January 15, 2025 • 42 mins
In this episode of the Real Estate Distilled Podcast, Scott and Liz Hack sit down with Antonio Cousin, a Baton Rouge-based real estate investor and owner of Service First Real Estate. Antonio shares his inspiring journey from hesitating to invest to owning over 253 doors in just six years. He discusses overcoming fear, the five ways real estate generates wealth, and nine investment strategies, offering actionable advice for new and seasoned investors alike. Antonio's story emphasizes the importance of taking action and diversifying income streams beyond sales. Tune in for practical tips and motivation to start your real estate journey!
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Episode Transcript
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Antonio Cousin (00:00):
Bought the first property, which was a commercial
office building in 2018, and nowI currently own over 253 doors.
6 year time frame. So I can onlyimagine had I started when I
should have started, where Iwould be now. So I didn't
technically lose a $1,000,000 incash, but I lost the opportunity
to purchase properties at thebottom when I knew it was the
right thing to do. I continue tolet fear stop me.
Announcer (00:22):
Welcome to the Real Estate Distilled Podcast. Get
ready for a smooth pour oninsights on sales, marketing,
lead conversion, and technology.All shaken, stirred, and
perfectly balanced to help yousucceed in real estate. Mixed
(00:44):
just for you.
Liz Hack (00:48):
Hey. It's Liz Hack here with Scott Hack, your
enthusiastic host for RealEstate Distilled, the podcast.
We are back with another greatepisode. This time, who we
having on today?
Scott Hack (01:01):
Mister Antonio Cousin.
Liz Hack (01:03):
And Antonio is from the great state of Louisiana.
Scott Hack (01:07):
Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge.
Liz Hack (01:09):
We like saying that, don't we?
Scott Hack (01:11):
Yes. We do.
Liz Hack (01:12):
Antonio is gonna talk about investing again. He was
one of our breakout speakersfrom the 2024 conference. People
were out the door, listening,standing, wanting to hear what
Antonio had to say. So, stickaround for some of the great
information that Antonio's gonnashare with us today on the Real
(01:33):
Estate Distilled podcast.
Scott Hack (01:35):
Thanks, everybody, for joining us. And as a really
quick note, we recorded ourconversation with Antonio
sometime in either March orApril, and it's now December
when we're finally releasingthat. So if you hear any
references to things about theconference last month or a few
weeks ago, just know thatthere's a little bit of delay
there. But Antonio is a wealthof knowledge. He has a
(01:58):
background in, banking andfinance, So that is one of the
reasons why he has made such aeffortless leap into being a
landlord and doing investing.
So
Liz Hack (02:07):
Basically killing it.
Scott Hack (02:08):
Yeah. So we're we're excited to share with you a
little bit more from Antonio,and and share the story with
you.
Antonio Cousin (02:17):
I'm here. I'm happy to be here as well.
Scott Hack (02:20):
Awesome. So Antonio's coming us to us today
from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.He's got a independent brokerage
there, Service First RealEstate, that covers, all of
Southeast Louisiana betweenBaton Rouge and into New
Orleans. So thanks again forjoining us, Antonio.
Antonio Cousin (02:37):
Thank you for having me.
Scott Hack (02:39):
So you were one of our speakers at Real Estate
Distilled this year, and youattended in 2023 as well. So, we
get to spend some time togetherand over the past couple of
years and gotten to know eachother. And I know your talk this
year was, really popular. We,
Liz Hack (02:57):
Yeah. The room was packed. Yeah. Like, standing
room only for Antonio.
Scott Hack (03:02):
So one of the, the goals of our podcast today in
getting you on is to basicallyshare some information from your
talk because we ran with amultitrack setup this year. So
there were people who attendedthe conference that might have
wanted to hear your discussion,but weren't able to because they
were in a different room. So,I'm going to, step away from the
(03:24):
mic and let you, step throughwhat, you know, the the premise
of your talk was and and,basically, give people a high
level, overview of what yourdiscussion was and really what
you wanted people to take awayfrom it.
Antonio Cousin (03:37):
Okay. So first off, I would say this, that I
will be there in 2025 as well.Looking forward to it. That's
gonna be one of my annualconferences because I like the
small knit community as well asthe information. So I I feel
like I was able to talk toalmost every single person that
attended this year, which wasamazing in my opinion instead of
having those 1,000 peopleconferences where you can't
(03:59):
really get to talk to people.
So I felt like, that was great.That was a really good benefit.
I enjoyed that part of it, and Iwill be there in 2025 and going
forward. So We can't wait tohear you. With this.
