Episode 92 | Travis Hill | Military Millionaire Podcast

00:00 - 05:00

David:

What's new with you Alex? Well, tell me what your background is.

Alex: What’s up buddy?

I drove to Virginia to spend time with my niece and her dad. I sometimes call my brother. You may hear her yelling downstairs but yeah, that's why my backdrop is different.

David:

Well it makes sense, I wasn't sure if that was just because you had moved over the last week but that actually makes more sense.

Alex:

I did move again so my backdrop when we do this again will also be different.

David:

Oh man, well..

Alex:

You um, did you close your house, is that sale?

David:

Which one? Oh the shit flip?

Alex:

Yeah.

David:

Yeah, it's closed. I got the cash. I'm actually under contract on a duplex that I thought was at a steel price, but I'm probably gonna break the contract here this week.

Alex:

Good. Good. You don't need to buy any more lousy deals. Okay, we need to tighten you up.

David:

No, no, I got this thing under contract for the same price I paid for my duplex in 2015. But this one has garages and the interiors in much better shape than my duplex was. The problem is that the roof needs to be completely shut, according to the inspections, and the guy apparently knew about it, and he's kind of like, I don't know if I want to.

So I'm going to try to try to convince him to, that's the only thing really wrong with it. So I'm going to try to convince him to make an insurance claim because there's hail damage. So if he makes the insurance claim and replaces it that way, I'll go forward because I've got it. I mean, it's 30,000 under appraisal price. But if he isn't willing to play ball on that, then I'm going to walk and I'll just keep it in my cash reserves. So this one's easy. Should be a turnkey.

Alex:

Nice!

David:

But a turnkey that I'm gonna own is like 50% LTV when I'm done with my down payment.

Alex:

So we're good you're due for a good deal.

David:

Oh, man, all right. So this guest today is a buddy of mine who lives local. He's in my mastermind group, actually, but this is gonna be an interesting one.
I think you'll have fun with this. Please don't have too much fun with this.

Alex:

If you do.

David:

So he's a marine. He's been deployed a few times, but he's uh his story is kind of weird because he was a… Well I’ll let him tell all the details. But he lost four or five houses that he owned in the 2008 crash in Vegas, because he owned them with a high salary. And he joined the Marine Corps after he had set a high salary.

And then when the market couldn't overhead, couldn't make the overhead when the market tanked, but he's back at it. Just getting back into it. So I think it'd be cool to talk through some of the like lessons learned and what got you past the fear of having lost everything but he also just recently came out of some had some health issues and you know, whatever. So it's gonna be, I don't want to give everything away, but I think it'll be there could be some interesting insight into that. So yeah, but uh, I don't know. I think I'll go ahead and grab him real quick.

Alex:

When just hey, real quick, when does this episode come out.? Ish

David:

As of right now, the last week of May, but I can probably be shifted around a little bit.

Alex:

So I got some interesting news yesterday from bigger pockets.

David:

Hmm.

Alex:

I am working on and I know you. I've been talking about this with you for a while. I may or may not be getting commissioned to produce high quality HGTV style videos for them.
Contract incoming.

David:

Hell, yeah! I'm glad to hear that they liked the one with your buddy. Yeah, with Nate.

Alex:

They really like that one and I just scheduled to get four more that I gotta record next week. But um, yeah, so, so yeah, so I asked late May so by late May this should all be either official or burned to the ground. So yeah.

David:

We'll get it in late May then.

Alex:

But look, um, uh, yeah. I mean, if anyone listens to this, and you're in the North Carolina, South Carolina area, and they want to be part of this and know what their story showcased. And they're part of BP. You know, I'm looking for stories to tell. So, if it goes, Well, if it goes well, this is going to be a continuing thing.

Alex:

I just want to point out that this is the same Alex who always chastises me for self promoting things.

Alex:

I don't chastise you for stuff, I chastise you for everything else.

David:

Yeah.

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.

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05:00 - 10:00

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David:

Hey, what's up everybody? It's Dave From military to millionaire and I got my co host Alex Felice on today who is working out of an uncle's house or aunt's house, or Denise's house or something, which is why his backdrop looks a little different. And we are joined by my friend Travis Hill, who is an active duty Marine who I actually met at a beach on the north side of Camp Pendleton when I wasn't surfing because I was broken and he wasn't surfing because he was watching his kid surf.

And he's an engineer equipment officer in the Marine Corps. And we hit it off talking about real estate and we've been in touch ever since I've gotten to park my car in front of his house a few times to save the $30 a night for parking at airports. So it blossomed into a great friendship because you It saved me more money than most people.

Travis, welcome on the show, buddy.

Travis:

Good morning. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Happy to be here.

David:

Yeah. Why don't you tell our audience a little bit about yourself, starting from the first time you got into real estate because you have a very unique story that I think might be able to help some people out, especially right now.

Travis:

Okay, I graduated college in early 2000 and went to work for a steel fabrication company in San Jose, California, Cupertino, actually. And that little micro blip of recession, that kind of happened in early 2000 moved me to Las Vegas. And in Las Vegas, I started dabbling in real estate. My wife, then fiance, was a loan officer and kind of got interested in real estate and saw the value of it. So in early 2000s, I would go into a phase One, I buy the second biggest house closest to a cul de sac that I could, and I live in it, and then live in it for phase five or phase six, phase seven release, and I would refinance that house and rent that house and repeat that process.
And I was able to do that. For two, I got like five houses and thought that my life would be set. I was like, 25 at the time. Everything was fantastic. I thought it was great. And I'm like, alright, this is my retirement plan. I'm going to have these houses, it's going to pay down. I'm going to do all that. And then I decided to join the Marine Corps after 911. And in 2003, joined the Marine Corps and still had the homes it was still trying to like, make it all work. It was doing all the necessary due diligence.

