And welcome to another episode of stuck my mind podcast. I am your host, w I z And I'm excited for my next guest. Let me just bring him on to the show. Welcome to the show, David Dipone. Thanks for having me. Oh, the pleasure's all mine, man. I just wanna jump right into it because what you're doing is is is something amazing. You're helping people Build generational wealth.
So I'm excited for this conversation. So what Inspired you inspired you to become the real estate advisor and what drives your mission to increase home ownership? Why is that important for you? So I got into real estate as a way to help people and also create my own life by design. I knew that helping people with their investments, with their homes, with something that's going to be the most important asset in their lives, By helping enough people, my goals
will be met. So it's a very easy career for me to sink into because I get to come from a place of service and help people every day as opposed to going to work and only getting to help the company or somebody else. I get to choose my hours. I get to help as many people
as I have the capacity for. And Over recent years, so many people have called me about either losing their home or Losing their rental or being priced out of the neighborhood that they grew up in that I really realized that there's this huge need for people to get For me to reach people earlier in life for professionals to reach people earlier in life when they still actually have the time To do something about it and set themselves up for retirement and set themselves up for
financial freedom. Because once you've made it to, Let's say 60 years of age and older, our society doesn't have any short term or long term solutions to paying for your cost of living. They just go, well, you shoulda started earlier. So I'm trying to fill that need. Well, because it's That's something really not taught. It it really should be something that we're taught at a younger age because it it's very important for us to learn about Building generational
wealth. So what can can you share some stories of how you've helped people Build start building in real estate? Absolutely. Wherever you come from, however much money you have, It doesn't make much make a difference. It's just if you have more money, you can start faster. But I start helping several people who had Zero money for down payment. Zero money to spend on a home because they were always just paying
their bills. And for those people, I sometimes have to set them up on down payment assistance programs and low income assistance programs that take 2 years or longer to qualify. And during those 2 years, I'll help them work on their credit. I'll help them work on every other facet that they would need to make the home more affordable when they finally get to the starting line. And so the largest amount of work comes
Free home. It's why you should always do this planning well in advance of when you think you're actually ready to buy a home because
you might be 4 years out and not even know it. And then after they get that home, they get to leverage that home in five, 7, 10 years as soon as it's built up enough equity to buy a second home, to keep that 1st home as a wealth building asset and move into a 2nd home that more meets their current needs and then to repeat the process so on and so forth without ever having to Come out of pocket for another home. Their homes will just keep building the money they need to buy the
next home. Okay. Awesome. Awesome. In your book, the long and not so short of it, what fundamental principles of Says through real estate, do you emphasize? I emphasize the use of our limited resources to their most. Time is the biggest impact on every investment you make, whether it's home, whether it's stocks, whether it's Bonds, whether it's 401 k's, mutual funds. Time does 90% of the work for you. In my book, I focus on the A strategy that the average person actually can complete.
It's buying a property every 10 years. You can save 5% down for a property or get a down payment assistance or figure it out. Save a 100, $200 a month to Buy 1 property every 10 years. And then by the time you reach retirement, if you've done the work, If you've done the planning with a professional, the amount of income that those properties are gonna bring in is
going to zero out your cost of living. So it doesn't matter how much your cost of living increases in the future, You'll be living for free in these homes. These homes will be paying for you to live, and there will always be a lump sum of equity in the homes to leverage Just in case financial hardship or medical bills or something larger ever comes into your life.
It protects you from all sides and then gives you the opportunity to overachieve if you want to, Or you can just choose to keep the minimum, have the minimum, and live the rest of your life without worrying about that paycheck to paycheck cycle that most people find themselves trapped in. Okay. And you you answered my next question about leveraging
homes and You think so? Beyond buying and selling, how do you approach real estate holistically to contribute to your to your client's overall success? It's a great question. It's really a balance. The holistic end is making sure sure that not only does the home is the home going to be a good investment, that it's going to meet their short term needs. So much of the time, it's a better option for them not
to move into it. It's a better option for them to buy this home as a starter home and stay renting a place that they vibe with. Stay renting a place in a neighborhood that gives them the lifestyle that they desire And and then to set it and forget it, to let that home build wealth. And sometimes it's a a balance of Buying the worst thing in the best neighborhood in the neighborhood that they actually
wanna be if they've got the time, if They've got the money. They've got the the willpower to do a remodeling project themselves. It's about finding a balance between Their investment and their emotional needs. And let them decide what's the most important and what's the 2nd most important and giving them a balance of that in that home. Okay. So tell us the tell us the importance of of of personal development in conjunction with real estate strategies for for long term prospect prosperity.
