Financial Independence By Scaling Up Your Real Estate Empire w/ Chantz Ireland

[00:00:00] Chantz Ireland: I bought my first Triplex at 20. That Triplex, I ended up parlaying into this 24 unit apartment building that I currently own. 

[00:00:06] intro: You're listening to the real fi podcast where we discuss time, tested tricks, techniques, and strategies for pursuing financial independence today, so that we can enjoy a better tomorrow financial independence.

Isn't about getting rich quick. It's about cultivating a foundation to grow financially mental. Physically and spiritually let's figure out how to kick the nine to five. Here are your hosts, Patrick and James. 

[00:00:37] Patrick McGrath: How's it going everybody. And welcome back to another episode of the real fi podcast. I'm your host Patrick McGrath with my co-host James Ripon.

[00:00:45] How's it going, 

[00:00:46] James Rippeon: James? Good, man. And I'm not gonna give you a hard time for making us do a, take two on this one, but I think we're gonna knock it outta the 

[00:00:51] Patrick McGrath: park. Yeah. Take twos are always the best take twos are always the best. So we got our guest. Chance Ireland. And he's a [00:01:00] syndicator real estate investor.

[00:01:01] And we're really looking forward to, helping everybody out today. So James take it away. 

[00:01:06] James Rippeon: Yeah, man. Thanks. So chance, we always wanna get our guests to give you get a flavor of what you do and what your background is, and just tell us a little bit about your story and how you got to be where you're at now.

[00:01:17] So why don't you wind back the clock a little bit and tell us a little bit about. 

[00:01:22] Chantz Ireland: All right. Hey, first off, thanks for having me here. I've been looking forward to it. I got into real estate, through my family. My dad was always into real estate and so probably from 15 to 20, like all I did was real estate.

[00:01:34] My dad tell me what assets and liabilities were. And I was like, I was just loving the idea of being able to make money while you sleep or this whole passively, or just not having to go to work to. And then one day he owned a TriFlex out here in Maryville, Washington, and he he had to sell it and I was 20 and I was like, I have no idea what I'm doing.

[00:01:52] All I know is I want to jump in. And I I had been listening to bigger pox to that point and I just took the leap and I bought my first TriFlex at [00:02:00] 20 that TriFlex, I ended up parlaying into this 24 unit apartment building that I currently own just took the leap and I bought my first TriFlex That TriFlex, I ended up parlaying into this 24 unit apartment building that I currently own. And that was more of a business partnership and not so much a syndication but yeah, no we've been grown pretty good. And that's how I got started. 

[00:02:19] Patrick McGrath: Wow, that's great. So it all started back with your dad.

[00:02:24] Doing real estate. Were you at properties, cleaning, painting, doing all that kind of stuff. Was he breaking down the numbers for you? Give us a little idea of what that looked like. 

[00:02:33] Chantz Ireland: Yeah. I don't know if a lot of other people's parents are like this or have had the experience, but he was more of bought the property and didn't really care about the numbers.

[00:02:41] Rent it out. It makes a payment, it makes sense. And you're gonna make money in the long run and. That's what it was. Tenants would move out, we'd go over there and wipe the walls down and paint it. I We'd be painting over, light switches and doorbells and all that.

[00:02:52] And just the typical, what everyone thinks of. And that was how I got introduced to it. I know his payment was $2,000 a month and he had [00:03:00] three units. And so he rented 'em out to where there was perfectly $2,000 a month didn't wanna make any money. And it was like, man, if you went in there and, good finishes on everything and charge like more of a premium and attracted a better tenant.

[00:03:11] Everything would work better all around the building would be worth more. You'd have less headache. And so it, it was cool. Cool. Getting to know one side of real estate and then taking it the way the, that I have. So 

[00:03:23] James Rippeon: looking back on that though, you put this in the context for your new investor, who's trying to get into real estate now.

[00:03:29] And we were having this conversation a little bit earlier. They have a tendency of overthinking it. They wanna dig down into every single expense that could possibly occur. Every problem that might pop up. They get bogged down into details, paralysis analysis, looking back at what your dad did though.

[00:03:45] Did it work out for him? Like just jumping in and. Kind of bull rushing into it. , 

[00:03:50] Chantz Ireland: I would say that in, in the long run it has definitely worked out with him and it might be a lot to do with our kind of Seattle market and everything blowing up over the last, 10 years. And I [00:04:00] know him and I know his personality and I know he would do the same thing again today.

[00:04:03] But in the markets that I've turned to the Midwest and everything, it's you can't buy something overvalued and under rent it and then make money in 10 years because that property's gonna be worth the same unless you force that appreciation. And yeah, it is just a transition for me.

[00:04:15] Definitely. Wow. 

[00:04:19] Patrick McGrath: That's great. It, your dad sounds like the kind of guy that I'm looking to buy. 

[00:04:22] Chantz Ireland: Buyer. Yeah, I've actually, I've got 16 units under contract right now. We're supposed to close tomorrow on him. And we are buying from a buyer who, I've asked every single day for rent rolls and expenses and he just will not send them.