And, you know, saving your money, saving for the Catholics, putting it all you're doing, hitting the checklist the way I thought you were supposed to do it right. What is my education, reading and gaining?

And then 2008 hit. And at that time I was living in North Carolina. I was coming back from my second deployment from Iraq. And all of my savings and everything that I had put toward those five homes was going away. So going working in Vegas with an engineering firm to make 60 minutes a year there to join the Marine Corps and making 19,000 a year as a PFC e two, e three, that money recouped and your ability to make that money work just wasn't there anymore. So we ended up having to short sell all of those homes.

And basically, here I am, you know, 3031 years old starting over completely, like at zero and rebuilding credit and everything that came with short selling those homes and getting the 299 and all that stuff that came with it. So it was a beautiful process and I tell people to use the analogy that I was so focused on my trees and like staring at the bark and watching the ads climb through the bark that didn't see the forest fire, like consuming the entire thing. So that was my lesson learned.

10:00 - 15:00

Alex:

How many houses were you buying up to say how many houses you bought in? Oh, 60, 70.

Travis:

Oh none. Like the East Coast, I didn't think the last house that I closed on was probably like, oh, oh, 405 around there.

Alex:

Wow. Well, that's interesting, just because I know that the run up just like currently the run up in the last 18 months was worse. Right. If you bought an O five, it was worse or Oh, six was worse than if you had bought no three.

Travis:

Yeah. And it wasn't like we had money. But you know, as I learned that, as we were self managing all these homes. So you know, my wife is there like she was handling. We were doing an old school. I got the checks and they were writing the checks. We were picking it up and you know, they took care of all the utilities and we just paid our requirement as owners. But we learned that as home prices dropped, the rental prices dropped and just kept going. And then we over leveraged, I would say over leveraged, but we just got to the point through being in Vegas and getting hit so hard that our rental wasn't covering our mortgage. And so we started pumping money in every month. So at one time, we were pumping about $4,000 a month and trying to keep them going.

Alex:

As they're still going down. Yeah, that's unfortunate. Well, my condolences to you my friend.
But that Vegas was, Vegas was it worse than anywhere? Vegas was no, it was ground zero?

Travis:

Yeah. Yeah.

David:

I think that's gonna be the case this month.

Alex:

I believe that's gonna be the case in this current event as well. Yeah. Although, although it's much different. It's much much different now.

David:

Yeah, just kind of hard I think for Vegas to stay. When casinos aren't allowed to be open, people aren't allowed to visit it seems like a large portion of the economy, but I don't. I've never lived there. So I don't know.

Alex:

Oh, it's a large economy.
But I still think this mechanism is a little bit different.
But Travis, you're buying houses now. Right?

Travis:

I am. And by your comment about Vegas and casinos, is it when they pay all the state tax.
Yeah, that's a big deal.

Alex:

Just like closing a mandatory 445 casinos and like, you know, I live near a military base, Fort Bragg, and it's a service based economy, but it's not to the degree of Las Vegas like without the casinos, there really is no reason. It's way more service based than it is any maybe anywhere else. Tourist based, so yeah, I do feel for my Vegas friends.

Travis:

Yeah, it's insane. And what's funny is that when you tell people you're just like you're from Vegas, they say, oh, what part of the strip do you live on? Like people's misconceptions that there's actually a community in life outside of the Vegas strip is almost kind of foreign to them to like put that into the induction happens really fast.

Alex:

Yeah, I lived in Centennial hills, 35 minutes northwest of the strip and I went to the strip sometimes, but for the most part my entire life had nothing to do with Las Vegas Boulevard.

Travis:

Yeah, I lived in Southern Highlands. So everything was like Green Valley Ranch Anderson. And so like, oh, there's a strip and you can see it but, you know, it was like, oh, let's go to the Let's go play poker or drive by the strip just to people watch to enjoy a night or go into the Bellagio watership all just to, you know, hang out and kill an hour or two. But other than that it was for taking family and when they come visit, right like I want to go this trip. Okay. We'll take you places we go.

Alex:

Yeah, that's pretty much it. People who live in Las Vegas. It's like, if you work on the strip and you hang out in the strip, but if you don't work on the strip, you're like, I'm not going to that traffic. I know. It's not worth it unless I have a family and town. Naturopaths.

Travis:

Yeah, yeah, you're one time to experience the new year’s eve in downtown Vegas is that's enough for the rest of your life.

David:

It sounds strangely like Waikiki when I was stationed on a wahoo I mean, it's very tourist scrappy, and so about a 40 minute drive to get there. But without traffic like if I drove there in the morning for like a triathlon or whatever is like a 25 minute drive, but it was about 45 to get to the actual strip just because of traffic usually.

And the same thing they had was Friday night fireworks, and I saw them twice. And the second time was basically because my parents made me so yeah, it's just like, they're and they're the same thing right now. Same same economy, economic injury, Waikiki is hurting right now. The people are out of jobs.

Alex:

Where will you buy now, Travis?

Travis:

I just closed on a turkey property with storehouse 310 and couldn't be happier. Could not be happier.

David:

That's Michigan, right?

Travis:

That is in Wisconsin,

David:

Wisconsin. M I.

David:

Same same. Dude same same but if..

15:00 - 20:00

Alex:

So tell me about the you know that there's got to be an internal journey to go from that pain to yet not not only to get over it but I'm noticing a relationship I'm ready to go get out go out there and get hurt again. kind of thing so yeah, how do you?...

