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**The Real Estate Way to Wealth and Freedom**

Are you interested in Real Estate Investing, but don’t know how or where to start? Are you a young professional or just starting to explore the possibility of investing in cash flowing real estate? The Real Estate Way to Wealth and Freedom podcast aims to help people just like you build wealth and achieve financial freedom through real estate investing, with a focus on investing in apartment buildings. With actionable content from weekly interviews with real estate investors, lenders, brokers, tax attorneys, and other real estate professionals, you’ll have the education necessary to begin your real estate investing journey. Jacob Ayers is a young professional who started investing in real estate at the age of 25. As a real estate investor and entrepreneur, Jacob aspires to help you achieve financial freedom through real estate investing. If terms such as passive income, lifestyle engineering, wealth creation, and freedom resonate with you, then you’re sure to get value from this podcast! If you want to live a life of fulfillment while doing the things you love, then this is the podcast for you!

Latest Episodes:

236: Building a Real Estate Business with Pete Barrow Aug 12, 2019

Show notes

Pete Barrow

Pete Barrow, along with his sons Sam and Isaac, founded Parrot Property Group, a family-owned business based in Indianapolis. They focus on providing the reliability and responsiveness that you need in order to make your real estate investment a success. Parrot Property Group has a team of 5 members with approximately 80 years of combined experience in construction and real estate investing.

Parrot Property Group provides a full-service solution for real estate investors in Indianapolis. From acquisitions consulting to leasing and property management, they do it all.

Key Points

Making real estate investing a family business
Buying a package of duplexes with an investor
Seeking out a real estate market – what to look for
Branding and marketing
Direct mail campaigns to motivated sellers

Lightning Questions

What was your biggest hurdle getting started in real estate investing, and how did you overcome it?
- Lack of money. With a long-time customer who was willing to put up capital on that package of duplexes, Parrot Property Group was born.
Do you have a personal habit that contributes to your success?
- Pete and everyone in the business enjoy working.
Do you have an online resource that you find valuable?
- Pete enjoys podcasts and leans on YouTube for many of his projects
What book would you recommend to the listeners and why?
- Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow
If you were to give advice to your 20-year-old self to get started in real estate investing, what would it be?
- Don’t follow your dream unless it makes sense.

Resources

Parrot Property Group

Pete Barrow’s BiggerPockets Profile

Visit Audible for a free trial, and a free audiobook download

235: Accelerate Your Growth – Friday Fundamentals Aug 09, 2019

Show notes

A Life of Significance

Throughout your life, you’ve been on an ever-evolving journey. From learning to take your first steps and say those first words, to growing up and accomplishing so many great things, you have grown significantly. The pursuit of growth is what many desire, but few actually realize about themselves. We want to improve, grow, learn new things, see new places, try new experiences, and do as much as possible in our short time here on this earth. Growth comes in many different forms and paths for everyone. By growing in your experiences, capabilities, knowledge, and across all the other areas of your life, you’ll one day look back at a life lived to the fullest and know that you created and took advantage of opportunities you never thought were possible. That’s what we all want – a life of significance – one that we’ll look back on one day and reminisce on. Sounds like a good plan, right? Great! Let’s look at how to build a framework around your growth so that you can maximize your full potential.

Accelerate Your Growth

Growth is a slow and steady process that takes time. It often happens so slowly and up close that you don’t realize it. Think back 5 years ago and think about your life then. What was different about you then? What have you learned since? How have you changed? Now think ahead 5 years from now and ask yourself those same questions in a forward-thinking perspective. What do you hope to accomplish? You likely expect a lot of growth from yourself. So let’s start that journey now. Here are a few ways you can continue to grow and then accelerate your growth.

