Two Teachers Take on Real Estate to Build Wealth and Income w/ Blaine & Lily Kosek

Blaine & Lily

[00:00:00] Blaine: We really started educating ourselves on not only real estate investing, but me becoming a realtor. And then we turned that one into a rental, bought another single family. Live-in flip. And then we started buying more properties on the side and just investing. And now we have five short-term rentals, 11 long-term rentals.

[00:00:21] And right now we're looking for multi-family. 

[00:00:24] 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, mentally, physically, and spiritually. Let's figure out how to kick the nine to five. Here are your hosts, Patrick and James. 

[00:00:55] Patrick McGrath: All right, everybody. Welcome back to the real fi podcast. I'm [00:01:00] your host Patrick McGrath with my ho co-host James Ripon. How's it going today?

[00:01:04] James Rippeon: James going well, 

[00:01:05] Patrick, another good day. I'm glad 

[00:01:07] to be here. 

[00:01:08] Patrick McGrath: Me too glad to be here. So we have two great guests, not just one first time. We've had a couple on first time. We've done two guests at once. So we're excited. We have Blaine and Lily, how you guys doing this evening? 

[00:01:22] Blaine: What's up 

[00:01:22] guys. Thanks for having us.

[00:01:23] We're doing great. Doing well, 

[00:01:26] Lily: double trouble. We got both of us here. 

[00:01:28] Patrick McGrath: I know, right? Hopefully we get double the nuggets for this one and it's gonna blow up. So let's get started, James, take it away. So 

[00:01:36] James Rippeon: Blaine and Lily, we always like to get started by hearing some background information on our guest.

[00:01:41] We want to know where you started, what you started doing and how you ended up getting to where you are now. So fill about the background, maybe about how you guys met and how you first started getting into investing and what that all looked like. 

[00:01:54] Blaine: All right. We were. Both teachers. And she was a brand new teacher in the school that I [00:02:00] was teaching at.

[00:02:00] And when I saw her, I just knew right then and there, I needed to go talk to her. And next thing you know, two years later we're married. And I had owned a well, I still own, but I have a three flat in Chicago and I was living in the top floor and I owned that with two buddies of mine. So we each owned three levels and she moved in with me.

[00:02:25] And while we were there, we were starting to get to that point. We were thinking about buying a personal residence for just us. And we were toying with the idea of renting out the place and we decided to actually throw it on Airbnb back in. When was that? 

[00:02:41] Lily: 2009? 

[00:02:43] Blaine: Yeah. Eight or nine. Wow. Okay. So in Chicago back then Airbnb was like peasy.

[00:02:50] We just threw it on there. We were booked solid, like the minute. I remember we were sitting on the couch. We were like, let's just try, we don't have kids. Like we took all of our [00:03:00] clothes out and it was like, the minute we listed it we had a booking like that night. 

[00:03:03] Lily: We listed it with pictures of our own furniture.

[00:03:08] And then we had bookings instantly and we needed to move out as soon as possible. And had no furniture. So we literally just moved out, left the furniture there and we needed to find a place to live. 

[00:03:25] Blaine: Then we started house hacking with her mom and dad. 

[00:03:28] Lily: Yeah. We ended up furniture. So that's how we ended up living my parents' house for a little bit.

[00:03:33] Blaine: So yeah, we ended up moving in with her parents, which conveniently was like three blocks from the school that we both taught at. And that unit in in Roscoe village did very well for two solid years. And then the city started of clamping down and causing problems. So then we ended up going back to long term tendency, but we ended up buying a home together.

[00:03:52] That was a live-in flip. So we went from living in her parents for about six months, found a house, started rehabbing [00:04:00] it while we were living at her parents. And then we moved in there once we had a good chunk of it done. And then from there, we just didn't even realize what we were, getting into as far as wow, we started this ball rolling with real estate and didn't really know.

[00:04:16] And then we got that house up and running. I got my real estate license. We really started educating ourselves on not only real estate investing, but me becoming a realtor. And then we turned that one into a rental, bought another single family live in. And then we started buying more properties on the side and just investing.

[00:04:35] And now we have five short-term rentals, 11 long-term rentals, and right now are looking for multi-family. So five, eight plus units is really where we're headed right now. 

[00:04:48] Lily: And we did have a couple kids along the way during a lot of this live and flipping, which I think Blaine put it lightly, but let's be honest.

[00:04:55] We tore walls down. We added beams, we did the exterior. We literally gutted the whole house.[00:05:00] That house is now on Airbnb and we listed it recently and is pretty much fully booked through August. It is currently March. And so yeah it's doing really awesome. Yeah. 

[00:05:14] Blaine: Long too, you guys, 

[00:05:16] James Rippeon: so experiences you've accomplished so much.

[00:05:18] You've done a little bit of everything. It sounds like I wanna touch bases on the OG Airbnb. Rentals that you started doing from 2009, had you guys been doing short-term rentals this whole time continuously since 2009? Or was there any breaks in that we 

[00:05:33] Lily: would've had a lot more money if we did, though.

[00:05:35] We should 

[00:05:36] Blaine: have. Yeah. If we would've bought like down in Florida or somewhere and had those now we'd be, oh man. But no, we, so coincidentally, when we did the Airbnb at that or short term rental, I should say in Chicago, it was going so well when we bought the house in our second primary residence to live in flip.

[00:05:54] Once we got it looking good, we were going on a trip to Colorado for two months. [00:06:00] And we were like, why don't we just see what happens? So we listed that one, our personal residence. Yeah. Again. And so we had the one in Chicago that was doing well already. And we were like let's try this one in the burbs.

[00:06:12] And sure enough, like it was booked while we were in Colorado, essentially paid for our trip 

[00:06:17] Lily: and yeah. Paid for a trip and the mortgage, it was great. And we, we were teachers, so we would always travel a lot. I think what happened is life got in the way we didn't have the right systems in place as far as Airbnb.

[00:06:31] At that time it was Airbnb and home away now as V R B O. But I think we didn't have the right systems in place. We had two kids back to back two under. And we also had projects in our own house. And so I think it was just getting too much. And between that and full-time jobs, bla also, was working two jobs cause he became a real estate agent.

[00:06:51] So it just were okay, I know we're making more money here, but I don't think we really saw the full vision to be [00:07:00] honest until I think bla discovered bigger pockets. And then we ended up reading rich dad, poor dad. And it was, I think at the time it was okay, this is nice.

[00:07:06] This is extra money, but I don't think we really like we were landlords, but I don't think we really understood it. To how we understand it now. And now we try to teach that on Blain's Instagram and we'll create reels and stuff, just because it's we feel like we have this like knowledge that most people don't know.

[00:07:22] And it's like you have your mortgage pay down, but you can make money off of this. And if you accumulate, enough properties, then you know, you can actually leave your job and not have to work for 60 or 50 years, whatever, whatever, however long. But, so I feel like, but yeah, that's why we haven't continued.

[00:07:40] We restart, we started that the short term rental stuff recently, it was less than a year ago, probably nine months ago. And it was another one of those things where. Posted some pictures. It wasn't fully furnished. [00:08:00] we were hustling day and night up all night, the night before and the day of trying to get it ready because it just booked so fast.

