Episode 28 | Derek King | Military Millionaire Podcast

00:00 - 05:00

David:

Hey, what's up military millionaires. I'm your host David Pere.

Today we have an exciting episode about the road to investing in real estate with Derek King.

If this is your first time listening thanks for joining the community. This podcast is produced every week for your enjoyment. Show notes are found at Frommilitarytomillionaire.com/podcast.

Now relax and enjoy the show.

Intro:

You're listening to the military millionaire podcast, a show about real estate investing for the working class.

Stay tuned as we explore ways to help you improve your finances, build wealth through real estate and become a person that is worth knowing.

David:

Hey, what's up everybody? It's Dave military to millionaire.

I'm here with Derek King and as you can see by if you're watching the YouTube video, you can see the little Grant Cardone 10x Pass hanging in the background there so Derek and I met out at the 10x growth conference two weekends ago we shared and Airbnb with like nine other eight other investors and it was it was a good time we drank some beer we talk some real estate we slept all over the place on like air mattresses and you know, real military type crap where we're sleeping on couches and sleeping bags and chairs and whatever. And yeah, we say we talk a little bit, he just back at the time of this recording. He's not fully retired yet. But by the time this comes out, he will be so he is just now retiring from the military and moving on to some big things in the real estate world.

So Derek, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Derek:

Yeah, man. So a 20 year veteran, like you just said, I'm getting ready to retire my retirement dates. Actually, one March, I came in when I was 18. I'm 38 now, it was a long haul. It was fun. But I took it, I used it for what I needed it for, I gave my base, got my foundation, and now I'm ready to move on and do good things.

I spent 10 years as an infantry guy, 10 years greenbrae down at seventh group. And yeah, that's that's my military career wise. As far as on the other side of the house, you know, investing or whatnot, about 2008, when the recession hit is when real estate kind of came on my radar. At that time, I'm kind of a detail oriented kind of guy, like good knowledge before I go into something. So as soon as the recession hit, I was like, Okay, this is real estate. So let me try to figure out what's going on with this.

So I did. At the same time I was actually having my son at the same time. He was well, I shouldn't say what's happening. He was born like a year before that. And I had him and then I was also transitioning to be ss, I was going through the course and everything.

So there was a lot going on, recession was going on and all that stuff too. So I was going to go down to Florida and I was looking at that market down in Florida. And I went down there. I did do some reconnaissance down there with family and brought the family down there one notch, I looked at the different things that are available down here. A lot of guys were starting to build it up a lot of the properties down there.

So I was very timid at the time, I was a little bit young, very timid, a young, you know, young baby and everything, but I wanted to go into some kind of investment. So I didn't find a deal before we got down here. But I decided to get down, get down here, get into a rental, single family rental house and start looking at the different markets that were down there, this is new, so get a good feel and not go into something that was gonna appreciate it or lose money on.

That turned out to actually be a bad move, because a lot of the guys that were buying up houses before we went down in that, that were down there for a good year or two years, their houses were automatically appreciating you. That was something that I learned with the market, obviously, you know, the markets below the side of the house. Whether it be the stock market, or even the housing market is probably the best time to be buying. That was one of the things I had to learn very, at a very young age or very start with my real estate ventures.

That was regardless of the fact that Florida was one of the worst markets out there. It was probably the best market to buy. But I didn't. I was a little intimidated. I lived with a lot of things going on. And I started to get deployed so there were a lot of deployments in there a little bit further after that I ended up going through a divorce. So there's a lot of things that were going on that would kind of hold me back from going into investing portion of it, but I was learning a lot. And I was just really getting a good feel for it. I was just kind of doing some self studies. Another thing you know reading of Robert Kiyosaki and Grant Cardone actually came up on my radar not too long ago, as long after I got down there, when he was in his earlier stages, still making dollars. I mean, I've been doing that for a while, but um, I didn't touch that all that much, you know, just to learn.