I think it all starts in personal development, and that's why I wrote the book. I wanted to give people a simple path to success, Something that doesn't require you to be in the top 10%. It just requires you to take small, simple daily steps. And What you find is that becoming a person who's in the habit of succeeding Makes everything else easier. If you can give somebody some guidance and you can help them become The person they want inside their house, the person they want outside
their house. If you can help them create and form a pattern of Creating small goals and achieving them, then when it comes to real estate or investing or any of the long term Larger goals of your life. They'll be much more easily able to adapt to it. It won't be overwhelming. They'll have a track record of the habits of success and achieving goals to say, okay. Well, I achieved this, this, and this. Let
me just apply the same format to my real estate. Let me just apply the next small goal so that instead of Wondering if I'll ever be able to buy a home. Buying a home will be inevitable. You just have to get to the end of that small daily step that it takes you to get there. So, so how do you see the landscape of real estate evolving, and and what are opportunities or challenges might arise for investors in the near future? There's definitely gonna be a lot of challenges in the commercial space.
I like to focus on the residential space because people are living longer. Longevity sciences and medicine are a major industry that's growing right now. Every generation is gonna see more and more people living to 80, 90, one hundred. And we the simple fact of the matter is in high demand areas, we don't build enough housing. There's always more people that wanna live there, and there's always more people who have the money, and there's always
not enough Homes to go around. So by investing in residential real estate in high demand areas or developing areas, Places like LA or places like Nashville that have doubled in size over the last 10 years or doubled in population. You can put yourself in the best position to buy an asset that's going to keep increasing in value, And then you can reevaluate every
10 years. If a if a neighborhood suddenly is going to take a turn, you can put that money into a property in the next Neighborhood that's set to grow at a much faster pace than the average. But you can it's all data. You get to make these educated decisions that end up you having a high probability of success. I see a short term, For lack of a better word, real estate dip in commercial because we just don't know what commercial real estate should be used for anymore.
Most likely, it'll be converted into some kind of residential real estate, but people have proven that they can work remote, and they can be just as productive. So all of this old office space that people aren't using, something has to happen to it to make it attractive. Yeah. Because a lot like you said, a lot of peep a lot of biz a lot of,
places are going remote. And so you're absolutely right. It it's a lot of people are working from remotely from home, so I I see a lot of Commercial properties open where usually maybe someone who's have an has an office or whatever, But the fact that everyone is working from home, they just don't need it no more. Well, yes. And what Happens to things that aren't necessary. They get more negotiable on price until there's somebody is willing to use it for something.
Yeah. And that's just the way that real estate goes. 10, 12 years ago, it was residential real estate's turn because of some Less than ideal lending practices. And right now, it's commercials return because of a difference in the way we live our lives due to technology. There'll always be an adjustment. That's why I
I tell people that it's about the long term. If you're working with a professional you trust, if you have somebody helping you acquire more properties every few years, Then it's worth having a 1 hour conversation every year on where those adjustments should be made, What your properties could be used for over the next 10 years. There's it's never a it's never a I did this and now I'm done. It's about making the journey something that you enjoy, knowing that if you just do these
things, you will be fine. You will be taken care of. Okay. Can can you elaborate on the concept of of financial freedom starting at home and how individuals can actually work towards these goals? Absolutely. So the average person spends somewhere between 30 60% of their income on their home per month. So what happens when you pay off that home? You reduce your cost of living by 30 to 60%.