[00:08:10] Patrick McGrath: I love that. My, my key takeaway from the first five minutes is that you guys literally just went for it. You didn't have really anything in place. Didn't know what was gonna happen, but you were like, Hey, let's try it. Let's see what happens. And it ended up working because you literally took action.

[00:08:30] You, you went for it and you said, we'll figure it out along the way. I think that's the biggest hangup most people have. And a lot of people probably listen to this and they listen to other podcasts and read books and all of that. There's so much information out there and there's so many different ways that things could go.

[00:08:51] A lot of the times people feel like they just have to understand every single little piece and have every system in place and all of this. And it's really like the [00:09:00] best learning experience you're gonna get is by doing it, and that's what you guys did. And like you said, unfortunately, you didn't learn back in oh nine, 2010 and go on a buying spree all across the east coast and be sitting here millionaires right now and not have the time to talk to us, but we're here and you do.

[00:09:21] And I think you have such a ton of value to add out there because even, for when we had our conversation a few months ago that a lot of these Airbnbs, I'm pretty sure you're talking about earn the suburbs. They're. Beach front homes. They're not really in downtown Chicago where the tourists go.

[00:09:41] I think you do have one kind of in that area or maybe two, but most of them are like suburbs and you guys are killing it. So I think that is such some great knowledge for people out there. Hey, you can Airbnb in a neighborhood, so on that, [00:10:00] let's break it down for people out there on what, the difference that long term rental income versus that short term rental income in the same property.

[00:10:09] Cuz I know you guys have done that and give people an idea of the power of doing the Airbnb versus the. . 

[00:10:18] Blaine: Yeah, so our most recent or not our most recent, but our, we had a long term tenant in place. They were paying $2,600 a month before we actually bird it. So before we refinanced and cashed out, the mortgage was 1100.

[00:10:32] So we were covering the water garbage and the long term tenant was basically covering everything else, gas, electric, cable, all that good stuff. So we had a pretty good cash flow once we cash out and refinanced and took the money out that we put in the mortgage went up to right around 1550. So just under 1600 and we're still at 2,600 a month in rent for the long term [00:11:00] tenant, this particular property, our tenant.

[00:11:04] Up and just left. She, and she was a really good tenant. This neighborhood is well known for giving great tenants. It's a great rental market. And she just, all of a sudden, one day she didn't pay and we were like, what's going on? And I called and usually she maybe a day or two late.

[00:11:20] And then finally she calls me back and she's just apologizing. She's I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I moved to California and we're like, wait, what? we're like, she's I got this job offer. I couldn't say no. My, my family came and moved all my stuff out. So the first thing I'm thinking is, oh my God, I hope the house isn't trashed.

[00:11:39] Like she was a single mom. Like she was always a really good tenant, so I wasn't too concerned, but there was a concern. So I raced over there. House was fine. House was, everything was great. So we started. Brainstorming. Okay. It was 

[00:11:55] Lily: we had brainstormed before we had a plan once she moved out, but she moved [00:12:00] out way sooner than we expected.

[00:12:02] So we 

[00:12:03] Blaine: hustled. And we had connected with and this is like you mentioned, if you're not networking and reading books, you're not doing anything. And one big confidence builder for us is we had networked with a number of investors. Many of whom have been doing these short term rentals in residential kind of neighborhood areas.

[00:12:24] So when we talked to this person, they were like, she just, did you a favor? You need to just right now in we were like, are you sure? He's like, like, just do it. And I'm like, we were thinking back when we did it before, and this is in the same neighborhood. And we're like, you know what? Let's just do it.

[00:12:38] If we wait, getting a tenant in the winter months in Chicagoland is never. Super easy. It's always a little, usually you lose a little bit on rent. This was getting in the fall. So our goal was to get it listed on short term rental websites before labor day weekend. It took us up to the Wednesday before, and we got it [00:13:00] listed.

[00:13:00] But in terms of numbers, cause I know I'm getting off. Yeah. Oh no. You're we 

[00:13:03] Patrick McGrath: like details. We like details. 

[00:13:05] Blaine: So we're 2,600. So we listed it that Wednesday night live. It was booked for that weekend, that night. And then it just started, it started booking so fast. We had to raise the prices and then it slowed down and then we were booked through Christmas and it was like within a week, we were like almost fully booked through October, November and most of December.

[00:13:25] And as in terms of gross, so we are making 2,600 gross rent long term for September. I think we grossed 9,400, 

[00:13:37] Lily: no 8,000 for September. And then we raised the prices for 

[00:13:40] Blaine: October. So yeah. And they're not all the same, because it changes month to month, but I. December was like our best month, November and December 10, over 10,000, 10,000.

[00:13:51] We gross like gross again. Gross. We have to remember that because you're paying a lot more expenses now. You're paying electric, you're paying gas, you're paying [00:14:00] water garbage we're you're cleaners. The cleaners we tie into the price, but you're paying wifi. We had to get like the top line wifi.

[00:14:09] We toilet paper, soap, all those things add up. But still we're making 6,000 cash. 

[00:14:19] Patrick McGrath: What's that's one house mind blowing to me because you guys literally went from having, about 1500 bucks. Before your expenses, before with the 2,600 to between five and $6,000 a month, cash flow, same property.

[00:14:39] And even if you spent 15 grand, even if you spent 20 grand on furnishing and doing all of that eight months out of that year, you paid back for itself. You went from, maybe doing $10,000 a year in cash flow to now almost 60,000 after all expenses, holy crap.

[00:14:59] And that's what [00:15:00] one property. So no wonder you guys are expanding right now. And, growing that short term run, these numbers always blow my mind. 

[00:15:07] James Rippeon: James, what do you got? What's pretty cool. Is that, you. Stressing out about getting this place rented out in the cold winter Mons for just a nominal amount of rent, but you just flip it over to the Airbnb side of things and the vacancies going through the, there's no vacancy and it's being booked up like crazy.

[00:15:22] So that dichotomy is pretty amazing in itself. How do you go about figuring out what your rental rate is gonna be on these Airbnbs and figuring out what a good vacancy rate might be? Cause it might not be 100% leased up all the time. Cuz as you guys were suggesting, you might have the rates a little bit lower.

[00:15:40] So how do you guys go about figuring out what that sweet spot is? 

[00:15:45] Lily: Honestly? I know a lot of people go on sites like AR DNA. We really just keep studying and we look every single day and we look on typically Airbnb, oh actually. Airbnb and VRBO, we'll look [00:16:00] into that market and we'll see, what their, what other Airbnbs are renting for.

[00:16:04] We look at their cleaning fees, we check out their calendars, cuz you can see when those calendars are blocked off. Now sometimes and a host may just block off the calendar because they want to use that themselves. So if you are looking at something like a lake house or something like that could be a possibility, they could just block it out, cause you, you don't know. Either way, but if you're looking at residential, like most likely people are not gonna be blocking off, a ho a house in the suburb somewhere so that, that, that kind of goes to show you. And so we'll look at, how many days are booked and so bit like you'll, if you look at a calendar and you see only like Fridays to Sunday booked, but then you don't get those bookings during the week, then you have to do your math that way.