Travis:

Yeah totally I think that that it was a you know it was one of the most physical displays of what failure can do for your life now and I wouldn't say like oh you didn't fail you just had bad market like it was the market with no like, I didn't take I'll do a little Jocko here is that I didn't take enough ownership and to figure out my world enough to be able to see that or at least forecasted or to prepare the assets so that I could keep one or two or you know, do something.
So that was the beautiful lesson and it made me more resilient in the long run. So that's why I'm doing it again because it isn't like, No, we can do this, I can do this, my family can benefit from it. And it's just creating, you know, now, the knowledge that's available now through bigger pockets through From military to millionaire from being fortunate to be in real estate masterminds and like that stuff. I didn't know anything about that. But I was investing in Vegas during that time. So taking what's available now. It's so much I wouldn't say easier, but it's so much more accommodating.

Alex:

Yeah. You think more information though, can get people in? You think I'm making myself too overconfident?

Travis:

Oh, yeah, totally. Yeah. Yeah, it's so easy to go down rabbit holes, and you know, like, on my Instagram, you know, I'm getting like I was looking. I just listened to a podcast today from a connected investor.

And so now like, I've been getting spam for them from last week. And, you know, so you there's so much information out there that you can go down rabbit holes and just like, Oh, I'm two minutes. to dinner, it's suffocating. And then you don't move anyways,

Alex:

nothing to live to bankrupt the full give him information.

David:

I'm so glad that that was the podcast you mentioned, because my goodness, they spam.

Alex:

They spam a lot.

David:

I was on his email list for like a week. And I was like, Oh, no, no, no, no, no unsubscribe. And then one time, like a few months later, I got back into it somehow. And I was like, No, I did it again. Good information, but it's just like, I can't read all this stuff. I don't have time for that. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. So okay, Alex, I'm gonna ask you to expound on that.
What is the reason behind that? Because that's interesting...

Alex:

Just like you said, right, just like try to set so we have more information now than ever. We can use an example for real real estate, like you can go down rabbit holes or, you know, because there's so much information you can design narratives that sound good.
That isn't, you know that the idea is that there's a difference between information and wisdom. There's a difference between information and knowledge. And so I kind of wanted to get back to what I was saying earlier about. He didn't look at what tribes really like he didn't look at the forest for the trees kind of thing.

So like information is a big one if you can go and look at a house in the middle of nowhere in the USA and say, Oh, the rental numbers weren't great, right? You have all this information, you have the house price, you have rent ometer you have all these, these numbers are these supposedly pieces of information, but then you get to the house and you buy it, and then you realize, no property manager will go there because gangland, you know, and so you had information, and it made you make a worse decision because you didn't have wisdom or knowledge. So that's the idea.

But but but more on that. How is your How have you adapted your previous strategy, which we didn't really get into? I assume it was, well, you're 25. So I know what your strategy was, It was nothing. It was For every 25 year old who listens to this show should be wary. The biggest enemy is their own confidence. Um, but..

David:

I bought my first property when I was 25. So..

Alex:

Yeah, we have to do our real estate though. So I bought my first property on the 27th. It was my worst deal. Um, but how does your strategy change now? Like, what do you think? What do you buy now? And can you give me any lessons that you think, Okay, I won't make the three mistakes, I won't make that mistake again.

Travis:

The biggest thing that my strategy now is to still focus on that tree, but I'm also detaching myself from those trees and then looking at the forest, like I'm looking at like, Okay, what is the economy doing?

Like, can I and I don't want to over leverage. I think that, you know, I was having a good conversation with my brother about this because he's all he works for Microsoft. And so he does all of his stuff through index funds and dividends and like, you know, very, very fire mentality.

20:00 - 25:00

Travis:

I think fire is awesome. So he talks about oh, well you know, you shouldn't be over leveraged and I'm like well it real estate. I'm not going to be in the growth phase of real estate right as you start the whole pyramid of stalking real estate, you're not there's no like, Oh, I sold I bought three homes this year I gotta sell one.

So I'm over leveraged in my portfolio like that thinking doesn't really work. So I think that my strategies I use nowadays are more focused on what's going on collectively across multi markets. And it's not like I'm doing a deep dive right like I'm not spending an hour every day like looking at the market or looking at bonds and looking at real estate.

No, I'm, I'm kind of keeping a broader view so that I understand like, Oh, hey, there is more talk about interest rates going up because they're, you know, for example, I think that the stimulus check that all this stuff going on, there's some people have gotten announced small businesses can't get there's going to be a president and there's going to be some people are gonna have to pay for that through probably rise in taxes. And, you know, you look at the 80s where they are doing 50% interest rate is a possibility.

And this is my opinion of Travis Hill, like, narrative of Travis hill that well, if you're getting 3% now there's probably a good chance you're gonna go to eight 910 percent help offset those, that money coming in now, but who knows?

Alex:

No, I like that because I've been saying for a long time people hate it especially on biggerpockets they hate when I says I said the greater economists are part of and I mean this by both, you know, the neighborhood, the city and the larger the larger economy, all three of those matter more than any single deal you do in and of itself. So to your point, it's like, you can buy a great deal but if it's in an area that's going downhill, or you know, hey, look, you know, the economy is is is tanking, you're gonna pay for that no matter how good the deal is, and vice versa. You can buy an average deal in LA, and my guess is it's going to go up in value, because LA is going up in value.

And so I love that you say that, like the largest And this applies to all real estate, the larger macroeconomic movements matter more than the individual deals. And this is not to say you should not strive to get killer deals. But it is to say if you only focus on the deal itself and you don't focus on what try to sell, which is a forest, you're missing a big piece of the of your, of the puzzle of your success

David:

Was just like people buying, you know, in a market that did well over the last decade, because it did well over the last decade. And like, the whole past performance doesn't indicate future success. So, you know, like, in my town, for example, in my market, there's a divide right in the middle of the city that most investors are like, yeah, we don't go north of that divide. Well, that's all well and good. But North that divide is gentrifying, right? Like there's a lot of progress there's opportunity zones. There's a lot of really cool stuff going on.
North of that but there's a lot of people who are just like, and it's like a distinct like, you know, point 8% rule 1.2% rule, like distinct differences, like the moment you cross that divide.

