Room Rentals: The Secret Wealth Strategy with Wendell Catlett

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
what's up everyone is .
Today we have wendell catletton.
I've known wendell for thebetter part of 15, 20 years.
He started out in the firedepartment um not long after I
did.
We've been friends pretty muchever since, but he left and
started doing his own stuff onthe side.
So let me introduce you.
Give him a 15 second elevatorpitch.
Um so, wendell, thanks forhopping on.
Tell me where you're from, whatyou, you know, kind of led up

(00:23):
to and what you're into now.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hey, well, yeah, I appreciate it, man.
Yeah, like I said, aaron's beena great friend for me.
Man, I was a former DCfirefighter like Aaron is from
DC, but you know I've lived inmy entire life, worked as a
firefighter for years, and thenmy real estate career kind of
took off.
I got into real estate, was, uh, seeing my realtor's check, um,

(00:52):
and it's the biggest check thatI've ever seen.
So that made me jump into realestate.
And then I left out of realestate because my business just
took off.
But now I'm like so connectedwith the fire department that
I'm so interested in just likestill being a part of that
brotherhood, not by actuallyworking there but helping people
with financial the thing thathelped me grow and leave the
fire department.

(01:13):
So, I try to wrap it up reallyquick.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
I was thinking in my head hold, up man.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
I'm about to go into a minute speech, but now you
know, let me stop that.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Let me cut it back, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
You're fine.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
So, Aaron, I think we lost Aaron.
I'll add him back on.
So how long were you with thefire department?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, good question.
So if I was still there, Iwould have gone on 20 years this
year, so, but I left six yearsago, so I had 13 years on, to be
exact.
It was.
It was pretty good, you know, II enjoyed the job.
I still miss it.
I think about it, to be honestwith you, I think about it
pretty much every single day, uh, because, uh, all my friends,

(01:54):
all my close friends, are stillthere.
So I talked to all of them, Italked to her, and all the time
I actually have a podcast of myown earn was on there, man, so I
think about it being thereevery day, man, but I, but I had
to make the decision, you know,um, and I feel like it was a
great decision, you know, but Istill, I'm constantly there, man
, and constantly talking tothese guys.
I'm sorry for uh, getting alongwith it, go ahead no, no, you're

(02:17):
fine, and that's the thing too.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
So a lot of us, when we get hired on the job, I mean
that's our golden ticket, rightlike there's never a thought of
going anywhere after that.
So you said that you were you,it would have been 20 years.
When did you start getting theitch to do real estate on the
job?
Or was it already there priorto even getting hired?

Speaker 2 (02:37):
That's a great question, man.
What happened?
I bought my first home rightLike seven years on, seven years
on the job, I bought my maybesix or seven, you know, I think
it's around six, because I wastaking the promotion design.
Well, anyway, I bought my firsthome and I seen the realtor's
check.
The realtor's check was thebiggest check I ever seen in my
life and I said, oh what?
And the realtor was actually afirefighter.

(02:58):
I'm like be a realtor.
So that same year I got my realestate license.
Maybe three, four years later,that same realtor, who was
actually a firefighter as well,he joined my firefighting team,
I'm sorry, my real estate team.
I created a real estate teamand it grew and it blew up and
my career started to take over.

(03:19):
My real estate career started togrow.
A lot of people started tonotice me on the fire department
Um, and a lot of people outsideof uh, the fire department
started to notice me.
So I had to make a decision, um, you know, because I was
working too hard on both jobs.
I love the fire department, Iwant to get promoted as a chief
Um, but I had to make a decisionaround year 10.

(03:40):
Was I going to stay there ornot?
You know, was I going to?
Was I going to pursue realestate or stay there?
I wanted to stay, but it startedto get too expensive to stay.
I started to pay people to workfor me and after a while I said
you know what?
This is too much for me to paypeople.
$500 a tour I'm just throwingout numbers, but $500 a tour and
it's eight tours in a month, somaybe I'm doing half of those.

(04:03):
So this is like $2,000 a monththat I'm spending just not to be
to work.
So I say you know what, let meleave and I build my business
and I've not heard from earnedthat you guys are investors as
well.
I built my business, not just areal estate business, as a
chasing sales.
I started to develop theinvestor skill at the same time

(04:23):
so I can make sure that I haveresidual income coming in, you
know.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
So now with that residual income.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
I want to dive into your holdings in a little while.
I don't want to.
I don't want to shoot.
I want to start off.
The Aaron Blocker was therealtor that got you linked up
right.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Correct.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Correct, correct, that's my guy.
I love him.
man Aaron's great so one of thethings I want to kind of
highlight here is like the firedepartment opens up doors for
people Like you have animmediate network, so like it's
just like if I want to get intouch with somebody from like LA
County fire department, like Ican go through Tyler to find out
if the guy's a good, honestperson or not.
We got people in New York City.
We got people in our Facebookgroup alone.

(05:07):
We have people from all overthe nation and one of the things
that was a benefit for us isthat the open network makes it
easier for us to open doors.
So a lot of times when we growup as a blue collar family is
that we don't know what kind ofavenues we're not exposed to a
lot of stuff.
People don't teach us thesethings and I know Wendell and
Tyler, we talk about this a lotis that we don't have this

(05:27):
exposure.
And once you join the firedepartment and you get it, it's
kind of like oh man, I can dothis, I can do this and I can do
this.
And you get that shiny objectsyndrome, that flashy thing is
like, oh, I'm going to go afterthat now.
I'm going to try that now.
So when you bought your firstproperty, how long did you hold
onto that for before you madethat an investment property or
bought the next one.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Good, that's an awesome question.
So I held on.
So I bought my first one in2013,.
Same year, I became a realtorso 12 years now as being a
realtor.
So I left.
I made it, my investment,probably five years later.
So five years later I bought mynext house.

(06:08):
So, I'm sorry, five years laterI bought my next, uh, primary
resident.
So I, right before I left, Ibought.
I bought two other houses um inbaltimore, which is the one I'm
talking about I'm actuallyoutside of right now, um, but
two other more in Baltimore, andthey were extremely cheap, man.
They were like $30,000 when Ibought them.
But at the same time, simonChainsley, I moved out of that

(06:31):
house, right out that border.
So within like a month or twoframe, I bought those two houses
.
So I had three houses that Ihad investment properties at
once, and that was what made mecomfortable leaving the fire
department.
I had enough income coming inat the time.
But again, just to touch backon what you said, aaron, that's
one of the greatest things aboutthe fire department is the

(06:52):
network man, and that's what Iwas just telling Tyler.
How much I miss that job isbecause of the connections and
the people that I've met andobviously it's a noble job man,
but the brotherhood is is likeno other.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
You know um and the exposure, and I just wanted to
add to that I think it's funnythat um because being in dc like
we're from dc, like you don'tgo up to baltimore for any
reason for the most part, andbaltimore people don't come.
It's a half hour away, butbaltimore people don't come down
to dc but as we grew older it'skind of like let's right, so
stop the stop the boundaries wehave in our minds and start

(07:24):
expanding outwards.
Like I got properties, you knowthose properties across
maryland.
I don't have any in baltimore,but across the world over in.
Delaware.
Now it's kind of like when Iwas growing up I was like man,
I'd never go over there, likethat's the place you come from,
you don't go to there for anyreason.
And now it's changed like rightcorrect education has changed.
The neighborhoods that we wewere exposed to growing up were
different.

(07:44):
There are certain neighborhoodsI wouldn't go into just because
I'm lily white and I didn'twant to be a target.
I remember my buddies were like, hey, man, come to the Black
Hole or Ibex, and I'm like,absolutely not, that's not a
place for me, oh my goodness butthat's the thing is that we

(08:08):
grow up and we expand.
We grow up and we expand um, our, our minds and our business and
our achievements and ourexposure, and it kind of opens
up doors for us if we're willingto.
And the guys who are not, whoare just kind of like focused,
like this is my job as afirefighter, this is all I'm
going to focus on, this is allI'm going to be forever.
Once they leave, they have aproblem with identity and I've
seen that.
I think ty Tyler, we've talkedabout that before.
Wendell, I think we've touchedon it before when the last time
I saw you actually yes, all thetime.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yep, yep, what do?

