Episode 147 | Ali Garced | Military Millionaire

00:00 - 05:00

David:

What's up Military Millionaires! I'm your host, David Pere. Today with my co host, Alex Felice and Tila in the background. We've got Ali Garced on the call today and we are going to walk through her journey in real estate as she's progressed through purchasing homes, and even getting into some storage now.

And so this has been a lot of fun. Ali and I have been talking back and forth on Instagram now for a year and a half, two years. It's been a little while, and we finally decided we jumped on a call a little while ago and decided to be a good fit for her to be on the podcast. And then I took like a month and a half hiatus from podcasting because I had nowhere to podcast, no internet, no studio and half the time my stuff was in a moving van. And so here we are. So Alli Welcome to the show.

Intro:

Welcome to the Military Millionaire podcast where we teach service members, veterans and their families how to build wealth through personal finance, entrepreneurship and real estate investing.

I'm your host, David Pere, and together with my co host, Alex Felice. We're here to be your no BS guides along the most important mission, you'll ever embark on your finances.

Vehicle one, you're clear to embark on friendly lines. Roger Vic one Oscar Mike.

David:

What's up military millionaires! I wanted to briefly talk about a service I offered that a whole lot of people don't seem to know about. And I guess that's a failure on my part for not having discussed it enough.

So look, finding a realtor that understands investing and or the VA loan or both, is not always the easiest thing in the world and finding a lender, same thing. So what I have started doing is I've built a well, I have a large network, but I've started to compile it all together finally, as a legitimate Excel document driven, location driven list for you guys, essentially. So what it is, is basically just my way of helping connect you with a realtor or a lender that I know personally and have vetted and talked to and understand that they're not going to screw you. And what I do is like for example, I had a market where I had two or three agents, that I all sent the same person as connections that hey, man, you know, I trust, I know all of these, let me know what you think. And they all said the same agent. And the same thing.

So what I've done is if there's multiple agents in the same market, I choose the best one, and that's who I'm going to hook you up with. But the whole point of this is just to help ensure that you get connected to the best agent. So if that is something that you would like, just go to the website, go frommilitarytomillionaire.com/va-realtor/ or just reach out to me on Instagram or Facebook, whatever, I'll send you the link, or you can find it on the resources page of the website. But look, all it is is a way to help connect you with an agent who's gonna hook you up. No, I don't charge a fee for you know, I don't charge a fee for the agent. It's just a way to hook you guys up at the end of the day as a buyer, you're not going to pay for a realtor anyway. So Tada, it's magic, you might as well use one. As far as a VA lender, I've got a really good one that I work with and know very well, there's several others that are pretty good. And I'll probably try to steer you away from some companies that I just don't think are very reputable or have been very helpful.

So, you know, if this is a service that sounds good to you for free 99 then reach out. And if not, then enjoy the show right now.

Ali:

Thank you. I appreciate it. Happy to be here!

David:

Yeah!

Why don't you give a little bit of the background for how you got into real estate investing and kind of bring us up to the present?

Ali:

Yeah, absolutely.

So I've actually been, I was raised around real estate, my parents aren't real estate, I was born and raised in White Plains, New York. It's about an hour north of the city. And so my dad was always in real estate, my mom was actually she would clean homes and she was a crossing guard. So she would work for security or like the health benefits for us. And my dad would bring home the cash.

So always always around that mentality. And my dad actually made me read Rich Dad, Poor Dad when I was like 9. So both like me and my sister read it when we were kids. And we would play like cash flow for kids and you know, like that type of stuff. And so always with the entrepreneurial, like mindset, and fast forward, I went to college in a small private school, a lot of people haven't heard of it. It's called Elon University, no relation to Elon Musk, a small private school in North Carolina, right in the middle like the triad. And it was very expensive. And I went, I started college in 2008. And that was obviously you know, eight and my parents were in real estate.

My parents were very very against taking out loans. They're very much on the mentality of cash flow everything, pay for everything if you can't pay for it, you can't afford it. So I'm very grateful for them for being able to essentially put my sister and I both through college without any you know, FAFSA help or anything like that. But I could tell that even though they would never tell me that I could tell that they were struggling a little bit so I did ROTC. And being from New York, nobody joins the military, at least Southern New York. Nobody joins the military.

There's just like not a lot of did military people there. So I joined ROTC, and I told my parents afterward after I signed the paperwork already saying, hey, like, I'm doing this to help you guys out to pay for college because college is expensive, and like Elon, like 40 grand a year or something like that.

So I did that for them. And I have been in for nine years now, purchased a couple of properties here and there throughout my time in the military, and I plan on separating in a little over a year. Um, so yeah, just let me know, whenever you want to, like cut me off and start asking questions, I can just keep them on forever.

Alex, yes?

05:00 - 10:00

Alex:

You said your family doesn't do debt. Which is interesting, because five years ago, when I started real estate, I'm like, if you don't take this 4% debt, you know, you're just, you're a knucklehead.

