Hello, my friends. And welcome to another episode of Passive Real Estate Investing. I’m your host Marco. Santarelli. It’s been a while since I did an investor spotlight. And you know, now that I think about it, I think I’m gonna start doing more of them throughout the year. It’s always interesting to hear other people’s experiences investing in real estate, whether they’re clients of ours or not. There’s always experiences, lessons learned. It’s interesting to hear about their journey, where they’ve come from, where they’re going. They know sometimes they don’t believe it or not, but that’s something, you know, we definitely want to help them with today. You know, there have been some great golden nuggets and lessons learned from my interview with one of our current and past clients, guy named Tommy and super nice guy, but he’s just having a whole heck of a lot of fun and investing in real estate. And he’s looking to continue to build his portfolio while he enjoys his amazing work at Purdue University. So without further ado, let us get to that interview and I hope you enjoy it.
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Well, it’s my pleasure to welcome Tommy. So to the show, Tommy is a client of ours. He is a fabulous guy. I extremely friendly. And my entire team here have really enjoyed working with Tommy and helping him invest in real estate. So with that, Tommy, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much, Marco. And I will just say what a pleasure it’s been to be working with you and your team. I reciprocate that sentiment. It’s been great so far.
Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Well, you know what I know we had a brief conversation yesterday about coming on the show and doing an investor spotlight of sorts. And I haven’t done one of these in a long time, to be honest with you. And I think I’m gonna start doing some more of them because I actually gain a lot of insight from listening to other people’s stories and journeys of where they’re coming from, where they’re going to, you know, what their investment goals are, how they stumbled across this, all that good stuff. But you know, for our listeners, let’s just start off with you. Why don’t you take a minute or two, tell us a little bit about you, just like, you know, you had told me in the past and we can kind of go down the journey that way.
Well, first thank you so much for this invitation. I feel honored that you’re picking me to be on this investor spotlight. I am just your regular W2 worker. I am at Purdue university and I am a research administrator at Purdue working at the Purdue Institute of infant immunology and infectious disease. And you can imagine how busy I’ve been in the past couple years since COVID hit. But like most of us we’ve been in hybrid mode kind of being back and forth at work, but also at home. And in one of those evenings, I was talking to my mother-in-law who asked me to please go watch this program called wealth breakthroughs. And in one of those interviews, I saw you Marco pop up. And I started talking about this turnkey investment opportunity for real estate investing, and I have a rental property here.
And so I had already started in this journey path for, towards trying to get some passive income through rental properties. And so I was compelled to look you up and look up your Norada Real Estate Investment company. And sure enough, I called and I started working with you really was Melissa Nash being a wonderful real estate agent on your team. And we started to explore what would be investments outside of my local area, my local community, which again, I, you know, I was interested to explore and my goodness, it was such a pleasure working with her because she was so knowledgeable, not only about the different markets that are available, but also how to structure our investments. And so I learned not only strategies, but also thinking about what are these different markets and how we can make it happen?
Well, the journey so far again has been phenomenal. She put us in touch with a lender. She put us in touch with a builder. She put us in touch also with a property manager. So, you know, a w two earner like me, who’s very busy. I don’t have time for this essentially. You know, you are providing this service where I can sleep well at night, knowing that my investment is in good hands and that people are thinking about me and about my investment and how to take care of me, the journey has been fantastic. And you guys have been incredible. Melissa was even not know about the strategies so much. So to put me in touch with particular tax lawyers and CPAs that could help me structure the real estate investments so that I can protect myself I can protect the assets. I can protect myself as well. And you know, one of the things that I’ve been enjoying since working with you and learned about you is this particular podcast. I thank you so much for really helping us navigate this whole process because you know, I’m a research administrator, I’m a biologist. That’s what I dedicate my life to do, try to build expertise in that and having a podcast and resources like the ones on Norada Real Estate website, where I can go and I can learn, I can understand and how to do things and access to knowledgeable people on my team like Melissa has been, it’s been unbelievable. You know, I feel like there should be others that are taking advantage of this. And that’s why one of the motivations for me to be on this podcast is so that maybe I can help other people get the courage and take the leap and do it because it’s been great so far. And I wanna do more with you guys.