05:00 - 10:00

Derek:

The divorce kind of, you know, is kind of a kick in the butt, set me back a little bit too. But then I was like, you know, I'm gonna keep going forward and keep grinding forward and try to try to get this, you know, this started whatnot, start to look at the market, the stock as far as the stock market was concerned, just different investment opportunities, vehicles and stuff.

So being a single guy at that point in deploying, I was just deploying, deploying, deploying, but then I eventually got tired of that. And I was like, alright, let me let me see what I can do. I'm going to head up to Fort Bragg for a little while and do some inspecting time. And I try to time it out where I would go here to do my obligation of three years here, 20 years. And it worked. It actually worked out. I got an early, early arrival here. And it was right at my three year mark.

But I knew coming up here, I was like, Okay, I'm going to start it because I'm going to start something new at Fort Bragg. North Carolina’s market is good and booming. I was tracking their market for a while. Obviously, you have Charlotte Raleigh, just about any, I guess five off the top five cities in this in the state. Their market is just insane right now. And that going into it three years ago, coming up here three years ago. So they are going to go into an investment.

So I started looking at my first investment, serious investment. I was getting into a deal with a house in a perfect area, perfect school district near the I couldn't lose on this deal. Unfortunately, my money got mishandled. And I ended up in a lawsuit the owners backed out unexpectedly about three weeks before I ended up coming up here, and I ended up in an apartment.

So that was it, I can, you know, isn't really kicking the butt there. Um, but I just kept going to try and try to drive forward with it. I thought maybe it was somewhat of a blessing that I wasn't getting to that house. So I came up here I was getting into an apartment, I'll learn a little bit about the markets around here. And then you'll get a better feel for it. That way I can make a more informed decision. And as I was doing that, I was actually getting into the stock market. So I was trying to try to split out. And so if I had to give any advice, if anybody takes anything out of this podcast right now, that would be to not split atoms because you're trying to focus on one thing and then go into the stock market and you're trying to focus on your money in that it tends to be a little difficult in the stock market it's very hard a day trading, you know, try to do penny stocks. I did different things last month, but um, but not to say it's not an investment, good investment in that people can profit from that. I'm just saying that for me. And for the career I was in a little bit difficult to set aside the time that you need to put forward, you know, forth. Where's that?

David:

Yeah, especially on the east coast where when the market opens, you know, out here in Hawaii, it's kind of convenient because the market opens it depending on half half the year opens at 3:30 in the morning, our time the other half the year it opens at 4:30 in the morning, our time. So if you're up at four in the morning, you know you can day trade and go to work. Get to do that on the east coast. You got to like doing it during lunch.

Derek:

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

And that's late, it was nearly impossible. I find myself actually at work in some cases with my phone in my hand, trying to, you know, turn over build, buy and sell and stuff like that, like working out...

David:

Boss comes in and tells you you got to go do something you're like, hang on, hang on. I gotta wait 30 more seconds so I can sell this.

David:

Yeah, exactly.

So that was really hard. Um, that just honestly, it just requires I mean, for this way I'm getting ready to retire. I'm gonna have a full pension all my bills are paid for. So it's like if I wanted to right now get into a training that's all I wanted to do for eight hours a day right here my computer, you know, and make some money. I probably could do that. But um, but I have a different idea of investments now.

The three years I was at the schoolhouse here. I was lucky enough to have a co worker of mine who was already in the game for a little while. And we gained some common ground and very start. We started talking about one of the Robert Kiyosaki books and stuff and just got to talk one day and he was pretty much like Derek hated. My best advice to you is to stop everything you're doing with the market and get into real estate.

10:00 - 15:00

Derek:

My opinion, real estate is probably the best investment out there. I'm sure you can buy, explain that more in depth. But I'm, I'm still a rookie, I'm still starting out, I am actually sitting in a primary residence right now. So I was in an apartment for a little while. And actually for about a year, for the first six months I was here, I was doing my analysis on all the markets and stuff around the area. And then my buddy actually told me to get into real estate. He owned this house, actually. And he was, I want to say six or seven houses in but he was trying to sell a few of those properties because he was trying to get a pot of money together for a down payment.

