe the few was like $25,000 and the whole entire process took like three weeks. You know, there's not too many jobs that you're gonna make $25,000 in three weeks.
As especially starting off, and that was like within like my first five weeks of even trying it. I just got serendipity. Lucky, but then again, not lucky. Obviously there is some skill that goes into it, but What, what was o other part of the question? Do you have to have your license though? You don't have to have your license to be a wholesaler at all.
Now, new Western, they are the preeminent wholesale firm nationwide, so they do require author agents to have their real estate license just cuz it's a further pitch and a further credential their. Maneuvers in their day-to-day operations to tell all these agents and these home sellers, these distressed homeowners, that all of our, all of our wholesales are licensed. So they have a standard operation.
Cause as of recent, there is I guess a stigma when it comes to wholesalers, you know, because you, they see it as if you don't have any skin in the game. Well, I'll just give a quick breakdown, overview on what wholesale is. So wholesale is, you see a property that's off market. and you get on a contract, you, you're looking for distressed sellers. You know, somebody that's going through a divorce somebody who needs to move out the country in a fast situation.
There's a fire people that are under stress and obviously in sales, you know, when somebody's stressed, you're gonna get more of a bargain of a deal than somebody that's not in a rush or doesn't have that extra push to sell that property. So you find distress, distressed homeowners, you get their property under contract at a highly discounted. and once you have something under contract, it all contracts are assignable unless it's specifically written in there that it can't be assigned.
So if I find Susan that her husband just died and she needs to cash her kids to go to college, and I offer her $200,000 on her house, but it's really worth 265,000, but she doesn't wanna do any fixing up at that home to get her to that point because it's gonna take time if she needs to cash. So I offer her 200. And I don't have the intentions or the means to actually buy it for 200,000, but I have the contract and the rights to buy it.
At 200,000, I'll find an investor who that fits their criteria of what they're looking for for an investment property and assign it to them for $215,000. So now I just made $15,000 as an assignment fee. With no skin in the game as far as no financial obligations. So it's a win because she's getting that cash that she needs for that situation that she's in.
Obviously it's a win for me cause I should make $15,000 and it's a win for an investor cuz he's not going to buy it or close on it unless it meets all his criteria and it's fitting for him as an investor. So it's a win-win for all parties involved and some people seem to have a stigma when it comes to wholesale. They feel as if, well, why do you just make the $15,000 when you know it's my house? The best na that could've went to me.
But you know, you're the one conjuring up, that action into the closing table without your, it's kind of like you're the magic man. You're making it happen. So that's what you're getting at for, for so, and whole selling is tough, man. Wholeselling, it's tough. It sounds easy, but just think about it, anything. You know, produces that type of cash and that quick over time, obviously it takes a very unique skill to be able to make it actually gets to that closing table.
There's so many deals that are almost, and, you know, come together, but they don't transpire all the way. So it takes, you know, managerial skills. It takes, you know, people managing it takes a lot is, is a lot of work, but it's definitely rewarding when you do, you know, get to that closing. . Absolutely. Absolutely. And we have two more questions. We got one in the chat that we're gonna come to, but I wanna go to Alpha first. Alpha, welcome. What you got, man? . So I had a quick question.
So I know with the interest rate going up, I've been seeing a lot of seller signs or sell by owner and I have heard some rumblings about being able to buy from the owner and it being a little bit easier cuz you kind of just go through their financing, especially if it's already paid off. I wanted to ask, what do you guys know about them that's been something that you guys have considered?
Cause I am also trying to work on my next deal and I've taken pictures of several properties in Atlanta that offer sale by. But I just never been able to find some good, adequate information on that process. You wanna? Sure. Yeah, sure. So the For Sale by Owner is Owners. So let me take a step back. The reason that owners look at the for sale by owner route is because when you look at the real estate process, the owners are the ones that are paying the fees, right?
It, it's kind of weird, but the seller pays both the seller's agent and the buyer's agent, right? They're usually paying about six to 10% in fees. And so some sellers think, Hey man, I'm just gonna be able to list my property and go get it sold. And if it was a time period, like, you know, maybe over the last two years or really before the interest rates started rising, that could work. But then the piece that some sellers miss out on is having somebody who.