Well, I really appreciate everything you just said. And I’m also going to congratulate you for taking the steps you have and, you know, working towards your financial future and building your real estate investment portfolio. I think that’s fantastic. A lot of people think about it. Most people think about it, but a smaller percentage of people actually take action. And, you know, that speaks volumes about you. I’m curious to know, did you have any real estate investment goals prior to watching my piece on the wealth breakthroughs documentary? Did you have like any ambitions or goals to invest in real estate or was it just an aha moment when something clicked?
I had already one real estate property that we were managing here, but I got an aha moment of I should continue this journey and I should continue even outside of my, my own market. That was the aha moment that if I can find the formula of having a property manager that can help me in that area and can help me with the management of the property, if I can find the way to get it all set up so that can have that structure in place. And I don’t have to do too much heavy lifting. That really was the aha moment. And so that’s what got my curiosity peaked and I started to look more into,
Okay, so you didn’t really have a specific or formal plan. It kind of evolved as you thought about it more and Melissa and my team helped you define that a little more clearly and then point you in whatever direction.
Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, I had read rich dad, poor dad, for example. And I had already the bug in me of being able to start building some passive income along to help my w2 earnings. Right. Because you never know when things might go right and you know, Robert Kiyosaki, Poor Dad was a university [inaudible] too. And so, you know, I’m reading, I’m reading in between the lines that I’m thinking, well, maybe it would be good to have something on the side for a rainy day or when things don’t, you know, if things don’t always work out. So that was always part of the motivation. I’ve always wanted to learn more about it. Especially for asset protection. I’ve always wanted to learn more about the process and the taxation piece. So through that wealth breakthroughs series, I got to also start exploring the different areas to continue to build the wealth and doing so with real estate was a way that I already started investing in learning and I thought, oh, okay, well maybe we can continue to grow with Norada.
Great. So you had one property before you even knew we existed. And then what happened? How many properties do you have right now? Actually.
So right now I have three properties, including my home residence. So that property that we had, the rental property, I decided with what I had learned so far with listening to your podcast and working with the people at Anderson Business Advisors and learning the strategies there. I did a cash out refinance of that property here in Indiana. And I used that cash out to do a payment for the construction with Norada in Cape coral, Florida. And that was great. I was able to lock in a really low-interest rate and start construction, new construction in Cape Coral. I was able to lock in that interest rate at a time where mortgages were low and even the construction supplies were plentiful. So I was able to lock in a good construction deal. We locked in just under $200,000 for that construction. And that equity has matured now. So far, we’ve been able to put that up for front and that proper has matured quite a lot in equity. Since it’s been built again with your help, we were able to get a property manager. The home is for rent and it’s cash flowing. Now also from the other pieces that I’ve been learning. One of the things that I wanted to take advantage was the bonus to appreciation from listening to your podcast, from listening to Toby Mathis videos on Anderson Business Advisors line, the Cares Act bonus depreciation was something that I was keen to take advantage of, especially because I had new construction and I had all the costs. Everything was fairly easy to do a cost segregation analysis fairly quickly after the home was built. And so now I’m even gonna get tax savings with that cost segregation analysis. And I think it came up to almost $60,000 in bonus depreciation of the other items that were depreciated inside the property.
And I assume you were able to use that deduction right away and then carry some of it forward.
Yeah, absolutely. I haven’t been able to use it because that we just did that one. So we’ll be able to use it for 2021 and whatever we don’t use will carry forward to subsequent years.
Yeah. Folks listening to this, I mean, this is why real estate is the most tax favored asset class out there. You have, you have the ability to grow your equity, get cash, have depreciation for 27 and a half years on residential real estate. And you also have these acts that have been passed over the last five plus years that allow you to take accelerated depreciation. So you can further reduce your tax bill each and every year until you consume that depreciation. And this is exactly what Tommy took advantage of with the help of the right team of tax advisors. Being both is CPAs, as well as attorneys. And they work in harmony together to make sure that you have the correct structure for what you’re doing and then take advantage of those tax benefits. So, you know, Tommy, I often talk about investing, being a journey. And for most people, that’s a journey from, you know, what I refer to as financial frustration to freedom. And you’re certainly not financially frustrated, but you’re maybe not exactly where you want to be in terms of your goals towards that full on financial freedom. I’m assuming, maybe share if you have one, what, you know, your biggest frustration might have been during, or just before you got started investing in real estate or maybe taking that next that forward. Cuz I think a lot of people are in that space where they’re experiencing some sort of frustration.