[00:04:35] And then today the agent actually asked me to send them over how much the deposits. And it's like what? I could pull up one thing on my 24 unit and tell you exactly how much they are. And you want me to go through all of your leases and pull these numbers out for you? Like you've, it's just a different mindset, but that's where you can really find, the best deals.

[00:04:53] That's where value is. Yeah. That's exactly where value, if you can get it under value. Yeah, [00:05:00] 

[00:05:00] Patrick McGrath: exactly. Exactly. So that triplex that you said that you parlayed into, this. Big deal that you got, did you 10 31 exchange it, how much did you make off of it? Can you break that 

[00:05:10] Chantz Ireland: down for us a little bit?

[00:05:12] Yeah. So I ended up buying this building for 3 0 5 with a first time home buyer's loan, which is something I'm trying to teach to a lot of people around me and a few things my friends have done. And basically you can use your FHA loan. You get into a Plex at 3.5% down. I think I, I had to come up with 11 grand or something and it was gifted to.

[00:05:30] And so I didn't have to come up with anything, but after I think it was four years, the building had doubled in value. The market blew up. I had all this equity and it's then I was looking at the return on equity that I had. And as your equity increases, your return goes down because your return on equity.

[00:05:46] And so then I was like what do I do? What's my next step? Do I wanna refinance? And then raise my payment and go buy a bunch of more buildings around. or do I wanna buy an apartment building? And I knew I had this growth mindset of let's get more units, cuz if you, $50 [00:06:00] increase over three units is 150 bucks over 10 units, it just, it makes more sense.

[00:06:04] And so back to what you were saying, I did do a 10 31 tax exchange. And it was my first experience with it and I loved it. It definitely puts you in this time crunch of find something right now. And close on it within this time or you're gonna pay, I think I walked away with 260 grand and I would've paid 30% in taxes.

[00:06:23] And so I had huge incentive to find this apartment building. And I did, I found a 24 unit for 1.3. I ended up putting 260,000 down and then 30,000 or a hundred thousand came from two partners and we were able to close on that seven, eight months ago now. 

[00:06:40] James Rippeon: So there might be some people listening that don't know exactly what a 10 31 exchange is.

[00:06:45] Can you get into the detail of that, how it works? You're mentioning how there's a tight time constraint with making sure that everything processes properly. Give us a little bit more background on how the 10 31 works. 

[00:06:56] Chantz Ireland: So basically if you have funds in a rental property or [00:07:00] you have equity in there and you want to go to sell it and not pay gains on it, you can just roll it over.

[00:07:05] Similar or light kind building is the terminology they use. And really that means if you want to go from a Plex to a five unit or, a single family house to a six or seven unit, you can do that. And it's really loose fitting. You can use it continuously and it's a way to just really defer taxes again and again.

[00:07:24] And once we get into net worth later, this 260,000 that I rolled into this building is now worth something like 500. I can just 10 31, all of that money that this other money made into an entire other building. And just have, an asset that's twice as ties with the same amount of money I started with one triplex.

[00:07:41] Patrick McGrath: Yeah. I think the biggest thing with the 10 31 exchange that I found out, because we actually sold two single family properties at the same time and 10 31 exchange them into our 10 unit apartment building. 

[00:07:55] James Rippeon: I dunno 

[00:07:55] Chantz Ireland: how to make this.[00:08:00] 

[00:08:02] James Rippeon: Ringing off 

[00:08:02] Chantz Ireland: the hook. I have no way to pause it. I don't know how to do it. 

[00:08:07] Patrick McGrath: does Zillow leads 

[00:08:08] Chantz Ireland: flow in there? The Zillow leads call. That is so funny. Yeah, that's 

[00:08:12] Patrick McGrath: hilarious. What I think the biggest thing with the 10 31 exchange is that 45 day window to identify and then 180 days to close . That was that was the biggest thing.

[00:08:22] So you. 45 days, you can identify three properties and then you have 180 days from the time you close. And those funds go into escrow to close on the other deal. So you have six months total, but it definitely gives you a time crunch. And the funds have to be, they have to be held by custodian, which usually is a title company.

[00:08:44] Did you use a title company or a third? 

[00:08:47] Chantz Ireland: I think I used a third party and I really kinda like that part because the money never hit my account. So I never had that huge feeling of trying to spend it on something. 

[00:08:56] Patrick McGrath: exactly. I know. I know how that works. 

[00:08:59] James Rippeon: So [00:09:00] what time period did you do that? 10 31 exchange.

[00:09:02] Was that recently? 

[00:09:03] Chantz Ireland: I'm 

[00:09:04] James Rippeon: so sorry. No, you're good. Was that recently or was that a co a year or two ago? 

[00:09:09] Chantz Ireland: So the 10 31 I did back in. I wanna say it was last January. Maybe it's been eight or nine months. I haven't owned the property for a full year yet. 

[00:09:19] James Rippeon: Okay. So you did it during, COVID the reason I'm asking cuz how hot the market's been.