You know, not in love with the house, right? Hasn't lived there for multiple years. Actually being able to run a comp analysis and tell 'em, Hey guys, this is what's happened in the. This is what your property's worth. This is what Susan down the street sold for. Not just anecdotally, but this is literally what's written in the documents and this is kind of where you need to be to objectively help with that. And so the for sale honor can get you a better deal.
The one piece that you've gotta watch out for, and that you have to be prepared for is if you go down that route, you've gotta negotiate everything, right? And you're gonna negotiate everything with the seller because they're doing this to save on realtor fees. And so when you look at like the different contracts and the different protections that you gotta.
You've gotta be well versed in that and or be able to talk to a title agency or a lawyer or somebody that can help you through that process. Because you're not gonna have that realtor by your side to assist with that because there's not that nugget at the end for them. Right. And so the whole reason that you have sellers that use agents is because it kind of eliminates that whole friction piece from having to go back and forth and negotiate.
You kind of just leave that to the realtors to handle it and kind of represent for you. And that's the major difference with the for sale by owner in my. John, do you got anything on that question? Could you have a buyer's agent and just, you just pay out of pocket and then the seller would be fine with it or you could got it and okay. You, you, you could, and the seller would be fine, but a again, that's increasing even the buyer's cost, right?
So you'd have to be okay with paying, you know, x percent of the purchase price to that buyer's agent. And it's, it's a unique type of way, right? It's a unique way to do it. when it was, you know what, when you look at flips, a lot of flips are usually like this, right? A lot of flips are where, Hey, we're gonna give it to you for this price, but we're not paying any of the closing costs for any agents because we're, we're literally giving it to you for what we owe, right?
And so it could be something similar to that. You, you pretty much, you pretty much hit on the head from my standpoint. When it's direct and you don't have that fiduciary of a buyer agent or seller agent, you definitely invite. Much more probability of, you know shady, you know, language in contracts and different things of that nature because you don't have experts who, you know, have spent hours and hours being able to dissect contract to protect their buyer, protect yourself.
So if you have a overly savvy. Fisbo for sell by owner. You know, he might be able to sneak in language in there that may go over that buyer's head that that's putting you in you know, compromising positions as opposed to having that agent. So I would say buying directly from a seller doing seller financing. You definitely wanna have, if you don't have an agent, you definitely want to get, you know, some kind of legal, legal entity involved to overlook those contracts and make.
what you think you're getting involved with is exactly what you're getting involved with. Exactly. It's almost like a lot, a lot of times, a lot of times when you're dealing with agents, a lot of those contracts are drafted by that given state or, so these are promulgated forms that are written up by the state. So there's not.
Misconceptions that are thrown in there, here and there, as opposed to you buying our record from that seller, which he's drafting up the contract and may not cover all angles that might pop up in that process. Agreed. It, it's, it's, it's almost like taking the training wheels off, right? Where it's like, Hey, you're full. Go. And, and, and you've gotta kind of know all the different things and different clauses that can try to trip you up, right. As opposed to.
. I'm trying to think of a good analogy here. It's almost like, yeah, training wheels. That's what it, that's what I would say. It's like taking the training wheels off and really going full flow and saying, Hey, I've got this piece. But switching gears, we've got two more questions in the chat. So first question. Are real estate agents able to find arbitrage units for short-term rentals so that you can cover larger.
And, and you mentioned it a little bit earlier, John, you were able to find a couple through the MLS by looking at like 60 days or longer? Yeah. Okay. And that's kind of who you targeted and you had a, a decent success rate? Yeah. Well, like I was saying, obviously it's like 20, 30%. Success rate, but you know, you, you lose nothing but just receiving a no in that standpoint. So I would, I would deem that to be a pretty high successful rate. And yeah, the answer is yes.