Absolutely. And I I’ll tell you the biggest frustration was realizing how much time I had wasted because you know, if you realize it, if you get started earlier, you get the benefits of compounding interest if you want and you get the long term benefits. If you start at the earlier you start. And that realization was a bit of my, you know, my own frustration, not, not necessarily having all the tools at hand, I went through university, I got a PhD. They teach you all about research and about the world around us and everything you want to know. But the piece of personal finance and the piece of personal wealth and, and estate planning, especially once you start having and building a family, that piece is up to you and it’s up to you to learn. And maybe it comes down from your family, maybe comes down, pass down from relatives or whatever, but it really is up to you to start dedicating sometime to learn about it, to get the courage, to take the leap and start doing it.
I think the COVID pandemic has caused this shift where a lot of people are locked inside and they’re wondering what to do. And I think you’ve seen some of the numbers in the economy that, that show you that I’m not the only one out there doing this type of investing or taking advantage of this type of investing. And so for me, the biggest frustration was not knowing, you know, that I could have started earlier because maybe I didn’t make the right choices of saving and investing. I might have saved, I knew about saving, but maybe they didn’t teach me enough about investing about, you know, in cash flow about passive income, about taxation, about estate planning. You know, there’s so many layers to that and I’ve been learning a lot as I’ve gone along. And I feel encouraged to know that the more I do the more I learn, but that’s why I kind of felt frustrated that I had not started earlier in doing right.
You know, as an academic, you can imagine I’ve, I’ve researched a lot and I’ve, I’ve been a good student. Marco, I’ve been a good student of yours. I’ve been a good student of anybody that wants to teach and teach good values and way to move forward. And the frustration has been myself and not having the courage of having it done it earlier because I should have, and I hope other people can, can take that and say, well, maybe I should start that because it, it really is a journey. And the more you do, the more you learn and the more you get into it and that you don’t wanna stop.
Yeah. Well, congratulations. I mean, the fact that you’ve taken action regardless of how long you’ve waited or what your age is going to put you that much further ahead than if you had waited another year or another five years. So, you know, sadly, some people really never take action ever, and they live their whole life without having thought about their finances and their financial future and their retirement. Although I’m not a big believer in retirement, I think you should always be doing whatever you enjoy and have fun doing it, but just make sure you have the financial resources to be able to have the time freedom and flexibility, to be able to do that stuff. But you know, it’s true about what you said and you know, one thing in my conversations with Robert Kiyosaki, I’ve been on a couple of cruises with him. You know, he’s always a, a student he’s always in the back of the room, no matter who is speaking, even if they are like one, 1000th of successful as he is, and he’s always taken notes, he will learn from anybody as long as it’s something that is useful and makes sense.
So he’s a perpetual lifelong student and that’s the way I feel everybody should be. That’s certainly the way I am. And it really only takes a few books. As you keep reading chapter after chapter book, after book, you’ll always get an aha moment or a nugget of information that can certainly create a pivot or a turning point in your life. And if you apply, it can become something that will contribute to your financial success or other types of wealth could be health related. It could be whatever it is. So you’re right. You know, it’s important to keep learning and educate yourself. In fact, I often say, especially my presentations, that ignorance is expensive and most people say ignorance is bliss. Well, that’s not the case.
That’s right. So that’s exactly right. Yeah. I agree wholeheartedly. And I’m a student for life in, in everything I do. Right.
Yeah. And that’s great. And I mean, you truly are. So, you know, let’s kind of look at the top down approach. I talk about often, you know, how did you choose the market when you were saying, okay, it’s time to purchase another property and we’re gonna go down this journey of building real estate portfolio. You obviously have to make a decision of where you’re gonna invest first. You might already know what you’re gonna invest in in terms of single family, duplex, fourplex, whatever, but you’re gonna start with a market and narrow it down from there. How did you pick the market to invest in? Was that something you did on your own or was that with the help of other people?