[00:09:24] It's been really difficult for buyers to get into new deals. Do if you had to do it again in this market, if is it a time crunch, especially in this market because of how scarce properties are to find. 

[00:09:36] Chantz Ireland: If we wanna speak to how overpriced properties are, we can definitely do that.

[00:09:40] And how hard it is to find a good deal. And so the one thing you don't wanna do with the tax exchange is buy a bad deal, cuz you don't wanna pay taxes. And I've heard a lot of people talk about that on podcasts and I've even heard of people being like, oh, I'm gonna pay 200,000 in taxes.

[00:09:55] Why don't I overpay by a hundred grand on this property? And it's there's something there, there's a [00:10:00] strategy there sort. But it is hard to find good deals. And so you really, before you, you sell your building and know how much money you have, you wanna get you wanna have your property lined up.

[00:10:09] So if you're gonna sell here, you want to be looking four months before and then just be ready to go. You should be able to sell that house and have that property identified right away. 

[00:10:17] Patrick McGrath: That's exactly what we did a hundred percent. That, that's definitely the way to go. Tell us about what market you're currently in right now.

[00:10:24] How many units you have what that looks like overall. And also break down what that means to you financially and towards your, financial independence goals. 

[00:10:35] Chantz Ireland: So right now I've got 25 units. If we count the one I live in, so 24 rental. They are all in Illinois and two apartment buildings that have 12 units each.

[00:10:46] Like I was talking about earlier, I do have two eight unit apartment buildings in the same area under contract. And those are supposed to close tomorrow. I think we're getting pushed out to next week. But those are in Illinois. And the reason I moved out into this market is [00:11:00] that there's multiple, but the price to rent ratio in these Western markets or Midwest markets is.

[00:11:05] You can buy these a hundred thousand dollars houses that run out for $1,500 and you're meeting the one point a half percent rule or way over the 1% rule. And it's just like in Seattle, you would never find something like that. Our duplexes are trained for 600,000 out here. And I in that market, you can get a duplex for 60 grand.

[00:11:21] Right here is more for sure, but it's. And the appreciation. So over there, you're definitely trading off the appreciation, but once you get into these larger apartment buildings the value of the building is really heavily based on the amount of income it brings in. And the amount of expenses you have.

[00:11:37] So when you can like these two eight units buildings, we paid 3, 3 0 9 for one, and then three 50 for the other. And they both bring in $5,000 a month. Which is great, but we think the rents can be raised by 50 bucks a. So when we're said and done this property, we're paying 6 59 for in the next six months is gonna be worth closer to 9, 9 50.

[00:11:56] And we're gonna walk away with 250 grand and it's just, it's like it's [00:12:00] so it seems so difficult and elusive. And then you're like, literally all you're doing is bringing the units up to the market rent and then reselling 'em based off the new evaluation. And it's. It's easy. It's almost easier than flipping it.

[00:12:12] It's super simple. And it just takes getting into that mindset to do it and realize that you can make good money like that. Especially 

[00:12:20] James Rippeon: in the Midwest when you're not dealing with massive appreciation, it's hard to be a savvy technical investor with just one unit cuz you can't get the force appreciation by trading at a better cap rate and improving your, expenses and income and getting the value up.

[00:12:35] You can't do that. Forced value appreci. 

[00:12:38] Chantz Ireland: Yeah, you need to be over five units for sure. Cuz I mean anything under five, you get into that or that just FHA loan or conventional and then it's just gonna go solely based off the market. Right? Anything over five. I mean I try to shoot for way higher than five, just so I'm out that league a little bit.

[00:12:52] But once you get into the 10 or 15 and you can raise those by a, 50 or a hundred bucks each, I mean you're talking a good, a hundred, hundred 50 grand just by raising the rent [00:13:00] $50 per unit. So 

[00:13:02] Patrick McGrath: exactly. We. We were able to go in right away on the one we just purchased and raise rents.

[00:13:08] Everyone agreed to a $200 a month increase without doing anything on a 10 unit building. You're talking $400,000 within the first two months. So it's, it is amazing on what you can do is the plan for you guys to, to refinance and pull that cash out. Or are you guys just gonna sell and move on to the.

[00:13:28] Chantz Ireland: So we've been talking about what we're gonna do. And I just had a zoom meeting about it, I think last week. And we were either we were gonna sell, but we wouldn't be able to pull as much money out. And then we're like if we refinance, we can pull 90% of our money out and return it, which is huge cash flow shoots way down.

[00:13:45] But your return shoots way out because you have equity in the building, but then you get into the position where it's do you really want to put yourself at this much leverage? Or what do you wanna do? So I think we're probably gonna refinance it 20% into the building and maybe just pull it like 150, 200 grand which is a, still a good return.

[00:13:59] I'll get [00:14:00] enough money back to go and buy, some other buildings and actually have something to work with. But the main idea is just to keep reusing the same capital you have and not putting yourself in an over leveraged. 

[00:14:09] James Rippeon: What does financial independence mean for you? There's this big concept that people look towards to either, have retire early or to have it measured in some way, whether it's dollars time or something else entirely.