Growth starts with your mindset. An abundant mindset will allow you to think bigger and grow more. Your mindset is your foundation. Think of a 50-year-old oak tree. Before that tree ever sprouted from the ground, its roots had already grown deep underground. These roots are your mindset.
Once you’ve started thinking abundantly, you’ll need to fuel your mind. You have access to an entire world of information. Podcasts, books, audiobooks, videos, courses, blogs, articles, and forums are fantastic resources. You could spend a lifetime consuming productive content and not even scratch the surface. Going deeper here, make this education a habit. Invest in yourself each day by learning something new, studying something that interests you, and continuing to expand your knowledge base.
Find someone you can look to as a partner, mentor, or coach. Likely, whatever you are interested in, someone has done that already. You can dramatically increase your growth by learning from that person. This person will ideally inspire you and push you outside your comfort zone. You will only experience growth outside your comfort zone.
Take action. Developing an abundant mindset, educating yourself, and learning from others is all in vain if you don’t follow up with action. You don’t have to move mountains every day, but rather take small consistent steps toward your goals.

These few tips will help you dramatically increase your growth as a person in all areas of your life – hacks, if you will.

The Long Haul

Remember, this is a life long journey. You have to be committed for the long term. You’ll experience peaks and valleys in your life, and it’s important to always keep pushing forward. Develop and invest in your mindset, learn something new every day, find success from other people, and take consistent and calculated action. Doing these things will accelerate your growth and allow you to realize all of your untapped potential. Your journey will be unique to you and can’t be compared to others. Focus on yourself and becoming the best version of yourself that you can. One day you’ll look back at all the things you accomplished as a result of those little things you did for years and year before.

Resources

Visit Audible for a free trial and free audiobook download!

234: Projects to Profit with Michael Green Aug 05, 2019

Show notes

Michael Green

Michael Green is a successful house flipper and the host of The Flip Factor, but at one point in time this success was just a teenage boy’s dream. At the age of fifteen, prompted by late-night infomercials, Michael bought the book No Money Down by Carlton Sheets, which planted the seed of eventually becoming a house flipper. But the road to success wasn’t always easy. Growing up next to the projects in Baltimore, Michael found himself getting into trouble, and his relationship with his dad was built on breaking the law.

At 17, Michael found himself thrown into a paddy wagon with handcuffs around his wrists. Faced with a four-year jail sentence and a cold, uncomfortable prison cell, with terrible food, scratchy blankets and no freedom, Michael had a lot of time to think. He thought about how if his life up to that point were a house, it would be a broken-down, boarded-up house. His negative patterns and limiting beliefs had eaten away at his foundation like hungry termites. Michael could either continue these patterns and let his life crumble around him, or he could step up and fix it. So he got to work on his first flip – himself.

Key Points

Lessons from turning a 4-year jail sentence into a successful house flipping business
Shifting your mindset to that of success and abundance
Scaling down, rather than up, to grow your business
Building a business that does 170+ flips per year
Applying the 80/20 rule to find the best deals

Lightning Questions

What was your biggest hurdle getting started in real estate investing, and how did you overcome it?
- Analysis paralysis. Michael learned just enough to get started, and then learned as he went.
Do you have a personal habit that contributes to your success?
- Michael plans out his next day, every evening. He finds that he is most productive in the mornings, so he plans out his next morning the evening before.
Do you have an online resource that you find valuable?
- Trello
- Podio
What book would you recommend to the listeners and why?
- Mindset by Carol Dweck
If you were to give advice to your 20-year-old self to get started in real estate investing, what would it be?
- Get started. You are capable and can achieve great things. Find a mentor, educate yourself, and take action.

Resources

The Flip Factor podcast

TheFlipFactor.net

Visit Audible for a free trial, and a free audiobook download

233: Find Success – Friday Fundamentals Aug 02, 2019

Show notes

Find Success

Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Being successful at something usually requires commitment, courage, and consistent action. You have to be committed to achieving your goal, whatever that may be. You’ll inevitably run into hurdles and challenges along the way, and that commitment you’ve made to yourself to achieve success will be the driver in pushing yourself. Pushing yourself to achieve high levels of success will also require courage. You might find yourself taking the path less traveled, doing things others might not consider normal, and also taking risks. You’ll have to push yourself outside of your comfort zone and get used to being there. With commitment and courage, you will put yourself on your own path to success, but with consistent action, you’ll make sure to stay on that path. You’ll have to take consistent action towards your goals each and every day, constantly moving the needle. With commitment, courage, and consistent action, you’ll find your way on a path of success, however you define that.

