Episode 141 | Autumn Rankin | Military Millionaire Podcast

00:00 - 05:00

David:

What's up everybody? This is David Pere, the host of the military millionaire podcast and I am here with my friend Autumn Rankin, who is an Army veteran of six years a nurse practitioner who spent the last year fighting the pandemic in ICU across the country and really just having fun.

I mean, we've been talking, I've known her for a year and a half, two years on online. And she's done some really crazy deals over the last year while living out of state as well as literally not having a break working ICU/ER nurse stuff, just a crazy schedule. And I wanted to get her on the show now that she's finally got a little bit of free time in her schedule, and just kind of talk about how she's been able to build her business because she's done a lot in real estate over the last couple of years.

And yeah, so that's my that's my short intro, but Autumn 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 depart friendly lines. Roger Vic one Oscar Mike.

Sponsor:

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Now let's dig into this show.

Autumn:

Thank you for having me.

David:

Absolutely.

Why don't you tell the listeners a little bit of your background in life I guess and then real estate as well.

Autumn:

So I was a nurse for 12 years then decided I would go into nursing anesthesia school in the army.

So I direct the session there. I did not like it at all. And so I quit. I finished my time. Got out and went to nurse practitioner school. And now we're here in West Texas.

David:

Fair enough.

All right, let's hear the real estate side then what have you done in real estate?

Autumn:

Okay.

So, and in the real estate side of it. It was when I quit nursing anesthesia school that I was like, I don't know what I'm going to do with my life. Like everything I had worked for, you know, everything I had worked to get to that point was done.

And so as far as real estate goes, like where I'm at right now, I have four mobile home parks, and three single families. And then I own a note and also then of course personal residence and a commercial building. Also we have two Napa auto parts stores and one of the buildings.

David:

Yeah, I love it.

So what was which one was what was the first like real estate investment.?

Autumn:

So the first one was I was stationed in Hawaii, and I found a Freddie Mac foreclosure. That was back in my hometown area. And I know that I knew that market. And so I flew back. It was a single wide mobile, double wide mobile home on a quarter acre with my husband and that goes through my parents.

And so I flew back on an overnight flight. My family was still in Texas because they didn't like being in Hawaii and met up with a realtor to sign the contract. We had 24 hours to get $45,000 and so we cashed out our 401 Ks for a total of 15,000. We borrowed 10,000 from a friend and then I called up USA and asked for a personal loan to buy furniture and they approved me for 20,000.

And I couldn't believe that people really borrow money for furniture. But that sounded great. And so we closed on that property. And it just needed cosmetic work. So 5000 and cosmetic work, put it on the market. What I did is I put 45 in five, put it on the market at 97,000. And we offered financing. And it was sold in one week for 8% interest for 10 years, for 5000.

05:00 - 10:00

David:

Wow!

Autumn:

So at the end, it comes out at 127. And we own the note and get 1000 a month.

David:

That's awesome. That's cool. I can't believe, like I can believe that they would give you a personal loan for furniture. But 20 grand seems a little bit excessive.

What do we buy in one of those King beds? It's like three times the size of a normal King and?

Autumn:

Right.

David:

Custom built handmade. Whatever works, though, and clearly it paid for itself. Time and time again three folds. So that's awesome.

Autumn:

Yes.

David:

Yeah, that's super cool.

So okay, so we buy that one, we flip that one, we own the note. Where do you go from there?

Autumn:

So from there, I was in Hawaii. And so nothing was happening until two years later, when I finally got out of the military, came back home, got accepted to nurse practitioner school here in West Texas.

So we came here for me to go to school. And my husband used to manage carquest auto parts. And he decided that he didn't want to do mechanic work for the rest of his life. So he wanted to own a part store.

So we moved here to West Texas, we found out there was one close by that was for sale was going under. He knew that they were going to shut this guy down. And so I said, Let's buy the building. Because he was like no matter what, I'm gonna put an auto parts store here.