[00:16:45] And to me I don't really know if it's worth it, but if you see that you, you have even if it's Friday to Sunday, but you'll have a Tuesday, Wednesday booking okay, people are coming here during the week for other reasons. And so that is a good, indicator as well. But you just [00:17:00] have to just study your market and really look into that is, you know what I suggest, and then.

[00:17:06] Right now currently, because we have one Airbnb in our market and then we are we listed another one and we have another one that we're listing very soon. And then I'm actually managing an investors that we're in the process of furnishing right now, also in the same market. What's nice about that is once you build up that status, people will just see, like you're a super host, so they'll contact you and say, Hey, I know that you're fully booked in July, but do you have any other, listings coming up?

[00:17:35] And so then you start to get more and more bookings before you even start to list them. And that, that's like a benefit as well. So if you do start with one, if you continue looking in that same market, you have that opportunity. If you raise your cleaning freak feet in your market, like I.

[00:17:53] $5, the cleaning fee for one house, I instantly raised it for the other house. You'll see the people around you that are [00:18:00] looking at if we're their competition, they raise their prices too. They raise their cleaning fee. And now all of, if everybody was 2 75 and nine, all of a sudden now everybody's like that.

[00:18:11] If their house looks like yours, now they're 3 75 a night, cuz slowly everybody's looking at each other's competition, but then your prices start to go up too. So even if you have some competition, it's not necessarily like a bad 

[00:18:23] Blaine: thing. And it's similar to, people that would buy, three rental properties on the same block.

[00:18:30] He's you start controlling. How much the rent is. And obviously we compare our house to other houses and we look at the finishes like these homes we have are like almost completely gut rehabbed, like really modern, like nice new homes compared to some others that are in the neighborhood that.

[00:18:46] Our just older style but nice. So it, a lot of it, I think we tested it at a little bit a prices in the beginning, and then things started booking fast and then we raised it and then it slowed down. And then we of got to that okay, this is where it's really [00:19:00] hitting everywhere.

[00:19:01] And now that we have second and a third and a fourth in the same market, we can start at that point. And once you learn, like what people are looking for, how many people it's gonna sleep, all of those things factor in, if it's just a, one bedroom condo versus if it's a three bedroom house that sleeps eight or 10 people it's gonna change.

[00:19:19] And there's a lot of creative ways to go about that pricing to attract the most people. So 

[00:19:24] James Rippeon: let's talk about your market a little bit, what, how would you describe the clients that you have coming to stay at your Airbnb? Who, who is your ideal client and also, what are you guys looking for in the property?

[00:19:36] That you're buying in your market to be a great match for those clients. 

[00:19:42] Blaine: So most of our guests are people that are visiting family, weddings, funerals, people just coming to visit. We get a lot of people that are doing renovations in the area that need a place to stay. While those renovations are being done, we have transplant people that are staying while [00:20:00] they're waiting for, to close on their house.

[00:20:02] We do have people that come in because they're going to concerts. They're going to certain things in the city because we are pretty close to a really good training line. But for the most part, our guests who are, who have. Knowledge of the area or family in the area. We have had some like business people that have come through with their crew and have, and had to stay and have gone to different areas around.

[00:20:26] But for the most part, it seems like we're getting mostly groups, so like multiple families or bigger groups of people and mostly people that are pretty much staying fairly local to the burbs. Not as many that are like, we're going, we're going to soldier field or we're going to a Cubs game.

[00:20:43] It's more about, do you agree? I 

[00:20:45] Lily: feel like I agree, but I just wanna add one thing just we are not doing so well, just because of our market. When we were going to do this, we were hesitant as well. And we networked [00:21:00] with Kevin Christensen who has Airbnbs in some town in Delaware that I've never heard of.

[00:21:07] Dover or something. I don't know. Sorry, Kevin, that's a pretty big 

[00:21:09] Blaine: city. I dunno,

[00:21:16] Lily: somewhere but somewhere. I think in the suburbs, he said of the city, but he said, you guys like, it just you're going to make money. So it, as long as, the suburb or town or whatever is they don't have ordinances against short term rentals and some do, but they don't really enforce it, but some truly enforce it.

[00:21:39] You, so you have to do your research, but as long as that's not happening and that maybe there's, maybe there could be a need for that. Like you should go for it because I think, what we found is that, a three bedroom home can sleep ton people here, we have basements where we live, so that's nice.

[00:21:57] And even though there are hotels in the [00:22:00] area, If you're traveling with a group of people, everybody has to get their own hotel room. People like to gather together. They like to have dinner together. And so as long as you're able to provide that, now that's not the only way. I There's definitely different other short term rentals you could have.

[00:22:16] But Kevin kind whipped us into shape a little bit using some language that I don't truly use, but he was really funny, but he was like, you guys just go for it. You're gonna make money. You're gonna do this. You just gotta just do it. And it was really helpful. But I think what he let us realize is that, you just have to go for it and do it, and you gotta trust your gut a little bit.

[00:22:37] And also when you get started, you're gonna, you're gonna want to have a little bit of lower rates than your competition. Not like truly low, but you wanna get some bookings to start getting reviews. And once you start getting those reviews, Then, that's when you start to raise your prices. 

[00:22:54] Blaine: So the reviews, yeah.

[00:22:55] The reviews are big. 

[00:22:56] Patrick McGrath: I love it. I really do. You guys know, I [00:23:00] always say, decide, commit, take action. And that's exactly, basically, in a nutshell, you know what you said right there. So that's huge. So let's zoom out a little bit. You guys have I think it was what, 10 properties, 11, 11 doors.

[00:23:18] Blaine: Think now we're more than that. 

[00:23:19] Lily: We have a couple under contract kind some 

[00:23:22] Blaine: stuff going on in, I think we have 15 doors, total, four of which are gonna be short term rentals. 

[00:23:29] Patrick McGrath: All right. So four short term rentals. 15 total doors. So 11 long-term. For short term, and then you got a couple under contract.

[00:23:40] Let's give with the people what they want, which is what does that mean for you? This podcast is all about financial independence, right? You guys have been doing this for a long time. You don't have to give us exact numbers, but everybody loves round numbers.

[00:23:52] Everybody loves talking about the cash and why we all do this right. To become financially free. So with your current portfolio, not with the [00:24:00] ones under contract, what does that look like for you and your family? 

[00:24:06] Blaine: So right now we have goals, obviously most people, especially in real estate I was able to step away from teaching because our rental portfolio allowed for that.

[00:24:17] And it allowed me to focus 100% on real estate, which is pretty much 50, 50 real tur side and 50% investor side, or a little bit of both, whatever. The next goal is to reach enough that will allow for Lily to step away from teaching at some point. We've got that number down where it covers our health insurance.

[00:24:42] All expenses to where we have enough cash flow coming in, that if the market takes a big turn and we can't do anything, our rentals will still be providing for us. And that's where we're at right now. We, everything that we get and for our cash [00:25:00] flow, we've been investing back into the, we, we're not at that point.

[00:25:03] It has given us solid foundation to that makes it comfortable for me to not teach. But I'm also have a realtor side, which is essentially another business where we're getting income for that. But most of our money is going right back into, rehabbing so that we can refinance and pull that money back out and then really stacking.