Thank you. My topic at the,conference was unlocking your
earning potential beyond realestate sales. And the reason I
decided on this topic is becausejust looking at the numbers.
(04:22):
Right? The data.
So the National Association ofRealtors, they put out that
every year, and something thatstood out to me was existing
home sales. So if you go back to2021, existing home sales were
6,100,000 and 5,500,000 in 2022and then 4,100,000 in 2023. So
it's showing a trend. Right? Soexisting home sales have
(04:45):
declined for 3 straight years.
Mhmm. So looking at the numbers,it's a very high probability
that the majority of people thatwent to the conference also had
some kind of decrease in theirbusiness over the last year
compared to 2022, me, myselfincluded. So my speech was more
so behind increasing your incomewithout just relying on real
(05:06):
estate sales. Because I feellike we, as agents, like, we
have access to the to the theproperties. Right?
We're pushing these propertieson people, but we're not
investing in them ourselves. Andthat's a real big problem in my
opinion. So I just started itoff by telling everybody my
story. I think that helpedbecause I I captured their their
(05:27):
attention right away. I toldthem, you know, who I was.
Basically, I've been licensedsince 2010. I started in Dallas,
Texas. And then I want me and mywife, we got engaged, and we
wanted to move home to well,first of all, we got engaged. I
got my license because I wantedto help pay for the wedding. I
didn't wanna have to go in debtfor a wedding.
I know a lot of people do that,and I just don't subscribe to
(05:48):
that. So I got my license justto make some extra money. At the
time, I was working as a bankexaminer full time for the
federal government, so I wasdoing a lot of traveling. But I
got the license just to makesome extra money. And my first
sale occurred, I wanna say, ayear and a half into it.
And I just there was somethingabout that sale that just stood
out to me and made me feelspecial. It made me feel good by
(06:09):
helping somebody achieve homeownership. And it was just
something completely differentfrom what I was doing in my full
time career. And I just knewthat that was the way. I didn't
wanna, you know, work as a bankexaminer because I didn't see
the value in it.
I didn't see the the end userbenefit. So, I did the both of
them simultaneously for a numberof years. I actually just quit
the bank examiner job inDecember of 2021. So for 11
(06:32):
years, I was working both at thesame time.
Scott Hack (06:34):
Uh-huh.
Antonio Cousin (06:35):
But I started it off by telling them my story. So
my story goes like this. In2007, I read a book called Rich
Dad Poor Dad. 1 of my friendsrecommended it to me. When I
read that book, you know, at thetime, I I knew that was my way
out.
Real estate was gonna be my wayout. So I began searching for
answers. Because Rich Dad PoorDad in and of itself is just a
(06:55):
mindset book. It doesn't giveyou any type of technical advice
of telling you how to get intoreal estate. So I started off by
talking about that and justletting everybody know how I
lost a $1,000,000.
So I read the book. I startedgoing to all kind of
conferences, reading more bookson real estate investing,
attending networking meetings.However, I didn't take any
action. And a lot of peopleprobably have my same or a
(07:19):
similar situation growing upwhere they don't have access to
the resources or friends orfamily that's doing real estate
investing. So I was scared to doit.
So I read that book in 2 2007.You know, the market crashed in
2,008, so properties werereally, really cheap starting
about 2,008 going into 2,009. Istill didn't take action because
I was scared. So 2,010 rollsaround. As you as you probably
(07:41):
remember, during that time,there was a tax credit incentive
to incentivize homeownership bythe federal government.
It was $8,000. So I figured I'djust start there. Plus, I was
tired of, you know, hearingeverything my neighbors were
doing. I was in an apartment atthe time. When I say everything,
I mean everything.
You could hear everything theywere doing. And so I knew I had
to get out of the apartment. Somy my fiance and I at the time,
(08:04):
we went ahead and bought thehouse. We got the $8,000 tax
credit, but I still didn't getfeel satisfied. So that was in
2010.
Bought my single familyresidence, my owner occupied
property. Right? So about 2years later, Warren Buffett, he
purchased 420 Acres right by me.And Toyota moved at North
American headquarters less thana mile away from my house. So
(08:24):
property values skyrocketed.
But 2010 to 2016, I still didn'tpurchase anything because I was
scared. I always felt like Ineed to know more or I need to
know I need to do a little morehomework about this or I need to
do you know, I just I let fearstop me. So I didn't purchase
anything during that time frame.We moved back home in 2016
because we wanted to start afamily, and we wanted to be
(08:44):
close to the family to help usraise the kids. So I moved back
in 2016.
We sold our house that wepurchased in 2010. We sold it
for 6 figures more than we paidfor it. Put it on the market. We
had 6 offers all over askingprice on the very first date.