Now if you take a look at inflation and you take a look at cost of living increases, that your cost of living actually Doubles every 22 to 30 years. So by buying and paying off 2 to 3 properties depending on what they cost In your area, you can effectively make your cost of living zero. You can have enough cash flow to cover What you need for your life, your expenses, your properties, your maintenance, plus spending money. And what you do is
You back you work backwards from the goal. You say, I would need $5,000 a month to live how I want Right now, net. And so you figure out what the taxes you're gonna pay, what that's gonna be gross, and then you figure out how many properties you need to own to supply that. So not only do you always have lump sums of equity in these homes to be leveraged into Other investments or challenges during good financial times in the economy, but you also have in
bad financial kind Times during the economy. You have, at the very minimum, the amount of money you need to live off of getting being paid by your properties. It protects you From all angles, it's not the most aggressive investing strategy. It's something that the average person can do before retirement to guarantee that they never hit financial hardship whether they live 70 years or a100. And and like you said, people are are living much a little bit much longer
now. So that that is why you're seeing A lot of people still working at 70, 60, 70 because They they didn't save enough, and now they're 70, whatever it is, and they're still working. Well, and I've seen some people in Los Angeles that are 80 that are forced to sell their home because they fell behind on property taxes, And they only ever bought that 1 property. And their Social Security, their disability, none of that stuff is gonna be able to afford The quality of life that most people desire
in our current age. And that person, unfortunately, there's nothing in our that's designed to help them. The only answers we have are finding you when you're in your twenties and thirties and getting you to start Taking those small steps now so that you'll get there eventually so that you never have to do Too much any year to be able to hit financial freedom. Because once you get past that working life, once you get past that, say, 60,
65, Your main career years. Now to reach that same level of financial freedom, you've gotta take leaps every day. And the average person just doesn't have the Time or mental capacity or wherewithal to take leaps every day in the right direction. You know, you gotta take care of yourself. You gotta take care of your mental health. You gotta
spend time with family. So the best, you know, the best solution I found It's just to get started when you're young and take very small, easily achievable steps every day for the next 80 years Instead. So so what what distinguishes your approach to real estate advising, And how do you stay a permanent resource for your client's needs? So I think what really puts me out in front of the rest is the fact that I'm willing to take the simple approach. I will let my clients
overachieve. And if they want to, I will make time to form a specific plan for them in which they can overachieve. But I'm not the average real estate professional who's Just focused on working with whoever has the money right now and wants to invest right now. I want to create Another generation, the next generation that's better prepared. You know, I'm about to have, my first child.
I don't want him to grow up in an in an age where people are so Financially incapable of taking care of themselves. That that leads to that unrest and rioting and a lot of that other stuff we see when people are feeling down. I know everybody has the capacity to succeed. I just know that everybody is different, so they all take a specific plan and point of view. And if I get connected with them early enough, we can make that happen. But if they
for some reason, you don't Seek out that improvement. You don't seek out that development. You don't actively seek out the long term when you're younger. You'll be left in a time where you won't have the option to seek it out anymore. So I'm an I'm an agent that focuses on the wellness of people 1st and then buying and selling homes, 2nd. Because I know the second one will happen If I just focus on the first one. Okay. Yeah. That that definitely makes sense.
So for someone who's much older, probably late thirties, early forties, how can they start I know it's later on in life. Is there is there a plan you can help them implement And and and starting to to build start to get, start to get properties? Absolutely. As long as they're willing to make the
choices necessary. So if you start later in life, The best option is most likely going to be a multiple unit property, a 4 unit property where you can move in, Put less down, and the other 3 units cover a large amount of the mortgage so that
your cost of living isn't very high. If you wanna start later in life, the most effective route is getting a for you and then maybe getting another for you and making sure your income Needs are met first before leveraging both of those to buy the forever home, the single family home that maybe costs a little bit more. But the first 2 properties you bought are providing for it. You just have to be a little bit more aggressive and a little bit more Willing to be malleable on the process. If
you start early enough, you can almost buy anything. But if you start later, you're gonna have to make some decisions that align with your goals. And if I show you These 3 properties are available, and they are the only ones that can help you achieve your goal in a time frame that's useful to you. You're gonna have to make that tough decision and go with one of those properties as opposed to, Yeah. The ideal.