Well, it was definitely a discussion that I had with my wife in trying to identify what would be a market that would be favorable and we would be able to see it grow. And so we did a lot of homework and I have to say that your Norada Real Estate website is a wonderful resource for doing this homework. And for getting us started, I think also in conversations with Melissa and in having a bit of her perspective of where is she seeing the movement where she’s seeing the growth and having that discussion, we identified as a state to invest in because we did see it was a great potential. Southern Florida, It was a little too expensive outside of our range, even, you know, the Tampa area was a little bit outside of our range, but we did see the Cape coral area and the Fort Myers area the, you know, port Charlotte Northport areas as very much hot pockets. One of the things that I rationalized was that there was a retirement community, especially in those areas. I knew a lot about retirees and Fort Myers, for example. And I knew that there was a lot of people that were moving down to Florida to service that market and they would need homes to live and they probably wouldn’t buy home outright or pick an area outright, but they might wanna rent on their first year or two while they’re looking at where to move. And that was essentially why we thought, okay, this would be a good idea for a rental property there. And since we were comfortable with the residential rental prop, that’s what we went with.
Good stuff. Yeah. I mean, Florida has been a hot bed for population growth. There’s so many people moving down there, not just because of the weather, but because there’s jobs. And so you know, when you have that kind of inflow and demand, it certainly creates a healthy housing market and it creates a demand or a need for new household formations. And therefore there’s gonna be a lot of new construction and people coming in and it’s gonna support the prices. It’s gonna support rent growth. And you certainly caught that wave and the wave is still going on now, it’s, you know, it’s not too late. It’s been going on for years and will continue to go on for years. But you know, you were smart enough to catch that opportunity that in the market that is growing. So, you know, it’s tell us about what happened when you picked your property. I know you contracted for a property to be constructed. And obviously when you do that, you lock into a particular price. I’m gonna leave it there and let you finish the story because it’s fantastic.
No, absolutely. And essentially we were able to pick a lot and we worked with the construction company who surveyed, looked around and give us a couple possibilities for lots. And so at that time, the lots were essentially for under $10,000, if you can imagine. So we were able to lock in a lot around that price and then lock in with the construction loan. Essentially, we ended up locking in that loan below 200,000. And you know, at that time we were, you know, we were thinking it would be great to use the strategy where we could say this could be our second home and it could be our vacation home in Florida. And so we use that strategy and that’s what we indicated to the lender. And again, learning from the advice that people like you have put on your podcast is you have to learn how to talk to the lender.
You have to be very direct. You have to be forthcoming, but you have to know what you want and how to speak to the lender. Cuz we were able to say that it was for our vacation home. We were able to put down a 10% down payment and lock in this construction loan for less than 200K as I said, I had used the cash out reef financed from the property here. So I had the money put in and essentially this house now is probably worth upwards of 300K in that market. Wow. So we’ve done very well. The plan is to do another cash out refinance with this one and continue to build on that portfolio if we can.
Yeah. For newer listeners to the show or people who have missed those episodes over the last five and a half years, what Tommy did was basically take some dormant equity equity that is trapped in a property in his case, it’s this principle residence and put it to better use the highest and best use for that equity because sitting by itself, it’s really just a target for someone who wants to come after you one day to Sue you for whatever reason. But at the same time, it’s not generating cash flow and it’s not generating a rate of return. It’s just sitting there idle. Yes. It’s your equity. Yes. It’s on your personal balance sheet. So yes, contributes to your net worth. But what if you could move it, not eliminate it, but take some of it, move it and use it to purchase additional real estate that generates cash flow, generates income for you. All you’ve done is move it from where you’re living. Like what Tommy did to another market like Southwest Florida and use it as a down payment towards another property that now is going to generate equity growth over time, as well as cash flow. So now he’s accelerating his wealth creation as well as contributing to his income, the increased in income. So this is a good strategy, especially if you are what I lovingly call equity rich and cash flow poor. So if you’ve got the equity that you can use comfortably to build a real estate portfolio, you can really do yourself, some amazing things towards your financial future. And that’s exactly what Tommy is talking about here. And that that’s what he did. So Tommy, when it comes to the property, did you have a criteria going in or was that a matter of conversation with my team? How did you come up with what you were looking for to invest in?