[00:14:20] What does financial independence mean to you and how are you measuring that and thinking about it in the big picture? 

[00:14:27] Chantz Ireland: So I just quit my full-time job that I had outta high school at Boeing. Two weeks. and I was making four to five grand a month take home. It was more on taxes, but take home.

[00:14:37] And that was my first kind of, milestone of this is how much I need and then I can just quit and travel the world. And now I'm there and I'm making that and it really, I thought it would be way more. It's freeing, don't get me wrong, but now I have so much more time to do so many other things.

[00:14:51] And then you start to realize. Four to five grand a month is really like a starting point. You, if you can do that, there's no reason you can't get 40 or 50 a month just by [00:15:00] repeating a process. You've already done a few times. And so in the beginning and currently, I mean it right now, 45 grand a month is great and I'm not upset about it.

[00:15:07] But my longer term goal is like 20, 20 grand a month in passive income. And then I'd love to work my way up to 20 grand a month in active income through everything I'm doing. And then I would love to just take all that. And our goal is to end up buying a hundred units per year for the next 10.

[00:15:24] So once I can get to 40 grand a month, 40, 50 grand a month, then we can actually, start showing investors what we're doing and really grow quickly. 

[00:15:30] James Rippeon: Does it feel like to you, after you start tackling these base steps, you got to the 5,004, 5,000, and then you're gonna get to the 20 passive and then 20 active.

[00:15:39] And then it sounds like after that it's really gonna start to scale and grow. Does it, is your path, does it feel linear or is it almost like exponential in how it's growing? Cause it sounds like you got way more that develops down the road as. 

[00:15:56] Chantz Ireland: Yeah, I would say definitely exponential. When I first owned my triplex and I was [00:16:00] making 400 bucks a month in cash flow extra, I was stoked, super excited.

[00:16:05] And now, if we're gonna go by buildings and we don't make three grand a month passive in cash flow off it, after all expenses, it's like we really consider passing on it or seeing, if our money's better somewhere else, as far as opportunity cost is. But yeah, it's definitely an exponential thing.

[00:16:19] Especially when you quit your job and you have free time to look into these other avenues, 

[00:16:23] James Rippeon: so you got the $20,000 that's gonna be coming in passively. I assume that's all gonna be real estate for the most part. 

[00:16:30] Chantz Ireland: Yeah. And that's, that's the next, I would say in the next three years, that's the goal is to get there as you yeah.

[00:16:36] In the next three years. And then the whole getting into higher than that would be just buying more apartment. 

[00:16:42] James Rippeon: Okay. What about on the active side? What does that look like 

[00:16:44] Chantz Ireland: for you? So I just became a full-time real estate agent which is a new, interesting concept because it seems like I'm busy all day, but not busy at all.

[00:16:53] So it's really can fit my life in between these pieces throughout the day. But yeah, I just became a full-time real estate agent in the Seattle [00:17:00] area. And so I have every intention of growing my small business up to 20 grand a month, which out in, out here. One and a half houses a month, I'd have to sell after six months or something.

[00:17:09] James Rippeon: What kinda market are you in? What does the house price look like and what would one sale do for you? 

[00:17:13] Chantz Ireland: So all in my market, our average sale price is 7 75. It's not uncommon to get a few million and a half dollars calls per week out here. And on, on a million and a half, you're looking at a $45,000 commission.

[00:17:25] And after splits it's about 22,000. Which is great. And it's from a perspective of where I've been, it's so much easier to save and build on money when you get it in these large chunks. Cuz it's if you're making 45 grand a month and you're trying to save 300 bucks a paycheck, one thing blows you out, but it's you make 20 grand and it's like, all right, I need five and I'll throw 15 over here.

[00:17:48] It's like you do that a few times. And now you're sitting on 45 grand and you can go buy something that actually has some good value to it. 

[00:17:54] Patrick McGrath: Exactly. Exactly. So we see how the real estate is playing [00:18:00] heavily into this with your investing and becoming a real estate agent. Are there anything, are there any other kind of side incomes that you're trying to grow to have a bigger piece of that pie?

[00:18:14] If can you tell us about that at all? 

[00:18:16] Chantz Ireland: Yeah. I've got a few things on the back burner right now, I've got my TikTok going TikTok is really awesome. I've made some decent money. I'm not, blowing anything outta the water or anything on there, but TikTok has been good.

[00:18:26] Instagram has been really good, mainly just for connecting with other people. And you would be blown away when you used to network, you have to go to all these events and everything. And now it's if you post on Instagram and there's four or five people that follow you and the other person knows him, if I go to follow a new guy and I can.

[00:18:41] Ryan Panera or ACE is following them. I'm like, all right this guy's legit. This is someone I'm gonna actually talk to and engage with. And just growing your network on there has been really good. I'm am in the process of building a I don't wanna really call it a course. It's gonna be more of a mentorship geared towards first time investors or people who want a house hack or [00:19:00] get into the one to four unit buildings.