Speaker 1 (08:30):
y'all think about that.
I want to ask both of you whatdo you think about that leaving
and your identity changing?

Speaker 3 (08:38):
I mean it's funny I think I've talked about this
before where I definitely neverconsidered myself to be one of
those guys at all.
Like there's just it wasn't me.
But, like like Wendellmentioned, I miss that
brotherhood.
It's just, it's something thatyou can't manufacture.
It's.
It's a huge draw for me.
I loved that part of it.
Like even last night I wasjamming my buddy up.

(09:00):
I asked him if he promoted andhe said oh yeah, I told you I
was in the academy.
I said, yeah, I know that, butI didn't think you were going to
pass you know stuff like thatwhere it's just, it's just
anything that you know.
It's been a couple of yearssince I got hurt and that's
that's one of my academy matesand we still talk all the time.

(09:21):
So, yeah, I mean, for me it'sit's been interesting.
So a long answer to your shortquestion, aaron, is I don't know
how guys handle it that arelike they're aware that their
identity is tied to it in a hugepart, because I know how it's
affected me and I, like I said Iwould never have said that that
was a huge part of my identity.
I knew it was some part, butnot a big part.
So it's, it's different.

(09:41):
Um, you're gonna miss it.
It Right, but at the same time,like Wendell said, mine was
more of a forced choice.
Wendell sounds like he made agood choice.
The good news is thebrotherhood is still there.
That's not going anywhere.
It's just you're not running oncities anymore, you're not
getting to go on structures.
Outside of that, a lot of thegood relationships are still

(10:01):
there.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
So, wendell, what about you?
Like you cause you promoted.
You were a technician when youleft right.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
Correct.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
Yeah, um, what are you talking about?
The identity is a question.
The identity, uh, missing that.
That's what you're saying.
Yeah, yeah, uh.
Well, I'm going to answer thatquestion two ways.
We'll talk about two differentthings.
Um, I just really just noticedthat that's what I've been going

(10:33):
through.
Is identity crisis.
Hearing Tyler speak, you know,because I actually you know what
that has been since I startedthe fight.
Well, you got to realize, I wasonly 21,.
Right?
So at 21, I was stilldeveloping myself as a man and I
left, you know, mid thirties.
I left mid thirties and I left,you know, mid-30s.
I left mid-30s and you know,all I've known is that.
So now, you know, I think, likeI told you guys when I first
came on, all I do is think aboutthe fire department pretty much

(10:54):
every day, and all of myfriends are now higher up in
ranks.
We just talked about one of thechiefs that called me all the
time and called you as WillErnst.
So all my friends and I thinkabout it all the time, man, so I
find myself always around, I'malways around, always around.
I was trying to still rekindlethat feeling of brotherhood, you

(11:14):
know, and, ernst, I came toyour firehouse recently, man,
and now, you know, because I am,like, known for financial thing
, I created a whole financialprogram for firefighters because
I love firefighters, you know.
So I think that you just mademe realize, tyler, that I've
been going through identitycrisis as well with that.

(11:35):
What I was going to say is whatI was going to tell you is that
I talk to a lot of retiredfirefighters, right, and because
they, you know, obviouslyretired firefighters right, um,
uh and and because they, they,you know, obviously everybody
look at me for financial reasons, same way with you, aaron, but
a lot of people look at me aswell for that, um, they call me
all the time, um, and a lot ofthose guys, they, they.

(11:59):
For example, I don't know if youremember Anthony Fields at my
firehouse.
He's a he's like 66 year oldold man.
He started when he was 19.
So all he ever know.
And he left when he was 63 or64.
I'm sorry, early 60, 61.
He left when he was 61.
That's all he ever know.
He said he was depressed forlike two years.
He didn't talk to no one manbecause he didn't know what to

(12:20):
do.
You know, he said that's all heever know.
He said before that he was inyou know, pop Warner and things
like that, so he's always had acommunity around him, but now
it's just him.
He said he was depressed aboutthat man.
So it is an identity shock man,you know, it really is Even for
me.
I just learned that just now,you know.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
You always say that you missed the fire department,
but you know you always say thatyou missed the fire department.
But it's not like you came to acrossroads Like you were.
Like you said, you're payingtwo thousand dollars to have
guys work for you, which neverhappens.
That doesn't happen.
Any of the chiefs listening?
That doesn't.
That doesn't exist.
We don't do that.
It never happens.
I'm sorry.
So you had the option.
You were a technician, you hadpromoted early in your career

(13:05):
and the money that was in frontof you this for the fire
department versus the money forthe real estate is kind of like
well, man, maybe there's otherthings outside the fire
department and it was a greatspringboard for you.
But you still come around.
You still get likepresentations for guys trying to
learn how to do financial movesto benefit their future.
But what I've seen like I'vegot three years and 11 months

(13:26):
left, not that I'm counting andI told my wife the other day I'm
like I don't know what I wantto do when I grow up.
Like I have no idea what I'mgoing to be 48 when I retire.
Like I don't know what I want tobe when I grow up.
So we're talking about my ideasoff the verge.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
She's just doing work for my wife's a social worker.
She's like yep, yep, that's onit.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
So how does that make you feel, you know, I'm like I
don't know, I don't know.
Stop practicing in my head.
But that was good.
The thing is, as we, as we get,we're all about the same age,
you know you start hitting thatmid 40s for the movies and now
like, what do I want?
to do next like is this it or doI want to focus on something
else?
So how did you all right?
So I'm gonna jump now.
How did you figure out?
You bought my primary property.
We're by a house about the sametime in our age.
Five years later, you're in aninvestment property.

(14:10):
Why were you like you know what?
I'm going to start buying moreinvestment properties.
What clicked?

Speaker 2 (14:18):
What was the switch for you?
That's awesome that you saidthat too, man, because when I
keep saying it because it's likelive things that's happening
constantly what happened was, uh, for me, I made my.
The biggest thing is I wastrying to get out of the fire
department, not because I didn'twant to be there, because I was
, it just was making sense, so Iso I tried to find ways to just
just to uh, to have income comein residual.

(14:39):
Obviously I'm making my, mymoney in real estate and it was
doing well but but I wanted tomake sure it was safe there.
But I never knew that.
I was just trying to just coverthat bill, right, but I never
knew that the security it wasproviding, you know.
So once I started realizing, ohman, I can, I got money now
coming, I could do this again,and then I could do this again.

(15:00):
And then it started to, youknow, like, okay, this is a
thing now.
And the reason why I say it'ssomething that's happening in
live time because I have aclient of mine now who's going
to purchase her property herfourth one today, and she's
already looking for a fifth one.
So she's going to close on herfourth one.
Today she's already looking fora fifth one.

(15:21):
Now, you know, like as of twoweeks ago, weeks ago, right, and
she told me all she wanted wasa certain number.
Um and this is what she saidlast year she wanted a certain
number that was six thousanddollars a month, um, six
thousand dollars a month, uh,income, that's, that's enough.
She needed to cover herexpenses.
She today would make her seventhousand.
She wanted to purchase anotherone.

(15:42):
She's like yeah, I just needten10,000.
I said, I know exactly how thatfeels.
I know exactly how that feels.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
Everything changes after that.
She's like yeah, a littlefurther.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
Exactly right.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
That's what happened to me.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
You do something kind of unique.
You do by the room rentals andyou have a property manager.
Why did you choose to do roomrentals?
All right, yeah, I'm here.
So, wendell, he froze up alittle bit.
So, wendell, last time wetalked he came to the firehouse

(16:20):
and gave a presentation to someof the guys and he was telling
me that he does it by the roomrentals and I used to do that
years ago.
I used to do that years ago inCollege Park, maryland, by the
University of Maryland, and itwas a pain in the butt because
you're you're babysitting adultchildren and it's like you're.
You're like they're using mytowel or they use my eggs or
they're they're have the heatset on 69 instead of 71.