I had a criteria to come in, Melissa, put me in touch with the property manager and I was able to have a conversation with the property manager prior to arranging construction. If the builder, my questions to the property manager are what are the houses that get rented the quickest and where are your gaps? What are you missing? And he immediately said, well, the fastest is a three bedroom, two bath. And you know, this is a good area here. So that gave me some bearing that gave me already a good start. And that’s where we were going after. And essentially the three bedroom, two bath, I think it gives property managers a lot of flexibility. You can think of a family of four that could have a room for the kids and even an office or each kid has their own room. There’s a lot of flexibility for couples. There’s a lot of flexibility for up and coming families. So essentially the house that we had here in Indiana, that was our primary home and we outgrew that. And so we moved out of that house and put it up for rent, but it was later on as I started learning from your podcast and from our team of advisors at the Anderson Business Advisors that we should structure these so that they’re protected that there, the cash flow is well set up. And so there were other strategies now that I started to implement as we went along, as we started to learn more and as we started to invest in this area as well, you know, most people think that, oh, it’s so expensive. I can’t do this. It’s very expense. But I think as you said, you know, it’s expensive not to do this. If you are not gonna do this, it’s very important to understand that that money that’s in the bank. If you are not using it, somebody else is borrowing it. Otherwise it becomes a liability for the bank. The bank needs to pay you back dividends. It needs to pay you back interest on that money that you’re saving in the bank. And so for them, it’s beneficial to lend it out to somebody else that will pay back that interest rate and more so that the bank can keep growing and making more money. So there are these concepts that until you get through these and had realized that the dollar that you save today is not really worth much 20 years, 30 years from now, you better put that money to work. Otherwise you are gonna be working for the money for the long haul. And that’s a realization. That’s the true aha moment that you gotta have to keep going.
If there’s any golden nugget in what we’ve covered to a day, that was it. There were some really big, major important points that you just made there. And I, I wanna make sure that everybody caught that and it’s probably worth rewinding about 60 seconds, 90 seconds here to listen to what you just said. One more time. The two biggest things you said among other things are number one is what you’re talking about is opportunity cost. If you have investible capital, whether it’s liquid or illiquid right now, if you have the ability to create investible capital and you’re not putting it to use, you’re not putting it to work. What you think you are saving by not taking action or doing anything is not a real saving at all. It’s not getting you ahead. So you gotta think about what is the, the opportunity cost that you’re missing out on, because if you did make an investment real estate or otherwise, but if you made an investment, you have a gain and it’s getting you further ahead year after year after year, that’s putting you ahead.
But if you don’t take action and you don’t do that, what you are not gaining in the years to come is that cost. That is what you’re really losing, is what you could have had. That’s what opportunity cost is all about. And the other thing that you mentioned in there, which was beautifully weaved and layered is the impact of inflation. Because if you have investible capital in any form, especially if it’s just currency Fiat currency savings or just cash. The fact is is that last year we clocked about a 20% rate of inflation. I mean, you could read different reports, but nobody’s gonna argue that we didn’t have at least 15% inflation over the last 12 months. And that’s gonna continue, maybe not at that pace, but if your earnings, your w two and 10 99 earnings are not keeping pace at a 15% per year or more rate of growth you’re falling behind. So you need to combat that. You need to basically take control of your financial future and realize that if you’re not outpacing inflation, you’re falling further and further behind. And this is what’s happening in this country is the middle class being gutted because it’s really becoming more and more of the have and have nots. If you don’t invest in assets that keep up or beat the rate of inflation, you’re gonna fall further behind. And this is why I’m so, you know, happy for you, Tommy and proud of you and all our clients for that matter is the fact that you can build a portfolio of investable assets that keep up with inflation and generate income and create wealth for you of, for the long term is really going to, you know, put you in a great position 5, 10, 20 years from now. And so your message, I think, and at least I hope is resonating with so many people right now.
Absolutely. And I would just say this and again, back to my point before is the time is now, you know, if you keep looking at it, keep thinking about keep researching in. Okay, good. You might feel good, but you’re not gonna take advantage of it, of the investment opportunity. And as you said, inflation is just gonna keep eroding away at whatever savings you have. So, you know, my point before was the frustrated at that I had not started sooner and if I could have, I would have, and you know, that’s kind of the, the courage that I’m trying to give people also is to say, well, you know, maybe I should start now.
Yeah, definitely. Well, you know, there’s the saying, and it’s been put out there in so many different variations, but the best time to have invested it in real estate was 10 years ago. The next best time to invest in real estate is today, right?
Yes, absolutely!