And I said, Okay, well, let's find a building. So I did all the research on who the owner was. And he went over there with all three kids while I was at work and found the owner and had a great discussion. We bought the building for 100,000, 20,000 down owner financed at 4%.

David:

That's awesome.

Autumn:

And so the payments are 600 a month. We wind up getting into Napa auto parts and purchasing a different business. And then we put another Napa into this building. And so our Napa Auto Parts pays us 2500 a month in rent payments of 2600. So that's neat. It's a 10,000 square foot building.

David:

Wow, that's a huge spread.

Is that a triple net?

Autumn:

Yes, it is.

David:

Wow. That's phenomenal!

Autumn:

Yeah, we were gonna only charge 1500 a month for rent. And then Napa corporate was like, No, that's the sides of buildings 2500 I was like, Okay, I'm not gonna argue with you.

David:

Yeah, like we would have been cool, lower. But I mean, if you're gonna push the button like, well, Alright, fine. We'll let you have it your way.

Autumn:

Yes.

David:

Wow!

Yeah, that's phenomenal, especially as a triple net lease, which, if anyone's listening to this, and doesn't know what triple net leases, would you mind, just filling them in?

Autumn:

So it's this really neat thing and commercial spaces. So you own the building. And not only that, they also have to pay the taxes. And so you get out of that huge responsibility for commercial property taxes every year. And so it's been you're really cash flowing a lot more.

David:

Yeah.

Autumn:

And not having to repair things.

David:

Yeah, exactly.

So you essentially hand it over to somebody and they do repairs, maintenance, taxes, insurance, utilities, whatever. And you're basically just on the horn for your note, which is awesome.

Autumn:

Yeah.

David:

I love it.

And that's something unique to the commercial space. But it definitely makes things very appealing for somebody who doesn't want to be super involved in real estate because you can make fairly large purchases yourself, but it would still be relatively passive, which is just phenomenal.

Autumn:

Yes.

David:

Okay. So then where'd you go? You own all these mobile home parks? Is that where you went next?

Autumn:

So it is, because, uh, you know, um, I had never owned. I never really worked on a stick built house, or a pier and beam or anything like that. I grew up in mobile homes. That's what I was used to. And so I told my husband, you know, you know what, I really think I want to just stick with what I know. But do it on a larger scale. I want a mobile home park. That's what I want.

10:00 - 15:00

Autumn:

So, you know, I looked around. I talked to several owners and the Napa store in Clyde that we own, he was working one day and this elderly lady came in. And she wanted to buy a battery tester for the golf cart, but was not willing to pay the $20 for the battery tester.

And so he's like, Okay, how about I just come over? And I'll test the battery for you, you know, because batteries are a pretty good profit. They, especially for golf carts.

David:

Yeah.

Autumn:

And so he's like, I'll just go over and test it. So he goes over there, tests the battery working on the golf cart, and the couple are talking, talking and talking. We just drive this around the park. And he's like, what park? And they're like, this is a mobile home park. It's like it is and you know, he didn't realize it because it was so nice. And then he says, Would you like to sell? My wife wants one?

And they were like, Well, actually, yeah, we had just been talking about that. You know, they had been approached by multiple people, but they weren't ready. And then they decided they were ready. And so they, he's like, Okay, I'm gonna bring my wife over to look at it. And they call coming. When are you coming? And I was like,you know, give me a minute here.

So I went and looked, and we talked to them and he said, they wanted 300,000 for the park, and it was 10 lots, 9 homes, plus the rock home that they lived in plus this big steel shop. And I was like, okay, you know, that does seem reasonable. And then he said, but I want 10% interest. And I was like, Oh, wow. And he said, No, I want 10% flat rate interest.

So I just want $30,000 for interest. That's it. And we'll carry the note. You don't have to put any money down. And I was like, really?

David:

Over what term?

Autumn:

10 years, okay, I'm sorry, I'm kind of blanking here. I think it's a 10 year amortization. Or maybe it's a 30 year amortization. But I told them like, cash out refi in five.