And this house is actually the last deal that you need to do to get off his belt and get off, you need to get out of it.

So he did give it to me for below price, which was great. We didn't realize it obviously, because appraisal didn't come through till afterwards. But I ended up with about $8,000 on positive equity from the very getgo. He ended up pulling like 34 or something like that out of it, because he bought as a foreclosure.

But I mean, it's a beautiful house. I love it. It's a primary residence. Obviously, it's not a liability. I mean, obviously, it's not an asset, but I plan on turning it into an asset. So where I've been from that point to buying this house to now. Well, I've been trying to get into some more investments. The divorce was actually kicked me in the butt. I stated that back what 2013 was when I was down in Florida, but it took me some years to actually get that done and actually file it.

David:

Not a fast process.

Derek:

Yeah, not a fast process at all. And I was deploying everything else. And then all the court. I mean, I ended up having to get into a consolidation loan. Because it cost me so much money.

So that was kind of a kind of setback. So I'm like, Alright, well. You always hear the thing. Well, when's the right time to invest? Was right, right now is the right time to do it. This, my stances are a little bit different.

So I invested in this, this was kind of like step one, let me get back into the game. And then, you know, let me get my credit back up. Let me get this solidation done. And then I can sit down, look at my finances and work it out. By that time I had about a year, year and a half left to go for I was getting ready to retire at 20. I had just hit 20 years on January 12. This year.

David:

Exciting.

Derek:

And it was interesting, because I had a year mark. Yeah, I know. We were just talking before we started this recording, we were talking about some VA stuff. So I had a year mark, I honestly like eating out of the doctor's appointment every day. And like that focus, like, let me get focused, whenever set on what's going to happen for my retirement and everything. And I was not able to build. I was not able to focus on actually doing any kind of investments.

But I kept up, I'll say, you know, let me look at the Charlotte market. Let me look at the Raleigh market. I was actually learning a lot about the market, and which looked great, obviously up until the hurricane hit last year. Met and got introduced to a lot of brokers down there. And just a lot of different investors down in Wilmington and stuff will harvest a lot.

David:

Yeah, it’s nice though.

Derek:

It is but yeah, you're landlocked going north or south because you have the river and everything. So it's kind of it's kind of difficult to expand out there. That was kind of the turnoff for me as far as that's concerned. Charlotte is great. I mean, it's doubled in size in the last two decades.

David:

Yeah.

Derek:

Well, Rye has Amazon and stuff, there's a lot of factors here, that being that being said soon so other advice from some nerd guys that are getting into it, just knowledge that I learned understand the demographics of where you're where you want to invest.

Look, know the news. Know the news that's happening around those areas. Amazon for a while, was looking for a second headquarters, I'm sure that a lot of people that are listening to this right now investors and stuff, they're probably aware that one of those areas was Raleigh, North Carolina, a lot to know specifically where that was gonna be. That's obviously a huge factor. And that's huge. Those big companies that are coming in, obviously, they're bringing in 2500 jobs. At Least 2500 people, you want to multiply that by two, because you have couples and you get 5000 people and you get whatever, that's a lot. It's, you know, maybe 2500 ohms. So that's, yeah, look at those kinds of things.

So, uh, so maybe in a really detail oriented kind of guy, I was like, You know what, I've learned a lot about that and haven't made a move yet. Um, other than this right here, which I'm gonna use I'm going to turn into NASA here shortly. But I was like, you know, how can I best get in the game, and network and get around a lot of good people that know it. And that will help me guide me with things that I don't know about it.

15:00 - 20:00

Derek:

So as I was going through the retirement process in about, I guess, about October timeframe, I was like, You know what, I'm going to go out and get my real estate license. You go get my real estate license, and you helped me get around some good people. You're more likely. That was an assumption for us. Well, that assumption is correct. I'm sure you know that too. Because you're, you're a broker as well.

David:

Yep. Yep. Well, I'm not a broker, just an agent. But you know..