But yet, the best deal that I've bought was the one that was just north of that because the price was so much lower and its cash flow is just fine because people are moving you know, whatever. So I think it's smart that you're keeping your your eye on what's going on more than the specific deal because a house is a house is a house is a house, right like that, that matters less you know what color you paint the walls matters less than what the neighborhood looks like, or what the what the city block is doing or what's getting built in that zip code or you know, as you expand out.

Travis:

Well, and it's and it's so important that you understand your metrics, right? And because there's so much information, it's easy to get lost again and woman what you really identify as your metric. You know, so I'm originally from Arizona. Well, Arizona got hit really hard in 2008.

And I go back there to visit when I'm on leave, and I see all these apartment homes. I'm like, Oh my gosh, right. That's crazy. And then go going back, Alex, what you talked about with the community in the town that stuff? Well, we have the huge Baby Baby Boomers coming, that's gonna flip. That's gonna put a lot of houses in the market in the next 1015 years, right. We also have a lot of millennials that don't like what the baby boomers have, which is the ranch house on the quarter acre. So what are you seeing you're seeing a lot more cohabitation, more apartments more condos more like? Like for example, there's like, my dad's house is on like the middle of Mesa. Right downtown middle of Mesa.

The houses were built 79 two blocks away from his house, our apartment complexes with a garage 1700 bucks a month rent and they're selling hotcakes like they can't. That's going faster than a single family home and with the yard and raw front yard like no problem. Yes, it is in Arizona being the 50s like and then you go 10 miles down the road and then you have an entire like 500 acre 55 plus community, you know, so it's so important that you understand like, Oh, hey, our single family homes being driven down because the millennials want to cohabitate in group complex settings. So that's going to determine like, well, is my rent going to be more efficient, more efficient in 1010 years, 12 years, because that single family isn't really doing anything.

25:00 - 30:00

Alex:

Yeah, paying attention to these larger demographic shifts, this kind of stuff is, again, it's like, it's not to say you shouldn't worry about the deal itself as but I know when I was newer in real estate, I would worry more about the deal. Then, what city are you buying in and what's going to happen to it over the next 15 years? And that's I. To be fair, that's hard for 25 year olds, because you just most of them just don't think myself included. I wasn't thinking at 25 I wasn't thinking anything. I was just doing a bunch of stuff. But you know, you don't you just don't have the time frame reference to realize, you know, this is a 30 year game.

Most people get mortgages for 30 years. So you've got to really know what's gonna happen in you know in Arizona is a great example because of the demographic shifts, shifting out there and the what you said earlier about baby boomers retiring and the next generation doesn't want houses as much not to say that they're not to say that houses they're going to become obsolete but our apartments are certainly people are becoming more acceptable accepting of them and so there are some of these shifts that people should certainly should consider in their their purchasing metrics..

Alex:

So you're a full time marine?

Travis:

I am

Alex:

How um, do you have any trouble buying houses as a full time marine?

Travis:

No, no, no I think it's all about how disciplined you are with your time.

Alex:

Okay.

Travis:

And you know, I follow a bear to follow a bear to Brandon and follow bigger pockets and follow Dave and you guys on military to millionaire like it's all this time. Right now is all about how disciplined you are. I think that quote somebody that's been on social media about, you know, if you don't come out of the side hustle or improve yourself, it's not that you lack time you lack discipline. And I firmly believe that, you know, I think that it comes down to why kids don't go to school, it's all virtual, they're doing zoom, you know, good for them. But we're still getting up in the morning, we're still doing a family workout, we still do family time, as far as structures and things go and then they have their block of time to do school. And then after they show us their agenda, and we follow up with them, and they have their free time.
So having that structure in that discipline, well, it's not only good for parents and us to make sure that we're doing it but it's also teaching our kids proper things that they can use for little life lessons moving on. So it's you know, there's nothing but goodness, it's just a matter of goodness, if our current situation goes two in three months. You know, what's, how many people are going to be posting on social media like yeah, still be motivated? Like, just eat some Cheetos and hang out.

Alex:

Let's not talk bad about Cheetos Hang on. Let's not talk about it.

David:

Yeah,

Flaming flaming are extra hot whatever extra fire out although, Alex has a thing if you ever want to get in good with them just...

Travis:

Say bond bonds Is that better?

Alex:

Yeah. Yeah, nobody needs it.
I don't like those so you can try it. You can trash talk.

David:

I have definitely gone out of my way to avoid donuts over the last two weeks. It is.
Man, you're right about that though. like sitting in the house. It is incredible. No matter how great your plan is when you wake up. It's amazing how by like midday, you're like, Okay, so now what? I'm bored. Oh, I'm hungry. No, you're bored. No, no, but I'm hungry. No, you're bored. You already ate oh, man. I need an excuse to get out of the house. Taco Bell. No like that. This is definitely an internal battle that I basically know at Taco Bell.

Travis:

I can hear what they're saying the same thing.

David:

I'm like, I'll be walking out of the house. And I'm like, I gotta drive up today.

Alex:

Yeah, I think it's definitely, um, it's definitely a time where people, I'm not a fan of saying people need discipline. That's not how I think people behave in my personal opinion. I think people behave by habit.

And so you can maybe say those certainly overlap. But I do think people are waking up and some people's habits, or some people have poor habits. And so they wake up and without the structure of society that has been given to them.