[00:19:01] Something that I can do a hundred times over. And something to really help with. And so I'm in the process of that. I don't know what's gonna come of it or how much it'll cost or how much I'll make, but that's definitely on the back burner too. 

[00:19:12] Patrick McGrath: So you've got a lot of different things to go into to that.

[00:19:16] I think we've all read, most millionaires have, seven different income streams. So we've all got our, passive, semi passive real estate in investments. Our W2 S and then a couple of the, these side incomes that are all coming in to get to that ultimate goal of of 40, $40,000 thousand dollars a month, which is great.

[00:19:37] Do you have an idea of, what that's gonna look like in regards to net worth, do you have a net worth goal that you're trying to reach? You have your monthly income goal. Is there a bar out there that you're trying 

[00:19:47] Chantz Ireland: to. Not really. I know 10 million is obviously that's a good bar to hit 1 million.

[00:19:52] If I could hit a million. That would be my first bar, I think right now I was doing it earlier and I'm only my net. Worth's 4 0 5. But if we refinance the [00:20:00] 24 unit and it's worth what we think it is, and it puts me up at six 30, which is great. I'm super stoked about it, but it would be like getting that first million through real estate would really kind.

[00:20:10] Lend credibility to where I'm trying to go. And eventually getting to that, that 10 million $10 million net worth would be great. And I think that buying large apartment buildings and holding them, it would do that. But at the end of the day, I don't really put a whole lot of weight on net worth because I'm more in this for the lifestyle.

[00:20:25] And if you're making 40 grand a month in your net worth, 2 million. I'm not gonna be upset , I'm gonna be, I'm hopefully be traveling a little bit is really my ultimate goal and living a nice lifestyle. 

[00:20:35] Patrick McGrath: What about syndication, for these big deals or have you looked at that as a way to add to that income stream or be able to go after some of these larger deals?

[00:20:46] Is that a part of this as. 

[00:20:48] Chantz Ireland: Yes, syndication is something I definitely want to get into right now. I have two two partners and they both have enough money for us to continue until I think we get to a few hundred units. So right now it's just us three [00:21:00] going in on it. And right now we have a goal of getting a hundred units by the end of this year, which is really aggressive.

[00:21:05] And to be more conservative, we're gonna do it by six months into next year. Which is super, super attainable, especially in the market. We. And then we have a goal of growing by a hundred units per year after that. And once, once we get to a point where we have shown that we know what we're doing, we're buying these 30, 40, 50 unit complexes.

[00:21:21] And then we can bring in other people. We have every intention. I would love to take down, 500 unit. Complex, that's only trading at a six cap. It has a long term value play or the market's going up. And that's when, that's when numbers can really make a lot of sense, it goes up 20%, 20% on a hundred million or whatever is 20 million.

[00:21:38] So it would be cool. It would 

[00:21:40] Patrick McGrath: be cool. Exactly. That's that's what I'm looking at too right now, J being on deals with a couple of business partners and then ultimately going to syndication down the road for some of. Larger plays that that I'm looking to get there. So I think James is James you looking to try to do that as well, [00:22:00] or?

[00:22:00] James Rippeon: Yeah, absolutely. Down the road. The biggest deal I've done so far has only been five units. And it's been slam dunk deal so far. Yeah. And it's worked out great, but definitely down the road. I think that's an interesting route to go. Cause I've heard this time and time. From those who are in the space indicating that five unit deal is almost no more complicated than the 200 unit.

[00:22:23] There's more dollars and cents involved, but the processes is all the same. You gotta take due diligence. Seriously, make sure you've gotten all your eyes, crossing your Ts, but fundamentally it's the same motions you're going through. You've gotta find your money. Gotta find a good deal. You gotta crunch the numbers.

[00:22:37] You gotta make sure what the seller is telling you is true. So definitely down the line. I think there's a lot of room for that in the future. 

[00:22:43] Patrick McGrath: Exactly. And chance. Going from that three unit to that, large apartment deal. There was no nothing in between, right?

[00:22:52] For all the listeners out there that think you progress here. You went three units to 16. [00:23:00] 

[00:23:00] Chantz Ireland: Yeah. And back to what James was saying it was, I had that whole concept held true from three units to 24. All the same stuff. The same amount of work goes into it. And buying these 16 units, I wish it was 160 units because it's taken so long and so much time that the amount of units doesn't change it doesn't correspond to the extra amount of work you have to do.

[00:23:19] But yeah, just jumping from that three unit to that 24 unit, I did take class and I had a mentor on the whole thing and it was worth every penny. It was expensive. It was I wrote it off as having a realtor, help me buy my first house. And so if I was gonna pay someone to help me get through, my largest investment ever, that's what I was gonna do.

[00:23:37] And that's what I did. And it's worked out. What do you tell us? 

[00:23:41] James Rippeon: What do you think holds back people from wanting to invest that money in themselves? Because I know a lot of people that, even myself included, I become. Apprehensive about investing that money. Almost in the trade off of opportunity costs.