That's how hot that area was.
So we took that that profit.Obviously, we didn't pay our
taxes on it because y'all knowabout the the capital gains
(09:06):
exclusion on the primaryresidence that the IRS allows
you for. So that became our seedcapital. So moved back home
2016, I still didn't buy nothingbecause I was scared. And then
one day in 2018, I just saidforget it.
Like, I've been putting it offall this time. I went ahead and
I purchased an office building.So it's not your traditional,
(09:26):
you know, single familyresidence, probably what most
investors do for the first one.I didn't do that. And I I don't
even know why I purchased theoffice, but I did it.
That was in 2018. And it just sohappened that that's where our
brokerage is based out of now.But I kinda I have a situation
where it was rented. It'sbasically one office with 4
individual offices. And when Ibought it, all 4 offices were
(09:47):
rented.
So it's like a house hadsituation to a office building,
which is crazy. It's different.But 2,007 all the way to 2018, I
let 11 years go by withoutpurchasing anything. Although I
knew what I wanted to do, and Iknew real estate investment was
gonna be the way for me, but Iwas scared. So I left fear.
And if you think about it, like,back then, property values were
(10:08):
so low. So I could have made somuch money had I just taken
action ins instead ofoveranalyzing. So at this point
in time, you know, I bought thefirst property, which was a
commercial office building in2018, and now I currently own
over 253 doors. So that's in a 6period 6 year time frame. So I
can only imagine had I startedwhen I shoulda started where I
(10:30):
would be now.
So I didn't technically lose a$1,000,000 in cash, but I lost
the opportunity to purchaseproperties at the bottom when I
knew it was the right thing todo. I continue to let fear stop
me. So one thing I wanna, youknow, let everybody know out
there that's listening is youwill never know everything.
Sometimes you just have to startand course correct along the
way. So I started off like that,telling them about my story just
(10:52):
so they have an idea of whothey're talking to.
And then from there, I told themmy objective, which was to show
you other ways to generateincome outside of the hustle and
bustle of selling real estate.Because that they know, like, a
lot of people, they they focus alot of realtors, they don't own
real estate. Or they theythey're basically depending on
the next sale to survive, and Idon't want you to be like that.
(11:13):
And
Scott Hack (11:14):
I'm I'm sorry.
Antonio Cousin (11:15):
You're about to take some
Scott Hack (11:15):
Analysis paralysis, I mean, for sure, that that's
definitely something that thethat we're stuck with. You're
right. There's there's no what'swhat's the one of the sayings
that, you know, I hear a lot ofpeople talk about? Like, don't
wait to buy real estate. Buyreal estate and wait.
Yep. Yeah. So absolutely.
Antonio Cousin (11:35):
A 100% agree. So that that's just one thing.
That's 11 years that I wasted,that I will always regret. But,
you know, I'm still doing goodnow, but I'm just imagining what
I could've been had I done itback then. But, my objective was
just to show the listeners orthe the audience that they need
to diversify the income and notbe fully 100% relying on selling
(11:56):
real estate.
And I I I brought up the pointof how we're experts in the
area. We know the market as wedo this on a day to day basis.
So why aren't we investing init? And I told them that if this
doesn't resonate with them, youknow, at least they can take the
information because you becomemore valuable to your clients
when you have the knowledge. Sothe more I always tell my agents
this or the the agents that Ipartner with at the brokerage.
(12:18):
I don't like to call them myagents. But, I say the more
knowledge knowledgeable you are,the more valuable you become.
And I truly mean that. So I fromthere, I went on talking about
the 5 different, ways that realestate pays you. Most people are
aware of the cash flow.
That's the amount of money youkeep each month. So the amount
of money you bring in from rentminus all your expenses for that
(12:40):
property, whatever you have leftover, that's the cash flow. Then
I talked about appreciationslash equity capture.
Everybody's familiar withappreciation. You know, over
time, property values go up evenin the hood over the long period
of time, but they go up invalue.
And then equity capture, as yourtenant is paying down the
mortgage or as your tenant ismaking their rent payments,
you're paying down the mortgageif you have one, which is
(13:02):
increasing your equity in theproperty. Then depreciation,
that will be the third thing. Ididn't really go into too much
details here because this onecan be a little tricky and
confusing. But, essentially, thegovernment, they offer so many
tax advantages and encouragesinvestors to buy real estate.
The tax laws, the way I look atit, is basically like the brew
the blueprint and teach you howto play the game if you wanna
win.