[00:25:24] And we want to get to that apartment building multi-family and have a good diverse portfolio of single family long-term rentals. Short term rentals in neighborhoods and then short term rentals in touristy areas and then multi. So I 

[00:25:40] James Rippeon: don't know if you guys have done this math, but have you thought about how long it would've taken you guys to get where you want to go with the long term rental play versus the short-term rental play.

[00:25:53] And if you guys thought about, looking back, what, how different of a position you guys would be in? 

[00:25:58] Blaine: Yeah. I think we [00:26:00] said that we wanted to be what, 40 doors by 40, by the time she's 40 and that's four years away. I think we're gonna blow that out of the water. Now, and even though the market is really difficult, especially for people that are looking to bur right now it's really challenging, but we're still, we've done some creative financing deals we've, started really amping up our off market search, but As far as timeline is concerned, like we didn't really have a hard date.

[00:26:30] I don't think that it was like, okay, we want to be completely 100% financially free by this date. But I think I'm a big deadline person and we've been, we have a vision board and like things that really, gravitate towards where we want to be. And now that we're seeing what we are seeing with our rentals and what they're doing for us, and even the short term, now we have a plan that's really of coming.

[00:26:55] Like the vision is coming. Like we know okay, if we can get this five to eight unit, [00:27:00] we'll be at this amount of cash flow, which is gonna cut that down, where we need to be, and we can get two or three of these and then we'll be there. And then it's like just stabilized. And once that's all stabilized, then it's although she loves teaching.

[00:27:13] Okay. Now it's time to join here to where we can expand even more. But I don't know that I answered your question, but. I don't think they look, if you don't 

[00:27:23] Patrick McGrath: feel comfortable giving out any numbers, like that's totally. Okay. I think people love to know, like the goal, say, you say your goal's 30 grand a month.

[00:27:31] You're like, Hey, we're 40% there. Like people can do the math, but I think a lot of people have ideas of what someone who has 15 properties, makes like everyone's a millionaire, and the reality is most people aren't, most people are still working. She's still teaching.

[00:27:50] You're still doing be being an agent and you guys have, a multimillion dollar portfolio, but that doesn't mean that you're chilling on the beach and your kids are going to the best [00:28:00] private school. So I, I like to ask that just to get people, realistic ideas of where people, are at with that and what their goals are because.

[00:28:09] To someone who has one door or zero doors, your portfolio is like their dream portfolio, 

[00:28:15] Blaine: it's interesting. I'm sorry not to cut you off. It, it changes though, right? I think for everybody, like our original goal was okay, we need to get like for my teaching income, I'm like, okay, if we can get cash flow, that matches what I was making as a teacher, we'll say $6,000 a month, then I can step away.

[00:28:36] And then now it's okay, if we can match what she's making, and then we're like wait, now we have to get private insurance health insurance. So we had to do the math there. So I think it, it kind of changes based on your goals and like right now, like we've accomplished that, 6,000 ish and now like it's focused on all right, what do we need?

[00:28:55] What else can we buy? To get to that point, that'll help [00:29:00] us, which is gonna be, with insurance and everything. So I 

[00:29:02] Lily: think with STR could I step away right now? Yes, I definitely could. However, we have short term rentals that are making fantastic money, but if there is a change in an ordinance, that's shutting down that business and we're still gonna be cash flowing, not nearly as much cause we talked about those numbers.

[00:29:23] And so that is the concern. So really, it would just be too risky to do that now. And so that's why we want to get some more long term rentals where that is more consistent, if that makes sense 

[00:29:37] Patrick McGrath: and have that. So I look at, the short term rental money as like the icing on top, get it's good.

[00:29:44] But like you said, you want your foundation to be solid and your foundation is gonna be. In those long term rental assets, and then you're gonna, exponentially grow that cashflow with their short term rentals. That'll be nice, but they still make sense [00:30:00] if you had to go back to long term rentals.

[00:30:03] And I think that's huge. And what I'm hearing is that you guys have thought about all the different strategies. You've thought about all the different, I meant exit strategies or changes in the market changes in ordinance because people have to understand that when, and like you said, a as you hit these goals, your goals change because right now your, or your goals Hey, 5,000 when you get there and you're like, all right does 5,000 really do it for me?

[00:30:31] Or what changes if I actually quit my job? How much is insurance? Should I put in another year for my 401k or do this, or do that. And, but you don't think about that until you reach that goal. And then the goal gets a little bigger, and I think that's huge for everybody listening out there to realize that it's a cyclical thing, it goes up and down and your goals change a little bit.

[00:30:55] But I think it sounds like to me right now, you guys are in that exponential [00:31:00] growth phase where it's been slow and steady, and then over the last year, maybe two. Yes. If not two years, everything has started to hit this. And you're like, we're not taking our foot off the gas pedal.

[00:31:12] Let's just keep going. And we can achieve that. In a very short amount of time, James, what do think that's exactly 

[00:31:17] Lily: what it is too. I'm sorry. James cut you off there, but but yeah, I feel if I step away from my job right now, then we need to use some of that income and then it's just not gonna continue to snowball at this point.

[00:31:30] James Rippeon: What I was gonna say is listening to your guys' story. Someone looking at it from the outside when you guys first started, might have thought that you guys are making a huge risk. You're might be putting your money in risk and you're gonna fail, and you're gonna do this, that, and the other, and might not turn out the way you thought it would.

[00:31:46] But by taking those risks, you guys have actually put yourselves in a safer. Because now you have all these different streams of income. You're got the realtor agent in income coming in. You're still maintaining that safe teacher salary [00:32:00] coming in. You have the option to leave that if you want to, but like you guys keep saying, and coming back to you don't know what the future holds.

[00:32:07] So having those different sources, different types of sources, long term short term multi-family agent business income that you guys are developing on that side. Plus the, the salary coming in as a teacher is putting you guys in a much safer position relative to where you guys were before.

[00:32:23] Not depending on one source and also giving you at the same time, that exponential growth that Patrick is talking about. That's, I think that's amazing. I think people, need to have an appreciation. 

[00:32:35] Blaine: Sorry. We lost her there for a second. Something froze up. I dunno if it was mine, did you catch me back?

[00:32:41] Lily: I did. Yeah, just cut off for a second. 

[00:32:43] James Rippeon: As long as our guests could hear me, that's good. But I was just saying, 

[00:32:46] Lily: thank you right then. No bigger appreciation for that. No, I think we appreciate it. And it's, I think it's also like about, how you manage your money too.

[00:32:57] There's just so many moving [00:33:00] pieces too. It's we have a pretty solid portfolio, but we have walls in our house that have not that are half painted. Like for two years, you guys like we have a basement that has that has some framing done, bla just demoed it and started framing and then got busy and.

[00:33:17] There go, so our rentals 

[00:33:19] Blaine: look nice for me. 

[00:33:20] Lily: yeah. And there's, oh my God. So decorated, like to the team. 

[00:33:24] James Rippeon: That's the thing with being an investor like this, I feel like in, it sounded like you guys are experiencing the same thing. You keep reinvesting into yourself and into your deals that, you create this external impression on others that maybe you're like super successful and I'm sure, we all are, we're doing these things great.

[00:33:42] But you have these like other things that you're financially. I'm not gonna say wasting money on, but not putting resources into, at the expense of growing the future investments that you guys are prioritizing. I know, I see that myself all the time. Like I drive like a not great [00:34:00] car, 2009, 200,000 miles.