[00:23:55] Like I could invest $3,000 into this mentorship, or I can maybe just [00:24:00] invest it in this deal. Can you talk about the pros and cons of going ahead and investing that money in yourself as opposed to I don't wanna call making the money conscious, maybe limiting belief decision. 

[00:24:12] Chantz Ireland: yeah, I would say it was fear and it was fear of losing the most money I ever had my entire life.

[00:24:17] And it was fear of putting $260,000 down on an apartment building that, my dad had only ever bought a triplex. And so it's like he doesn't have experience in this. No realtor in my market is gonna have experience in Midwest markets. And so I ended up paying a lot more for my mentorship. It was $30,000 and I'm actually still.

[00:24:35] And it is hands down, one of the best decisions I've ever made. It broke me out into this new world of apartment buildings and just going larger and getting something over a million dollars. So it becomes a non-recourse loan. And just that whole concept, has, is forever gonna change my life.

[00:24:51] And it was it was a good decision. I wanna say that I definitely did my research and I made sure what I was doing was legit and I. I still talk. I just talked to my [00:25:00] mentor like a week ago and I we email and talk all the time and he's closing a hundred unit deals. Like they're no big deal. And it's just cool to see someone operating at this much higher level who is still just as relaxed and doing exactly what you are.

[00:25:12] There's just a more higher unit count. And until you see someone do it, who's like you it's, you just have that limiting belief. So he shattered that at the same time as well. 

[00:25:21] James Rippeon: You paid to get into the room with the people who are doing what you want to. And that's hard to come by just organic conversation going to your local R or just talking to people on the internet.

[00:25:30] Sometimes you have to make that risk on yourself to force that new mentality into your head. So that's very admirable. It's a tough thing to do. It's something that I have not done and I'd find very intimidating to do myself. So I think that's awesome. 

[00:25:44] Chantz Ireland: Yeah, I'd say far away from super expensive courses now, unless they're something I can really get a lot of value out of, but all day I'll spend $1,500 on a little course if I'm trying to learn something well, now you're ready 

[00:25:54] James Rippeon: to teach them yourself.

[00:25:55] Chantz Ireland: Yeah. Hopefully we'll go that route. 

[00:25:58] Patrick McGrath: yeah, I think that's one of the biggest things, [00:26:00] especially for people out there that are just getting started as a takeaway is you definitely have to invest. I, if you don't have the money, the time, in scouring YouTube, or finding any free resources or spending $20 on a book that talks about the things that you're looking for.

[00:26:16] I know myself personally, I probably have a stack of. 30 to 40 real estate books that I've read over the last seven years. . So you really have to invest in yourself and to get to where you're at, to get where James is at myself, all of us and most of the people that I know that are investing in doing it successfully have either spent the time or the money to educate themselves so they can make those big decisions when it comes down to.

[00:26:44] Chantz Ireland: Yeah. And there are tons of free resources. I don't wanna lead people Australia that there's no other way, but bigger pockets. If you go there and you're into real estate and you listen to every single one of their episodes, you're gonna see patterns emerge in all of 'em and then you're gonna be able to apply that.

[00:26:57] And I've listened to all of 'em. They've been great. And just [00:27:00] other podcasts in general the Michael Blan apartment building and investing podcast is exactly how I got. Apartment buildings. And it's all about buying these, 20 to 200 unit apartment buildings and it's sweet.

[00:27:09] So you just gotta put yourself in the room or in, in the area where you can learn about the things that you want 

[00:27:15] James Rippeon: to do. And most importantly, I went to one of MI Michael Blanc's events, and it was awesome. It was awesome. It was not just for the content, for the networking. Yeah. For the people you meet the potential partners.

[00:27:28] People go there because they have money. People go there because they have experience. People go there because they have time and you never know who you're gonna run into in these situations. That would be an asset to you in your path. And you're gonna find people, when you pay to be in the broom with these people they're gonna have the same goals and desires.

[00:27:45] And you're gonna weed out, all those distractions from other people. . when you said Michael bonkin it really made me think back to like my experience with it and very. 

[00:27:55] Chantz Ireland: Yeah, I actually just got my financial freedom coin. It's back there. [00:28:00] Good to your name. And I I turned on a podcast yesterday on my, I don't wanna say Alexa, hopefully doesn't turn on, but I, I just listened to a podcast the other day and it was his, and then he shouted me out on it in the beginning and I was like, replay it 

[00:28:15] James Rippeon: oh my gosh.

[00:28:16] That's awesome. You're on this path and you've got an incredible foresight laid out ahead of you. And of course, in anybody's journey, there's gonna be obstacles. And part of that journey is maybe anticipating those financial obstacles as they pop up. What are some of those obstacles that you're facing right now that are standing in between you and those passive income goals that you have?

[00:28:37] Chantz Ireland: The largest obstacle is probably the deals and finding deals that make sense. It's. A lot harder to find deals that you want to jump on and can make a lot of money on they're out there. The second obstacle would be, I don't even wanna save money because money at the beginning is a huge obstacle.