Now that I'm a little bit wiser, and I see people a little bit different light. I had a lot more respect for the no debt approach, even though, so my question to you is, do you use debt?

Ali:

Absolutely, yeah.

So yeah, let me clarify that, they didn't want that always like credit card debt was absolute no go any other like bullshit. That was a no go. College debt, they were very anti, they didn't want to set me, my sister up for debt as soon as we entered the real world.

So but real estate is a different story. So yeah, they would, they would use it appropriately. And I have very much so you said as well. Um, so yeah, I have four loans out right now. And they're all below three and a half percent, which is amazing. So absolutely. Why not use that?

Alex:

Yeah, I was just curious.

Yeah, I was just curious for the clarity. So that makes a lot of sense.

David:

The more I get into real estate, the more I like, there's a couple guys who talked about like, as you get your portfolio you like, eventually stop and just pay off like one or two or three properties. And so you've got some like, rather than paying them all down, you've got some that are still leveraged to the hilt, but then some that are just completely paid off that can cover all that as I guess a protection strategy.

Yeah, I don't know. I haven't paid any of mine off yet. But I do have some. Well, I actually just refinanced out of it. I had a 15 year note with that intention. So I think there's that debt argument can go a lot of different ways in the real estate world, but definitely long term fixed low interest rate is solid.

Ali:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

And I think one of the strategies that you just mentioned is Coach Carson Strategy. I've read a ton of books, like, I read 52 books last year, 45, the year before that, and this year, I made it actually a goal to not read as many books and therefore take more action. That's a whole another tangent.

And, yep.

David:

That's all good. I guess we're doing it without Alex for a little while.

Ali:

Alright. You and I.

David:

Yup! We're good.

Ali:

So yea Coach Carson, actually, one of his books talks about, like the buy three, you know, hold to sell one and then use that sales from that to pay off others. So there's so many different strategies in real estate. I love it. I love it. But yeah, I actually took one loan out a VA loan for 15 year, just so I could try to cash flow that thinking, you know, it would be paid off by the time I would retire from the military. But I don't plan on going that route anymore. But I'm so glad that I did that.

David:

Yeah, I think it's a solid plan.

I mean, you can't. I was having a conversation with someone the other day, and like they were asking, you know, where should they keep cash if they don't want to be in the stock market, like there's all these different avenues. And I kind of brought up the point that obviously, it's not liquid, right. But the point that people seem to hate on equity is paying your mortgage down super fast, but like giving appreciation of real estate assets, like paying your mortgage down is a better yield interest, like savings account, in theory than an actual savings account. Obviously, it's illiquid, so I wouldn't do that with everything.

But like if you've, if you're one of those people who has money laying around, and you don't know what to do with it, or where to put it, but you also don't like the idea of just sitting in a savings account. You don't like the idea of, you know, investing in stocks or whatever, like, paying your mortgages down quickly is not a bad way to go. You're earning a return on that. That's yeah, so I don't know there's a lot of ways to go with that for sure.

Ali:

Yeah, absolutely.

David:

So what was your? Walk us through your first property, your first purchase? What was that?

Ali:

So I had been in the military for four years, five years at that point, it was in 2016. And I purchased, I use a VA loan. I was out at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, a beautiful area.

So I purchased a condo with a high HOA fee. And at that point, I don't consider that one like an investment. I don't consider that that's when I started investing. You know, technically I did I purchased a property but it wasn't in that middle in that like no fire mindset or retire early mindset. It was just my parents were like, Hey, you should purchase property out there purchase property purchase property. I was like you know what, okay, fine. Just to get you guys off my back. I'll purchase something. I'm so glad that I did. I didn't run the numbers. You know, I just like, you know, it was gonna be owner occupied. So what I live there? Yes, obviously I would so yeah, let's buy it.

10:00 - 15:00

Ali:

I bought it for 158 It's a two bed, two bath condo. And I've had it for what like five years now and it's doubled in value. It's almost 300,000 right now. And I lucked out on that one because I didn't run the numbers. It was breakeven, every year, sometimes I would have a little bit of cash flow like whoa, and the next year, I would have like a major hailstorm, and I'd have to pay for it.

So it would just wipe out everything like every two years, I would just get wiped out. And, you know, I would just think back and like I'm not making any cash flow, and everyone talks about cash flow, cash flow, but that property is appreciation play for sure. So I actually plan on 10-30 wanting that property into self storage.

Alex:

Would you buy another condo?

Ali:

I would not buy another condo, good question solely because of the HOA, the HOA fees will never go down, they're only going to go up. And that will eat away at your cash flow. Especially if you're on the margin like I was that it'll eat it away.

Alex:

I have a condo that I bought, same exact story. I was gonna live in it, I had the idea that buying it was better than renting. And I just figured, ah you know, if I move out one day, and I'll rent it and I'll be arrested, I'll make money. And then my condo did not appreciate for the last 10 years.

Ali:

Ohh.