So let’s take that philosophy and apply it towards our favorite subject – real estate investing. Investing in real estate can seem like a daunting challenge. From the large financial commitments to legal obligations, market cycles, and so many unknowns, it’s easy to let your self become intimidated. Each and every person has their own reservations. Perhaps that’s the uncertainty of the future, or the commitment to make a large purchase or a number of other things.

How to Find Success

When taking on a new adventure, there will always be challenges and hurdles. That’s part of the journey. But that doesn’t mean you have to find success alone. Let’s look at some different ways you can find success.

Find someone who is doing or has done what you want to. This person could be a mentor, coach, or partner. This could even be someone you don’t necessarily know, but rather study. Luckily for us all, in today’s world, we are all connected. You can stand on the shoulders of giants, connect with people all over the world, and learn from some of the smartest and most successful people in your respective field. Reading books is a great introductory way to learn from other people. You would likely not be able to get the time to sit down and talk with, Ray Dalio, who founded and leads one of the world’s largest hedge funds and has been named one of Time Magazine’s most influential people of the world, to talk about his views on the economy. But you can read his book Principles, and understand how he has built a framework that guides his firm’s philosophy and success.
Surround yourself with people who will help you become more successful. You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Build a solid support group that you surround yourself with that encourages you to achieve success, pushes you to do more, and forces you to grow. Be intentional about who you spend your time with.
Make success a commitment, rather than a short term goal. Success isn’t actually a destination, you’ll find, but rather a journey. You likely won’t experience what some call “overnight success”. What will look like an overnight success to outside people will be the result of thousands of hours of hard work, years of dedication, and a long-term commitment you have made to achieve your goals.

These are just a few things you can do to help you along your journey. Look to others for their experience, surround yourself with positive influences, and take consistent action.

Journey

Success can mean whatever you want. It can mean anything from having peace of mind and financial freedom, to having abundant time to spend with the people that matter most to you, or being able to afford traveling in comfort to your bucket list destinations, having a comfortable home, or anything else you can imagine.

Your success is totally up to you. You just have to decide what that is and make a plan to achieve that. Anything you can imagine in possible. With commitment, courage, and consistent action, you can achieve anything you set your mind to.

Resources

Visit Audible for a free trial and free audiobook download!

232: Investing in Self Storage with Kris Benson Jul 29, 2019

Show notes

Kris Benson

Kris Benson is the chief investment officer for Reliant Investments, a subsidiary of Reliant Real Estate Management and one of the top 30 commercial self-storage operators in the U.S. in 2018. Kris is part of the investment committee and develops institutional-quality self-storage investment opportunities for accredited investors.

Kris’s investing goals have always been about changing the paradigm of trading time for money in order to have time for more of the things we love to do. Likewise, investing in real estate has been Kris’s steadfast path to passive income and he is passionate about inspiring others to change their mindset around investing for their future.

Key Points

Continuously pushing yourself out of your comfort zone
Finding your strengths and playing to those
Finding motivation beyond money
Building a portfolio of small multifamily properties, then scaling with syndication
Three pillars – returns, protection, opportunity
Investing in self-storage

Lightning Questions

What was your biggest hurdle getting started in real estate investing, and how did you overcome it?
- Fear and lack of knowledge. By taking advantage of self-education resources like BiggerPockets, and then taking action, Kris was able to get started.
Do you have a personal habit that contributes to your success?
- Kris figures out what needs to be done and then executes.
Do you have an online resource that you find valuable?
- Ian Ippolito – The Real Estate Crowdfunding Review
- BiggerPockets
What book would you recommend to the listeners and why?
- Shoe Dog – Phil Knight
If you were to give advice to your 20-year-old self to get started in real estate investing, what would it be?
- Do it sooner! The best tool in all of investing is time – take advantage of it.

Resources

Reliant Investments

KrisBenson.com (coming soon)

Kris’ LinkedIn Profile

National Association of REITs data

Visit Audible for a free trial, and a free audiobook download

231: Create Your Own Reality- Friday Fundamentals Jul 26, 2019

Show notes

Create Your Own Reality

If you’re like anything like me, you were raised with the blueprint to go to school, get a good education, go to college, and get a job. This is a common path for the middle class. It’s one that works. It’s proven. If you take this path, chances are you’ll live a comfortable life earning a comfortable wage.