They don't know what to do with themselves. And they end up just creating lousy habits. And so I think there are certainly people such as yourselves who wake up and say, Look, I gotta create a structure, and then I will, it'll become a habit, and then I can get things done.
And so it is an interesting time because maybe it only lasts a few weeks, people waste a few weeks. It's not really a big deal, but I'm gonna be lasting longer. And the people who are slow to adapt, you know, yeah, you're gonna come out of this thing and you're not gonna have anything to show for yourself and like I said, God forbid at six weeks or longer goodness gracious, I can't take it. And so I think we're gonna… What's that?

30:00 - 35:00

David:

So we're at 4 right now in San Diego. Almost Yes.

Alex:

Yeah.

I don't know I'm saying busier than ever to be honest.

David:

Yeah!

Alex:

So Travis, what's the, tell me about the deal? The turnkey.

Travis:

Mets do through David. And...

Alex:

That's Stu grazia?

Travis:

Stu Grazia if you want to go official francais? I think...

David:

I couldn't tell you. He just he's just do

Travis:

It just Yeah, he's just done and got on his list. And you know, a property, he, my name came on the list with a property. I didn't like the property. I didn't like the location. I didn't wasn't favorable of it, and I just let him know hey, I appreciate that. I'm on the list. This is my house.

But these are the reasons I don't want to take the house in was like, Okay, no problem. And then here's the next Sunday, I will take that house. That's great. And his entire team has been fantastic. Their real estate agent Robin, she's awesome. And the whole process was easy. His team is awesome. They set it up well, and then as far as numbers, man, the numbers were conservative and we're way like, we're cashflow $200 more than what the original prospectus was.

Alex:

Nice!
You can do more?

Travis:

Oh, yeah. Like I told him the day that we sent back the email saying yes, it will take the house and keep me on the list. Because it's so easy. It really is. And it was a really good confidence booster starting the journey again.

Alex:

Yeah, and then it sounds like before you were kind of doing it alone. Maybe I don't mean to dis include your wife but I mean, you guys were alone. Whereas now it probably feels much better. And I think this is what BiggerPockets has really taught people. And this is certainly what I pitch and what I believe in is. Well, it's kind of the old saying it takes a village. Right? It really takes a team and so even though you're not there, you feel my guess is you feel more confident cuz you're like, Look, I got three, four people that know what they're talking about. I trust them, I believe in them. And they're all telling me kind of the same thing that this is and then you got a really good support system.

Travis:

Yes, totally true. Totally true.

David:

It might take a turnkey and mind you, I haven't. I haven't bought anything through a turnkey provider yet. Maybe I will, one day.

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David:

People say that turnkey is, you know, quote, bad because it's less of a return than you might get on your own or whatever. But the reality is, like if that quote, less of a return is like, I don't know, 50 bucks a month or whatever, like, it's not anything obscene, right? Because if the deal didn't make sense, they wouldn't make any money.

But the ability to make a deal with somebody that you know, and trust, who's gone through and renovated the property and has a team and everything is essentially no different than if you were to build your own team, in a market across the country and do it all through them.

It's just one person whose business it is to provide that service for you. So like I tell people all the time, if you're overseas and you're looking to get started in investing, turnkeys are probably the best way for you to go. You can't house hack in Japan. And you can't, you know, I mean, maybe but probably not. I don't know if there's some crazy loophole where you can buy down but If you're if you're looking to get started in the US and you don't have a team, you don't have anything else and you don't want to wait three years until you move back to the US that turnkey is probably one of the best options out there because it's set up by someone whose entire business is designed to ensure that you succeed because if you buy a house, you don't like it, you're not gonna buy another house.

So it's, you know, and I think you talk to Stu, like, I would do business with Stu all day because I know him and trust him. So I think that's really the biggest piece is finding the turnkey provider or somebody that you work with whether it's turnkey or not on your team that you trust, and then you can go from there.

Travis:

And I think that's really important because meetings Stu like meeting you, meeting Alex, meetings Stu, going forward on that one. You establish a relationship, right?
And everything that you read, listen to is in a relationship right?

Then you learn that, Oh, I didn't know about a turkey when I was in my 20s. When I learn about turnkey now, oh, what does that mean? What is the turnkey and then so that opens your mind right? That opens Like, Oh, wait, this is my market over here.

So how am I building my relationships and my contacts and everything else so that I could possibly have a turnkey in this market, or they're doing this in Wisconsin. And so it was able to do this turnkey was able to me like, Okay, this is the process they do, I can probably duplicate this process.

They're building relationships, I can trust him to grow that relationship with me and him and other people. And then at the same time, you're, it's all free education, every bit of it. And so I use it's

35:00 - 40:00

Alex:

Your springboarding off of their previous work a little bit. And yeah, it's like, yeah, I mean, and to be fair to David, like I'm, I'm usually one to push back on turnkey a little bit.
But I do recognize that there's an absolute need for it. And that not everybody's Well, not their skill sets nor their desires are the same. And so for a guy like Travis who says, hey, look, you know, maybe, maybe I should, maybe I should use a team for this next one, to make sure that I know what I'm doing, but You know, my guess is after two or three of these, maybe you go off on your own.

And so the idea is, hey, look, I'll pay, like David said, I'll pay I'll get a little bit less return. But I'll mitigate a ton of risk by having contracts that I know are going to show up. And I have somebody else on the team that on the ground that knows the deals.
And so yes, you sacrifice a little bit of the return for the trade of volatility, because, look, anybody who's dealt looks, David can tell you, hiring bad contractors is the kiss of death.

David:

Yes, that's been.. It depends if you want a negative 50% ROI. That's so it worked out great if that's what you're going for.