David:

Man, that's like a third of a percent interest.

Autumn:

Yes.

So we were like, bam, okay, July 1, we're at. I was like, all of a sudden, we're at the closing place and the closing company called him. And they were like, we're afraid that the paperwork is wrong. This says 0% interest. And he's like, no, it's right. And then they called me, we're trying to make sure that you're not taking advantage of these people. I was like, I'm not taking advantage of him. He's the one who said it.

David:

Yeah, he brought it up.

Autumn:

He brought it up. And so they were very confused about the whole deal. But we did it. And so that was the start of the mobile home parks.

David:

That's awesome.

So I've actually negotiated I haven't, I haven't purchased either, but I've negotiated 0% interest seller financing twice. The reason I haven't purchased is one of them the purchase price was like 20 grand, so I just paid the lady cash rather than having a note.

And on the other one, we like, I sent her the contract to sign and then her son was like, I think I'll buy it. So she's given him 30 days. And if he doesn't buy it by the end of this month, then she'll give it back to me. But people don't realize that, like, that's a real thing. It's like, and it's not like you're saying, Hey, you know, I want to pay you zero interest. I literally just tell people like, okay, that price works.

Are you open to me paying you overtime? Or do you want it all upfront? And if they're like, actually, I'd like it over time. I'm like, okay, cool, how about over 10 years and I just never even mentioned it and unless they ask for it, you know, a lot of people are totally fine with zero interest as long as they you know, get their money over time and don't have to pay the huge capital gains tax because that's basically like earning interest on their money.

Autumn:

Yes, yes.

David:

Wow!

Autumn:

So that one's been everyone's been good. Um, the second part I found on sale on Zillow. And it was totally advertised wrong. It was for sale by the owner. It said 129 and it was an eight lot car technically in the city limits had city water but it was on septic from the 80s unlike each home having their own tank. I'm telling you this place was so creepy.

I couldn't believe somebody was still living in one of the homes but the weeds were about chest high.

David:

Wow.

Autumn:

And one of the units had been burned to the ground by another tenant. There have been some stabbings out there.

David:

Oh, perfect.

15:00 - 20:00

Autumn:

Somebody had dope fire in the back of another unit. And they were so beyond crazy. The lady would not respond to my messages. And so I wind up telling her I'm interested in that property and another little house that you have for sale. And I want both of them, I'll take you to lunch.

So then she responded. And I was able to get all of the details of the park, finding out that she actually owned a note on it. That was privately owned by a guy in town, who's a big business owner. And I was like, Well, how much do you owe on the note? And she said, $50,000. And this was two and a half acres, eight lights. And I said, Well, I got it for you. 80,000. So you can have 30,000 in cash, and Allison the note, meaning you're not gonna have to deal with him anymore, I'm assuming.

And so I did all the paperwork, and not 30,000 in cash, and then called him up and was like, hey, I've got some paperwork for you to sign. I'm gonna assume this note, he didn't even know what property it was, because he has so much. But he signed it. And then actually, to get rid of the old mobile homes, instead of just burning them down. Because I would have gotten in trouble. I reached out to a local religious cult, who's been on the FBI watch list for quite a while.

David:

I love where this is going already.

Autumn:

Yes!

And I said, you know, Hey, I heard you guys are interested in some mobile homes, I have some that you can have, if you'll just take them off and clean the lot up. So one of their member leaders went out there and met up with me. And he looked through them and he's like, these are great! And I was like, that's wonderful! I'm so glad I can help you.

And they took all eight homes, they got their tractor, and they came out there and they called them like 30 miles down the side of the interstate. Each one, and they cleaned up the lots for me. And it was all free.

David:

So we have like a mass suicide and mobile home parks in West Texas.

Autumn:

Yes.

David:

Autumn, autumn was responsible for part of this.

Autumn:

Company has been in contact with.

David:

Okay, so I'm seeing a trend here, though, with all of these purchases, and I love it. And I'm gonna point it out for a couple of people.