[00:34:02] And I do that because I'm plowing all my cash into investments and other opportunities, things like that. So I totally get where you're coming from 

[00:34:11] Blaine: currently. 

[00:34:11] Patrick McGrath: That's so funny because I will not think about spending $3,000 on multiple rentals to get like vinyl plank flooring and everything else.

[00:34:22] I've got six year old carpet, like brown carpet in my house right now that Danielle has been dying for us to get new flooring done. And I'm like 

[00:34:33] James Rippeon: that doesn't bring 

[00:34:34] Lily: into more rent. Exactly. 

[00:34:35] Patrick McGrath: Come on. I feel you like, we haven't painted our house since we bought it. Like we're in the same boat.

[00:34:41] We've been wanting to do our basement. I'm like, you know what? We need 10 to 15 more units, and then we can do whatever you want, honey. We'll knock the house down and build a new house. I don't really care. Like just wait a second here. So you guys, it's so funny and I think this opens up such a good part for people listening out there Hey, every [00:35:00] single one of us is literally putting every single dollar in, into our business, to grow because it's that delayed gratification that I think a lot of people who are thinking about getting into real estate or are just starting out, don't really think about when they think about being at a level that all of us are at is that you still have such a long way to go to really accomplish those big dreams.

[00:35:29] So I think that's huge. I wanted to revert back a little bit. Cause I think there's a nugget or two in here that we glossed over. And one of them was, I heard you talk about having some creative financing that you guys did on a property or two. So I'd really like to touch base on that.

[00:35:48] And then shit number two was let's go on the creative financing. Let's start with that. Another one there that I was oh, off market deals. So you said off market deals, so creative financing and off [00:36:00] market deals. I'd really love to learn more about that. Cause I'm doing the same thing.

[00:36:03] So yeah. 

[00:36:05] Blaine: We decided that, we should try to go after some, seller financing slash creative financing deals because we are getting. I wouldn't say maxed out, but we see the benefit, and we were like, is, it could be a win-win as long as you can explain it to the seller in a way where they understand it really, truly clearly.

[00:36:26] They see that it's a win for them. It's a win for us and everybody ends up making out on it and the bank doesn't take over everything. So we, we found a house that was down in Southern Illinois and it was listed on the MLS, which is usually even harder to do a creative financing deal. And I started talking to the agent and I'm licensed in Illinois, so I could just easily just throw a referral fee.

[00:36:52] But I said, what, if we would, this, would the sellers be open to creative financing or seller financing? She's yeah, I think they would. And I'm like are [00:37:00] you familiar with it? And she said, I am. And I said, okay, great. So I drew up. Essentially four different offers for, to present to her.

[00:37:11] And I basically, I told her, I said, listen you're gonna get both sides of the commission. I'm not asking for a referral fee or anything. So you're gonna make more money. Seller's gonna make more money and we're gonna save more money. So I'm like, is this could be a three way trifecta. So we wrote up an offer.

[00:37:27] It was all cash with our hard money lender that we, it was legit offer, but it was really low. I told them like, this is it was almost 110 grand below where they were asking. Second one was us taking out a regular, conventional 10% down loan. And it was, we didn't really want 'em to take that offer.

[00:37:45] So we didn't only went up a little bit. And then the two that were more where we were hoping they were, we went a little higher. So we came up, we offered them basically. 5% down. [00:38:00] Amateurize at 15 years with a balloon payment in five, but the closing costs were gonna be delayed for six months.

[00:38:11] So that was one that was, I thought they were gonna be pretty close to agreeing to. And then the other one, we went up even higher on the purchase price. We kept the 5% down, but we amateurize it over 30 years. And the balloon payment wasn't until I think 10 is what I put. So they countered our cash offer it.

[00:38:36] Wasn't really where we wanted to be for, all. Potential holding costs with our hard money. And then they, or they said, we'll agree to the the third offer, which was essentially, it was 230, 5,000 and they were listed at 2 92. So we felt like this is awesome. The house is in fairly, pretty [00:39:00] good shape.

[00:39:00] We're gonna do some rehab to it. The biggest it's a lake house. So it's on a lake, has lake frontage and the boat dock, I think, is the biggest issue. That's gonna be probably our biggest expense, but we see a lot of potential for not only short term, but just long term. We plan to keep this house for a long time.

[00:39:20] And the market in the, on this lake has exploded over the last few years. So we are excited. We're about to close on that one. Next week. So we're almost 

[00:39:31] Lily: there. If I could add something as well. I think we kept going back and forth with these different numbers, even though this was MLS seller financing is not just oh, you throw one offer down and you're done, you've gotta put in the work and you have to, do a little bit of the back and forth thing.

[00:39:50] But ultimately we know we knew what the seller wanted. The seller wanted a certain amount of money and a a big chunk of money and [00:40:00] the seller wanted and a certain amount each month. That's what they were really hoping for. And so essentially, like I think once we knew that, then we said, Hey we'll give you exactly what you're asking for.

[00:40:12] We're just gonna give it to you in six months. And so that was That was kind, they were I don't know about, they were okay with it because it was still what they wanted, the money wasn't right now. But that house isn't, hasn't been selling. So I think what we learned.

[00:40:27] Is that you just have to, see what they want. It has to be a win-win for everybody. Like Blaine said, just to make sure that the owner is also happy, with the situations. I'm sure if they go and talk to somebody, they're gonna say, why would you go with this, with this idea, but there is definitely benefits, I think, to all involved 

[00:40:45] Blaine: and coming into it with an open mind and being creative, coming up with I think if I wouldn't have given them three options or four options, I think we might not have been able to get the deal done.

[00:40:56] So that's why it's called, creative financing, for 

[00:40:59] James Rippeon: sure. I [00:41:00] absolutely love this strategy. I've done it myself before and nice. It's one of those things where I think it can go both ways if you know what they're motivated by, or if you don't know what they're motivated by. I feel like it can work both ways.

[00:41:12] Cause it helps pinpoint the seller down into recognizing. What they want, even if they don't know what they want, cuz they're gonna have these different options to compare between each other. So I think that's a fantastic thing to do. What I like most about it is normally when anyone submits an offer, buying retail, it's a yes, no binary kind of situation.

[00:41:33] There's not gonna be this negotiation happening for the most part. Especially if you're buying something that's super hot on the market, they're gonna pick their favorite offer and maybe make some adjustments and go from there with this kind of strategy, making an offer in this way. It turns it from yes, no to either or, and the seller gets to pick the terms that are most attractive and you get to flush that out in a more one on one way.

[00:41:56] So I think it's psychologically, I think it gives a lot to [00:42:00] you guys as the buyer to be able to adjust your offer, to be on the same page with the seller. And so you guys say you can have that trifecta everyone's benefiting from it. 

[00:42:11] Blaine: Totally agree. 

[00:42:12] Patrick McGrath: Yeah. That's great. I I'm actually submitting a seller financing offer today as well.

[00:42:20] I have a, I have an idea of where this guy needs to be. I draw, I drew it all up. Haven't sent it to him yet, but I was only sending him one. And now, after talking to you guys, I'm definitely gonna send him at least two. I love the 30 year am five year balloon. I'm doing all that. I was thinking 10%, but I'm gonna lower it to five and just see what he says.