With depreciation, essentially,their government is providing
(13:24):
you with an incentive to buyinvestment real estate, and it
allows you to pay a lesseramount in taxes on the actual
cash flow that you bring in. Soyou can look it up if you're
interested. Residentialproperty, you could depreciate
over 27 and a half years. But,yeah. So it allows you to keep
more money in your pocket andthen leverage.
The banks are gonna be willingto finance you up to 85% on the
investment property. Youbasically make the banks your
(13:46):
partner and keep all theownership benefits. So you get
to keep the cash flow, theappreciation, and the
depreciation tax write off. Andthen the 5th one, the most one
of the most important ones thatpeople don't really understand
is called inflation profiting.Basically, by borrowing money
from the bank, you're locking ina loan in today's dollars.
We all know how inflationincreases and shrinks your
(14:06):
purchasing power. But with realestate, when you're borrowing
money, you are locking in thatamount, and the bank can't
require you to pay more thanthat said amount. So we can all
agree that 30 years from now, xamount of dollars won't be
looked at the same as it istoday. However, that doesn't
matter because that's theagreement we signed with the
bank, and they can't make us paya penny more unless you default,
of course. But over time, you'llget wage increases, you'll make
(14:28):
more money, but you've locked inthat amount owed to the bank.
So let's say if I lock in a aprincipal interest payment to
the bank of $1,000, 10, 15 yearsfrom now, I'm still paying that
back $1,000 with cheaper dollarsbecause we know that the the
value of the dollar goes downevery single day because of
inflation. So they're basicallythe banks are your friend and
not the enemy. You just have toknow how to use them to your
(14:48):
advantage. That's the 5 waysreal estate pays you. I I turn
it back over to you, Scott,because I feel like I'm talking
too much.
Scott Hack (14:54):
No. No. All that I mean, that's all awesome. And
and that's definitely what Iwanted to do is stay out of your
way and let you, share yourexpertise. I think that, number
5 is super interesting.
You know, just as a side topicto your conversation because we
are in a an environment rightnow where as you were talking
about the number of transactionshas been declining. And I think
that it would not be a stretchto say one of the reasons why we
(15:18):
are seeing a decline in thenumber of transactions is
because so many people havelocked in an interest rate on
their mortgage that is, let'sjust let's say sub 4 4%. So they
are you know, even on a primaryresidence, they're taking
advantage of that. What whatterm did you call number 5,
inflation locking?
Antonio Cousin (15:38):
Profit inflation profiting.
Scott Hack (15:39):
Inflation profiting. So, I mean, I think that there's
a lot of people that, are takingadvantage of that. I had a
conversation with, the agents atmy brokerage probably about a
month ago, and we startedrunning through some near
scenarios where there's apossibility for some move up
buyers that it makes more sensefor them to keep their primary
(16:01):
residence and convert it to arental and then apply that cash
flow to the mortgage on a newprimary residence instead of
selling and moving up, Justkeeping that primary residence
as a rental and starting theirportfolio.
Antonio Cousin (16:16):
Yeah. I 100% agree. I looked at a stat
recently. I just we talked aboutthis. I wanna say 2 or 3 weeks
ago on my podcast, I have apodcast called the Financial
Flows Podcast.
And there's a stat that Redfinput out that said 83% of all
homeowners that had a mortgageunder, were under 5%. So,
essentially, why would you sellthat 5% or lower mark of a house
(16:40):
to buy a 7% house that that'sgonna probably be more
expensive. It just doesn't makefinancial sense. Right? I'm I'm
I wish I would have taken takenadvantage of those low interest
rates more because I bought afew properties.
I try to buy at least 1 a year,but I wish I had bought more. I
have some, investment propertieswith 3.25, 3.6, 3.9. It's
(17:00):
basically look like a looked atlike an asset now having that
low of a debt. You know? Ityeah.
So I do wish I had takenadvantage of it. I didn't.
Scott Hack (17:08):
Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. So you
went through and shared aboutwho who you were and your
history, and then you wentthrough and laid out your the 5,
the 5 ways that real estatepays. And then and then what
what did you do from there?
Antonio Cousin (17:24):
Talked about the disadvantages, which is,
obviously, you can't sell itimmediately. It's not liquid
like a stock. Down paymentrequirements, whenever it's an
investment property, it'streated differently than if
you're gonna live in it and ownor occupy the property. So down
payment, you know, for singlefamily, you're looking at 15%.
Multi family, you're looking at25%.
There are certain exclusionsjust depending on the property
(17:44):
because I have done it beforewhere I didn't pay anything down
for an investment property, butit was a renovation loan. And I
bought it at such a peakdiscount that, the value was
there where the bank didn'trequire me to put anything down.