(16:42):
It's like stuff like that tendto be an issue when you do buy
the room rentals.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
But there is, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, not what he
does.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
It happened to me too .
Don't worry about it.
What we talked about earlier isthat, like for the room rentals
like you have older gentlemenin your room rentals- you want
to talk about, like the roomrentals and how you got into
that.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, I'm glad you mentionedthat.
That is my strategy.
Now, you know I was at first Iwas kind of scared to say that
was my strategy because a lot ofpeople dislike it.
But you know it is the best way.
Well, one of the best ways youcan do other things, but one of
the best ways to maximize or Iguess they call life hack or
hack your home to make moremoney in your property.

(17:29):
So I was scared because a lotof people didn't like it.
But the mission, mission, what,what you said?
I created a criteria.
I found out what works.
So what works for me has beenolder men, older men with a
certain type of.
Are you guys there, both of youguys blanked out at the same
time.

(17:49):
You still there.
You hear me?
What's?
going on okay, I got you.
So older men for me is oldermen, and I was taught this by a
woman, two women who did roomsharing.
They said no woman, which Ifeel bad about because I love my
woman.
I actually, even with thepresentation you saw the other
day, I've added a woman slide inthere because I feel like I

(18:12):
left out women and women need tobe appreciated, but when it
comes to room sharing, you know,just a lot of times women just
want to be territorial, so it'skind of hard to really like
navigate through that.
So it's all older men, guysthat's preferably on, like SSI
or something like that.
I love the I hate to say this,but I love the divorcees, the

(18:36):
guys that just broke up becausethey just want to come in and
you know they just don't want noproblem, they just want drama,
free man.
And then the biggest thing is Itry to, you know, obviously, do
a background check and justmake sure certain things in that
background check works out.
And then I have a greatconversation with them to make
sure that.
You know, just to get the feel,I actually had one guy that
came out, one guy that came out,he cleared everything else, the

(18:59):
background, check everything.
And I talked to him.
He said, man, how thin arethese walls?
He said because I'm going to bebringing them up in here
banging them out left and right.
I said, nah, man.
I said it's not the house forthat, man, you know.
I mean, if you want to bringyour people in, that's fine, but
if that's your intention tolike interrupt other people's

(19:19):
peace, no, man, you know.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
I remember when we were kids there was a place on
like New York Avenue.
I want to say no-transcript itup and destroy it and oh and

(19:45):
leave behind.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
So yeah, once I got that criteria down, man, once I
got the criteria done, I gotabout, I want to say, at least
20 of my friends doing that, man, and this girl is actually one
of them.
You know they all are doing it,man, and you know the ones that
said that they don't like itare the ones that didn't follow
my criteria.
You know, and I tell all ofthose guys like, hey, it may

(20:08):
take a little longer to get theright people in it, you might
got to just bite that bullet,but it's gonna be much more
affordable than putting thewrong person in and it's causing
you a lot of money.
I say you may gotta bite thebullet to pay $100 a month, but
it's gonna be much more worth it.
So the people that follow it,they all love it, and even the
ones that didn't follow it,eventually they realize, okay,
this is now, I follow it now andthen I get it.

(20:30):
you know yeah have you everthought?

Speaker 1 (20:32):
about doing room rentals with your rentals.

Speaker 3 (20:35):
No, it's funny, I'm listening and I'm thinking, I'm
guessing.
For one thing, obviously it'sgoing to bring in more income
than the traditional rental.
And then two, yeah, youmentioned I think that's the
biggest thing If you find acriteria that works, you have to
stick to it.
And then, yeah, there's nothingmore expensive than a bad

(20:59):
tenant.
Um, I'd rather pay one month ofrent than you know 10, 20 000
in repairs for somebody thatthat trashes my house.
So I'm guessing, wendell, youchose that method because it
generates more income, and thenmy only fear would have been
that it's a lot more work, butit sounds like you find a way to
take care of that up front.
Do your background check, stickto your guns as far as the
pricier it goes.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
Absolutely.
That's the most important thingto do the background check up
front, do all of the legwork upfront.
The reason why I started Istarted room sharing because the
house that I was living in.
I literally walked out of myhouse.
This is a true story.
I'm going to give you 30seconds.
I walked out of my house thehouse directly in front of me,

(21:40):
there was an older guy that Italked to.
He said you should try roomsharing.
I'm like you know, I don't knowwhat that is.
He said you should talk to mylandlord when you come back
She'll be laying on.
I went to Baltimore.
The battle was two houses thatI just said.
So I was looking for houses tobuy in Baltimore.
One of the houses I looked atthey were room sharing
properties.
It wasn't the one I bought, butI'm like man room sharing
properties.
So I called the lady and shesaid yeah.

(22:02):
She said I've been doing thisfor 20 years.
I don't know why people getinto this.
Don't get into it, I love it.
So I come back home.
The lady was there the ladythat was across the street from
me, the owner and she said I gotfour of these in this
neighborhood.
She said I've been doing thisforever and both of those ladies
told me no woman.
And they gave me the criteriaand I did it.

(22:24):
So my first tenants wereactually the two Baltimore
properties that I bought.
I put those in Section 8.
But then every home I did afterthat has been room sharing,
including the house that I movedout of, you know, and I
followed their criteria and thenI, then I and I added on to it.
You know, I followed theirs andadding on to it, man, so that's
that's and it's been good.
I never really have any realissues.

(22:45):
The only time I had issues iswhen I try to use a uh, a
property manager that didn'tfollow my criteria.
You know, I would say, hey,just, I'm tired of getting
people putting people in here,you do it for me and and, and
they'll just do it.
I'm thinking they probablymanage, they're gonna handle it.
That's the only time I had aproblem.
Now, the property manager thatI have, now I say, listen, this

(23:05):
is my criteria and this is whatI'm looking for, you know, and
now, no more problem with that,you know you got the same female
um property manager that youhad last time.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
We talked yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah and how many I told
you about her yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's all.
I'm gonna stop right there.
How many rooms does she managefor you right now?

Speaker 2 (23:28):
she managed all of my bosmo rooms.
So I want to say I got six inBaltimore.
You know, whatever it is, sixtimes four or five, Minimum room
I got is four, so yeah, yeah.
So she managed all of myBaltimore rooms, the ones I have
in PG and DC.
I still manage them myself.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
Okay, how long are the leases for the room shares?

Speaker 2 (23:59):
I learn only month to month, you know, and it's not,
and it really isn't.
So I haven't had any bad, real,real problems.
But I just want I know thatroom sharing that people want
flexibility.
I want flexibility if I don'tlike you, but most of my tenants
have been there for years.
Man, Most of my tenants havebeen there for years.
I of my tenants have been therefor years.
I really don't have that highof a turnover.
Once I get that, once I nailedthat criterion, the turnover is
really small, ideally.
So my goal is 40 and over right, because you know that's my age

(24:22):
and I'm comfortable with guyslike that.
But ideally I want 55 and older.
You know 60.
You know I got one house thateverybody's in there.
The youngest man is like 62 andI love it.
You know they're not goinganywhere.
They haven't went.
They've been there.
They're actually in my firstproperty.
So since 2018, they've beenthere, you know.
So all right.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
So, how about the security deposit Like, is it the
same as the same as a long-termrental?

Speaker 2 (24:52):
Yeah, so I tried.
So it depends, man, the onesthat are.
All right.
Well, I'm going to stick to thebasics.
Security deposit is the sameprice as the rent.
So if the room is $800, $900,then the security deposit is the
equal right.
But you know, sometimes I mightneed to fill a room so I may
just do a special hey, move inwithout half off or something

(25:17):
like that, something like that.
But yeah, the security policyis usually the price of the room
.
And then also, those guys don'thave a lot of money all the
time, so I let them break it upand have one month, you give me
half.
The next month, you give me theother half.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
So how about utilities?
How do you break up theutilities?