[00:42:44] What interest rate did you go on that? I'm just wondering what the interest rates rising. 

[00:42:48] Lily: Zero 

[00:42:51] Patrick McGrath: all my God. How you left out the greatest part of that. Yeah. so you got a 15 year [00:43:00] am, right? 15 year amortization for people out there. 5% down. Five year balloon, which means that you have to refinance into conventional financing to pay off the existing note fleet.

[00:43:19] Do not tell me this is interest only, right? Okay. So you do have to give the 0%, so all, but 0% 

[00:43:27] Lily: percent interest. Yeah. And then, so we split it up. So is it the down payment is in six months or the commission, the closing. We are paying the closing 

[00:43:35] Blaine: costs. So we're paying yeah. The down payment and the closing costs in six months down payment in 

[00:43:40] Patrick McGrath: closing costs, six months after you get.

[00:43:45] Access and have the property. 

[00:43:47] Lily: So once we start making money on Airbnb, yes. Then you have to pay them. 

[00:43:50] Blaine: That's the point? 

[00:43:53] Patrick McGrath: my gosh. I have to say, I think this is possibly the best deal that we've heard [00:44:00] anyone explain on our podcast and you are making me extremely jealous right now. I'm like, I need to go get a better, I thought I've done two pretty good seller financing deals, but man, you guys absolutely hit it out of the park.

[00:44:13] And the biggest thing is you just asked, like you just asked and look you don't even, you don't even need any money. Like you, you're gonna be making money off the property before you even pay for any of it. And you got 0% interest when interest rates are rising, inflation's going crazy. And you.

[00:44:34] Oh, my gosh. 

[00:44:34] Lily: That's that was due to education. That was a pace Morphy strategy. 

[00:44:39] Blaine: and there's still there. Come on there. We, there's still risks involved. It's there, there's a lot going on here and it's gonna be short term rental and we're testing a market. That's starting to grow really well.

[00:44:49] So I don't wanna say it's a complete home run grant slam, but yes, we are really excited. 

[00:44:54] Patrick McGrath: Look, you can be as humble as you want, but okay. To get 0% interest, [00:45:00] and all of that deferred down payment and everything else. That's a slam dump. It really is. And you got other stuff going on, so if stuff doesn't work out, you can come up with the money from your other investments, but you guys have thought about, so right, again, it's you're knowledgeable which you are, right.

[00:45:19] You found an opportunity and you asked and you I'm sure you did a lot of Digg. In between to see where the guy wanted and you worked backwards to put the deal together for it to make sense. So that's awesome. Hasn't closed yet. So I know that's why you're still a little leery about everything 

[00:45:38] Lily: once it was supposed to close.

[00:45:40] Yeah. It was supposed to close tomorrow, but it got pushed a couple of days. So we would've been, 

[00:45:45] Patrick McGrath: that's why you're there today about, about, celebrating right now, but that's awesome. Congratulations. I can't wait to see more on that one. And I just think you guys just gave everybody something to really take away from this.

[00:45:59] [00:46:00] Yeah, I'm we're really excited and that's really huge. Alright. You just dropped some serious bombs on us on that one. Tell us about what you're doing to find some off market deals. What does that 

[00:46:09] Blaine: look like? This is challenging, we've been, and honestly, I think it starts with networking.

[00:46:15] I think it starts with just being a good person. We've been getting so many leads just from people that we give referrals to, especially contractors, contractors that we treat well and, we send them more business and then they hear, oh, this guy's looking to sell. And then they tell us like today I met with two, two different owners and they're both off market properties and that they both came from a contractor who we've used a number of times.

[00:46:39] So I, I think being a good person and treating people the way you wanna be treated is always gonna help. But networking. I Honestly like Instagram, social media, like we, we do a lot of, reels and things like that. And then we have people like just reaching out to us and it's Hey, I have this property.

[00:46:56] I don't know what I'm supposed to do with it. What, and I'm like, let me stop over. [00:47:00] I'll take a look. And, maybe we work out a deal between the two of us. If not, I'll try to sell it for you, help, help out the best we can. But we've looked into doing the cold calling, we talked to a bunch of people who have been doing the virtual assistant.

[00:47:14] We have not signed on to this yet, but everyone that we talk to that are getting a lot of leads. This is what they're doing. They're using prop stream, which we've dabbled with a little bit. Looking into the virtual assistance that will just make those 500 calls a day and try to get some leads that way, but we haven't pulled a trigger on that one yet.

[00:47:34] So we've been looking into these things because it's hard right now to get, and then we've used some wholesalers, sending us something, but we haven't closed a deal with any yet. So that's, this is all still in the works. And we're always looking to connect with people that, have ideas that, to find, you know, off market deals.

[00:47:53] So it's, I know 

[00:47:54] Patrick McGrath: James has got James has got experience with off market, right? 

[00:47:58] Blaine: James? 

[00:47:59] James Rippeon: Yeah. It's just something [00:48:00] you gotta be consistent at. I've never used a VA and done cold calling or anything like that, as far as your mailing and your systems go, you just have to be consistent.

[00:48:09] And you're gonna have some dry months and some really busy months, but you gotta be available to take action on those leads whenever they come in and just do that repeatable process every week, every month. And follow through with it each time you guys had mentioned that you might be managing a short term rental for an investor.

[00:48:27] Did I hear that correctly? Yes, you did. Oh, tell us about that deal. 

[00:48:30] Lily: It was an investor. I have a meetup it's been mostly virtual and once everything started with COVID opening up, we I have hosted also in person meetups as well networking. Yeah. And I had an investor as a guest speaker as at our recent.

[00:48:49] Event that I had. And she had asked me the next day, if I would design her, she has a house that she just finished rehab on, and it's very [00:49:00] close to actually, where our STR is. And she said, would you design it when it comes? As far as like the furniture goes and order everything for a flat fee, and then would I be interested in managing it?

[00:49:12] And I said, sure, this is in our market, this will provide more work for our cleaners. And I get a little bit of a cut and also we're at the point where we're getting so many people asking us for, if we have more listings coming up, that I can just of send business her way before, we even furnish.

[00:49:30] And so now we're at the point where most of the furniture has arrived. She's got a handyman working right now assembling everything and yeah, we'll be live next week. 

[00:49:41] Blaine: And it's so cool. So now we had three different investors that have reached us, reached out to us in just the last couple weeks.

[00:49:48] And we've been a really good team. Obviously you have to when you're doing not only short term rentals, but investing in general, but like when we started doing the short term rentals, like Lily and her [00:50:00] mom, like just setting up a system with what we need to order getting stuff assembled, the hardest part, I think, to any short term rental.

[00:50:08] Is furnishing it and getting it ready. So she, got this 

[00:50:11] Lily: offer. I have this down, she's it like clockwork. And 

[00:50:15] Blaine: I met with an investor this morning who was considering, converting a couple of his rentals into short term. And I talked to him and I told him what we've been doing, what, how Lily's been doing it.