Alex:

And that's a great example why turnkey works because it's, it's, you know, I I didn't do turnkey, but I was on the ground and I had a team that I looked into, right?
And so I didn't have the same risk. So if you're, if you're overseas God if you're really overseas, and yet turnkeys is the way or if you're like, look, i’ll, some people's positions are different. They're like, Hey, I'm sending a bunch of cash. And I want to do this. And I don't need to take the risk, to learn it all on my own and manage contractors, some people don't like managing people. And so you could have picked somebody.

Well, I don't know, everybody, so maybe there's better than maybe there's somebody better than Stu. But as far as the people I know, Stu is at the tippity. top of the list. He's a good person. And like you said, you're making money. Geez.

David:

Alright.

So I want to shift gears a little bit. I don't know if we want to dig too much into your more recent opportunity to give up on yourself. I'd say that like it, I'll get it. I'll lead into what I mean by that. A lot of times when people get punched in the face really hard in life. They quit, right? Like it's a total out like it would not have been hard for you to say, well, I lost five properties. I'm never doing real estate investing again.

You've had another event here in the recent few years, which I'll leave up to you if you want to discuss that. But I'm curious what your process is. In your head as far as how you've worked through some of these things, and what it is that makes you not allow that to be out, right? So, as I said, a lot of people will just tap out or, like they try something, they fail. And that's it. And you've had not one but two fairly large issues come up, that would stop a lot of people in their tracks. And obviously, it hasn't. That's not your nature, but I'm curious if there's anything you can point to that helped you out with dealing with those situations that are not easy.

Travis:

Okay, yeah. Um,

So, my to allude to your point ago, I was diagnosed with stage three colon cancer in January of 2019. And I was stationed in Okinawa, families there, and we were thriving, thriving capital letters, exclamation points and happy face emoji striving.

And we were back in the states in February, and then I spent the entire time recovering from that surgery costing me a bag like the whole thing that goes in colon cancer. And you know, I would say I wish I could say it was easy as like, well on the Marines, that's just what I did. And for all of our marine counterparts like you understand what that means and for our sister services like, I realized when I when I was diagnosed, that I had a choice like right then when we stay in the doctor's office, I had a choice right then to either succumb to this. And maybe that meant death.

Maybe that just meant like, Well, my FM off Myfanwy sucks, now I got this, whatever or I can choose their critical path, right? Like I can take that and do something with it and do some good with it.

Because I had one, I had an obligation as a husband, as a father to set an example like, hey, like this is pretty much one of the worst things you can happen in your life. So I can either show my kids to be supportive to them into my wife to be the best cancer patient that I can. And then also, as a Marine officer, I feel that I have an obligation to set the example because I knew that I was going to be surrounded by young Marines that were going through similar or different things but are still going to be at the same hospital I am for some duration, right?

40:00 - 45:00

Travis:

So we do those two things together and then throw in my faith tradition of like, no, there's greater like, I was, like, I probably accepted this in the younger heavens before coming to earth like, hey, you're probably gonna have this problem. Okay, that's cool. I can handle it. Let's do this. And then you know, send me on the story and I'm going to head down.

So I spent the last all of 2019 at Wounded Warrior battalion down in Balboa going through chemo, radiation going through surgeries going through all of that stuff and it really comes down to what dog you choose to feed every day.

You know, I just made the determination, that was my critical path, my recovery my critical path. My mission accomplishment is to be cancer. Okay, Roger that. And through military training, whatever academic you want to call is going to happen. You just are able to separate and you know, it's almost like Moses divided the waters like all emotion pushed to the side, there's my enemy. I must go and attack the enemy and overcome it and that just that permeated my life.

I whenever I was well enough, you know, there were times I'm not gonna lie, there were times that I'm like, I just want to lay in bed. Yep, you are gonna lie. You will want to lay in bed Hill. Yes, you do. But you're gonna get your frickin sorry, but you're gonna walk down the stairs, you're gonna hug your kids, you're gonna kiss your wife. You're gonna try to eat two spoonfuls of something that your wife prepared. If that means if all you do is walk back upstairs and lay down because you're just, you know, doing what cancer does.

Okay, but you got your butt out of it. No, and sometimes that was fortunately I was able to count on one hand and the number of times I did that. But the fact is that I knew that I had to do that, because there's too many times that you don't do that. And the next day, you don't do that, and all of a sudden, it's three months later, and you haven't done that. And it was just creating that mindset and creating the ability to know like, no, I'm, I can do this I have the ability to, and the prayers and support of family and friends, and then the people you don't even know, right.

And then the opportunity to kind of document that through social media. And hindsight be where it is, you know, today, Travis Hill today and having the fortunate humility to have people in Canada we've watched your journey when I thought I was having a bad day like you post something and I would realize like no, I think I got a handle.

And so just the number of people that I was able to support that I didn't even think you know, like when you're going through it and you're just like, hey, had the class to be back and having to like deal with that and all the fun that is at the bat for this short amount of time. Yeah, that's pretty interesting, you know, in trying to like, one thing that I did with my philosophy bag is I named it. I actually named my stoma. His name was Eugene. And my kids would be like us, my wife and I joked that we were no longer in a monogamous relationship because it was me Eugene and her.

Like that was kind of important, you know? And so we realized that he was a silent partner in most of our, our, our bedroom antics, but nonetheless, he was there.

Alex:

And that was threesome.

Travis:

Yeah, yeah. And sometimes he didn't when he did make noises or make sounds wasn't any related to actually what we were doing.

David:

If you're listening to this, and you had any doubt that Travis is a Marine, this should clear it up. Who else would name that name there? Galoshes bag..

Alex:

Your story in your story in your attitude is commendable to say the absolute least.