Every single one of these purchases so far has involved you personally contacting a seller, like direct communication, and finding a win win. Right like, and and honestly, I love the fact that the first mobile home park wouldn't have come around for like 90% of people, because most people had, they've been standing in an auto parts store. And some old lady came in and said, I want to test my battery. But I don't want to spend the money on this battery tester. They would have said, well, it's $20, take it early.

And your husband was like, Well, you know, I'll come help you out and whatever. And then just happened to stumble upon exactly what you guys were looking for and knew that that's what you were looking for and ask the question, which is another thing a lot of people wouldn't have done. But all of these deals I've literally come from, so I went and talked to them. So we asked them if they wanted to sell. So we found a guy who wanted to sell a building, like with Napa, and we decided to buy the building on seller financing. They're all direct to the seller, which I love. They're all creative financing there or to a cult, which is awesome.

But none of these are done traditionally at all. I mean, from a personal loan for furniture to like they're all very creative. And they've all been well. How can I figure out how to make that happen, which is what I love about all of this. So I wanted to get you on the show because a lot of people think, Oh, well I can't do that. Or, well, I don't have 20% down or you know, but neither did you when you started and most of these haven't required 20% down.

Autumn:

Yeah, I've never put that much down.

David:

Yeah, I mean, this is awesome. So okay, so yourself. Forgive.

Autumn:

The banks won't even talk to me.

David:

There's no way they would have lent on a mobile home park. That's so bad. You give them to a cult they wouldn't like get out of here. Go away.

Autumn:

Yes, yeah.

David:

Alright, so this cult comes in.

Autumn:

Yeah.

David:

Beautifies your mobile home park for you. And then I'm guessing you pull new homes in?

Autumn:

Well, I pulled in some used tones. One has never been ready to have them. They have needed a lot of work that I've had nightmares with contractors on and then I did just get one that doesn't need work, but it just has to get hooked up to the electric and water and septic and it's ready to rent.

20:00 - 25:00

David:

What's up guys hope you're enjoying the show, I wanted to stop for just a few seconds to talk once more about Rentometer and know that they did not sponsor the second ad. This is a mid roll ad, they sponsored the beginning of the show, but I believe in Rentometer enough that I wanted to just poke my head in here and reiterate that you guys should give it a shot, it's a seven day free trial, this will absolutely save you money by helping you get greater rents on a property or helping you avoid from trying to ask for too much in rent and sitting vacant forever, which can be almost as costly, if not worse.

So I absolutely recommend that you go try Rentometer for free at Rentometer.com or the link down in the show notes and give them a shot you absolutely can't lose with a free trial that will literally make you 1000s of dollars on your rentals.

Now back to the episodes.

David:

And they're all better than Cult quality.

Autumn:

Way better than quality. Yes, yes.

But I have found out that it's not worth my time or my energy to buy ones that need fixing.

David:

Yeah.

Autumn:

It's really not, especially with the materials cost the way it is. And you know, I was gone for a year working COVID and trying to arrange contractors to do it. Because my husband was running to auto parts stores, still meeting the needs of like, a lot of my properties, and we have three kids. And so he was taking care of all of that, and didn't have time to fix them up. And so it's just easier if I spend the extra money and get them ready to move in. Not new. Those are way too expensive.

David:

No, yeah. And I agree with you on that. I can see that. I mean, out here in California, they have mobile home parks or mobile homes, like individual mobile homes that they'll sell. And even here in San Diego, they're only like, $200,000, right.

So even there the money is not. Yeah, I know. 200k is nuts for a mobile home park for anywhere else in the country. But that's, that's like the top of the line here. So like anywhere else in the country, right. You know, you're looking at a couple $1,000 here 15-20, 30-40, whatever. And the money that you take to renovate the house.

Yeah, exactly. The amount of money you got to spend to renovate it. Just the bank, the bank isn't worth it.

Autumn:

No.

David:

Yeah, I can see that.