Alex:

In fact, it's basically I'm going to sell it for the same amount that I bought it for a little more over 10 years, and it has broke even every year. So it's been just a pure education play. I'll never buy another condo. But you know, I'm glad yours lucked out. But it's interesting like, you know, people are so obsessed about making sure they get the perfect first deal that they don't ever do a deal. And I'm like, you know, people I know that even mine where it's like, I really didn't do that good. It's like, Hey, I still got 10 years of experience, a little bit of appreciation, and a bunch of tax benefits. I mean, making mistakes in real estate. It's very forgiving. Because it's like, oh, worst case scenario, you bleed a little bit like you said, Oh, every two years I have come out of pocket. This big chunk. But it's like, meanwhile, doubling in value. It's like it's really hard to get to... But it's hard. So I'm glad to hear, the story is similar. So I'm glad you did better than I did mine.

Ali:

Yeah, yeah. Where did you invest your condo?

Alex:

I wouldn't call it an investment. It's in Fayetteville in North Carolina.

Ali:

Okay.

Yeah. Interesting.

Yeah, real estate is like you said, very forgiving. Usually, if you just hold on to it long enough, you will win. But maybe not.

Alex:

Yeah, I mean, well, yeah. That's that kind of thinking like those kinds of comments. I know what you're saying. But those comments become gospel, right? The comment like, hey, look, if you look at a long enough timeline, real estate goes up pretty, pretty reliably. And then that turns into people thinking, well, real estate only goes up. And that's when you get crushed in 2008. Like you said, you know, we alluded to earlier with like, it didn't go up this year, and went down this year.

David:

Yeah, we all know that the only thing that only goes up is crypto and forex.

Alex:

Right.

Yeah. So it's the same people, right? It's the same people that got crushed in O8. This crypto thing is legit.

Ali:

Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. So what was interesting about that condo was I actually never moved in. I got deployment orders right after I closed. And so I deployed and while I was deployed, I wasn't gonna spend seven months of me paying for it and not having any income. So I rented it out. I looked it up in you know, the VA loan rules and it was you know, I obviously had an intent to occupy so not the rules, but yeah, that thought that was pretty interesting.

The second time I used my VA loan was my second purchase. It was here in Tucson I'm stationed now at Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona. So I purchased a single family here and moved in then I got married so I moved out. And now I Airbnb it.

Alex:

How old were you when you got your first one?

Ali:

I was 26.

Alex:

How's Airbnb doing?

Ali:

Pretty good!

So I actually got down on a 15 year note thinking by the time it was by 10 the note was up. I would have been retired from the military I would be strictly cash flow.

Now you know plans have changed. I don't plan on retiring from the military. I plan on separating actually a little bit over a year. And I'm so glad that I did that. It's still cash flows even If I were to take it off of Airbnb do long term it would still cash flow, which is nice. Not as much.

15:00 - 20:00

Alex:

Are you self managing your Airbnb?

Ali:

I am yeah, I was gonna, you know, outsource that, because I have property managers for the other properties, but they were charging like 35,40,50% I was like, You know what I can do that you know so I, I hired somebody else to do the cleaning, and I pay her well I love her. And her husband is a handyman. So whenever she sees something go out like a light bulb that goes out or the toilet doesn't work. She just, you know, calls her husband and I just paid both of them. And I love that they both have been super, super helpful.

Alex:

I just did my first and I'm learning you know, I hired a company to manage 20% which seems reasonable, but I don't think I mean, it's only been a month but I don't think they're worth it. So I think I'm gonna self manage it.

I also think there's a fundamental difference in Airbnb that people want you to talk to you. They really, they want the experience, one has to be really hospitable and nobody that you hire is going to care. Really like the owner. And so I think Airbnb is going to be a very difficult thing for people to do effectively at scale. Across the board there are people that are trying but I think they're gonna have a very difficult time.

Scale hospitality is hotels.

Ali:

Yeah.

Alex:

So every time I hear something that's Airbnb, now I'm like digging in, because I'm trying to find out what people are doing right, what people are doing wrong. I know a lot of people are doing it really bad and still making money. And I know a couple of people that are doing it really well. And they're making almost double what the market averages and like really, really high numbers. So it's just interesting to learn the spectrum.

David:

Not that not that I'm an actual example because I just rented bedrooms, but I was bringing in probably an average 1600 a month with the Airbnb bedroom. And I could only rent the other bedroom, which was a nicer bedroom for about 900 maybe 1000 towards the end there. And I because it was in the house, right? I managed everything myself, but I also, it was a small space. So I cleaned it myself and I got charged whatever the cleaning fee was and just viewed it as my you know, it took me an hour to clean. So I was like, yeah, $70 an hour, I'll take it, you know, it wasn't so bad. Even though I could have charged a lot more but now I'm about to gear up and launch a much larger Airbnb and I'm still gonna manage it myself. But I'm definitely going to bring in a cleaner because I'm not touching like a 3000 square foot house every couple days. Not my thing.

Ali:

Yeah, that's rough.

Just doing laundry alone will keep you there for hours. Oh, I was doing that. Then my wife is doing that because I used to try a ton in my last assignment. And so my wife would do it. I just No, no, not for us. Just hire that shit out. Hired it out.