David:

So I would like to vouch that I've I mean, I didn't meet you until at least halfway through that journey but I would never have known that you were even remotely going through chemo because Travis was still running circles around people without active viewers.

Alex:

Yes And let me say most I don't know about most importantly but certainly importantly your hair looks fantastic my friend, so that's not something I take lightly. That's it, congratulations.

Travis:

I will say that my hair, It does have a reputation and it has definitely gone before me in changing duty commands, but it is on the short side. And it needs a little nice little trim. But yeah, it's I'm thank you for that.

Alex:

Have you read a book called Viktor Frankl wrote this book called “Man's Search for Meaning”?

Travis:

No, but I know of it.

45:00 - 50:00

Alex:

Uh, it's not one that I recommend super often because I think it's miss applied, but in your situation, I think you'd resonate really, really strongly with it based on what you told your story. It's a I don't want to spoil too much. It's about a guy who goes through the the Nazi concentration camps and comes out the other side. And then he talks about what it means to be to find well, meaning or drive when, when there seems like there's no reason to have some. So I think it'd be applicable. I think I'd be an applicable story for you.

Travis:

And I, and I will thank you. I will with that. I will look into that. But I know that one thing that helped me too, is that I lost myself in service. I love surfing. I started surfing when I was stationed here, many, like, a decade ago, you know, I'm like late 30s on how to surf for people like Dude, you're an idiot. I'm like, I know that you've been surfing as long as I've been alive, but like, where I live, and it's remitted to the beaches, three minutes that way with world class breaks, I have a requirement to fulfill that right to learn how to surf.

And so I was volunteering with organizations that serve and challenge athletes' foundation and I was volunteering to work at the Balboa Naval Medical Center. San Diego has a weekly surf therapy where they basically like to have the ocean to teach you how to deal with PTs and, and TBI and other things.

And so I was a volunteer with them and volunteered with every place that I could just to realize that like, hey, like, my stuff isn't bad, you know, like, oh my gosh, my feet are burning because the chemo rate medication.

And I feel like crap because I puke three times that day, and it's only 707 in the morning, but I'm walking in that dude, I'm having a lot in the wheelchair because he's a triple amp or he has, you know, muscular dystrophy and he can only lay on a board he's like, these are the things that helped me stay grounded and realize that hey, like, the life could be a lot worse but it's not so like buck up and as I as my dad said a long time ago when I was a kid his cowboy up and like, you just got to realize that and so those those were ways to keep me grounded, you know and to keep me from not being like whoa, is because it again it's so easy, so easy to get in that trap and and it's, you know, it's almost like you're digging that hole with a backhoe and then you're trying to fill it back in with a shovel.

Alex:

Well, real estate seems really easy in comparison now, doesn't it?

Travis:

It got us, yeah.
More math, though more math and cancer but yeah, it is easier.

Alex:

Oh my god, I love that whole thing. And you and your last bit was complaining about math goodness gracious!

Travis:

God to send more math, there's less math in cancer, but there's more math in real estate. But yeah, it's still simple.

David:

Like you said it comes down to what dog do you choose to feed every day, because there's this misconception that, like, you just wake up and you decide like, alright, that's it. I'm done being a bit Sure. You know, I'm done dealing with this, or whatever. And then that's it. Right? You made a decision. But the reality is like, if you think of it as two little puppies, right, you feed one or the other every day, that that other one doesn't necessarily go I mean, I guess maybe If you don't feed it long enough, it would go away, but we'll take the metaphor. But, you know, it doesn't go away. So it's always there. So every day they used to come and let themselves be what was me or whatever that grows, whether, whether you like it or not, it's still there.

And so it's important to choose like, every day, every situation every moment like, Okay, I'm going this way, which is way easier said than done.

But, it's important to just key in on the fact that you said it, right. That it's, it's not a one and done decision. It's a continual process.

Travis:

It is.

And that carries over into everything, right? Like, not only does it talk to cancer, well, if you haven't got used to that, you know, you know, for example, I use this as a life lesson.
My dad was an alcoholic and you know it that same logic applies to the good dog and bad dog.

If they say that drinking is genetic. That means I must be predisposed to want to drink alcohol. Well, my faith tradition allows me to make that choice every day. So when do I choose to drink alcohol? Do I not choose? As a marine? Do I choose to set a good example and get it and get a haircut and shave my face? Or do I not so it's, it's not that it's, you know, it's a lifelong thing that I figured out once cancer started, right? No, that's totally enraged. And that's fine. I've already looked at it a million times. Actually...

David:

I haven't. I haven't. I haven't left my house.

Alex:

And then it was really ridiculous.

David:

No, I meant that I haven't shaved my face in the last day and a half because I have left my bedroom for my office.

Alex:

Yeah, David, you're feeding the bad dog. Get out of the house, do some exercise.

David:

It's on my to-do list today. I filmed a whole bunch of podcasts and stuff yesterday, so I just couldn't really break away.
Actually, I did get on the bike and ride for an hour. So that was great. That again today.

Travis:

Yeah. For Marines, we as long as we're in the house, we don't go anywhere. We can let that thing grow all we want. But as soon as you step outside to like, go to the market. Gotta be shaving.

50:00 - 57:41

David:

All right, so Travis I got a few questions that I always ask. So the first one is if an E one e two was to walk up to you asking for advice about real estate or life or whatever, what would you tell them?

Travis:

Man..

David:

Think think back to your best safety brief,

Travis:

My best safety brief?

Well, the long ones don't work. And the ones that involve inappropriate activities are always the ones most remembered, right. It's like, Don't drink but I know if you're under 21 you already do but please don't. You're like thank you for empowering the young ones to drink.