Speaker 2 (25:32):
Yeah, yeah, so the ones that's managed through my
property manager.
We stopped doing the utilitything so we just added on to the
rent, so just increased therent for utilities.
But the ones that I managedthat's in my area, I mean, you

(25:52):
know Temple Hill is one of them,pg County and DC.
Everybody just want they take abill and they pay it.
It's a bill per person, theypay amongst each other.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
Yeah, I got two recruits in one of my rentals in
Temple Hills right now and Ithink it's like the first place
they ever stayed.
It's kind of like when I'mdealing with like a lot of young
people, the issues that I seeis like they don't know how to
pay bills, they don't know how.
I'm not saying these kids,don't these guys don't A lot of
them.
They don't have experiencepaying their own bills or being
on time For us.

(26:24):
The water bill follows us inMaryland the owner, it doesn't
follow the renter.
If they don't pay it, then itfalls back on the renter.
I had that issue with one of mytypical rents a while back.
I mean, it's always somethingthat just depends on what issues
are you finding Like?
What obstacles versus return oninvestment are you finding it
works best for it?
It sounds like for you likeroom, room shares.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
I'm all in on that.
I'm going to mention the waterbill.
So the only thing, the waterbill, that's the only thing I
make sure I pay because it doesfollow me.
I pay that, so that's free forthem.
They pay all the otherutilities in the house.
But yeah, room sharing, like Isaid, I'm convinced now and
that's my thing.
You know, I've done a littleflip.
I still do fixing flips and Ido whatever else there's out

(27:09):
there.
You know, whatever opportunityit is, I jump in it.
But room sharing is my thing.
Man, it's been confirmedbecause I got so many people
that do it.
And then even my mentors,they're doing that, and the guys
who teach me about real estate,they're doing it now.
So you know, now I'm like youknow what this is, what I do,
this is my thing.
Let me just let me call it whatit is.

(27:29):
You know, I am the room sharingguy.
Basically, the thing is I'mgoing to tighten it.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
Go ahead, go ahead.
Finish what you're saying, mrParker.

Speaker 2 (27:39):
No, no, no, no.
I'm just because I am soconfirmed on that and I'd like
to share it.
I'm going to just tighten upeverything so I can just let
people know hey, this is exactlywhat I do, as opposed to me
just jumping over back to back.
Like I said, utility water bill.
No, I want to say this isexactly what I do.

(28:00):
This is the criteria you know,so everybody can follow that
plan.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
Would you do it?
If so, all right, two questions, two part question.
First part is at what point didyou decide you know what I need
a property manager?
And at the second point is ifyou didn't have a property
manager, would you have as many?

Speaker 2 (28:20):
I think I learned that early on, man, I think when
I had three properties, Ithought I needed a property
manager.
Man, because you think about itas four or five people per
property.
So you're looking at, let's say, three times five, 15 people
that I'm dealing with,constantly calling me and
checking on the rent.
I always tell my people thatask me that I refer to room

(28:46):
sharing I say you can handleyour first one and you may can
handle your second one, but atyour third one, you definitely
need a property manager.
Because the thing is you getthe right people.
When they one point Did youhear what I said yeah, yeah,
yeah.
The thing is if you get theright people in, everything
again, like Tyler said, itstarts in the beginning If you

(29:10):
get the right people in, thenyou really not going to have you
can handle those people, youcan handle that.
You know four or five people,you know maybe even if it's
eight people, you can handletheir little issues that they're
gonna have.
For example, the young ladywho's buying the house today, uh
, her, her, uh, tenant keepcomplaining about the door, the,
the door keypad battery is dead, you know.

(29:31):
So I mean that's really small.
So she got a he calling her alot.
She's.
She's in virginia, uh, andvanessa's and her property's in
temple and Vanessa's in herproperties in Temple Hills.
So she's been taking her timegetting there.
But you know those little smalltype of complaints.
You can handle those type ofthings, man.
But I think once you become like15 to 20 people, then I think
you definitely need somebodyBecause it's going to take up
too much of your time.

(29:51):
But again, it's all about thepeople up front.
It's all about the homework upfront, the legwork up front,
making sure you vet these people.
Don't get outside theircriteria, no matter how much the
bills are knocking on the door,don't get outside their
criteria.
You just got to bite the bullet.
You have a full house.
Let's say you got afive-bedroom house and you only

(30:14):
got three of them in there.
Your mortgage is being paid, ormaybe less than your mortgage,
but if you got to pay $300 extraout your pocket, then just do
it.
It's better, like Tyler said,up front, before you have to pay
$20,000 later.
But you'll get those people inthere.
And again, I know I'm gettinglong-winded on it the people see

(30:36):
how many people are out therelooking for the rent rooms that
they get over zealous.
They're like, oh, look at thisperson, and they just bring
anybody in.
You know, because when you putit on the market, when I put one
on the market, I promise you,uh, over the weekend, if I put
it on over the weekend, Ipromise you, I get a close to 30
to 40 people reaching out for aroom.
You know, and people get overzealous, and it's that simple,

(31:00):
you know.
So out of those 30 people, youmay just get one or two.
That's good, you know so, andjust take your time.
That's how I look at it and doit.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
Tyler, do you have something?
I saw you unmuted.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
Oh no, I was just.
I was just saying yeah, in inmy mind, I was thinking with the
property manager too, that wayyou don't get burnt out.
Because I can see it's kind oflike airbnb or something works a
little bit more, uh, managementintensive.
And then two, I was thinking Ijust wanted to ask, so we know
that you're doing oh, that'swhat it was a lot of things that

(31:34):
are not sexy are the thingsthat make us the most money.
Right, like you said, you didn'twant be like, you didn't want
to know that you were just doingroom share.
Well, it's like if you dosomething that's profitable, we
should just lean into it.
But Aaron and I are very guiltytoo of ooh, I got to go get
this really cool wizardingstrategy.
I'm the yacht broker guy, it'sa huge.

(31:55):
There's a guy out here.
He calls them dingbats.
I think he's still alive.
His name is Ward Hannigan.
He's like a legend out here,but he's very well known for
buying two bedrooms, one bath.
Not very desirable.
He called them dingbats.
Dude owned a ton of them, likehundreds of them.
Not very exciting, not verysexy, but guess what?

(32:17):
I guarantee that.
Not very exciting, not verysexy, but guess what?
I've guaranteed that monthlycash flows have been pretty good
for a while.
So it's like those things andso real quick for like concrete
stuff.
If somebody wants to do thestrategy, where are you
advertising for this?
As far as the room rentals, yousaid it takes maybe out of 30
to 40.
You get one or two and are youdoing credit reports?
I know you said backgroundchecks, so like are.

(32:38):
Are you having them pay and areyou doing credit reports?
I know you said backgroundchecks so like are.
Are you having them pay that?
Are you paying it, cause that'dget expensive.
If you're doing 40 backgroundslash credit checks, that could
add up real quick.
So do they have to pay somekind of application fee?
And then where are youadvertising for this?

Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yeah, I love that.
Um, yeah, the answer to theapplication fee thing Um, a lot
of those guys know that they'llpay the application fee.
So I try to keep it simple anduse platforms like rentsfreecom
or zillowcom for the backgroundchecks, which does do the credit
check.
You know, when I look at it I'mnot really looking because

(33:14):
these people are trying to buildtheir life, so I'm not like
going through fine cone.
I'm looking for particularthings.
Is this person a thief in hisbackground, you know?
Is he going to steal?
Is he going to any type ofviolent crime?
You know, maybe, maybe he got a, a ticket for speeding or
something.
I'm not looking at that, youknow.
But if I'm looking for aspecific thing that's going to
affect my other tenants, uh,when I look for, uh, you know a

(33:36):
background.
And then also, uh, of tenants,uh, when I look for, uh, you
know a background.
And then also, uh, um, creditwise, are you consistent on are
you missing bills that?
Are you missing bills that?
You know just that you justdidn't pay.
So I'm not looking for that 750credit school guy, you know,
I'm just looking for what areyou paying on?
What are you missing?
You know, and that's and that'sand that's, that's.
That's how I really because Ithink it's room, you know these

(33:58):
people only paying a little bitof money, so I know they're just
trying to recover.
And again, all my tenantsusually stay years, man, you
know at least a couple of years,you know.
So I love that strategy.
I think I asked you had twoquestions Background check and
what was the other one you asked?