So then you've got two more mobile home parks, a few houses. But the important. The other cool thing here is that you've done a lot of this while you've been nowhere near these properties and working. Yeah, I mean, I would imagine when you were doing ICU stuff, 12 hour shifts, right?

Autumn:

Yes.

So they were 12 hour days. One place was six days a week. The other one was five days a week. I've done a lot, because I use the lawyer who works for the title company that I use.

David:

I like it.

Autumn:

I use him personally. So he draws up my contract, and then does the closing. And so he'll draw up the contracts for me. He will always get a power of attorney for my husband to sign or they'll send a mobile notary.

So he did a series LLC for me when I was in New York. And while I was in New York City, I had found it before I went to New York. So I found this mobile home that looked like it had been abandoned on a city lot. So it's not a part of a park or anything. And I went in. All the windows were busted out and the place had been trashed. I looked it up. And I had written the person. And then I got this strange call one day when I was in New York, and this elderly lady is telling me that the person that I wrote to was her son, and he's in prison. And that house belongs to him.

But like she'd gotten the letter and mailed it to him in prison and he had to ride her back and tell her to call me and so you can't send pictures like in the envelope. And so what I did was I sent the photos I had taken to my like and printed them out on a piece of paper so I could show him what the house looks like on the inside. And I said you know hey, there's a couple kids. It was the kids down the street. You know the neighborhood had told me it was the kids down the street who had busted in all windows broken here's the condition of your house. Do you want to sell? I'll offer you $6,000 for the house and a lot. Nine owes a lot alone is worth 10 because I had just sold some I thought on auction. Yeah. And I was like this will go a long way in contract. They're for those in that department. So she was like, Oh, your sales papers in prison. It was kind of funny, like, I could technically have put the money on his books. But he wanted it to go to his checking account and his mom had. But she said she didn't want it in there because she was in trouble with the IRS.

We made it to where she was able to deposit the money, but it wasn't under her.

25:00 - 30:00

David:

If there's a more mobile home park, real estate story, then the guys in prison and his mom's got IRS legal problems, and my kids down the street, rip out the windows. I haven't heard of it.

I mean, this is basically every stereotype wrapped into one. And what I love you to do so when I was a recruiter for the Marine Corps, I had a kid who wanted to join who was 17. And his mom was in prison. And in order for a 17 year old to join the Marine Corps, you need parental consent.

And so I got to drive all the way up, there was like two and a half, three hours northeast. And so I've gotten to personally, you know, most of the recruiters in the office were like, Oh, well, that's it. And I was like, Nah, that's not it. And I showed up at prison. And I mean, I got parental consent sitting in like the visit room in a jail. So I can fully appreciate how much of a pain in the rear. This is.

But this just goes to even further reiterate like if you have a win win in mind, and you're confident enough, and you know not gonna get in, they'll let obstacles get in your way to stop and say, oh, like most people would have been like, oh, man, alright, well, when does he get out of prison?

You're like, Well, how do I send this guy letters with pictures that won't get them in trouble?

Autumn:

Yes.

Yeah, you can use it for cigarettes and coffee.

David:

I love it.

Oh my gosh.

Autumn:

The third part that I got is in a little town right by where I live. And this one.

This one is a really big dump also. And this little town is up and coming. And it's got the same school district that we're in, and it's the most desired school district in the county. State championships for football, all of this yada yada.

David:

Yeah.

Autumn:

Well, I saw an opportunity to provide affordable housing. And that's my thing, if I provide clean, safe, affordable housing, like and..

David:

Even people in the cult.

Fully affordable.

Autumn:

And so I had figured out who the owner was by the county records, like in care of so I realized that she had a sibling via the obituary, then I found out they had left her house, like in the other neighboring town. And so I wrote her a letter in December of 2019. And I didn't hear back, and most people would stop there, but that's not going to stop me, I will find out where you are.

And so we got back from spring break. And that's when COVID like everything shut down. And I was like, she's gonna be home. Everything is shut down. And so I drove to her house and knocked on her door. And again, kids answered, and she, you know, let me in and I was like, you know, I'm autumn and, and I know you're in the park. They're in town. I wrote you a letter in December.