That’s where I found myself at the young age of 23 looking for my next step. What I found was.. I was at the end of this blueprint. This was it. This is what I have to look forward to for the next 40 years until retirement.

For a lot of people, this is exactly the path they want and have worked hard to achieve. For others this sounds too good to be true. And to even fewer, this sounds like a nightmare.

Where do you fall? If it’s in the latter, and this sounds like a nightmare, I have news for you (and everyone who wants to change their current situation, whatever that may be) – you can create your own reality. Yes! You have the ability to create any life you can imagine. That’s the good news.

The bad news is it takes work.

So if you’re listening to this right now and you’re thinking to yourself about that job you’re driving to that doesn’t fulfill you, or stressed about your financial situation, or anything else that weighs on your mind, then I have a few things that will help you.

First, it’s important to understand that you, and only you, are responsible for your successes and failures. No one or nothing else – only you. Once you take accountability for your actions, then you’re off to the races.

You have to take control of your environment. Surround yourself with people who are good for you. These people encourage you, lift you up, challenge you, and ultimately, make you a better person.

Guard your time. Your time is the only non-renewable source you have. You won’t get any more of it, so choose wisely how you spend it. Spend your time doing things that fulfill you and put you closer towards your goals. If you’re complaining about your job and playing the latest video game, then you aren’t doing anything to take control of your environment, and you’re especially not guarding your time.

Look at adversities as challenges, rather than problems. You’ll inevitably run into adversity. How you react to it will determine how or if you overcome it.

Improve every single day. This is such a simple, yet underrated, hack. Just get better at whatever it is you want every single day. Whether that’s running, saving money, studying, or working on your business, practice your skill every day. These little steps won’t seem like much at first, but eventually you’ll look back and see the journey you’ve made.

Don’t just sit, wait, and hope that things will change. You know the saying, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting different results”. Envision the life you want to live. Picture what it will look like. Imagine what it will feel like. Then, take action and decisive steps to turn that dream to a reality.

You’re entirely capable of anything you can imagine. So get out there and create your own reality.

230: Building a Successful Real Estate Company with Gabe DaSilva Jul 22, 2019

Show notes

Gabe DaSilva

Gabe DaSilva is Founder and President of DaSilva Group Inc. Prior to forming his firm Mr. DaSilva held several positions with both public and private financial institutions in the Greater New York City Area. Mr. DaSilva specializes in implementing effective profitability optimization strategies and conducting complex financial valuations and analyses.

Key Points

Building a vertically integrated real estate business
Creating a culture of success
Systems and processes to grow your business
House flipping – add a level/pop tops
The mindset of success
The difference in building a business and buying yourself another job

Lightning Questions

What was your biggest hurdle getting started in real estate investing, and how did you overcome it?
- Lack of capital (no deals, no dollars). Gabe found a good lending partner and built a relationship, and used leverage to grow.
Do you have a personal habit that contributes to your success?
- Gabe has what he calls a non-negotiable, and that is unplugging on Sunday.
Do you have an online resource that you find valuable?
- Podcasts
What book would you recommend to the listeners and why?
- Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
- Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
- E-Myth by Michael Gerber
- Scaling Up by Verne Harnish
- Traction by Gino Wickman
If you were to give advice to your 20-year-old self to get started in real estate investing, what would it be?
- Stop playing and get serious about life. Take massive action, find a circle that elevates you, and level up together.

Resources

DaSilva Group

The Build video series on Youtube

Gabe’s Instagram profile

Flip Tip E-book

Visit Audible for a free trial, and a free audiobook download.

229: Begin With the End in Mind – Friday Fundamentals Jul 19, 2019

Show notes

Begin With the End in Mind

When starting any new venture you think about what your goals are, what the end product or result looks like, and then start building towards those. This goes for any new sport or hobby you pick up, your education, career, and your life. When you take this approach, you are building the foundation for your success. Begin with the end in mind is a phrase many have heard.