The large, fully turnkey, already remodeled single family home that you've always wanted, but you're just not Financially ready to support yet. Okay. And So so what are the challenges do people commonly face when it comes to to the financial planning, and and how Can real estate address these challenges? Honestly, it's just the fact that our society has taken a bit of a turn to a very short term Mindset, a very short term YouTube, Instagram. We want videos that are shorter than
60 seconds. We want instant gratification. We want things to be we want things to happen now. And The average person doesn't stop and sit down for 30 minutes a month and say, what are my long term plans? What do I hope to achieve before I'm 60? It's in people's best interest to focus on the long term, yet they can't do it. And why is that? It's because the long term
is overwhelming. The long term can the big picture can intimidate people, so it feels much more comfortable To focus on the short term, and that's why I try to make the long term approachable. I try to say all those things you want 30 years from now, 20 years from now, 10 years from now, we're gonna work that back and make it an extremely achievable, small daily step for you to get Because I know you don't wanna focus on the long term. We didn't evolve to focus on the long
term. Our medicine, our society, everything, we're evolving much more quickly mentally than we have physiologically. So it just needs a softer hand to guide them into also thinking about the long term, even if it's just for, you know, 2 days a year, Sitting down and having that long term meeting and really creating that plan with a professional that can help you. So, how how did how did you handle setbacks or
unforeseen challenges in your real estate journey? And and what what advice do you would you offer someone who's navigating such situations? I've hit a few bumps. When I first got into real estate years ago, you don't have any client base. Yeah. So suddenly, you have to figure out a way to offer value, to offer service, to be what your clients need without expecting any income to come in. And, yes, you know, when people aren't bringing income in, They start
to need the income. They start to need the money, and they maybe start to make decisions that are more for them and not for the people they're supposed to be of service to. And my solution to that was Just to align with my goals, to align with my mission, to say I am doing the I'm doing the steps. I found a mentor
that had the level of success that I wanted. I did the steps every day, and, Eventually, the market turned around, and I was able to find clients and help them invest and do all the things I'm talking to you about. And even though some might say now is a slower time in the market, now is a tougher time in the market. Nothing replaces the small daily, extremely boring, basic steps of success. Successes in
rocket science. You just gotta do what works. You gotta do what's always works, and you gotta take all the shortcuts out of it. Have faith that if you are working towards your your mission and you have succeeded before doing these things, You just gotta have faith, and you gotta keep doing them. Yeah. Because, people tend to just see The success part of it, but they don't see the hard
work and the on the dedication you put into it. They just tend to see when when you we hit hit that successful part, and they're like, oh, see, it came easy from no. You you didn't see the hard work People had to put into to like, you they don't they didn't see you building up your clients and helping your clients out. They just They they didn't see the hard work you put into it. They just saw the benefits that everyone else is reaping. They're like, oh, it came easy to them.
I like to call success gradual than sudden. It's it's gradual in a way that it takes a A 1,000 steps in the right direction that people will never see. And then it's sudden in the way that you pop up above water for the 1st time, and everybody goes, well, of course, that guy is successful. Look at all the things he has. Yeah.
It's It's just it's a difference in mindset, and you'll you'll find that the people that do have the right mindset, the people that are Seeding or in the habit of succeeding in their daily life no longer say, well, of course he does So, of course, he does. They see something and they go, how do I get that? What do I need to do? Let me go talk to him. It's a complete shift from a negative point of view to a positive point of view. And through that,
every outcome they get In life, it's just better. It ends up being more positive. It ends up being more of what they're putting out there. And some people might not even know they're doing it. But if you say something negative, even in your own head, a 1000 times per day, What you're gonna get out of your brain next week, the month, next month, next year is more of the same. You're gonna get more of that
negativity. So you gotta really start Framing yourself into who you wanna be first to then get the outcomes you wanna have. So is that is that something you really Encourage your your clients to do is to really dive into self development and learning and and every because that that's something I'm I'm very big on, and that's what's helped me build my podcast is really Getting that like, I'm I'm try like, prior to podcasting, I have no experience in in media or any of that.
It it took me grinding and and learning how to automate my automate stuff, like, all these different things. It took it took me to learn these things in order for to see the part the progress that I that I've seen in the last year. Like, My first two and a half years, I probably had 8 over 8,000 downloads. And when I started implementing stuff that I learned, like automation, Different strategies and all all these different things. My podcast has gone over 25,000 downloads now.