And she said, Oh, yeah, I got a lot of letters about that park. And I said, but you didn't come back. And she was like, No, I never call anybody back. And I was like, well, that's why I'm here. You didn't call me back and I want to buy your park. She was like, She's so funny. She says, I like you. Like I have never had somebody show up. Just because I didn't call him back. She's like, you got some definite drive. I like you. And so she sent me this card. She said she wanted 325 for it. And it's 14 lots. Now. There's a lot of catches with this park. Nobody had been paying rent. Rent for like seven years. No one paid the rent. One of the homes was completely abandoned for three and a half years.

Oh, there's like seven jumped out cars. There's a broken down u haul. It's really overgrown. And I said okay, you I'll agree to your price.

30:00 - 35:00

Autumn:

Will you owner finance? And she was like, yeah. Oh, sure, well, and so we agreed that I asked her, how much did she want down? or What was she wanting to have? Like, what was she wanting to buy that she would need money down? And she said she wanted to get a new to her, but Used Toyota Camry. So she wanted about $25,000.

I said, Okay, that's doable. And she's, and I said, Well, how about 5%? For 10 years? And she was like, That sounds good. And so it took me one year to close.

David:

Oh, wow.

Autumn:

Oh, yes. And bless her heart, she is super sweet and fun. The reason it took so long was because I was, I was gone. But then she was like, I want to use my lawyer, while her lawyer, I'm not kidding, is in his 80s. And he kept forgetting. Even though I had written down everything for the contract, he kept forgetting what our agreement was. And so we finally got to closing and out the terms. So I got her to agree to no payments for the first six months, so that there would be I could the place cleaned up and get some use terms in there and get rent coming in.

David:

Man, they're also so and I know, like mobile home parks are, are usually like seller financing is fairly common for mobile home loans compared to everything else, just because banks don't want to mess with them.

But that's awesome. I mean, that's another one that's like 8% down 5% interest, no payments for maybe even less than 8%, down 25 grands 7-8 somewhere like that. And then no payments for six months. That's awesome. And the crazy thing to me about that is she hadn't gotten a lot rent in like seven years. Like, how do you sit on something that long?

Autumn:

She didn't need the money because she had inherited it from her parents. She inherited her home from her parents and had a stable job.

David:

Gotcha.

Autumn:

Yes.

David:

But that just baffles me like to just let it rot, when you could easily be thinking.

Autumn:

Oh, my gosh, I know. Yes.

Well, day one of me taking over. You know, we went and looked at it. The seventh day I had it, I had made flyers to go and give all of the tenants along with my card and phone number. And the flyer said, Hey, y'all, you know, here's my name, and I'm the new owner. And the rent is going to be 250 a month. And here's the comparables in the area for why it's 250. So it's less than one Park, but it's more than the other park. And you know, it's expected from the first up to the fifth, everything was laid out. I let them know that the park is going to be getting cleaned up and that it's going to be a place that they're going to be proud to live in.

So day one, I had a family start packing up their house, because they were not going to pay that.

David:

Perfect! Where do you wanna go?

Autumn:

And we're wonderful. Great. And so I was like, great. So are you going to move your house? Or can I buy that?

David:

Awesome.

Autumn:

And so they actually wound up paying for the month of April because they had not moved any of their stuff out. And so they wanted to argue like we didn't sign a new lease, and I just let him. Okay. You know what, you're right. You didn't sign a new lease, just just be chill, it's fine. And then they were like, Oh, can we meet we'll pay you rent since we haven't moved out yet. It worked. And now the most surprising thing is I actually sent out all new park rules, including a maximum of two pets, and no vicious breeds. No pitbulls. And there's a family who had just moved in there that had four dogs, and one was a pit bull. And it was like trying to come after everybody. It could climb the fence.