David:

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. Alright, so you've got the condo, the Airbnb, what's next?

Ali:

Yeah, so the third one I purchased June of 2020. So like, right in the height of the COVID scare. And I was gonna go out there to view it before I purchased it. But I didn't. I couldn't because the military wouldn't let us.

So I actually purchased that one turnkey through a company. And because at that time, like I said before, I was in a different unit. And I was TDY all of the time, like different countries, different time zones. So when I was here back stateside, I was working in a skiff. So I didn't have time to like, you know, cold call people and like try to get something below rehab and then do the rehab and find the contractors. I just did not have the time for that. So I purchased a turnkey, and it's actually worked out pretty well. I don't know if you like allowed company names or whatever, but I actually do recommend them. It's Chris Clothier. It's with the REI nation. So I asked around, I was on there like a mailing list for quite some time. That's like, nothing is getting the 1% Like, I just want 1% You know, everyone says 1% and they don't have anything 1%. But the closest I could get was like .89. And I was like, You know what, I'll do it. So this was in Oklahoma City. Midwest City. So there's Tinker Air Force bases there.

Yeah, so I was gonna check it out. But like in person, but I couldn't, so even if I wanted to, I mean, the military wouldn't let us travel at that time. So I was like, You know what, if the appraisal comes back and I'm able to get a loan on it, I'm pretty sure the house is standing and actually will produce income. So yeah, let's do it.

So that was my first property that I purchased sight unseen. And that's worked out super well. I just saw for the first time like two months ago, I drove by. I did like a cross country road trip. And on the way back instead of stopping like down through Dallas from Tennessee to Arizona, I went up So I went through OKC. And I was like, Wait, let's go up there. I have a property up there. Let me see. Let me see what it looks like. And I was like, You know what this is, this is pretty cool. Like when you're just taking a detour and I'm big as a road trip, you're like, oh, yeah, that's my property. I own that. That's cool.

So, I do recommend that I get out of my comfort zone there. And it actually has cash flows. So it's doing pretty well.

20:00 - 25:00

David:

Yeah, that's solid.

There's a lot of hate online about turnkey, but I think I mean, don't get me wrong.

Alex:

I hate turnkeys.

Ali:

Yeah.

Alex:

Go on. I was just trying to make a....

David:

I was, I was just gonna say that there are situations in which it makes sense, right? Like, I will not necessarily always point to Turkey as the first thing you should do as an investment. But, man, is it like way easier than if you had tried to invest in Oklahoma City, and had to build everything from the ground up and not ever having been there? Right. Like, it's one thing to, you know, like, what I did, I bought in Springfield, and then I got stationed elsewhere. And then I already had a team and I just kept investing in Springfield. It's a whole different ball game from like, I'm gonna invest in that one town. And the military's not letting me go there. So let me try to build a team and do it anyway, without ever go, like that's, that's a lot harder than people want to give it credit for to do it, right. It's way easier for professionals or property managers or whatever to, you know, fake the funk, if you're not meeting them in person and actually getting that feel for how they are.

So I think there's definitely a time and a place for turnkey. And it's awesome that it worked out well for you.

Ali:

Yeah, yeah. And I agree.

I mean, obviously, you can get a lot more meat on the bone. When you don't do turnkey when you do the rehab yourself. I had never done rehab. So I didn't want. I didn't feel comfortable doing the rehab from afar. One, I hate using this excuse, but being female. Like I feel like people would take advantage. And I don't know enough about rehab. To know if I was getting gypped or not, you know, so I was like, You know what, let me just do like...

Alex:

That's gonna hurt you a lot more than being female.

David:

Yeah, I’m not a female..

Alex:

Yeah, if you don't know anything you're gonna get taken.

David:

No.

Ali:

Yeah.

Alex:

Regardless of gender.

Ali:

Yeah, yeah.

So I was like, you know, let me just like, I did so many. Oh, man, it's so much research on the reviews of the companies. And that one, I really could find, like barely any negative reviews. And so yeah, I mean, they took the majority of the meat on the bone, but they did all the hard work. And yeah, I get some of the cash flow. But it came at, it was convenient. So that's why I did that.

Alex:

I think in 2020. You know, real estate to me is very funny, because I came up during the foreclosure boom, where there were properties all over the country that were depressed and in distressed condition and available for the banks to get them off their balance sheets quickly and cheaply.

And that ended around 2017-18. So not to say there aren't still deals, but they're not in abundance. So like now you have to be good at lead gen or you have to have been tapped into a market. And so if you're not, if you don't have those things set up. And even if you do, it's becoming more competitive, because you know, it's more invested in fewer deals.

If you don't have those things set up, then go in and try to bootstrap a team. And then also, it's not even like, well, I did it here. I just had to take my system over there. It's like you're trying to do this, essentially, for the first time or, you know, pretty close. So I think that's the perfect scenario for turnkey especially if you're going to continue to invest in that market. Where it's like I got my foot in the door. Now I know the market now I know the people. Maybe the next time I can go off and find a wholesaler and get the deal done on my turf. You know, you can , how do I say you can snowball from there. But yeah, that's a perfect scenario for somebody to buy a turnkey.