Speaker 3 (34:23):
And then where you were advertising but you said
zillow and rents free and stufflike that.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
So that makes sense.
Yeah, and to your point, Ithink, yeah, okay, advertising,
I'm sorry, zillow zillow andrents free are the background
check platforms where I'madvertising them.
While I'm advertising them areon Facebook marketplace and, um,
also, I use this, uh, this appcalled turbo tenant.
Turbo tenant, which uh was wassince all the uh, since all the
websites Zillow, real, uh, realestatecom, homescom it sends it

(34:51):
out to all of them, you know.
So that's actually you'll getthe the the most amount of
people from turbo tenant, butFacebook marketplace is more
personal and I get a lot ofpeople from there.
You'll get the most amount ofpeople from TurboTenant, but
Facebook Marketplace is morepersonal.
I get a lot of people fromthere, you know.

Speaker 3 (35:04):
And I like what you said too about the credit and
stuff like that, because a lotof them, if they are, like you
mentioned, divorced, you'regoing to have like especially,
I've done so many loans over thelast 20 years.
It's like you see this likesomebody pay their bills all the
time.
They have some type of lifeevent, like a divorce or
something, their credit got alittle rough and then they're
right back on track.
So that's a great tenant right.

(35:24):
Their score may be lower, butthey have a good history before
Good history afterwards, so Ilike that.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
Yeah yeah.
So what are you working onright now?
Yeah, man.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
I'm glad that you said that, man, because that's
exactly what I'm working on, man.
Two things I'm working on now.
I fell in love with doing thisfinancial service presentation
with the firehouses.
I'm really passionate aboutthat.
I'm constantly from firehousesevery week, one or two of them a
week in DC.

(36:01):
I'm going to start with PG aswell um, maybe next week or so
and train academy the same thing, um, so now, now, because I'm
trying to touch the firefighterin la, or touch the firefighter
and utah, I'm actually creatingthe course, uh, based based off
of what I'm, what I'm teachingnow, and it really I'm, I really
feel passionate about that.
Um.
The second thing is, is, is isthe same thing the room sharing
course.
Somebody literally told me,like, hey, you need to create a

(36:24):
course for room sharing.
So I'm going to create a coursefor that and then also, and
also to go along with that,because I appreciate so much I'm
, I'm working on a business withmy property manager so she
could be able to um, um, tohandle the influx of people,
because I'm creating this courseand I want to, like refer her
over to to people, you know,with the property management
stuff are you gonna do it?

Speaker 1 (36:46):
yeah, that's it.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
Uh, yeah, I mean, you know it won't be expensive,
maybe 20 or something like that.
You know I won't be doing no.
Only thing that'll be expensivewill be uh, uh, you know they
want one-on-one time with me.
Obviously one-on-one time willbe free, but at the wow, you
know, they want me to walk themthrough coaching wise.
Then that'll be the expensivepart.
Whatever that number is Ihaven't worked that number out
yet but yeah, the cost would bemaybe like 20 or something like

(37:10):
that, nothing more than that,you know one thing I've noticed,
as I've, as I I'm sure you guyshave as well it has gotten into
real estate and investing indifferent aspects of money.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
People always want to buy your time or borrow your
time, and that's the thing is isthat people care about you the
most, like they want to borrowthe most time, and it's kind of
like okay, is this going to befruitful for both of us?
And you have to recognize that.
You know it'd be a waste ofyour time, so why not just put
this first, then get back to meto let me know that you're, that
you're real about this, orspend the 20 bucks to learn
about this up front and maybehere's some homework, just so

(37:41):
you can learn about it, and Idon't want you to come in here
and just waste my time justbecause you're curious.
Um, you have to buildrelationships and relationships
that'll free up the.
The relationships tend to freeup your time and you get free
time from people because youactually have a relationship
with certain people.
You always answer the phone forthere's other people who's kind
of like oh, I know, he wantsjust to get as much information

(38:01):
as I can and then never giveanything back.
He's a taker versus a mutualrelationship.
Have you found the same thing?

Speaker 2 (38:09):
All the time man.
All the time man.
Yeah, I get that a lot.
You know one thing you know Iam a giver man.
I love to give.
So even if I have that littlesecond in time man, and I know
this person is using me, I'mlike, if I got the time, I still
want to give.
I feel like it's going to comeback to me later.

(38:30):
But at the same time, that'sexactly why I look at it.
My time should be paid for, andthen if people are going too
far, then I'll just know, I'lljust let them know hey, this is,
there's a retainer fee for this.
And then, on the flip side, is Ialways for myself?
I'm always like I have mentorsand people I lean on.

(38:50):
I'm like, am I not?
Am I nurturing thisrelationship or am I just taking
from this person?
So then I started pullingmyself back in and I'm like you
know what?
Let me invite them to lunch orlet me send them something, let
me make sure I notice theirbirthday and show them that I'm
really invested in them as well,not just trying to take from
them, you know.
So I think that it's two sides.
I think all of us probablysometime may may go into

(39:11):
something asking for advice.
There's too much that we canjust like scale back a little
bit too, you know.

Speaker 1 (39:18):
I like it's like scale back a little bit too.
You know, I like that.
That's a sign of maturity it'slike you started being like
self-reflective and be like,okay, I'm not gonna take, take,
take, take.
I actually want to build along-term relationship with this
person because they're in theposition I want to be in or the
direction I want to go in.
And I think that a lot of youngpeople and it's not their, it's
not their fault I think a lotof young people just they don't
think about it, they justthey'll not.
They don't think about it, theyjust they'll not.
They don't know how to buildrelationships the right way
unless they're taught at a youngage.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
Correct, correct.
I like that.
Yeah, I also think I'm sorry,oh no you're good.

Speaker 3 (39:47):
Yeah, I would totally agree.
I think the older I get, themore I try to flip it around.
I'll get pissed off at somebodyor irritated at the way they're
doing something, and then I gowait a minute Like, what am I
doing?
Do I do this?
and unfortunately, a lot of thetime the answer is yes, but like
you said about mentors, becauseI have mentors, like in real
estate and then the other stuffthat I do, and you made me think

(40:08):
like and I've been more awareof it recently like, dude, I
feel like I'm always asking,asking, asking like a simple
text okay, do you need anything?
Hey, can I help you out withanything?
Hey, thank you, just anything.
But, aaron, I don't know.
I just thought of this.
I think the younger we are,we're so used to adults or
people of influence to beproviding stuff.
We're raised.

(40:29):
I think we don't realize whenthat switches and we're like oh
wait, we're now that person.

Speaker 2 (40:34):
We have to start giving, we can't be taken all
the time when you said that Iwas like well, when we were
young our parents give us advice, our grandparents, aunts,
uncles.
It's like the fire department,you're a boot.

Speaker 3 (40:47):
You ask a million questions and then, when you get
older, you're expecting to giveback knowledge Absolutely.
I like that man.

Speaker 2 (40:55):
I never even thought of that either.
That's great.
That's great, that's great time.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
That's good.
So, wendell the, let's talkabout your brokerage a little
bit.
Or your team.
Like how did you decide they goto go from individual sales?
Like you're a realtor sellinghouses, buying houses, helping
people, so like let me build ateam around me.
Like what's that look like?

Speaker 2 (41:13):
Yeah, um.
So.
So it was not natural, man.
What happened was I'm to tellyou what happened.
I was selling real estate maybelike one or two deals a quarter
, right, maybe, right, just kindof average, kind of small, and
then I started to post pictureson Facebook of my closings.

(41:33):
Then I started to get a littletraction from Facebook on the
closings and then I said what'sbetter than pictures?
I said let me post a video.
This is 11, 12 years ago,before video videos just
literally just hit the scene onInstagram Wasn't even a thing,
right.
So I posted this video onFacebook and my business I mean
my I was only getting like fivelikes on my pictures.