[00:50:24] And he sent me a text. He's I think we're gonna hire you guys. And it was like, this isn't even a planned business, yeah. You're like, 

[00:50:29] Patrick McGrath: we're not even in business 

[00:50:30] Lily: I was like, do we need to open up an LLC from 

[00:50:33] Blaine: probably it's 

[00:50:34] Patrick McGrath: right. It's so funny. It's so funny how this whole thing started, because you said, Hey, we're just gonna list this apartment into this three flat on Airbnb and see how it goes back in oh nine.

[00:50:45] And here we are 20, 22, and now you're like, oh we'll help this person out. And now you all, now you almost have a business of helping people get started on Airbnb. Like how the tables 

[00:50:56] Blaine: have turned. Huh. And you know what that's another thing [00:51:00] about. And obviously not everybody wants to do this, but our reviews, like we, we work hard to not only to get these review views, but we reach out to our guests that haven't given us the review to get them to leave reviews.

[00:51:13] And when they leave us, I think we have a hundred percent, five star. We do. But they get detailed like about not only the house, but like our communication and how like when they needed something, we were there. It's hospitality so when other investors go on and they can read all of our reviews and they're thinking about hiring someone, they, they're like, oh my gosh, this, these guys are getting great reviews.

[00:51:34] And now all we have to do is obviously keep up. That's a great thing. 

[00:51:37] Patrick McGrath: Manage too. I'm sorry. Sorry, James. I said are you guys going to gonna manage it for them? This one. Yes. I hear, this is just what I've reached out. I hear that's anywhere from like 15 to 20%. I don't know if you guys are gonna be in that range, but that sounds 

[00:51:56] Lily: it's 20.

[00:51:56] Yeah. It's 20 to 30%. I told her I'll take 20%. [00:52:00] And then the next day another investor asked, reached out to me yourself short it's should I set of higher price? 

[00:52:09] Patrick McGrath: They're going to drop their Instagram and ways to contact them later. So if you need them to do that in the area, it's gonna be 30, 30% the discount, the real I 

[00:52:21] Blaine: podcast 

[00:52:23] James Rippeon: we do an inverse discount on this podcast.

[00:52:25] So you gotta pay 

[00:52:26] Blaine: more. Thanks. 

[00:52:27] Patrick McGrath: Appreciate it guys. Pay more. Cause they'll be 

[00:52:29] Blaine: yeah. That's 

[00:52:30] James Rippeon: well, that's, I think that's, what's so cool about the short term rental space for those investors who want to take a more passive route investing in real estate, people get into it cause they think it's passive and then you get elbow deep and repairing a toilet or a tenant when you're trying to manage yourself.

[00:52:48] So then you go on to if you didn't already start there trying to find a property manager, but the biggest problem with having the long term rental is finding a good property manager. I don't know if you guys have had problems with [00:53:00] any property managers. I haven't had any horror stories, but I've also come across those managers that I know would've done better if I had, researched them ahead of time and maybe known what I was getting into.

[00:53:10] And that's, what's so cool about the short term rental space. Everything that you guys do is out there for peer review and you can see what your guys' ratings are. So if you have a client who's gonna come to you and you're gonna manage the property they can vet you that way. Very clearly. They're gonna know what your track record is from the beginning.

[00:53:29] So I think that's really cool opportunity that you guys have, and you're capitalizing on to make sure that you can market yourself for that potential business that appears to be starting right in front of our eyes. 

[00:53:40] Blaine: Yeah I agree. And my big thing is I really like, even for my long term tenants and we are, self-managing currently all of our properties, but like I want my tenants happy.

[00:53:49] So I really work hard to make sure they're happy and they enjoy living there. Cause I want 'em to stay, the less turnaround turnover is better for me. And same thing with our guests. And I don't know how other [00:54:00] investors are, but I don't sleep much anyway. So it's if someone, has a problem and my phone is next to me, I wake up or I'm still awake and I'm just like boom.

[00:54:10] And I just respond to them right away. And they're like, oh my goodness, thank God. He responded in 15 seconds, and they post that in their reviews. But I agree it, we've, we go on plenty of trips and we use short term rentals as a place to stay in lieu of hotels. And the first thing we do is look at, those reviews and some of 'em is whoa, man, these are some bad reviews.

[00:54:30] We're not staying here or, and the same thing, like you mentioned, like other investors aren't gonna want that management. 

[00:54:35] James Rippeon: I'd be curious to know if those ones that you stayed at that were poorly reviewed, whether they, were owner managed or third party managed or what the situation was there.

[00:54:44] I know, in experience, like I started out just real estate investor, hiring it out to property managers and just, putting my trust in them. And then I became a property manager and an agent managing my own properties, as well as other people's. And I can see how property [00:55:00] managers can fall into the trap of just collecting that rent check and not giving a shit about the property after that, as long as the rent check's coming in, there's nothing to worry about, but the good property managers are gonna be the ones going out there doing inspections, checking in doing the walkthroughs constant communications.

[00:55:17] So I think that's great that you guys can have that all in display, so you can showcase this to other people. 

[00:55:24] Patrick McGrath: Yeah, I agree. Me too. Me too. Guys, we have packed a ton into this little more than an hour right now, and I think we could just keep going, but this is the part of the podcast where we've changed the name three or four times, but I think we're gonna go back to the big three.

[00:55:44] I think we're going back to, instead of the wrap up, we're gonna call this one, the big three big 

[00:55:52] James Rippeon: man. I have four on this one. I think we're gonna have to rename it again. 

[00:55:55] Blaine: The big 

[00:55:56] Patrick McGrath: four and we don't edit these podcasts. So [00:56:00] everything that's in here is staying. So let's call it the big four James, the big four.

[00:56:05] James Rippeon: Let's do it. So the big one of the big four what's something that you guys know and that you guys do that feels like a cheat code to achieving financial independence. Something that you guys have started doing that. Just feels like everyone should know. It just seems like an obvious key, but just isn't, what's that cheat code for financial independence that you guys know?

[00:56:27] Blaine: Man, that's a tough questions. 

[00:56:28] Lily: Tough. Cause I feel like we covered a lot. I think one, I don't necessarily know if the super, I suppose that cheat code, Blaine was never active on social media. Like at all, like he didn't even have a Facebook, like when we met or anything. And then he started posting some like quotes on there or whatever, and that sort of grew and.

[00:56:54] We had so many friends that just felt like, made so many jokes about it. What are you doing? You're [00:57:00] 40 now he's a little bit older. But he is you're full already. What are you doing posting on social media and stuff. And then I feel like when you show people what you believe in who you are, what you do, they internally want to help you.

[00:57:15] And essentially it's we are who we are, whether we are at a meetup at a podcast at, in front of an Instagram live, like we are who we are. And I feel like people to know us. They feel like they know us. We sometimes people reach out. We don't know who they are, but they feel like they know us.

[00:57:32] But I think what happens internally is then, that will either sometimes lead to bla having a client. Sometimes that would lead just to someone saying, Hey there's a really like nasty house on this and this street, like it's abandoned. Because people want then to see you succeed because you put yourself out there for all to see.

[00:57:51] So I feel like if you're that person that hasn't posted anything about investing and you're doing it post it, let [00:58:00] people know and get out of your shell. Cause I feel like it took him a while to do that. And then you just have to build that tough skin. And now it's we actually get really positive like feedback.