There's no, there's nothing, there's no written language or no government body that prevents you as an agent from implementing that process that I just stated earlier as far as looking on mls, seeing properties that's been listed for a long time, and, you know, inquiring on it on your. Just because you're licensed, KA claim is freezing on me, man. He, he, so he said, he was saying, would agents view these requests as like too much work or look down on that piece?
Like, hey, like, Hey, what's going on here? Not necessarily. I would say a difference from person to person, from my experience, but not really. Cause the agent has incentive, you know, obviously to get a renter in there for their client. Not from my experience, especially if the property's been sitting for a long time. The the owner's motivated, the aid is motivated cuz they get their commission when they get a renter in there. Obviously you, the pursuer is definitely motivated.
Okay, and the last question for tonight, coming from Christiana welcome is can you go over some pros of pros and cons of a HELOC versus refinancing a. Yes. So, refinancing the home, the pros and cons of refinancing the home. The pros are re refinancing the home. You, you'll probably get a little bit more out when you, when you refinance your home and you're locked in at an interest rate when you're reading and finance your home.
Whereas as a, with a HeLOCK it varies based off of what, what the market entry rate is at. I believe, like Jeanine said earlier, his HeLOCK, what it's about what, every six months it shifts. Yeah. So the first six months it was locked in at five and then it goes prime plus one. So literally the whole time that, you know, the fed's been raising it every, you know, 0.75, Maulas been following the same Exactly. So, yeah. So it's, it's been tough.
But to your point, to your point that HeLOCK is, and how long, how long's your HeLOCK? Because my HeLOCK, I'm locked in for, I'm, this is for 10 years. Same. Same. So I have it for a decade. I can use it as, as much as I want, as long as I have the house. Right. Which is awesome. But to your point that HeLOCK, it's gonna adjust on you. The refinance, you're pulling cash out, right? And it's tax free cash because you didn't do anything to the, the property.
So you can go and do whatever you want with that. and that would be a great opportunity for like a long-term play. If you wanted to pull that cash out to your point to refinance the Burr method and go and buy another property, perfect, you're good to go. Cause you're locked in in your financing. Whereas with the HeLOCK, if you wanted to pull that out and go buy another property to Kareem's point earlier, you're now paying two, two mortgages essentially. It's like, hey, you're paying the debt.
It's almost like buying a, a house on credit card. You're paying the, the debt on the credit card or the HeLOCK and you're paying the debt on the house. It. I, I personally wouldn't do that. Right. But exactly. Refinance. I would, just to piggyback off what you said, I, I'll look at the HeLOCK more so a as utilized for a short term, definitive, highly probable successful play where the refinance is for a, a long, slow play. Absolutely.
Definitely. And John, we are gonna wrap it up here shortly, but I wanted to for anybody that wants to connect with you, right? How can they get in touch with you? If we have business going on in Houston, business going on in dc, Maryland, a couple of the other areas that you mentioned, how can we connect with you and, and kind of follow up and learn more? Well, you can connect with me through my email, which is my last name, Y O U B O T Y U Bohi, 9 0 11 gmail dot.
You can find me on, on LinkedIn at John Ydi or you can find me on Instagram at John Yui underscore abundant. John Ydi underscore abundant. Any of the three you've reached out to me. I can forward over my cell phone as well. I'm pretty responsive in all faces that I just mentioned. John, we appreciate you, man. After a 25 hours of flight coming from West Africa back to the US . I dunno how you're still up right now. Tired, man. Please get some rest, man.
And literally we gotta catch up again after Oh, for sure, for sure. I'm, I'm definitely gonna come to Atlanta, man. Come through. Come through. I got some spots for you, man. Yes, sir. Let's do it. All right, John. Be safe. All right. Appreciate, I appreciate you for having me, man. Looking forward to catching back up with you, and I appreciate you all, you guys for the questions and keep grinding, man. This is, real estate is the key, man.
It's the way, it's the way of financial freedom and you know, freedom of your time. So, so you can spend time the ones you love in your family, man. So I appreciate you guys for having me. I'm getting ready to go catch some z . Hi John, be safe. All righty. Appreciate him man. See you man. All right.