And and just this from December 2022 to what to to today. And and it's because, Again, I've I've dived into wanting to improve, wanting to learn the system, learn wanting to learn What I needed to do in order to to be successful and in order from in order for to get my message out there and and and have people want to listen to the audio and and watch, the YouTube channel. I absolutely encourage all of my clients to do
personal development and continuing education. There's no reason to buy or sell or invest in a thing unless you know what that thing is going to provide for you. If it matches up with your goal, if it matches up with who you wanna be, acting on it, it takes almost no effort. Staying up an extra 2 hours in the evening to get this done takes almost no effort. Doing anything you need to achieve that goal Takes very little
effort, discipline, whatever you wanna call it. But when it does not match who you wanna be, If it's not for you, if it's not something you're interested in developing for yourself, well, suddenly now it Takes all the discipline and willpower in the world just to just to think of it. Suddenly now, the challenge is So difficult that you find yourself overwhelmed, and you just can't do it. I'm sure those 1st 2 years those first Few years in your podcast weren't the easiest.
Not at all. You kept seeking it because it's something you wanted to do because it was something you were interested in and a little bit because it would benefit your life. Selfishly, we have to do these things because they wanna take care of our family so that we can take care of other people. It's being selfish to be selfless. But when you are a little bit selfish in your life, you can create a dynasty that you could support all the things you care about. Mhmm.
Wait. It's it's funny. Right? Because, there was a point early on, and I was interviewing I was interviewing someone, And I I I was like, man, sometimes I feel selfish because I'm enjoying these interviews so much, And I just I'm I'm just having a great time, and and my guest was like, there's nothing selfish about that. The fact that you wanted to learn and you're and you're taking these conversations and you're sharing them, It's okay. Sometimes, like, it
there's nothing selfish about that. That's just self love. That's you wanting to to grow and develop so that So there was nothing wrong in me really enjoying these conversations. But, you know, you get that little doubt inside you, like, Oh, man. I I I'm loving this. And but when you realize that you're also sharing it with your audience and and you've and And, and there's other people bending
benefiting from these conversations. It it's just it's just it was just it made sense when they when they pointed it out to me. Well, of course, I'm a firm believer that you can't take care of anyone else until you've taken care of yourself. If you try, eventually, one of you is gonna run out. You're gonna run out of what you need, and then you won't be able to help those people anyway. And secondly, Of course, you have to be excited and interested about what you get out of bed to do
every day. So Whether you call it selfish, whether you call it self love, whether you call it self care, you help you, And you create the thing that makes you feel good, and other people will walk in and vibe with it. Other people will see the creation that you have made and go, I like that too. Other people will see the newsletters and things that I send out and go, I think that way too. And we will be able to help those people that
connect with the missions that we have. And for the other people, the people that don't, There are other people out there doing different things. They just gotta find the person that they like so that they can get invested in the project that they are a little bit selfish about. The the project that they put a little bit more time into than everything else because It it just matches their life by design, the person that they want to be for the rest of their life.
So you mentioned something, before about mentors and mentors. How how important is for someone to have a mentor? I believe it's one of the most important things you can do in life. As you touch and really smartly As you touched on in the very beginning of our podcast, you aren't taught most of the life skills you need in school. Mhmm. Most of the things like money, real estate, the habits of success, how you hold yourself in public, Most of those things are
taught to you by your family. And however much success your family had is about how much success that you're going to have. It's not something we talk about a lot. It's not something we share a lot. You get a basic overview of things in school, but that's about it. And I really think that that's something that needs to change. But until that does, mentors are gonna be the most important thing for everyone. Everybody learns a little differently. Everybody takes
things up at different speeds. Everybody has a different out end goal that they wanna get to. The most help you're ever gonna get is by finding is deciding what you want And then finding the mentor who already has that or knows how to get
you there. And, you know, if you get to the end of the line with 1, Move up to the next best one and keep learning, keep growing because those people will be able to guide you so much faster and so much better to your your ideal outcome than the broad general education you're just gonna get by naturally living your life and absorbing through your friends or your school or college or any other thing you encounter. Yeah. I I tend to agree with that, definitely.
This has been great, David, man. I've I've really enjoyed this conversation. Now is the part of the show where you get to plug away. You get to let everybody know where where they could find you, your website, where they could get the book, everything. Well, great. So my website is depongrealestate.com. It's just my last name real estate.com. It's got a message service. You can find my email, phone number, etcetera.
I expect to have the book published in the Q1 of next year, And I'll most likely swing back around to let everybody know when it's available. The goal of the book is just to give a simple path to success to everyone. The bottom 90% of income earners, the people who aren't going to be the Jeff Bezzoses and The Tim Cooks and the hyper successful the Elon Musk's of the world.