(41:55):
I got about 250,000 views andmaybe like 3,000 likes, man, so
I had an influx of business juststarted to come in out of
nowhere, right, Just like, oh,what the hell.
So my opposite firefighter atthe time and my closest friend,
michael Moneo, on my shift I'mlike Mike, you need to get your

(42:18):
license.
You need to get your license.
I can't handle this, I'm goingto pass this business off.
So he got his license and Istopped passing it off.
My that video did so well, andthe video it was new.
Nobody was doing videos.
My friends, you were like man,this is the first person I ever
seen with a commercial onFacebook, but anyway.
So the video was new.
People started mimicking myvideo, the exact video that I

(42:39):
was doing.
Other Reels that did the exactwords.
I mean, it was this one guythat had the same outfit on that
I had on did the same walk,used the words, and I met him.
He was like man, yeah, man, I'msorry, man, he sent me $250.
He said man, I got my firstdeal off this video.
So one day I was in a seminar,it off this video.
So one day I was in a seminar,it was 300 people at the seminar
, my mentor, and that made methink when I he's one of the

(43:00):
mentors that I pulled from a lot, that I need to, that I that I
got to like pour into, um,anyway, he had a seminar, 300,
700 people in there, and I walkin first thing.
He say, oh, this is one of myprotege, is Wendell, you know,

(43:21):
and everybody you know, whatevergave me the applause and I sat
down and and this girl sat nextto me, she said, uh.
She said, uh, you went downkelly.
I said, yeah, she's like hi,I'm only, I'm sorry, I'm the
girl that stole your video.
She said I, I just had to do itbecause it was so good, and
she's like I just needed help.
I said you know what?
I just started the team onceyou join.
So I had michael and I heardthose the first two people that
I did it and then earn camealong because I realized that
those two were new and theydidn't know how to handle deals.

(43:42):
So I called her and I said, allright, man, I need, I need some
, uh, you know, some maturity,some, some experience.
Come help me close these deals.
So it just started to become anatural thing and the problem is
and I want to mention this topeople um, that, uh, sometimes
you can over-leverage yourself,you know, and I thought that you
know, I got this system down.

(44:03):
I got three people, that's goneand I want to keep growing.
So I started to add on as muchas I got to like 20 people on my
team and that stretched me thinbecause I had too many people
in there and my business kind ofcollapsed at a point, you know,
it kind of it fell back and Iscaled it back now and we only
have six people now and it'sreally good.

(44:24):
I merged with another guy tohelp me out.
We got to 15 people, but thenwe split.
It wasn't nothing bad, but wesystemized our business enough
and realized that you don't needto over leverage.
You just need to have somegreat performers, man.
But but yeah, to answer yourquestion, that's what it just
happened.
Natural, man, for me to start ateam, you know.
So you still got that going.

(44:45):
Yeah, I still got it going.
I still got it going.
All my people on my team, youknow they're experienced now,
you know, so it really isn't.
They just call me just likebrother, friend, uh, just hey,
what you think about this deal?
No more of me mentoring them.
I still get a little percentageoff of it.
I'm sure they're okay with that.
But now my focus.

(45:06):
Like you know, aaron, I'm moreof a financial advisor Now I'm
focused on financing.
So I'm actually building afinancial advisor company.
That's my ultimate goal.
Maybe three years, two, threeyears, that'll be complete.
Um, I know I talked about thefinancial uh thing with the
firefighters, but that's all apart of it.
So I'll have another, I guess,brokerage team in a year or two

(45:29):
of financial advisors, you knowI love it, I love it, man, I
like this.

Speaker 1 (45:33):
So, like, one thing I've noticed as I've gotten
older is like when you, whenyou're friends with somebody,
you try to friends with somebody, you end up putting them in a
category.
This is my real estate friend,this is my fire department
friend, this is my childhoodfriend, and sometimes the lines
you don't know how to take themout of that pocket of
friendships and put them in adifferent one.
Right, and I feel like maturingis realizing.

(45:55):
Okay, relationships are morethan just putting a person in
the place and having them likeI'm only going to go to him for
real estate, I'm only going togo to him for the fire
department.
It's trying to bring them inand kind of merge them together.
And it seems like that's whatyou've done in our short time on
earth, is that you'll merge thefire department with the real
estate.
You'll merge financial advicewith the firefighters and kind
of bring them all together.
And I like that with thefirefighters and kind of bring
them all together and I likethat.

(46:16):
I just think it's a rare, um,it's a rare thing that people
talk about.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
Yeah, man, I'm, I'm, I'm, so, I am so passionate
about my friends.
Man, I love people.
I love people, you know, and ifI want to include everybody
that I know, I'm like, if yousee me, if you like, right now,
I'm excited to talk to you guysand share my knowledge.
I'm like, if I know it, I wantto give it.

(46:41):
You know, and I'm like I'mdoing this.
Come with me, you know, comewith me.
This is what you do.
And if anyone knows me, I amI'm going to make the dollar,
but I am not trying to take yourdollar.
I really want to educate youmore than anything.
You know, that is my goal.
Anything, you know, that is mygoal.
I want to, I want to give, Iwant to give man.
So, yeah, man, so yeah, ifanything I do, all my friends

(47:02):
will tell you that I just try to.
Hey, look, this is what I'mdoing.
You know, at the wild theyprobably like, man, you always
doing something, man.
But you know, I'm like, atleast you know, at least you
know.
And I got one friend thatalways mentioned that knew me
since childhood.
He said ever, ever, sincechildhood, whatever I said that
I was going to do, I did it.
He said I was the first to geta car and I was the first to get
everything you know, because Iset my mind on how to do it.

(47:24):
So he's one of the guys thatbelieve in.
You know what I do and it allcomes from a higher power, so I
don't want to like beat my ownchest.
You know it's not me.
It's whatever has been given tome you know what neighborhood
did you grow up in?
I grew up in Clay Terrace, man,North East Deanwood in DC.

(47:44):
Man.
You know Clay Terrace 30th andErie Rough spot.
Man Rough spot.
Do you ever go?

Speaker 1 (47:50):
back there and just go back to your old neighborhood
and be like this is where Icame from, this is where I am
now, this is what I came from,this is where I am now, like
this is what I can appreciatebecause of my original roots,
you ever go back there.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
You mean by like talking to those guys?
Or are you saying like sharingthe story?
We're just stopping by, yeah,yeah, yeah, I got a property two
blocks down Banks Place.
I drive past here.
I love those guys, they love me, but when you start being
around things like that too much, the trouble follows it.

(48:22):
So I just stop by, hey, andkeep it moving.
Man, but a lot of those guys Istill talk to, they leave the.
I don't talk to them in theneighborhood, I talk to them
outside of the neighborhood.
You know, and it's nothingagainst the neighborhood saying
that the people are bad, it'sjust the community, the
environment is bad, which bringsbad things, you know.

(48:42):
But if you can remove thosepeople just like myself, I was a
part of that, I was a part ofthat If you remove those people
outside of that, those are greatpeople and I still got great
relationship with those people,for sure that's one thing I
think that a lot of peoplehighlight is that, like you, you
don't have to be the product ofthe environment.

Speaker 1 (48:59):
You grow up, you can be the change.
And I don't think that'spreaching up to people who come
from from, uh, from low incomebeginnings or even low, low
middle class.
A lot of people just think,like this is normal for me in
life, so this is what I'm goingto keep doing, and they can see
that in section eight too.
Like a lot of people in sectioneight, they just their kids
stay in section eight and theirkids.
Kids stay in section eightbecause they never know better

(49:19):
or talk better.
It's like there's other optionsin life, like I remember as a
kid this, I mean this kids thatI would, I would uh play sports
with in certain parts of d wherethey've never been outside of
that part of the DC, growing up,like kids from, say, anacostia
have never been to theWashington Monument.
It's only like two miles away.

Speaker 3 (49:39):
I just feel like a lot of exposure.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
The more exposure you give to children and kids the
better, because they have theopportunity to learn and expand
if they want to.
Some people just don't want toexpand.
They want to stay where they'reat and spin their wheels.