Ali:

Yeah.

Yeah, at the time. I had done mailers as well and I'd done like a Google Voice number and like try to set everything up so I could just do it myself. But again, like when I was stateside, I was working in a skiff so like I would be in a skiff all day and I would leave and see like yeah, like leave the skip area check my phone see, I would miss like three phone calls like potential sellers. I'm like, Oh my gosh, I can't like I have to go back and call them at a later time and once you miss that initial call, forget it. It's over like you need to answer the first time. So yeah.

David:

That's literally why I hired a call center like I have a call center that I run all of my leads through now. And I still do it because they make my life way easier. But that was why was because I started sending mailers in bulk and I was working at a skiff and after like three or four people I called back and they had already you know sold the house cuz it might be like two days later when you call back because I get off work in San Diego at six and it's already eight o'clock at night and I was like okay, I'm literally throwing money out the window when I send out mailers so.

Ali:

Exactly, yeah.

25:00 - 30:00

Alex:

I also think it's a really good point about like, you know, what it is that you want to do in real estate. Not everybody wants to be a wholesaler. David's having a lot of success with these mailers and I could not be bothered with it, I'll never do it. I don't want to, I have no interest. I like being an investor, right? I know how to place capital and how to analyze deals, and I know how to meet people, like I have my skill set. And so I like that you're like, look, that's a good way to get deals. But if I don't have the capabilities, or the resources to like, really do it, it's like, I still need to go get a deal.

So get one with the resources in the, you know, maybe maybe in a different period, you do the wholesaling. But, you know, do do within your means that you have and get something done. I like that.

Ali:

Yeah, absolutely.

So that was, that was a third deal. And then the fourth one was my first multifamily. It was a duplex. And even though it was here in Tucson, I was actually TDY again, so I was in a different country. And I essentially purchased it like sight unseen. I had one quick walkthrough, but at that point, I was like, I was in it already. We were gonna close like that in the next couple of days.

So purchased a duplex here in Tucson for 180. Put 25% down, and each side rents for around 800. And it needs rehab so that I'll be doing my first rehab. Actually, at the end of this month, one side moves out. Both tenants have been there for like 10 years. So one side is moving out, and I'll be doing the rehab there, learning it on my own. I mean, I'll be hiring it out. I won't be doing physically anything. But definitely learning from there, then and then increasing the rents the rent should increase to like 1100.

David:

Yeah, that's, that's, that's sweet.

Ali:

Yeah, it is.

So yeah, it was hard finding that I had been like underwriting deals. So like in Tucson left and right, and nothing was working. That's at the point where I was like, You know what, let me just go like find a turnkey, do something else in the Midwest. So that's why I went with OKC. But in Tucson, I was like, You know what, and it was on the market to is on the MLS. And, like, I didn't have to do any hard work for that until like, you know, send any letters out, wait, like outside the skiff for a phone call. So I just put an offer on it. And it was accepted. He countered, I stuck at my original price. And he was like, okay, which was crazy, because this was like, just this was in December of last year. Right where you can complete a seller's market, like buyers don't have a chance of buying on your own terms really are price. So I lucked out on that one. And, and worked out really well. So far, the tenants are so good. I love the tenants.

I actually got a property manager. And Alex, like you said, like, I actually, I could do it on my own. But at the same time, I'm trying to think like, in more of a scalable way where I don't want to just cuz I can do it on my own, it probably could do a better job I, I would be doing a better job. I just want to, like, outsource that shit. So you just have to hire a property manager.

Alex:

I think hiring a property manager or regular tenants is very smart. Most of my long term units are managed by a property manager. Very smart. Because the manager it's that's a that's a they're very different business models. The more that I'm learning about Airbnb and rentals, I thought that the overlap was like, well, still a house. But actually what I'm learning is, you know, a house is a commodity to a regular renter, where it's like you need a place to live, you need a roof. And I have a roof and there's limited supply. So I'm going to set the terms and you're going to say yes. And then you got the four walls. And that's it.

You know, Airbnb is like, please come stay with me, I will show you the best possible experience that your money can afford, please, and then rate me highly. Please I will do a total hospitality business. So from that perspective, if you rate low on Airbnb, they'll just boucher right? You'll go on the 50th page, you'll never you'll never you'll be you'll be crushed. So you have to have a tight control of the experience. And that's why I say and I'm very new at it. So what do I know? I say I think that self managing is going to return a higher yield. Whereas regular rentals once that sign that lease, and you provide like, once a month like you don't need to have somebody else manage it. Easy.