[00:58:10] And a lot of those people are liking all of our posts. So it's like 

[00:58:15] Blaine: my cheat code. And when I think about cheat code, I think. If I didn't do this, I wouldn't be where I'm at right now. And number one, it's just reading and educating yourself. And number two is networking. If I take those two things away, there's no way I'm where I'm at.

[00:58:29] Cuz I would never have built that confidence by reading, reading rich, dead port ad, like everybody else. And then just piggybacking onto the 30 other books that I've read, that I was all focused on real estate mindset. And just those things, those two things if you're not doing those things, I'd be surprised that you're not successful, that 

[00:58:47] Patrick McGrath: you're successful.

[00:58:49] You know what? That was the perfect segue. And I think those were both two really great answers to our first question, but that was the perfect segue into question [00:59:00] number two, which is, are there any books, podcast, people or research or Resources that have really shaped your financial independence journey.

[00:59:13] That is not rich dad, poor dad, because that is the one that everybody said. So drop some other ones for the 

[00:59:19] Blaine: people out there to go blames the book guy. Yeah. I'm really big on, on mindset. Cause I feel like in, in real estate you have to be open minded. You have to be really driven to be ready and prepared for anything that can happen.

[00:59:37] Who not, how is a great book that I recently read and then I read his. The next book after that, the gap and the gain grew two wonderful books. And then back to the mindset side James clear is one of my favorite authors Tomic habits. Tomic habits is one that, I feel like James clear is in my brain when it comes to just mindset and just [01:00:00] believing in yourself because you have to, and then, the podcast side of it, we wouldn't be anywhere if we didn't listen to bigger pockets.

[01:00:07] Right from the beginning, one of my friends, actually the friend that moved to North Carolina, he was the one that introduced it to me. And I started right away listening. And I was like, what? And then I got her on it. Not knowing that she was gonna just. Right in. And then I just, read the rich dad, port, dad, thinking, grow rich, all those books, but it's evolved into like mindset and then really just keeping current with all the new real estate education. 

[01:00:35] James Rippeon: That's awesome. Lot of great books there. I think atomic habits, fantastic book. I would second that one. Absolutely. So for the next question we're gonna do a little bit of, I have you call it role playing or mental exercise or whatever.

[01:00:48] So it's five years in the future. Okay. You guys have been working at this steadily building up your portfolio. What excites you guys most about reaching financial independence, and in [01:01:00] yourselves, in the position that you guys are in five years in the future, in terms of business, in terms of personal life what excites you guys the most.

[01:01:08] Blaine: You wanna go 

[01:01:08] Lily: first? Sure. I can go first. Okay. So here's how our day is gonna be. Oh, 

[01:01:13] James Rippeon: Ooh. She's got it all planned out. You didn't even ask 

[01:01:15] Blaine: me what she's already decided. She's 

[01:01:19] Patrick McGrath: waiting for this 

[01:01:20] Blaine: question. Yeah, she throws her hair back. 

[01:01:23] Lily: Okay. So we're gonna wake up in the morning and make breakfast for the kids and we're gonna walk them to school currently blankets to do this, but I don't.

[01:01:32] Okay. And then he and I are gonna hit up the gym together because we are very active people. However, we have to work out on separate schedules because we have kids and jobs and all of this stuff. So we'll go and have a good workout. Then we're gonna get some work in. We're gonna look at properties.

[01:01:49] And then up the kids. However the big thing with us is we're huge on travel. And so we traveled [01:02:00] a lot when we were broke teachers we carpooled or not, or road tripped everywhere. And we would just of get away. And now we really want to, and are looking forward to more, getting into a place with that and really showing the world to our family.

[01:02:15] I was born in Poland. I am an immigrant. The world is so big and we can go to so many places and travel. And so as long as the kids sports do not interfere with this, cause I know they will at that age and five years we'll definitely be doing a lot of traveling together, but as far as like a daily plan, we're just looking to making sure that we get that fitness in.

[01:02:36] We get, that education and that think time, that mindset maybe hit up a yoga class. When the kids are at school and life is just, normal, how life goes, but making sure that we have lots of trips planned with, for them, with 

[01:02:48] Blaine: them. And for me, it's obviously very similar. We are compatible , but for me, I am also a musician and I really see the future where I can [01:03:00] focus on getting back into.

[01:03:02] The studio or back into a band, and really Des designating some time for music. And that's something that has really taken a backseat over the years. And I miss it and I know I'm really good at it. And creative when it comes to writing music and being in a band. So that's definitely one big financial freedom goal of mine.

[01:03:22] On top of all of that stuff that she said, and a lot of that stuff, she said, I feel bad, cuz like I got a lot of that right now does like I got the walking, the kids, this school and having the middle of the day workout and just today, like just meeting with other people in networking about real estate and that's definitely a our five year goal that seed has been planted.

[01:03:42] That's awesome. 

[01:03:43] Patrick McGrath: I love it. I absolutely. Love it. Quick question. Guitar, bass, drums, singer. What do we 

[01:03:48] Blaine: got? Yes. Yeah. All the above piano as well. My son had piano lessons today. We have a baby grand in the house I've got, I've been playing guitar since I've been like 16. I was in a really good rock band [01:04:00] for probably four or five years in the nineties.

[01:04:02] We started out doing, the typical pumpkins Nirvana type cover band. And then we evolved into doing like all originals. We have three or four albums. But yeah, I play a little bit of drums, bass guitar and piano. And probably singing is more on the lower side, but I'm getting better.

[01:04:20] Patrick McGrath: would you drop the name for us? I need to go check this out 

[01:04:22] Blaine: now. Oh boy. The band back in the day was a parade of fools. If you go on Reve nation, we do have like most of our albums on there. And then on reverb nation, you can also find my solo stuff, which is Blaine cosec. And yeah, it's got, we got some good songs there.

[01:04:37] It's mostly, I would say alternative rock, I guess you could call it. I love that. That's 

[01:04:43] James Rippeon: awesome. We're definitely gonna link to that in our show 

[01:04:45] Patrick McGrath: notes. We are gonna link to our favorite song on that. All right. Great guys. This has been awesome. I know I've taken a lot away from this and I'm gonna use these nuggets right now.

[01:04:56] So by the time anyone's listening to this, I've already used that to hopefully [01:05:00] close a deal. All right. For everybody out there, what's the best way to get in touch of both of you. Maybe subscribe to that virtual meetup, where can people reach. 

[01:05:09] Blaine: Definitely Lily's meetup. Do you, how 

[01:05:12] Lily: did you do that?

[01:05:12] Contact me at Lily. Kosack at Gmail, L I L Y K O S E K at Gmail, and 

[01:05:18] Blaine: then Mia. It's mostly Instagram. So at realtor Blaine, and I'm very responsive. So you send me a message. I recently made a few posts that I'm willing to mentor people for free. Anyone that's really getting started, that they don't really know how to, push through and build that confidence.

[01:05:36] Let me know. I'll set up a quick free, zoom call with you and lead you however I can. That's awesome. 

[01:05:42] James Rippeon: Everybody take 

[01:05:43] Patrick McGrath: advantage of that. Yeah, definitely. I know I will. Cuz you guys jump Trump some nuggets on me, so we'll be doing another zoom call. All right, everybody. We're wrapping this episode up.

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[01:06:10] outro: 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 independence.

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