Speaker 2 (49:51):
That's true, man.
You know that very day touchesme, man, because I know that.
You know I grew up in Claytoursand I've seen a lot of people
that's in that neighborhood.
They teach each other hey, havemore babies so you can get a
bigger check from the welfare.
You know, and that's what'spassed on, and not because they

(50:15):
are being ignorant or beingtrying to get over on the system
.
They just don't know better.
You know, and I was fortunateenough to be exposed, you know,
fortunate enough to be exposed.
So I always look at it like aRobin Hood effect.
And that goes back to what I'msaying Now.
I know I got to go tell all myfriends and that's what I do, so

(50:36):
to be exposed, and they'venever really exposed us.
And, speaking on that, I'venever really been to the
Washington Monument.
Still, to this day I haven'tbeen inside the Washington
Monument Come on man I haven'tbeen in there.
I will go this summer.
I promise man, hey boy, we'llgo together.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
I'll get off work.
Let's go together.
Let's go.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
Yeah, let's go together, man, but yeah, but you
know, they never encouraged usto go, but they did take us.
I want to say I've been to abunch of those museums.
The school did do that for us.
I want to say that and I likethat, but I've never been in the
Washington Monument.
And my mother and I'm going toshare this my mother is late 60s
, close to 70, and she neverbeen outside of Ocean City,

(51:17):
maryland.
She's scared to get on a planeI'm trying to force her all the
time, man.
So she never been further thanOcean City, maryland, man, and
that's because she grew up inthat type of community, man, and
didn't have the knowledge.
So my sister now my sister'sgoing to be a doctor pretty soon
.
We exposed her to a lot ofstuff, man.
She never had that exposurebefore.

Speaker 1 (51:34):
Yeah, I'm the same way with my dad.
My dad won't get in a plane.
I'm like man, I'll take you towherever you want, yeah, yeah.
We'll drive.

Speaker 3 (51:42):
We'll drive.
I'm like I'm not driving 18hours.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
There's no way.
Yeah, yeah, exactly man.
Same here, man yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
So what's next?
I mean, what's your?
We're coming up on 52 minutes,so, like I want to know what's
next for you.
Like what's obviously thefinancial freedom Are you going
to try to buy more acquisitionsor more real estate?
Are you going?
To try to get more rentals.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
Like, what's the goal ?
Always, man, there's no endgoal.
There's no end goal because Ifeel like that when opportunity
presents itself and I'm able totake advantage of it, I should
take advantage of it.
If I'm able to and not justsaying financially, but able to,
mentally if I can handle it,I'll take advantage of it.
The end goal would be the veryend goal would be passing the

(52:28):
knowledge off to my daughter,who's actually let me add this
so passing that knowledge off toher.
I'm so proud of her.
And Andre Evans was saying hisdaughter was saying the same
thing.
She told me before she went tocollege she's in college now
that, dad, I want you to buy ahouse and I'll rent out the
rooms and I'll just pay you themortgage, right?
So she said that.
I said I will, I.

(52:51):
So she said that.
I said I will.
I was going to wait a secondyear.
So a second year is coming upnow.
But last week she called me andsaid Dad, I'm looking at the
Airbnb thing.
I want to start doing theco-hosting.
Can you have a meeting with me?
We had a meeting last week,last Thursday, and we broke down
everything that it takes forher to be there and I told her
that I'll set her up with acouple virtual assistants that
help her out with like the, the,the tedious stuff.

(53:12):
But she gotta put a lot of heruh, you know a lot of homework
in and do that.
So I'm excited about that forher.
So she's already got theknowledge from me on that and
I'm gonna like, I'm gonna dolike I promise I'm gonna buy her
a property.
She's in louisiana, so I'mabout her property in louis
Louisiana and let her do theroom sharing thing there with

(53:34):
her classmates or whatever.
And then also we're going tomaybe rent some Airbnbs out for
her or whatever she needs totake.
So that is my end goal passingit on to her.
But growing, I think I'm goingto continue to grow.
I'm going to continue to buyreal estate properties.
I'm going to continue to buildbusinesses.
That's natural to me, likefinance became natural to me.
Firefighting finance is naturalto me.

(53:54):
So continue to live in thattype of space.
I'm going to continue to dothat.
Sure.

Speaker 1 (53:58):
Tyler, what about you ?
I know we talked about you knowpassing knowledge on to your
kids, and your kids very handson.
Like.
What are you going to be doingthe same things that your end
goal is like?
Build something you can pass onto them.

Speaker 3 (54:07):
Like build something you can pass on to them 100%,
because I mean so, like thepeople that I went to public
elementary and then public whatis it?
Middle school and then, forwhatever reason, my parents
asked my grandparents to help mego to a private school.
So I was a little bit more wellbehaved.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
So, but what I saw?

Speaker 3 (54:27):
was and to answer your question, aaron, is a lot
of these people came from moneyright and they taught their kids
a lot of things that I did notknow.
Number one was like don't useso much credit card debt.
I had no idea.
I thought, oh cool, credit card, you just swipe it and then
somebody magically must pay iton the back end because I know
I'm not going to pay it.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
But all those things right.

Speaker 3 (54:55):
So, like I noticed, those guys never took debt, like
when we were out of college.
They paid cash for their cars,all these things.
And I asked them, it all camefrom their parents.
So, yeah, we don't do it then.
Then they're not going to haveany change and I try to make it
exciting.
I think all this gives us somuch freedom to do whatever we
want.
It's powerful, man, even ifit's not the thing that you want
to do my Mike Hambright, whoheads up Investor Fuel.
He says for some of us, realestate is the thing, and then

(55:16):
for some of us, real estate isthe thing that's going to pay
for our thing and that's youknow.
I like real estate, I likefinance, I love loans.
That's why I think I'mgravitating that more to private
money, hard money, and thenmortgages, as opposed to
flipping.
So, yeah, I'm going to pass iton, aaron.
I think it's hugely powerfuland I think, like you guys have

(55:37):
mentioned, it's going to takeour kids' view of the world from
this and they can do whateverthey want with it.
Right, you can finance a lot ofthings.
So, yeah, I'm excited.
They're a little bit too young.
Oh, my daughter's 12.
So probably Well, my daughteris 12, so probably in the next
year or so.
I've been trying to figure outhow I'm going to bring her into
it.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
I've got, obviously, you know, I got a young boy.
I got a year and a half old,almost two year old, and I got
one coming in a month and a half.
I got a newborn.
I'm going to be 44 or 202.

Speaker 2 (56:05):
God save me.

Speaker 1 (56:06):
But I've been talking to my wife about it Like I want
to leave my sons a legacy.
I don't want to die and takeeverything with me.
I want to give them a headstart in life.
So for me it's very importantto pass knowledge on, and I
didn't know if I was going tohave kids.
I had them late in life, so Ilike to teach younger guys.
As it is.

Speaker 2 (56:21):
So this one's for you , Digg.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
It's on me.
What class were you, Wendell 13.
So they're up to cadet class 27and they're 77 and there's 77
recruit classes past me and I'mlike I'm the old guy, like I am
the old guy now, man, I was at afirehouse I was at 17 engine

(56:43):
the other day, man, and theycalled one of my classmates.

Speaker 2 (56:45):
Oh, you know, I don't know.
You know, james chapman calledhim.
Oh, chap, I'm like what?
Oh chap, I'm like man, we're atogle stage now.
He's like.
She's like yeah, if you knowJames Chapman, he called him
Uncle Chap.
I'm like what Uncle Chap?
I'm like man, we at Uncle'sstage now.
She's like yeah, if you was onthe job we would call you Uncle
Cat.
I'm like oh my goodness no.

Speaker 3 (56:58):
We're.

Speaker 1 (56:58):
Uncle now yeah, yeah, we got in that age man.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
It's funny because it happened over the years.

Speaker 1 (57:06):
I remember I don't know it was yesterday I was the
guy just hanging out with myyoung boys, my guys.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
And now it's like oh yeah, what's up, uncle?

Speaker 1 (57:15):
I'm like no bro, I'm not that old yet.
Am I In my mind?

Speaker 2 (57:21):
I'm still like 21 years old, 22.