Awesome, great job. If I haven't, you know, as commander as a Chief Warrant Officer, I get that I get the ones that he throws all the time. I think that I would tell him about like, Hey, what are your goals in life? like where do you, where do you see yourself? You know, I asked him that because that helps shape my continued dialogue with them because like I'm gonna do for an hour I'm like, okay, you're gonna do for now? Well, some of us are going to do 30 an hour, but guess what, we're all going to be out.

So how are you prepare yourself to be the best person in your company that you can be, you know, either you're going to take the morals and ethics and values that you've learned in the Marine Corps, and they're either going to accentuate your life, or you're going to trash them all and you're going to rely on yours, they may or may not be better, or they may keep you the same, but what are you going to do? Or what are your plans so that you can one day have a better community?

Alex:

Can I pivot off that? Actually, because you said something interesting. You said, usually what I do is I take what they tell me they want to become and then I use that for the continued narrative that I have with that person going forward.

And I think that's a very interesting thing and not not your side of it, but from their side. So the E one e two or the young person, I think it's valuable to tell the world what you want to become because then the world will respond to that going forward.

And so we talked about this all the time, you know, put your affirmations or you write your goals down. These are the kind of same things in social media that are really good about this about you know, being able to tell the world what you want to become because there's guys like Ibis is guys like David. Sometimes it's guys like me, that will listen to what you want to become and say, either maybe I can help. Or maybe now I'm going to perk up and watch you because I believe in you or you just don't know what they may or may not interact with you, but they hear it.

And many of them will interact with you. So I just wanted to piggyback off that and say, I think it is valuable that you ask the question that way, like ask people what they want to become. And when they tell you that's the best way to make it manifest.
Travis:

Yes sir.

David:

All right. Question number two.
Do you have a what's the one resource whether that's a book course website or whatever that you would recommend anybody who's looking to get started in real estate?

Travis:

Oh, I'm on.

Alex:

Flattered.

Travis:

I'm on it.

David:

You're on Alex Felices podcast.

Travis:

Yeah, no, I'm on, I'm on From military to millionaire. Um, you know that. I like From military to millionaire. I like the fact that we are all like minded, service members that want to achieve more than what we know is going to happen. Right?

We all know we're going to retire, but what can we do more?
How can I be more effective in my life, and From military to millionaire is a fantastic opportunity in a wonderful resource to do that from, and then and then you're gonna like that's gonna start it right? And then if and there's nothing wrong with saying like, hey, I like military military got me here and now I'm over here with some other group. I don't think that's wrong. I mean, because you're gonna find in the social media world or your education, that the ebb and flow of people and relationships and all that stuff is all going to work.

And as you get involved with real estate, you're gonna find agents that you work with your agency, don't contractors, PM, like all of that stuff, and it's just a matter of you filling out what's comfortable for you. And then finding those education and those mentors and those mastermind groups that are going to be able to facilitate that success for you.

Alex:

I love that.

David:

I will send your shout out $20 to you later for the plug. Yeah.

Alex:

Appreciate it. Sick fancy.

David:

That's, that's awesome. I appreciate that very much,

Travis:

I'll say. And the further answer that question I say that BiggerPockets has done a fabulous job of globally bringing every single type of real estate entity into it because that's where, I think bigger pockets turned me on to a lot of like, oh, wow, this is out there. Oh, and so it really broadened. You know, it made my, my left and right lateral limits. pretty huge.

Alex:

Big fan of bigger pockets.

Travis:

Yeah, I can tell.

David:

Yes, yes, yes.

I was just gonna ask where people can get a hold of you?

Travis:

I can get a hold of me. Like, like every good marine right and operational security opsec. My Facebook is pretty limited. So you guys search kind of hard for me, but I think I'm on CGH1310 on Instagram. And that's probably the easiest way.

Alex:

This is the first time that somebody's given a government address to find them, I believe.

David:

He said on Instagram, I don't know how government that is..

Alex:

What was the first one? What was the first one?

Alex:

Oh, they said, Oh, they said something about a man and

David:

He was saying unlike the army, we use opsec. And so we will try to make ourselves harder to find. Yeah, I am in charge. I am not a shining example since I'm very easy to find. But Alex, you were gonna say something before I rudely cut you off with the next question that is always to continually asked.

Alex:

I forgot what it was. I'm sure it was brilliant though.

David:

Only we knew. All right, well, hey Travis. This has been fun.

Travis:

Thanks, guys. It hasn't been. I've enjoyed it.

Alex:

Thank you very much.

David:

Yeah. Thanks for joining us today and now that you live closer at once we're allowed to leave our houses. Look forward to hanging out again.

Travis:

Again, man, like I told you earlier you got to come over for Sunday family dinner. I want you to know, we do get released.

Alex:

Shout outs. Are you gonna attend veterans Rei live?

Travis:

I am.

I haven't bought my seat yet, but I'm getting clearance for the mom madonna to allocate funds.

Alex:

Excellent. Excellent.

David:

I could hear Alex speak about whatever Alex feels like speaking about.

Travis

I'm actually going to use my stimulus check. You know that my wife and I got a stimulus check each?

David:

Really?

Travis:

Yeah!

Alex:

You guys both pay taxes, right?

Travis:

No, she doesn't. She's a homemaker. She stays at home and raises chitlins.

Alex:

Does she file?

Travis:

No.

Alex:

She finally tells an 18?

Travis:

No.

David:

Just take that money and stash it.

Alex:

Government at work!

David:

Must be nice, I haven't gotten my stimulus or my actual return that they've owed me for like a month now? But...

Travis:

Yeah, yeah, I will. I'll take that and I will buy my ticket with my little stimulus check every check.

David:

I like it.

Travis:

So yeah..

David:

Right on. Well, thank you once again for joining us today.

Travis:

Thanks, gents.

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