Derek:

An agent. Yes. Yeah.

David:

Same thing.

Derek:

Just but um, so. So yeah, I've been working on that. I think that's when I start school. I think November, I finished school. I graduated my class in December, Christmas leave came up. And then in January is when I was actually finally out of the military. So I spent the majority of January getting done with the military.

And here we are now in February, I'm actually going to take my license test tomorrow.

David:

Exciting.

Derek:

Yes, tomorrow, yes it’s exciting.

But in that time, though, from November till now, some really exciting things have happened. Growth Con right there. That was one of the huge highlights right there. But I got to that was quite interesting.

So I got the class and I started the network, I started to actually expand my audience a little bit, I guess, as far as people that knew me because for a long time, obviously, being in my career, I couldn't really be out there. So to say, social media wise, yeah, big circle and stuff like that. So I was pretty quiet. Not too many people knew me.

I got into real estate class and started to retire. I was like, you know what people need to start to know me. And I get that, you know, I'm gonna start connecting with people and actually having a circle, a larger circle. So I started to make friends with different people in class and find out one of them was working with Keller Williams, actually, not to know Keller Williams, nothing here. But I went and sat down with some study, you know, study groups with them. And I sat down their CEO on there, and she was like, yeah, obviously, you know, come on aboard and stuff. And so I pretty much had a position ready to go with them. But then I was looking at some other offers.

So still networking. As I was networking, some more and more, I came up with some, some other offers, I think had two or three of them on the table. Besides Keller Williams. And I was almost settled on one actually, I was gonna I was I had a deal out of Charlotte was going to go with their small firm. And to start in with them. It was a good team of brokers, they're a little bit investment oriented as well. This is the interesting part. This funny part is kind of a cool story.

I was actually studying at the bookstore, and one of the guys from my current team that I went with, sat down across from me and said, Hey, I saw you studying real estate, is that not a thing? And he mentioned a couple of names of those couple of names. I knew one of them to be roommates or with one of my co-workers. And it was very kind of coincidental.

So he was telling me some different things about the team, whatever and then he was saying something about them going to the Grant Cardone conference. Oh, no, it was cool. We get the heroes past and gear for free stuff. So I went that night. This is what happened two weeks ago I guess that night and try to get a ticket. Well, they're all sold out, all the hero tickets are sold out.

So as a young man, maybe next year, you know better luck next year, whatever. Although it was a good connection to have. I didn't really think that much of it. I connected with his team lead connected with Shelby and then I think it would Mike Mike's and one of the other guys on our team. That night on Facebook. went to sleep and didn't think anything of it. I woke up the next morning and Dan was like, Hey man, you got about 30 minutes or so to register. You need to share a post and tag somebody in rescue for this giveaway. We're doing a free ticket. The Grant Cardone calm conference. And sure enough, Shelby texted me in about 30 minutes later and she's like, hey, dare you one. You want to go to Miami with this.

David:

I still think it was rigged. Just saying.

20:00 - 25:00

Derek:

Yeah, that's it. After that, did you break that? But the funny thing is, is that about 30 minutes after she had texted me and told me we had actually talked a little bit, she's like, Oh my god, Derek, I didn't know she's like, dude, you you're on my schedule to talk to today Dan told me all about yesterday, and I was just talking today. So, I didn't even say I didn't, swear to God.

David:

It's just convenient. And it gets even more convenient. You got to tell the story about your ride to Airbnb.

Derek:

Yeah.

David:

That was funny.

I'll give a shout out to Kevin.

David:

Yep, yep.

Derek:

Kevin Porter. So, let me backup a second here. So..

David:

Yeah, sorry.

Derek:

Shelby and within an hour, I'm like, Okay, my suits in the dry cleaners. I got my dogs that are in place. I got my flight already done. Ready to go miles eight. Hey, Shelby. I was so excited. I'm like, as you're ready to go, let's do this.