It's just a path to give the average person a way To live with financial freedom in our society, which, as we've all learned over the past few decades, will keep increasing cost every year. Definitely. Definitely. Everything goes up except for salaries. You gotta make your own plans, man. Nobody's gonna do it for you. They're all too busy, honestly, worrying about themselves, and they kind of have to be. Otherwise, they'll be the next person that doesn't get that race, that doesn't get what
they need to take care of their family. So I encourage everybody to keep following wise and keep looking for more resources like mine because you'll never regret Reading something that helped you, but you will regret time wasted on some things that didn't. Yeah. And and that's that's one thing, I I I love about the platform is is being able to Share these
resources with people. It's been so as soon as the book is out, I definitely would love to have you back, and you can Promote it and and talk about it and and definitely, get get it out there because it's definitely a message that needs To be shared, man. People out there. Again, we when we touched on it earlier, this is not something we're taught in school. So if we can make an impact now and reach young people now and show them A much easier path than what we had to than what we had to go
through. It it's just, that's what that's what I love to do is to be able to serve people and and and have people like yourself come on and and share these resources to Because we we we we I I find joy and and pleasure, and and I and I feel this is Being able to impact people's lives with my with my platform to me is is it's it's success to me. Well, it's the best thing I mean, it's one of the best things we do is help each other out.
And as much as I want to the reason I might be a little early for my book, but The reason I'm getting out there and sharing all this stuff now is that I want people to know that it's a possibility. I want people to know that these tools are out there, and they're out there at a capacity where you don't have to there's no obligation. You don't have to Sign a contract. You don't have to get a job. You don't have to go through a
training to get these tools of success. You can get a book, And you can read it at a pace that you can handle, and you can keep going through it until you connect with a topic until you vibe with a topic. And guess what? That's the first thing that you should try to improve. That's the first thing that you should try to grow In your own life, the first thing that really excites you. And then people will come back later to the 2nd episode we do and be like, that really me out.
Let me check this out again, and we'll foster that that culture of helping people out. If everybody else if everybody helps Ten other people. Eventually, we will reach all the people. You know what I'm saying? Definitely. Definitely. But, thank you so much for being a guest, man. I greatly appreciate you coming on and spending your time with us and and sharing, your your your information and your knowledge with with the audience. Greatly appreciate it. We'll definitely
be in touch. I will see you again. Oh, no. I'm I'm definitely gonna have you back on, man. You have to definitely come back and promote the book. I'm, I'm well, I've had repeat guests, so it won't be nothing new. So I would I'll definitely love to have you back on to help Let's promote the book and and and get that message out there because, again, it's a message that need to be that needs to be shared. This is, like, something
that We're not taught. This is something that will help people build generational wealth, especially This day it needs, like you said, with everything going up and salaries not going up, we we need to find alternatives to so that when we don't when we people get to 70, 80, they don't have to be at Walmart working as greed as because They didn't save enough. So The only person I want doing that is the person who's doing it because they
they wanna get out there. Yeah. They want I don't want anybody out there at 80 working at McDonald's or whatever because they have to. Yeah. We gotta let people choose the life they want and then live it. Otherwise, what's the point? Definitely. Definitely. But, don't leave just yet. Let me close out the show, and we could chat up a little off the air. But, thank you so much, man. This is great. It's fine. Alright, man. Big shout out to to
Mikey who's in the who's in the chat. He's, said hi to David and myself, and he's he shared the show with with his friends. Thank you, Mikey. I greatly appreciate it. He said awesome show. Thank you once again. He's he's become he It's been Mikey, I gotta give you a props, man. You've you've showed up the last 2 episodes. I greatly appreciate the support, And, continue to to continue to come through, brother. I greatly appreciate it, man. Big shout out to my RealWise fan, Papi j, Brandy j. Love
you guys. Big shout out to the boss lady. Appreciate you and and everything you do for me and our family. And big shout out to to our guest, David DuPone, for coming through and and just dropping some nice gems, and I'm excited for him to come back and share his book with us, so we're looking forward to that. Big shout out to Mikey for coming through and sharing And sharing the show with his his people. And as always, a big, big
shout out to all the essential workers out there. God bless y'all. Be safe. You know, your boy, Wise, does it? Peace out.