Beginning with the end in mind isn’t just some fancy phrase though. It has quite the merit. See, when you start with the end in mind you have to visualize and contemplate what that end thing is. That could be a status, a product, a result, or a number of other things. It provides a framework for you to strive towards, benchmark progress, and serves as a target for you to aim at. But most importantly and most excitingly, this creation can be anything you want. You can set the bar as high as you want, only limited by your imagination. Once you identify what the end goal looks like for you, then you can use that as motivation to get up every day and strive towards achieving that goal. This for me is where the real value is.

Stephen Covey details this “Begin with the end in mind” in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Stephen writes that when you begin with the end in mind, things are created twice. You create something first in your mind or conceptually. The second time is when you create it physically, or in reality. He goes on to use an example of building a home. You would first design the home how you want, designing the floor plan to fit your needs, visualizing the details of the finishings, etc. Then you would begin to create the blueprints, all before ground is ever broken. Only once you have created every detail conceptually, then would you start building and creating your new home.

One of the principles here on The Real Estate Way to Wealth and Freedom podcast is “Engineer the lifestyle you want”. This is a very similar principle to beginning with the end in mind. In order to engineer something, one must understand what the finished product looks like, thus beginning with the end in mind.

If you’re not sure what journey you are on just yet, this might seem like a difficult exercise – to begin with the end in mind. You might not yet know what that end result looks like for you yet, and that’s ok. With some thoughts and self-reflection, you can begin to shape that end and put it into tangible thoughts, words, and eventually actions. Let’s look at how.

Engineer Your Lifestyle

Beginning with the end in mind, you must first have well, an end in mind. So let’s take a look at some ways you can visualize and create your own end.

Imagination. Look at your future as a blank slate, and you can put anything you want on it. This starts to free up your imagination and allows you to be creative in building the life you want.
Rescript your thoughts. Much of the way you view your future is based on something you were taught or learned earlier in your life. You may have to redefine these things if they do not align with your desired outcomes.
Create your own personal mission statement, from which you can base your principles. Your personal mission statement outlines what is important to you, what you stand for, and how you want to live your life.

These three steps will put you on the path to identifying and creating your end. Starting with these, you can begin to envision your future, change your reality with your thoughts, and create a framework that will guide you in your approach.

Journey

Beginning with the end in mind is ultimately identifying something to strive towards. This target will help you visualize the path you want to take in life, and give you something to aim toward. The real journey is in your day-to-day quest to live the life you want. Use your imagination to create whatever result you want, whether that’s in your business, career, family, or anything else. Understand that whatever you can imagine is possible. Pursue your goals each and every day by doing something that moves your forward step by step. When you start with the end in mind, make constant progress towards that end goal, and never quit, you will have pushed yourself to new heights and have achieved whatever it is you set your mind to.

Resources

Visit Audible for a free trial and free audiobook download!

228: Value of Cash Flow with Ryan Smith Jul 15, 2019

Show notes

Ryan Smith

Ryan Smith brings with him more than fifteen years of extensive business experience in market evaluation, property analysis, management systems, due diligence, finance, and more. Mr. Smith and his affiliates co-manage multiple investment funds, which specialize in investing in manufactured home communities (MHCs), and participates in the ownership and/or management of over 20,000 MHC lots.

Ryan graduated from the University of Tampa with a Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Science. An athlete, he was highly recruited for both baseball and basketball and was drafted as a senior in high school by the Baltimore Orioles, and again in college by the Anaheim Angels. Ryan pursued his athletic talents by playing baseball throughout his college experience.

His foresight and ability to communicate the state of the marketplace has propelled him to be a featured commentator alongside the likes of Mayor Rudy Giuliani, General Colin Powell, and other notable individuals. He currently is on the board of Young Life College – UCF and is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Christian Foundation’s Orlando chapter. Ryan lives in Orlando with his wife and two children.

Key Points

Why it is nearly impossible to earn yourself rich
Cash flow vs. the value of cash flow
Wealth creates income; income doesn’t create wealth
Focus on the lesser-taxed part of the income equation
Successful syndication secrets
The incredible value of a stigma – mobile home parks

Lightning Questions

What was your biggest hurdle getting started in real estate investing, and how did you overcome it?
- The biggest hurdles are what you don’t know. Ryan used his resourcefulness to clear many of those hurdles, and built relationships with people who he could look to for help.
Do you have a personal habit that contributes to your success?
- Ryan is a believer in taking the next best step.
Do you have an online resource that you find valuable?
- Drudge Report
What book would you recommend to the listeners and why?
- Right Away and All at Once by Greg Brenneman
If you were to give advice to your 20-year-old self to get started in real estate investing, what would it be?
- Go forward and listen to this exact podcast.