So anyway, so 48 hours later. I got down in Miami. I got down in Miami. I come in early on. All right. I'm gonna take me on our team. And so everybody understands this Shelby, as a team, powered by Keller Williams, all Five Pillars Realty Group. That's actually the team I'm on now. And they're a team of broker investors.

David:

Yeah.

Derek:

It’s a very attractive thing for me. I was like, Alright, you know, broker investors. Let me do this. Obviously, this is what I'm trying to do. But um, so I was like, I want to be on this team. So I'm trying to impress Shelby, I'm gonna get to Miami early. I got to Miami like seven hours earlier. This is like a few hours before we met.

So I get there and then I get an Uber at the airport. And I said, I drive and there's a guy in a pool. Uber. There's a guy sitting in the back in the front seat. And so I say something about the military. I'm not sure what it was. So he sparked up a conversation with me and the drivers confused as to where we're going. I guess it's something like that. He forgot to press something on his phone for uber, activated awareness or I don't know, I'm sure. So he turns around and starts going back to the airport. And that sparks Kevin, who's Kevin sitting back to say the address of where he's going to head. I'm pretty good. I'm going to address the numbers as soon as he says it. It kind of rings a bell man. What would you say? He says that address again. Low bill. That's the address that I'm going to as well. Like, what are you? What are you doing? I'm an investor out of Long Island. How's it? Yeah, as you know, Shelby Osborn. Yeah. As we had a legging up in an uber this is all like crazy coincidence, right? All this man ended up linking up in an uber at Miami airport at the same exact time going to the exact same location, the exact same reason all these got together.

David:

Yeah, there's only 30,000 people in town for the conference.

Derek:

Yeah only 35.

David:

And then like two hours? I go to the bar to meet you guys thinking Shelby's there, and I'm walking in circles looking for Shelby. And Kevin recognizes me just like this big.

Yeah, it was a good night.

Derek:

Yeah, it was a great night.

David:

Yeah, I know. I kept joking. Like there's like you me, Phil. Kevin. So the four of us have never met we're all seeing each other on Instagram. It's funny because I literally flew in nine people and myself so 10 and this Airbnb and not one of them. Did I know through anything other than Instagram, I'm like, Man, you know, back in high school, we would have been losers, but like this world works now.

Derek:

Yeah.

David:

My internet friends hang out talking real estate and drinking beer.

Derek:

No longer now no longer so that's a good thing.

David:

Yeah.

Derek:

But if you're young and investing, you want to use social media is a powerful thing.

David:

It is. Yeah, definitely get started with it.

Hey, so I'm kind of curious. Since we talked through your journey. Why? What do you think so many people give up? What made you stick through with the idea of real estate investing over the years of like, things going right, things going wrong markets fluctuating. What about real estate was so I guess magnetic.

Derek:

Oh, gosh, ah, the opportunities that I know it can bring the ability for it to appreciate as far as like being one of the most I want to say, by one of the safer I want I want to put down this might be one of the safer investments, I guess, say and just the ability for it to just bring in so many awesome people.

25:00 - 31:35

Derek:

When I first started out doing it, and kind of meeting different people in the real estate business. That was it right there. It was like it was this business mindset that attracted me to it actually, is I actually got into a conversation with an older gentleman today who was a nurse and a nurse police 40 years or something, I was telling him that because somebody knows was saying how all the people that are been around him, real estate people, they're so business oriented, and everything is really, me the attractive thing is, knowing that it's not, it's not about the money, it's not about the money, but knowing that the what the money can bring, what real estate can bring as far as money is concerned in that what that can bring, as far as opportunities are concerned. It's probably the safest investment out there, that's gonna get me to where I want to be and open up opportunities for me to have a good honeypot of passive income.

David:

Yeah.

Derek:

To set us to add right there, set aside and just get my money working, and be able to focus on other things, you know, this for me, 20 years in the military having to show that on the fly my shoulder, like serving my country. It's kind of I was bred into it. I've been bred into it for 20 years, and serving is something that I want to do.