Ali:

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

One of the first days I met the tenants at the duplex here. They complain about getting their mail stolen because I so I hired a property manager, property manager was going to send them like the welcome kit or whatever essentially saying, hey, that you're now going to be paying rent via like an online portal instead of us collecting a check from you, which is the way it had been done with the previous owner. And so it's just like explaining the new terms. And the tenants never received it. So I never got rent. And again, I'm like I'm in a different state at this point, maybe a country I forget. And the first of the month comes around second, third. And I was busy with some family stuff. So I hadn't had a chance to call the property manager saying, hey, you know, where's the where's the rent? I thought these tenants were like, pretty good tenants. And turns out, yeah, the mail got lost. So, I'm like that. That is like, that's not okay. So I went to like, the tenants actually are calling me saying, Hey, we're trying to pay rent, we have no idea how to pay rent. Like, first of all, are you hourly? Are you our landlord? And I was like, This is amazing. Like, you guys are great. They're like, we haven't got a hold of anybody. You said you're gonna get a property manager. But I don't even know who that is. Like, can we just pay you rent directly? Like, please don't charge us a late fee. I was like, Oh my gosh, this is absolutely not your fault if you're getting your mail stolen.

30:00 - 35:00

Ali:

So the first thing that I did was like get an actual sealable you know, mailbox because their mailboxes would just be trash, like, people just come over and just, you know, just steal all the mail, bills included. So I purchased you know, one of like one of those lockable ones like only they have access to and they can try to knock that shit down away. One that's not going anywhere. And they were so grateful for that. Like, it's such a simple, like, easy solution. Give them their mail, you know, give them some pride of ownership like they're living. They've been living here for 10 years, and they aren't able to get packages sent to their place because they're thinking it's gonna be stolen. I don't know. It's just like, some people can just do such a lousy job. And it's so easy to just want a simple fix, you know, but I went on a tangent there. I forget where I was going with. But I love my tenants. They're so good.

Alex:

Dude, I'm such a cynic. When you're like, oh, no, no, you paid they all got their mail lost and I'm like, they all fired together to be like, oh, you know, we don't know. He didn't get any mail. Sorry, the whole thing. Nobody got the mail. Sorry. And you're like, don't ask me to pay rent. And I'm like, yo, I'm sitting here feeling a little guilty about how cynical I am as a human being.

David:

But to be fair, though, close to 100 doors, I've had two different people call me twice, twice is the only time someone's called and said, hey, where do I send rent? Nobody else. They're always like, in case in point, one of these apartments we took over not too long ago, the guy was taking cash. And of course, they're all like, oh, yeah, no, we paid him for two months. Yeah. Okay. Now of course you did. I'm sure you did. But then it's like, what paper trail do I have? Because this man was collecting cash. So like, they all you know, there were like three or four of them that? Who knows?

Ali:

Yeah, that's, that's tough.

So yeah, I got it to the property manager. I was like, Dude, how could you have not sent the welcome letter? You know, like, I hired you guys out, like over a month ago. But, and that's when they showed me the proof of mailing it it's like what the hell's going on? But yeah, such I don't know, easy, easy fixes, you know? So.

Alex:

There's so many little things that when you force me to get a lot of doors, it gets easy to become complacent about small things that you don't think about but the frequent tenants think about it, you know, or they have to live it when you you don't have to live some of these properties. You don't know what it's like, you know, you don't know there's some noise that happens every night or some inconvenience next door these things that happen throughout the day. So those little things that to us that they're because they're little I guess, maybe we don't think about them. We don't think that's a big deal but for them, it can also be a big deal. So I love that you know, it's just like, dude, buy a secure mailbox and fix this problem forever.

Ali:

Yeah.

Alex:

They've been sitting there you know, living with it. Miserable.

Ali:

For 10 years, 10 years not being able to send not people feels uncomfortable enough to get an Amazon package to your doorstep. That's the kind of life that sucks.

David:

Alright, so.

Alex:

Oh, go ahead.

David:

I was gonna move so if you had another comment..

Alex:

You probably have something better so go ahead.

David:

I was just gonna say where and why do we shift to self storage?

Ali:

To scale.

I had been purchasing you know, my first three purchases were single families you know ones and twos these at a time now I have you know, a whopping five doors for loans and doing the math for the future especially now that I'm that I plan on separating, I mean, multifamily and just commercial in general is the way to go.

So I wanted to go into a specific, you know, sector of commercial and I've been following a lot of like AJ Osborne industrial bred on self storage stuff, and that's what I want to do next. So yeah, I plan on 10-30 wanting my condo in Colorado Springs, and then actually selling this house that we live in now it is my wife's house, but it's also doubled in value. So another 200000 putting them back combined into self storage, whether or not in the Tucson area. I prefer to be in Arizona but really doesn't matter as long as the numbers work, you know, and then they'll work. But yeah, it's, it's really to get passive income before I leave my w two.