And so there’s, there’s a lot of truth into that. And you know, sometimes I get asked the question, is it too late? Or are we in a bubble is now a good time. And my answer to that is always the same. And that is this. It’s not a question of when to invest because the answer to that is now, or always, it’s really about where, and that’s exactly what you did, you know, to some degree with our help is identify where you should be investing, not whether you should be investing or not. And you know, it turned out very well for you. You’ve got a property cash flow, you’ve got a tremendous of equity growth because of the dynamics and the fundamentals going on in Florida right now. But that’s duplicatable. I mean, that formula and that, you know, that system that we have has been going on for over 18 years now, you know, since I started back in 2003 and officially launched in January, 2004, so this is what we’ve been doing for a very long time. And you know, it’s just too bad. You didn’t know about us 18 years ago.
Absolutely. And I can say Marco kudos to you and your team. It’s a well oil, well-greased machine. You guys know exactly what you’re doing. You can tell that you’ve been in successful business for that long because it’s been again, a great journey so far, and your team has been very professional, very easy to work with and very helpful all throughout.
Well, I appreciate that. And you know, just outta fairness to the rest of my team, you mentioned Melissa, multiple times, you, her knowledge and the experience you’ve had with working with her and, and the rest of my support staff, it’s really across the board. You know, I’ve got a team of six investment counselors and they’re all equally successful, equally qualified, equally helpful. They all have the same tools and knowledge that they can pass on to you or anyone else. So, you know, I just want to make sure or that people are not like thinking, oh, I have to talk to Melissa. That’s great. We assign based on their workload, who the investment counselor is, but they’re all fantastic. They’re all equally qualified. So I, I just wanted to throw that out there in fairness for the rest of the team, Tommy. So as we kind of start to wrap it up here just to, you know, two or three more quick questions here, you’ve of answered this already, but I’m gonna ask it anyway. Like what advice would you give to new investors that are listening to this, or just getting started? I know you’ve kind of touched on this already. I’m not gonna put words in your mouth, but what would you give, you know, new investors advice on?
So the opportunity for new investors is to look for passive cash flow opportunity. And the real estate play is fairly easy to get into. If you don’t have enough money for a down payment, yet I recommend that you make a plan and stick to it. You know, one of the things that really helps us is setting things on automatic mode for the new type investor that is thinking about this in order to create a savings, you need to decide how much are you willing to part with every month or every paycheck and say, I’m going to dogmatically religiously, put that aside, and I’m not gonna touch it until I’ve that up to a certain amount that I can start now investing. And in real estate investing, you can go this traditional route like we’re doing with you. There’s the stock market has these real estate investment trust too, that you can invest. And those are cash flow as well. And you can still are building your bundle with those types of investments as well. And that’s passive income as well. Build it up until you’re ready to put down a down payment. I don’t think there is really any replacement for getting in. If you’re looking to be an investor in real estate to getting into buying a property, there’s a lot of learning to be done. There’s a lot of journeying to be done in that process. And so I wouldn’t shy away from that as an investment option. I think it’s a great one. Once you have enough to put as a down payment, but definitely because I know that humans are, you know, we are beasts of, you know, doing things over and over and over again, if you automate it, you will learn how to live without that money. And eventually you’ll be surprised at how much you’ve saved it and how much you’re able to put into another investment.
That was great. The only thing I would add to that is this. I think everybody should keep in mind that this is a team sport as Robert Kiosaki talks about you don’t go this alone. You’re not an island. And so don’t ever think that you need to carry all the weight yourself. You don’t. What you need to do is surround yourself with competent team that can help you achieve your investment goals. And for the most part, that’s what we’ve created here. So you’re not by yourself. Don’t let it be scary or overwhelming. And I’m sure you can attest to this Tommy. You know, I agree. You’ve had a lot of support, I think with, you know, not only our teams here, but all the people that we’ve brought into the fold that we’re talking to.
No doubt, Marco, that is truth beyond truths. That don’t think that you are going to do everything on your own. There’s a lot of complexities in terms of tax laws and things that you might want to know about, but you definitely want to have a team together to go at this and to go about it in a way that you’re protecting yourself. You know, one of the things that you learn about with your group is you need to set up a structure by which that asset is separated from you as a person. So you can protect yourself to do that. I know it sounds like it easy, you know, I’ll just put together an LLC and I’ll put the property in there. There are a few complexities in there not to be scary, but that, you know, required experts that can help you to do that and seek out those experts and ask questions like I have so that you can start to formulate what is that team and how they can help you at the right time so that you’re ready to move forward once you have that investment.