[00:28:54] But if you come to some investor and you can you tell him, you can make him 10 to eight or eight to 10% cash on cash return, [00:29:00] he's gonna give you money. If you're a legit guy and you've done a few deals, you're gonna have no problem getting money. So I would say the hardest part I've come across right now is finding deals that make.

[00:29:08] And maybe finding them in bulk because we're feeling really aggressive right now. And we want to close on a bunch. 

[00:29:14] James Rippeon: So you've thought about it a lot. How are you navigating that? Do you have a strategy in mind for maybe, finding those deals that are better suited for your investment purposes?

[00:29:23] Chantz Ireland: So it really comes down to nicheing down finding your market, setting your team in place, your property managers, your contractors. And then call every single broker in that market and let them know who you are and what you're trying to do and give them a very specific idea of what you're looking for.

[00:29:40] And that's what we've done. And we've been coming across some deals that are too small. Some that are really good, but need full rehabs. And it's just, it just, you just need to be top on mind. And this kind of comes to being a realtor too, is people 90% of people are gonna buy from a realtor that's in front of them when they wanna buy.

[00:29:55] And so if you're reaching out to these broker, They find a deal, but someone [00:30:00] called, two days ago and you haven't called for two weeks, they're gonna call that guy cuz he's fresh on their mind. So you just gotta be on top of it. So I think it's once a week I reach out to all the brokers in the market that I know I'm like, Hey, what's going on?

[00:30:10] I've even got some wholesalers out there. They tend to give me deals that are a little more, need, a lot more rehab, but just gotta stay top of mind on the people that have the deals which is the brokers in that area. 

[00:30:19] Patrick McGrath: That's great. Have you done any. Have you done anything else?

[00:30:21] Have you actually flown out there to meet any of these guys sent out mailers, anything to stand out? Especially since you're investing outta state that's ha has to be tough cuz I know a lot of people are out there in your market or California that it's extremely expensive and want to invest outta state.

[00:30:38] Is there anything else that you're doing to. Stay ahead of 

[00:30:40] Chantz Ireland: the curve. When I get a contract under or when I get a deal under contract I definitely fly out there. I fly out there for the inspection. I make it a thing to walk every single unit, even if the first 10 look good, you need to walk the rest of them.

[00:30:51] I've done a few mailers. I haven't really gone too far into that, cuz that can get pretty expensive and we've had a good luck with the brokers we're dealing with. [00:31:00] Yeah that's really it. I go out there when I need to and it's oh, actually, and when we are competing on these deals, it, if we're not really competing with people in that market, a lot of times I'll find myself competing with people in Florida.

[00:31:12] We, we were just looking at a 5 million deal. That was 96 units. It was a team in Florida that was gonna buy it. It's always tends to be someone on the coast that is, is looking out of state because their area is so expensive. And a lot of people in the Midwest don't realize, I didn't realize how cheap stuff was in the Midwest until I went there.

[00:31:28] Cuz I'm like everything where I am condos are 500,000. Starting. Yeah. So 

[00:31:33] James Rippeon: tell me about the demographics. Cause I meant to get into this a little earlier, but of skated by you hear people just fleeing New York, California. For New Jersey for potentially better jurisdictions, whether it's tax reason or, it's just expensive as heck or, now they're able to remote work and they can go, live somewhere that has all the other benefits that they're looking for.

[00:31:54] Tell me about the market where you're investing. Is there population growth is a, is it growing, is it [00:32:00] just consistent? What does the market look like as far as demographic. 

[00:32:03] Chantz Ireland: So when I chose Illinois our main issue we're having in Illinois right now is the taxes cuz the state is bankrupt.

[00:32:09] But as far as like I'm not in Chicago, cuz I, I don't know. I don't like it. I don't know. But I'm not in Chicago. We're actually in Springfield, which is the capital. And the reason we chose that is because it's where all the government money is at. And so there's always these government jobs that are pulling people into Springfield.

[00:32:25] It's the capital of the state that this state's obviously gonna continue to invest money in. They have projects going on there. And yeah, a lot of the people we employ are our government workers. There's a college out there. There's a few hospitals. And so we're in that market.

[00:32:37] Our long term goal is to leave that market due. Just the high taxes, but until we get to a hundred units and sell as a package, we're gonna continue to buy out there. 

[00:32:47] Patrick McGrath: Cool. So that's the ultimate plan is to to get that a hundred units and try to go after a bigger fish and parlay that into a more expensive market somewhere else.

[00:32:59] Chantz Ireland: Yeah. [00:33:00] We wanna get to a hundred units just cuz it sounds cool, but it's we want to have a larger package and then sell them all as one to another. And then end up going out of state. We've lived in like Des Moines in other areas just with lower taxes. And if we can find the same deal we found and taxes are a lot lower, then that's what we'll do for 

[00:33:17] James Rippeon: sure.

[00:33:17] Awesome. So I think we're coming towards the end here. We have this little segment that we're coming up with. We're still figuring out how to transition into this and make up the really cool transition sounds and sirens or whatever bombs going off. I dunno. So we'll keep it simple for now.