35:00 - 40:00

David:

I like it, one of my good friends out here does storage that he's adding on to one of his facilities now and he'll be the largest one in the area, at least in his suburb. And when I was first talking to him, I was like, why self storage was probably three years ago, four years ago. And he was just like, well, if you had, you know, half your life belongings in a storage unit, would you move all of your stuff out? If I raised your rent $2 a month? I was like, No, that's a ton of work. He's like, you're right. And if you have a thousand doors that's a huge addition to your cash flow, and nobody's gonna move and I was like, that's a really interesting way to look at it. Like, it doesn't take much in the Self Storage world like $1 $2 $3 raise in rent won't, you know, doesn't kick out tenants per se, but can have a huge upswing to your, your cash flow. And then he's like, Yeah, I have a living manager, they basically live for free. I don't really pay them other than, like, a minimum wage, like my costs are, you know, there's some cool benefits to storage for sure.

Ali:

Absolutely.

Yeah, that's true. Absolutely.

But, I mean, we're living in America, Americans are never going to get rid of their shit. You know, they're always gonna have more and more shit. So storage is the way to go.

David:

Especially. And I would say even more so in a city, right? Like, here in Springfield, there's tons of storage. There's also tons of people who own, like, a big frickin farm, you know, or, or whatever. So, like, whereas like in the city, anyone who buys a boat, or an RV, or any kind of toy ATV, you know, whatever jetski like, you think of like San Diego, like, not many people have room to store any of that.

Ali:

Yeah, I've been looking at a couple of deals out and like Podunk areas like Louisiana and Georgia. And I'm like, I don't know storage if buying a facility out there would work as much because people can just literally store their shit in the front yard. You know, people have land out there that so.

Alex:

Come look, come look out here and stay though.

Ali:

I would love to.

Alex:

Yeah, come look because I don't do any storage but I know the market real well and military towns so you know, yeah, we know. We know how troops store you know, they got too much stuff and they deploy, they get divorced. They begin you know, they PCs they they go you know, whatever they're always moving around. So it's like look, I have all this stuff. It's in debt. I can't sell it. I gotta keep it

Ali:

Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. I'd love to. I'll fly out there any time.

Alex:

Yeah come around, because I know a couple people that have been the storage out here but I just I don't know that I didn't ever really look to be honest. It always felt saturated to me the market and then like and then the last three years. I know tons of people that are exploding on self storage. I'm like I missed it. I didn't even and you know I'm saying that in 10 years is gonna keep going up and I'm like I missed it.

Ali:

I missed it again.

David:

Fun thing now is like the conversions like I had a buddy hit me up the other day asking about converting a Kmart into an indoor storage facility and I'm like, dude, wrong person. I don't know diddly about that but cool idea.

Alex:

They're gonna bust it up. Hey, Mark. Yeah, come on. Come look.

Ali:

I mean, don't get me. I'll book a flight right now.

Alex:

Come over here. Goodness gracious.

Ali:

All right. All right. I could do that.

Alex:

I know you’re excited, I disguise Mohawk in person, but.

Ali:

*Laugh.

Alex:

You don't blame me. But I need somebody to, I think the area's obviously good. There's probably I would assume it's saturated. But then, you know, you assume that then it's like, oh, yeah, real thought that nobody looks and there's some deals around.

Ali:

Right.

I mean, and Americans are only just going to get more and more shit. This is the type of like mentality that we have.

Alex:

Yeah, and storage is one of those. It's like alcohol where it does good and markets that it does better in down markets. Because when down market stuff people like Okay, I gotta downside my house. I gotta move out. But I can still swing 100 bucks a month, even my junk and I'll buy another house later, whatever.

Or, you know, this is just temporary. So I need a. I need a place to store all this stuff because I lost my job and yada yada yada. So yeah, I think people are frivolous with their materialism, their junk and their debt. And I think you're right. I think there's no end. There's no end in self storage.

Ali:

Yeah.

David:

Alright. I got three questions that I asked every guest.

First one is, if an E one E two was to ask you for advice. So Young, 18-19 year old, about real estate investing or life in general, what would be the one thing that you feel like you would have to tell them?

40:00 - 45:00

Ali:

I thought about this question. I have so many more things than just one thing. But overall, I would say go to OTS, become an officer if you're gonna say in coming out or you know utilize the skills that you're that you're that utilize the skills that you're learning in the military, and get out.

There's so much more money to be made on the outside, especially if you're E one, E two I, we appreciate you but you can make more. Um, but also my second thing I'll add to yeah, my second thing would be to have a roommate. Do have a roommate for as long as you can when I was in college I was an RA you know, to help pay for school and stuff. And then after that, when I joined the military, I felt like I deserved you know, like a one bedroom condo for myself for I deserve to not have roommates anymore. I wish that I didn't do that. I wish that instead of purchasing a condo, I purchased a multi family before unit absolutely for unit. And just how sad. So that's what I do as soon as you can. You can afford a mortgage payment, buy a fourPlex and have roommates for as long as you can before you get married.

Yeah.

Alex:

I love your first piece of advice.

Actually, I think that's under shared advice. If you're going to say and you gotta become an officer, I think that's really good advice, actually. And one that and one that David, you know, he's too ashamed of himself to ever give that advice. But that is correct.