Yep. Yeah. Beautiful. I just thought about this, but you’re in Indiana and you were investing with your most recent acquisition in Florida. Did you have any issue or concern about being a long distance or out of state investor?
No doubt I did. I did. And that was, you know, that was one of the worries that Melissa was able to walk me through. And again, I will use her name because just that’s the person that I, but, you know, I said, Melissa, I really want to do this in Florida, but how do I set it up? What do I need to do? And in essence, that’s when she explained to me you know, she sent one of your shows where you explained the whole, you know, Wyoming, LLC holding company and the different LLCs for each separate property. And I started learning a little bit more of through that and then through Anderson business advisors. And so that whole journey was again, a really educational process, but now you understand how it is that needs to happen. And Marco, now I have a little machine I’m ready to go with more and I don’t need to do too much heavy lifting. I know what I’m doing. And really the process is you set up a bank account that is separate for, from your personal bank account. You open up that bank account in the LLCs name, you’re transferring that property under the LLC. And whatever income comes in is deposited onto that bank account. But that bank account can be down the road nowadays. It’s all done that electronically. So to open up a bank account for my Florida property, I was able to do that remotely as well.
Beautiful. And none of this should be overwhelming to anybody because we’re gonna guide you through it. And then of course, there’s the other professionals that are gonna help guide you through it as well. And once you’ve done it a few times, maybe you can attest to this, but once you’ve done this two times, you’re gonna look back and you’re gonna know the next step. You’re gonna know the drill. You’re gonna be comfortable with it. Nothing’s gonna be foreign. It’ll be almost like riding a bike. Last quick question, Tommy 20 years from now, if you were able to come back and give yourself some advice, what would that be?
Oh, wow. Buy more lots in Cape Coral, but do more because what an opportunity what timing, and I think I’m already saying, Hmm, maybe I should have, I should have stretched out a little bit more to do one more lot. At least the lots are just on their own are even increasing.
They are.
Are so, and I even have people still texting me, Hey, are you willing to sell your lot? I’m like, and I’m thinking, well, you haven’t driven by because there’s a house now on top of that lot. But I think the, the regret would be not to do more with whatever I could have done.
Yeah. Well, that’s the whole thing of about opportunity cost and, you know, having regrets later from not doing something today, so wonderful. Anything else you’d like to share with our listeners before we wrap it up?
Marco, it’s been a pleasure working with you and your team I’m looking forward to continue doing so again, you have a great product. You provide a great service for people like me. I don’t have time for this and you make it so easy. You make it so streamlined that I don’t really have to worry too much about it. You know, I’ve told some of my friends here that I’m working with turnkey, real estate investment company, and some of them get really scared when I say that, but I think they’re coming around to seeing the value in it as my success story continues to grow. So really kudos to you, your team, great work and happy to continue working with you guys.
Yeah. Thank you, Tommy. I really appreciate you saying that. And for coming on the show today, the only comment I’m gonna say, based on what you said is that the word turnkey, I think is very foreign still to this day. For a lot of people, I marketed the crap out of that term, you know, 18 years ago. And for many years now everybody kicks it around like a football. But the problem is, is most people don’t have, you know, a true or formal definition of what that means. And we do, it’s very clear. It’s like, you know, seven or eight bullet points, it’s on our website. And if it doesn’t fit inside that box, we don’t refer to it as turnkey. So for us, it’s turnkey real estate investments and turnkey, real estate investing is the experience that you just had. And that’s what we wanna share with everybody else. So anyway, with that, Tommy, thank you for taking the time to come on the show. I think this has been very helpful for a lot of people.
Thank you, Marco. It’s been an honor. It’s been a pleasure to be invited at this podcast.
Absolutely. And with that said, everybody listen thing today. If this resonated with you and you haven’t had a chat with one of our investment counselors, feel free to just contact us through our website. You can have a free strategy session. I mean, everything we do is free. We don’t charge for anything whatsoever. So you get a ton of value for what we offer and what we can help you achieve. And again, there’s no cost. So if you’re serious about real estate investing, I just schedule your free strategy session with my team. But other than that, we appreciate you being a subscriber. If you’re not subscribed, remember to click that subscribe button. So you never miss an episode, help us spread the word, share this with your friends, family, and other like-minded individuals. Because guess what they’re thinking just like you are, and that is it for today. Thank you for listening. And we will see you all on our next episode.
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