Resources

Elevation Capital Group

Visit Audible for a free trial, and a free audiobook download.

227: Your Psychology – Friday Fundamentals Jul 12, 2019

Show notes

Your Psychology

Your psychology is perhaps the most important quality in your life. It controls what you do, how you do it, and ultimately how successful you can be. With the right psychology, the sky is the limit. With the wrong psychology, you might never reach your full potential or even come close.

Have you ever come across someone who seems to be less driven, less qualified, or less capable than you, yet is more successful at something specific? If it isn’t due to capabilities, intelligence, or some other innate quality, then what could their success over yours be contributed to? It’s likely their psychology.

Your psychology in this context is how you perceive both yourself and your surroundings. If you perceive yourself as capable, successful, ambitious, or positive, then chances are you are those things. If on the other hand, you perceive yourself as lacking, inadequate, incapable, then you probably are those things. Your psychology determines your thoughts. Your thoughts guide your actions, and your actions drive your outcomes. If you want to change your future, then start with your psychology.

“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right” – Henry Ford

Your psychology is the guiding force in your life. Luckily, you have the power to take control of it and use it as you wish.

Leverage Your Psychology

Let’s look at how you can understand and leverage your own psychology to shape your thoughts, actions, and outcomes to ultimately engineer the lifestyle you want.

Embrace your positive self-concepts. These self-concepts are the way and things you think about yourself. If you have the positive self-concept that you are driven and motivated, then embrace that. Use that self-concept to push yourself and achieve new heights in your life. After all, you are a driven and motivated individual. Continue to develop new positive self-concepts and use them to your advantage. You already have a ton of great qualities about yourself that you may not even realize. Maybe you are great at viewing the big picture or are extremely task focused, or organized, or encouraging, or a number of other things. Use these to your advantage. Remind yourself that you have a superpower.
Recognize and understand your negative self-concepts. We all have some negative self-concepts of ourselves. If you can realize what these negative self-concepts are and then explore the root of them, then you can use them to your advantage. Awareness is key.
Focus on growth, rather than contraction. A growth mindset can insight fear, make you uncomfortable, and force you out of your zone. By doing these things, you will grow and expand, achieving new heights. The alternative is to shrink, be comfortable, not expand and reach your potential.

There are a ton of psychology hacks, improvements, and thought exercises. By focusing on this area of your life, you are investing in yourself both now and in the future. Your psychology will play a huge role in the amount of success you have in life. Any thought exercise, investment, or time spent on your own self-psychology are time, money, and resources well spent.

Limiting Beliefs

There will be times when you have limiting beliefs creep into your mind. Don’t for a second allow these thoughts space in your mind. It’s only normal to experience limiting beliefs. If it weren’t for them, you would be recklessly taking on risks and exposing yourself to dangers. But at the same time, you can’t let them hold you back.

Invest in the best resource you will ever have – your mind. Develop and grow your positive self-concepts. With the right mindset, coupled with taking action, you can and will achieve anything you set your mind to. Grow, learn new things, take on new challenges, and force yourself to continually push your psychology to new levels.

Resources

Visit Audible for a free trial and free audiobook download!

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The Real Estate Way to Wealth and Freedom

Pete Barrow

Key Points

Lightning Questions

Resources

A Life of Significance

Accelerate Your Growth

The Long Haul

Resources

Michael Green

Key Points

Lightning Questions

Resources

Find Success

How to Find Success

Journey

Resources

Kris Benson

Key Points

Lightning Questions

Resources

Create Your Own Reality

Gabe DaSilva

Key Points

Lightning Questions

Resources

Begin With the End in Mind

Engineer Your Lifestyle

Journey

Resources

Ryan Smith

Key Points

Lightning Questions

Resources

Your Psychology

Leverage Your Psychology

Limiting Beliefs

Resources

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