Ali:

Yeah, yeah, that's usually private advice that I go, when I want to not like broadcasted but I mean, if you're gonna stay in the military, who loves the military? Be an Officer.

David:

I actually had a package for our reset program drafted up. I just never submitted it.

Alex:

You don't get to brag about things you were gonna do?

David:

No, I was going to say that I didn't submit it for personality reasons. It wasn't it wasn't like I..

Alex:

You got peered out of being an officer before you even submitted the packet. That's interesting.

David:

No, I didn't envy what I saw my officers doing on a day to day, and I realized I would much rather run troops. In fact, I would say that the reason or one of the main reasons I'm getting out now is because I got promoted enough that that stopped being the case anyway. And I was like, Well, this is still boring. So but there are a ton of advantages to going officer or even worn officer. And yeah, but if you don't go to OCS, you'll get a roommate. Because they'll be in the barracks with one whether you like it or not, so.

No, I like that. That's good. That's good.

Alright.

So one resource book course website, whatever that you would recommend anybody looking to get into real estate, or or just better their personal finance right now?

Ali:

Yeah, I would say like any book by bigger pockets publishing, there's so much good meat in those books. You know, like definitely Rich Dad, Poor Dad type stuff, but that's a lot more theoretical, and it is tactical and actionable. So BiggerPockets forums, yes, but anybody can write in them. So I would say bigger pockets publishing.

And of course, your book!

David:

I just realized as I asked that question, I was like, somebody might say this eventually. I need to put one. I've got it. Like, back there.

Ali:

You should, subliminal messages. You should.

David:

I need it to keep popping next to me, so I can pick it up. It's probably a smart move.

Alex:

You know, you should do, you should get a big neon green sign behind you. That says something about the book. That's a good idea.

David:

Well, it's a good idea. It's almost like you said that yesterday and I already ordered it. You should see the spotlight I have going on in the books over here for another angle. It looks sick.

Anyway..

Alex:

I would love to see you use the lights correctly.

Ali:

Hey, we can see him now. Well, don't take that for granted.

Alex:

We can see him now. He looks good. He's got a side light working really good. I like it. I like it.

David:

Oh, my aperture 120d.

Alex:

Your hairline, on the camera, left.

David:

My newer.

Alex:

Yeah.

David:

I've even got the, you know, the back.

They're set up. The lights are set up, right. The camera wasn't.

Alex:

Yeah.

David:

The lights were set up by a guy who's got way more experience than I do. So. Not saying anything.

Anyway..

Ali:

Some nice mood lighting before we can barely see you.

David:

Yeah, it's because it's all set up for the other angle, which is much closer to the frame and a little bit heavier.

But where can people get a hold of you? If they'd like to ask more questions or follow your journey for self storage or you know, whatever the case may be?

Ali:

Yeah, yeah. I'm most active on Instagram. I pretty much live on Instagram. My handle is Ali. The Agent, Ali just spelled A L I. Yeah, so currently Air Force you know, special agent, but also real estate agent. Oh, which I didn't even talk about. I just ran Shelby Osborne's team five pillars.

45:00 - 47:06

Ali:

Look at Alex’s face.

Yeah. Super excited!

Alex:

I'm heading over to Shelby house right now. Actually.

Ali:

Oh really? We'll tell her I said hello.

David:

Yeah, you would have known Charlotte, huh?

Ali:

Yeah, so that's what I plan on doing full time.

Alex:

Shelby and I are very close friends.

Ali:

Yeah.

David:

I never would have guessed.

Alex:

Well, she's like, I'm her friend. She's not my friend.

David:

That makes sense.

Alex:

Yeah.

David:

One way, win or lose. I got you.

Oh, man, Ali. It was good. Getting to talk to you a second time. But getting into a podcast and you're a little bit more about your story. I like the fact that you've done a little bit of everything right. Like you've done the condo, you've done the single family, you've done the turnkey, you've done the duplex. Now you're moving on to bigger and better things, which is kind of the progression that we see with people. I like that and I think it's very, there's a word for it like reachable or attainable for people. There's a word that I'm looking for there. That means like you are totally down to earth and relatable to people but our listeners are gonna get a lot out of this just because it's all very realistic stuff that they can do. So we appreciate you having you on the show. And joining us for this first like super hodgepodge Alex in a car Dave not knowing how to work his camera time back in the podcast studio. It's good to be back.

Ali:

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you guys, for having me so much. I love the podcast that you guys do helping out military members become millionaires. I love it. I love it. I love it. Yeah, and if anyone has any questions, just hit me up on Instagram. And I look forward to meeting you guys both at BP con.

In person.

David:

I'll be there.

Ali:

Yeah:

Alex:

Ali, it was fantastic meeting you, thank you so much.

Ali:

Nice meeting you too. Take care of that hair.

End:

Thank you for listening to another episode about my journey from military to millionaire. If you liked it, be sure to visit frommilitarytomillionaire.com/podcast to subscribe to future podcasts. While you're there, we'd love for you to rate the show. Give us a review on iTunes. Now get out there and take action.