Speaker 1 (57:23):
And when the lights remind me that I'm fat in my
physical?

Speaker 2 (57:26):
stage.
I'm definitely getting oldernow.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
So yeah, man I feel it too.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
Man Trust me yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
Yeah, I know God, tyler's posting workout videos
earlier, trying to get himselfback in shape, so I can't talk
too much.
I need to get back on thistreadmill.

Speaker 2 (57:41):
Oh yeah, Tyler, you doing your thing, Tyler.

Speaker 3 (57:44):
Trying to.
I used to love doing it, butwith my injury I haven't, so I
posted a video of me on a sledthe other day or yesterday, yeah
, oh, I love it, I just yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
Yeah, awesome.
I've been focusing on my healtha lot recently, man, this last
year.
So I was getting fat too, aaron, don't worry, but I've been
really, I've been reallyfocusing on it.
Man, I don't I don't say don'twork, but yeah, yeah, I think
it's important, man.
I think, at this age now, wegot to start really focusing on
that.

(58:14):
I mean not saying you and I,I'm just saying all of us, all
of us need to start focusing.

Speaker 1 (58:21):
I'm with you.
I got you All right.
So let me wrap this up with thevery last question.
I'm coming up on an hour.
If you can go back and giveyour younger self advice now, it
could be.
It could be 15 year old wendell, it could be, you know, 20 year
old cat, it could be whateverwhat would you give your younger
self advice about?

Speaker 2 (58:36):
it's so funny I got, so I do.
Another thing that I do is apodcast.
You've been on there, right?
Um and um, I, uh, my newepisode that I'm, the new season
that I have is called thepull-up series.
So it's called leverage yourlife.
Right, it's about you leveling,leveraging your life to level
up in life.
Um, now it's called the pull-upseries.
I mean leverage your life toput up series because I'm

(58:58):
pulling up the people whose workand I was on this podcast group
and I'm going I'm getting along way around to get to this.
I was in this podcast group.
They said the first episodeshould be about me.
Um, right, one of the questionsthat I answered.
So I thought about, I thoughtabout, I said all right, they
said have a friend interview you.
And so I got about five of myfriends interviewing me, right,

(59:18):
they just asked a question, oneof the questions that all of
them asked me what would I tellmy 15-year-old self and what
would I tell my 25-year-old self?
So you'll hear this a lot, butwhat would I tell myself?
My 15-year-old self is?
I think that I would tell whatI said in the past to those guys
.
I would tell my 15-year-oldself to continue on doing what

(59:39):
you're doing, man, you know.
Just try to stay away from thetrouble that I did get myself
into, but stay away from thetrouble, but continue on.
You know, doing what you'redoing.
Just be a teenager, be a kid,have fun.
You on, you know doing whatyou're doing.
Just be a teenager, be a kid,have fun.
Um, but what I want to tell my25 year old self, I would have
told him to start looking moreinto, uh, investing, right, look

(59:59):
more into investing.
Uh, be more, be more consciouswith your money.
Um, stay away from partying toomuch party.
You know what I mean.
You're going to have fun, butstay away from partying too much
party.
You know, man, you're gonnahave fun, but stay away from
that, uh, as much as you can.
And then, lastly, I would havetold my 30 year old self um, uh,
just to stay with once, settlewith one woman, right?

(01:00:21):
I think that I think the, the,the power of of monogamy, or the
, the, the, the, the, the, the,the, the, the.
What's the opposite of power?
Whatever the opposite of poweris of polygamy, right?
It messes you up, man.
So what I would at that time.
I'm 30 years old now.
I was spreaded thin by dealingwith multiple women and if and I

(01:00:44):
know we're talking aboutbusiness and whatever else we're
talking about it affected everysingle part of my life because
I wasn't focused, because Ididn't have one person that was
focused on.
You know, and and and, and Iknow the power of monogamy
having one person that way thatyou can thrive in other parts of
your life.
You know.
So I would have told myself at30, that's what you need to do
because it affects you.
You know, and, and I and we allhave women, wives or whatever

(01:01:07):
it is, and we understand.
I just heard you talk about youventing to your wife and she's
giving you advice.
You know, and that one adviceis enough.
If we got five different peoplegiving us advice or even
getting on our ass, you know.
You know exactly.
You know it's going to tell you, boss.
So I think that if I was 30years old, that would have been

(01:01:28):
my only advice for my 30 yearold self.
And then I know my life wouldhave thrived a little
differently, even though my lifeis good now.
But I think it would have beena lot different if I did.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
Yeah hindsight's 20-20.
You never know what decisions.
If nobody's in your ear to tellyou what the right direction,
the right thing to do, is.
You're going to make your owndecision, Chase tail and make
bad decisions.
But if you stretch youremotional, physical, sexual,
spiritual and emotional self tooshort, then it's going to take
all of your energy away from thethings you want to focus on to
move forward, and that's onething that we think we have in

(01:01:58):
common, We've always had incommon.
So all right, let me end this ona funny note.
So why are you on your phoneinstead of your computer today?

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
I don't even know what you're saying, but I just
heard you say your phone insteadof your computer.

Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
man, I know you're talking about me.
What did you say?
It broke up.
I want to end on a funny notetoday.
Why are you on your phoneinstead of your computer today?

Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
Oh, okay, yeah, man.
So I'm actually in one of myproperties today just trying to
get it cleaned up and renovatesome things, and I was going to
shoot this podcast from mycomputer there, you know, and I
had to leave out.
I had to leave out.
They changed the lock, they'regoing to get a lock for the
property, and I got back to thehouse that's right here and the

(01:02:49):
tenant left out and locked meout.
So my computer's in there.
I'm waiting for him to get back.
So I'm going to be sitting herefor a couple hours just working
from my car, man.
So that's why I'm on here.
That's the story.

Speaker 1 (01:02:58):
That's the thing, man .
It's always something,especially real estate.
It's always something, yeah,you guys got to keep laughing
and keep moving.

Speaker 3 (01:03:10):
No, it was good to meet you, Wendell.
This was awesome and I knowit's going to help a lot of
people.

Speaker 2 (01:03:14):
So thank you.
Yeah, man, let's connectoutside of this, tyler.
I'd love to hear your story,man, and talk to you more, man.

Speaker 3 (01:03:23):
It'd be great, Absolutely.
I already tagged you in ourstory, so I'll reach out to you
and I'll give you my phonenumber.

Speaker 1 (01:03:28):
Absolutely man Cat.
Is there anything we missed youwant to talk about?

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
No, no, man, you hit everything.
I really appreciate it.
But what I do want to talkabout, one thing I want to say,
tyler and everybody else, thatAaron has always been the guru
to me.
Man, he's like when we wereearlier on in our career.
He's always telling me he's themost interesting man in the
world.
Man, you remember thatcommercial, the guy, most
interesting man in the world,that is earned to me.

(01:03:53):
I literally told my lady today.
I said I'm going to talk toearned today.
That's the most interesting manin the world to me.
He climbed Mount Kilimanjaro,man.

Speaker 1 (01:04:03):
I never, heard of that.
Yeah, man.

Speaker 2 (01:04:07):
I say he's the most interesting man.
I've always been in awe ofAaron man.
I still am man.
I'm thankful to have him in mylife.
Man.
That's all I wanted to share,you know.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
Hey man, thanks man, I appreciate it.
Man, I love you bro.
And if anybody wants to reachout and talk to you like what's
the best way to reach out to you.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
Yeah, man.
So the best way, man, media,social media you're going to
just type my name in WendellCatlett, and I guess they'll
share my info, Wendell Catlett,and I'm on all the platforms
that you look for.
The most effective way would beI would love for you to call me
.
I don't mind, just shoot me atext 202-569-0189.

(01:04:45):
But, like I said, I answer allof my stuff.
Just reach out.
Just reach out to me All rightbrother.

Speaker 1 (01:04:51):
Thank you for spending an hour with us man.
I really appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
Man, thank you, talk to you guys soon.
Bye, tyler.
Have a good one, man, all right, bye-bye.