And they're really nice people and I was like, I'm sure this isn't gonna go over well, but here's the deal. You know, my insurance is not going to cover this. They were so sweet. They actually wound up getting him fixed and taking them to their moms that live down the road. And, you know, they're trying to fix up their house and it's going to work out and so I was kind of worried about how this is going to be taking over enforcing new rules and having a complete turnaround but it's turned out well so far.

35:00 - 40:00

David:

I mean, that's hilarious to me though, that the fans were like, well screw you then, we're moving like, Where? Where do you plan on moving if you're gonna be able to live for less than $250 a month? Let me know.

Autumn:

I was like okay great less people to deal with.

David:

Nevermind how much it costs to move a mobile home park right like we're talking Okay, fine. Screw you. We're gonna pay $5,000 to move our trailer down the road and pay the same amount of rent.

Autumn:

Yes, exactly. Exactly.

David:

Be our guests, have fun!

You could live here for two years for the amount of money it'll cost to move your stinking trailer.

But have fun!

Autumn:

Yes.

David:

yes, my gosh.

That's why people like the non-Park owned homes, right? Because it's such a pain to move a home that most people will just say, we'll just stay here forever.

Autumn:

Yes, exactly. It is not cheap. And it's not even just the moving part that is so expensive. It's like the skirting and of course steel has gone up by 85% since November, and then hooking up your electric like getting you have to have the electrician to hook it to the pole. Like tie in and then tie in the septic and the water or the sewer and the water.

David:

Yeah.

Autumn:

Yes.

David:

Yeah. Not an easy process at all.

So okay, so we've owned, Holy smokes, I'm doing the math in my head. Like I remember you. I remember talking to you about some of these deals in the past. But it's cool to hear it just lined out like that. I mean, that's three seller financed homes, a seller financed building with a Napa in it, another Napa that you guys own, and then or manage. And then three homes, a mobile home park you bought from a dude in jail. Like Not to mention the whole cult thing, which is hilarious. But that's a lot of real estate done. And nothing traditional. And I love it. Because I'm all for it, I mean, not everybody on this show is heard. We haven't dug super into detail. But we just took over a 40 unit Hotel 3 weeks ago, and we gave the guy 100.

Autumn:

That’s awesome.

David:

Yeah, like 950 purchases, we gave the guy 100 grand and said, Can we just take over like he literally it was a Friday, we've been going back and forth for like three weeks.

And on Friday, he's like we were drafting the lease. And he goes, if you guys give me 100 grand Monday, it's yours, like. And I was like, can we work for like two week time to do the inspection, and then you can refund us if we find any major structural issues. And he's like, Yeah. All right. And so we wrote the duty check and took over Monday. And so we took over on the fifth, then..

Autumn:

That's awesome.

David:

Yeah, it's crazy. But I love those kinds of deals. And that was literally, the seller called me from a postcard. I sent him about a single family house. And he's like, I've got a hotel and two apartments, 79 doors if you want those.

Autumn:

Woooow!

David:

And I mean, it was like a three month follow up process and like, lots of negotiations. But yeah, we took over the hotel, and then we're buying the both apartments officially on the first of June.

Autumn:

That is so awesome.

David:

And so I love these crazy, you know, deals where you're just like, whatever. And people. People hear the stories and they're like, Oh, well, that's cool. But that couldn't be for me. You've done it like six times now.

And so that should prove to anybody that it's doable. It's just that you have to be able to talk to the sellers directly. You're not gonna find this on the MLS. You're not gonna find. Yeah, it's, I mean, you're like, literally, it's kind of creepy actually. How stalkerish you are on some of these owners. I love it. You're like I showed up at our freakin house. I know how to find people like, Oh, all right.

But all of that stuff's public record. And it's, it's easy to do if you just have the confidence to be like, Alright, well, I'm gonna show up at somebody's house. And, you know.

Man, that's just cool.

So we've covered everything. We've talked about how you've been able to do all this while long distance, which is just awesome.