So how, how do I get to the point where I can have an income that opens up those opportunities for me to serve at a larger scale?

David:

Yeah.

Derek:

That's the passion, like the passion behind being able to have those opportunities.

David:

Can you maybe find those and other ways?

David:

Yeah, I mean, I guess if you're a good day trader, you want to put 10 hours a day into it. And, you know, really, really good at it sure.

David:

Yeah.

Derek:

But the way I started going, I was introduced to one of the I'm not gonna lie, I got introduced to one of Robert Kiyosaki books and that was like, that was it right there. Soon as I got introduced to his book, I was like, Okay, this is it. You had quadrants and everything, you built up that big business mindset and have that continuous passive income. That's where I want to be. That continuous passive income allows me the opportunity to serve at a larger scale down the road as I grow and want to be.

Then stated the goal for me honestly, like I shouldn't really say end state but one of the larger goals that might send me to where I want to be to start off is that you have a multi multi unit complex as well. Complex that'll give me that pot of money.

David:

Absolutely. So I know you mentioned Robert Kiyosaki book, but aside from that, I'm guessing you met Rich Dad, Poor Dad, but aside from that, what's one resource you'd recommend for learning about real estate investing? Investing anything in general?

Derek:

Ooh, a resource. Ah, gosh. So many out there.

David:

That's true.

Derek:

That really is. There's so many out there. I tend to use any resource I can get my hands on. The books are a huge one obviously. Gosh, there's tons I don't want to say on the internet because the internet does lie a lot. But I'm just understanding the different people that are out there, I guess. See what they're doing. I guess the best advice I can use not one particular resource but multiple resources.

David:

I like it. I think that's a good answer, cuz wrapped around like one book, but it's different for everyone.

Derek:

No. I mean, it really is. And now you saw my stack of books and you know, I have a bunch of different books and Robert Kiyosaki, Grant Cardone, Gary Keller's and stuff like that.

I mean, there's people out there that have knowledge. That's the big thing. You know, if you have knowledge, they pass it on to you to listen to those people. Read the book, listen to the podcasts, you know, watch the videos on YouTube. You know, I mean, be careful about doing that. Because like I said, this is why a lot but there's another resource that I'm using. There's my book right here online, you can get right there is solid, and 564 pages.

David:

That's a monster so it's way bigger than what I had to deal with.

Derek:

Yeah, there's a lot. There's multiple reasons. I don't want to pinpoint one. Just get knowledgeable and learn every day.

David:

Absolutely.

Derek:

And it's all about habits, and reality is all about habits. I'm not saying I'm perfect. I'm not. If I was I'd be making millions of dollars already.

David:

You and I both.

Alright, before we wrap this up, you got any final ideas? Big parting advice?

Derek:

Ah, yeah, be particular about, I mean, be particular, don't be afraid to invest. You're gonna, you're gonna take on debt. That's one thing I think that a lot of guys are afraid of guys and gals are afraid of you are going to take on debt . There's a big difference. You're gonna hear this when you start relaxing everything else you're gonna hear this a lot. There's a difference between good and bad debt. As you look at the top some of the top real estate investors out there in the world. Our president being one of them, you know, you know, they have that, you know, it's gonna happen as long as your debt is making you money. It's okay to have.

David:

Yeah, I agree.

Derek:

If you're having some kind of debt, that's not you having that depreciating debt. That's the kind of debt you want to get rid of.

David:

Absolutely.

Derek:

Appreciating that.

David:

Absolutely. Alright, well, Derek, I really appreciate you taking some time to join us. We'll have to do a follow up in a year or so and see where your real estate license and everything else is taking you.

I'm excited to see I mean, obviously we're gonna stay in touch through Instagram, but I'm excited to see what happens.

Derek:

Absolutely man. I’m looking at six to seven houses this year.

David:

That’s awesome.

Derek:

The bottom goal is six to seven houses..

David:

I like it. I like it. Yeah. That's awesome, brother.

Well, hey, thanks for joining us. Have a great day.

Derek:

You too, man.