[00:33:34] Three questions. Alternate asking them, what would you say to the person who's just starting out? They're on the journey. They figured out, they've read rich dad pour out or something. And they know that there's a life ahead of them that they would rather have, and they want to achieve something that gives them a little bit more freedom, time, freedom, happiness, freedom.

[00:33:51] What would you say to that person? Who's just getting. 

[00:33:54] Chantz Ireland: If you're just getting started in real estate. What I would say to anyone is to niche down and [00:34:00] consume everything within your niche that you want. If you want to get into real estate, then you want a house hack. I would listen to the house hacking podcast, or I would read books on it, or maybe go more broad and listen to every bigger pockets episode.

[00:34:10] It's just really what you consume you become. And I believe in that so much. And so if you're into real estate and you want to grow in, it just consume everything real estate. 

[00:34:20] Patrick McGrath: That's fantastic. You've brought up books and people, is there, one or two specific books that really motivated you or changed your train of thought or any one person out there that people should go out and follow that's really helped you on your journey.

[00:34:36] Chantz Ireland: On my journey without a doubt is bigger pockets. They have to take all the credit for everything I've done, just cuz that's where I learned how to be a good decent landlord and make some real money through, through solid proven strategies. And the best thing about this field is you're really not reinventing a wheel.

[00:34:51] You're not doing anything new. You're doing a try and true method that has been done a million times before that you can just look and do. But if I were to recommend. It all comes [00:35:00] down. Rich dad, poor dad for sure. Got me. Started everyone. And their mom says that, but any book by Brandon Turner who is the host of the bigger pockets I would recommend I have from broke to millions up on my shelf right here.

[00:35:11] And that is more on how to raise income, lower expenses and make money through larger commercial buildings. I would definitely recommend that one too. And then maybe the art war is a great book. 

[00:35:20] James Rippeon: So I just wanna point out with Brandon Turner, like his authorship of books. And the progression of it is incredible from the content he was writing from his first book.

[00:35:30] I think it was like no or low money down or whatever, to the book that I saw Patrick put on his Instagram today that he co-authored with Brian Murray had a kick ass, big commercial buildings, and now he is doing the syndications and everything. So I think it's great that you point that out bigger pockets.

[00:35:48] If you wanted a case study, And destroying limiting beliefs and growing in real estate and achieving financial independence, like Brandon Turner, you guy, for sure. 

[00:35:57] Chantz Ireland: Yeah. And he is, he's big in the trailer parks right now, [00:36:00] or the mobile homes I 

[00:36:00] James Rippeon: think is what they are, but you gotta call mobile homes.

[00:36:02] Trailer parks is negative connotation

[00:36:07] Patrick McGrath: communities. 

[00:36:10] James Rippeon: You gotta put communities, you gotta buy the trailer park and turn it into a mobile park. 

[00:36:16] Patrick McGrath: Exactly. Exactly. 

[00:36:19] James Rippeon: So chance, where are you gonna be on your journey in five years? I know we talked about your goals a little bit, but give us a specific painted picture of what Chance's life looks like in five years.

[00:36:31] Chantz Ireland: So I actually, I hadn't thought about this until I read the question that you guys sent me on it and really it comes down to, we want to do a hundred units a year and in five years that would put us at 500 units. Then I thought about it more. And if we're doing a hundred units a year and for the next three years, we do a hundred or the next two by the third year, we're gonna be like, why aren't we doing, two or 300 a year?

[00:36:54] Why are we staying at this low amount of a hundred? So the minimum goal in five years is to be a 500 units on the [00:37:00] higher end. It just, we'll see what happens with, on me and where everything goes. 

[00:37:03] James Rippeon: Sounds like you're making a goal to make bigger goals.

[00:37:06] Yeah. 

[00:37:07] Chantz Ireland: definitely definit. 

[00:37:08] Patrick McGrath: We'll have to have you back on and and see if you hit that goal sometime in the next couple of years. 

[00:37:13] Chantz Ireland: Cool. All right guys. Yeah. And if anyone wants to reach out, you can definitely reach me. I have Instagram and TikTok and it's at investor chance and chances C H a N T Z.

[00:37:22] And yeah, I look forward to talking to you guys again in the future. Yeah, 

[00:37:25] James Rippeon: this is awesome. I really appreciate you coming out. I think people who are listening. Could take away a lot from listening to you and your experiences and how you've developed your plan to get where you're going when your financial independence journey.

[00:37:36] Really appreciate you taking the time to speak with. 

[00:37:39] Chantz Ireland: Awesome. Awesome 

[00:37:40] Patrick McGrath: guys. Yeah, I've learned a lot from from your tos and from your Instagram stories and that's how we got connected. So everybody out there, go ahead, give them a follow check 'em out on TikTok and then make sure to come and follow me and my wife at the rental property.

[00:37:56] Couple right there. 

[00:37:58] outro: And thank you for listening to the  real fi podcast where you learn from the investors that have lived, the hard lessons for you to connect with us during your pursuit of financial. Pendants be sure to join our community by following us on Instagram or emailing us at info@Therealfi.com.

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