I have a few questions that I asked every guest right? And just basic, basic stuff. The first one is, like if you were to talk to E one, E two or like an 18 year old, and just they were asking for you advice on business or real estate, like what's the one thing that you would want to tell them? I didn't prep you at all because I'm a jerk. So.

Autumn:

No, that's okay.

On business or real estate, I would say to read as many books as you can. And that is like all of the bigger pockets books, and then your books that you just released, because that would really help them to realize it, because so many people who are in the military are like, oh, but that won't apply to me because I'm in the military. No, but it does still apply to you.

David:

Absolutely does.

Autumn:

And, and you know, okay, it doesn't, it will apply to you because so people would say, what do you do? And I'm like, Oh, well, I'm a full time army. I didn't realize, you know, that meant like active duty, but I'm just like, no, it's like a full time job. So.

40:00 - 44:48

David:

Yeah.

Autumn:

You just have a different job than other people do. And it's no big deal.

David:

That's true. And it absolutely is applicable. And I appreciate the plug. I didn't tell her to say that, by the way, guys. But thank you.

Alright, so that actually rolls right into I usually the next one I ask is resources. So like a book, course or website that you recommended you mentioned the BiggerPockets books. You gave me a little shout out there. But are there any other specific books that you think are worth reading for the real estate business world? I agree with BiggerPockets.

Autumn:

Yes, there is.

There's a book. It's so difficult to narrow this down.

Okay. There's, there's a book and it's like, this guy, Tim Shiner, who's in South Lake, Texas, by Dallas was on the BiggerPockets podcast a long time ago. And he wrote a book called 50 things they didn't teach you in school. And you can buy it, I think through his website, maybe Amazon. And like, all the proceeds go to this women shelter or food shelter or something.

These 50 things that they didn't teach you in school were amazing. It was eye opening. And it's not just Oh, hey, here's how to balance a checkbook. All of these things. He uses real world examples of what he's experienced. There are things like, follow up with a thank you note.

David:

Hmm.

Autumn:

You know, when you meet somebody new, you know, follow up with a thank you note. And it was just very valuable. information. Super easy read. But I'm definitely having my kids read that one.

David:

Yeah, let's check that out.

I like to think you know, one I tried to, I'm not as consistent with it as I should be right now. But like, whenever I do, it will be easier when I'm physically the person going to homes when I move back this summer. But I tried to send a thank you note or a nice to meet you note for every seller whose house I visit with an appointment to talk about home, whether I buy it or not. So keeps you top of mind and just a nice gesture. So.

But the last one, where can people get a hold of you if they want to ask you some more questions about your story?

Autumn:

So I'm on Instagram, and my handle is Queen doublewide.

David:

I love it.

I hadn't seen that one before. I'm gonna go follow. Oh, that's funny.

I mean, I think we do follow each other on Instagram. I just didn't know that. I don't know.

Autumn:

We probably do. I try to keep up with Instagram, such as posting stuff about business.

And then I'm on Facebook under Autumn Rankin? Yeah. Pretty easy to find.

David:

Indeed, indeed.

All right. Well, hey, any parting? Is there anything we missed? I mean, I feel like we covered your story. And while we were able to go through your story, I mean, there's just a lot of valuable tidbits in there for anybody who's thinking about getting into real estate and doesn't want to go play the MLS 25% down game.

Autumn:

I think we covered everything. And creative financing is definitely the way to go. It's much faster. It's actually way easier. And it's way more fun.

David:

Yeah, I agree. It is all of those things. Yeah. And it's usually more of a win-win too, unless they really just want the cash right away. It is a great way to, you know, be able to work out exactly what they want and find terms that are great for everybody. So I agree.

Well, this has been a long time coming. And I'm glad we finally did it. Because your store stuff you the investments you've made are awesome. And the way you've made them work is just fun. I love it. So I look forward to hearing about the next crazy deal. And, you know, maybe maybe you find Amish people next time instead of a cult or yeah, we'll see.

Autumn:

Yes, yes, I'll keep you up to date.

David:

Awesome. Thank you very much for joining us.

Autumn:

Thank you so much.

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.