And then ongoing maintenance. Soyou're responsible for fixing
anything that breaks. And I toldthem about how on January 8th
this year, one of my propertiesgot hit by lightning.
(18:05):
It didn't catch fire. Wow. Whenthe lightning hit the property,
it, basically knocked out themotherboard on the oven, on the
tankless water heater. Itknocked out the blower motor on
the HVAC. It It knocked it didsomething to the coil on the
HVAC.
It knocked out a lot of the theoutlets in the house, the camera
system that she put in. And whatelse? It knocked out a few more.
(18:27):
The garbage disposal stoppedworking. So I thought that I can
get all these things donewithout having to go through
insurance because I have thetheir their, contacts.
Right? So I thought my refer mymy deductible is 25100. I
thought I can get it done forless. But I ended up spending
$4,086. I was so upset.
I could've just filed aninsurance claim. But $4,086
(18:48):
later, we got it back together,and everything is fine now. But
I just wish I had just filedthat claim to save that $1500.
Yeah. That's the thing, ongoingmaintenance and then tenants.
You have to deal with tenants.Sometimes that could be a good
thing. Sometimes it could be abad thing. I'm working on
training my tenants better tostop calling me or texting me so
late. I'm on do not disturbanyway, but it just bothers me
(19:10):
when I wake up the next morningand see a late text.
Something about that just hurtsme. But, after the the
disadvantages, then we wentthrough and I talked about which
was the core concept of what Iwant to share with the people,
which was different real estateinvestment methods. So I went
through 9 different ones. Thereare a ton of them out there, but
I just honed in on 9 differentones. And I showed exactly,
(19:31):
like, pros and cons of all 9, aswell as case studies showing
some of my properties as well assome of my client's property.
And those 9
Scott Hack (19:39):
Yeah. You said well, yeah. Let's let's list them in.
I'm I'm curious to hear whichone are the ones that you think
are most viable in today'smarket.
Antonio Cousin (19:46):
Perfect. Okay. So the 9 include buy and hold,
which is your traditional, youknow, buy a property. I run it
out. Hold it for the long term.
Then the second one was theBRRRR strategy. Basically, buy
what is it? Buy, renovate.
Scott Hack (19:59):
Refinance.
Antonio Cousin (20:00):
Buy, renovate, rent, refinance, and repeat.
Then fix and flips, you know,that's everybody's familiar with
fixing and flipping. That's theHGTV stuff you see on TV, but
it's not really like that inreal life. Woah. Short term
rentals.
Short term rentals was number 4.REITs, real estate investment
trust was number 5. Wholesaling,number 6. Syndications, number
(20:24):
7. Crowdfunding, 8.
And then house hacking, number9. And then I went through pros
and cons of all 9 and just showsome examples, like my
properties and numbers, thingslike that.
Scott Hack (20:37):
I don't know if I know the difference between
syndication and a REIT in, thegrand scheme of things.
Antonio Cousin (20:45):
Okay. Well, let's talk about it. Okay. So
with syndications, that's gonnabe where you have a GP, general
partner, and a LP, limitedpartner. And a GP is the person
that's responsible for and I sayperson, but it could be multiple
people.
But they're the people that goout and find the deal. They put
the business plan together. Sois it a value add opportunity
(21:08):
where we're gonna go in, fix theproperty up, fix the units up,
raise the rent to increase thevalue? They're gonna be the ones
signing on a note responsiblefor the debt. And the LPs are
gonna be the ones that'sbasically putting up the money,
like, putting up the equity inthe property, and they're
getting a return.
Right? That's monthly,quarterly, whatever the the
(21:28):
structure, however that'sfigured out. And so I had an
example on the screen of a 240unit apartment complex that I'm
actually the owner in. It's inDalton, Georgia, which is, north
of Atlanta, south ofChattanooga. But it's the,
Chattanooga MSA.
So it's, you know, that thatarea. But it's they call it the
corp the carpet capital of theworld. So that's where most of
(21:51):
the carpet is made. Real bluecollar. You know?
But a syndication, essentially,you you wanna put that together
because in this deal, forinstance, this is $25,000,000.
Like, who has $25,000,000 topurchase a property? So you have
to go out and raise that money.The debt, you have to get that
financed, you know, through alender. But then the equity
side, you have to raise thatfrom limited partners where they
(22:12):
put up money and they getthey're expecting a profit.
A quote some some form of profitfrom the cash flow of the
property, but when you sell atthe end of the that holding
period, whatever that is, inthis case, it was 5 years. So we
bought this in August of 2021.The goal was to sell it in 2026.
Sell it for more than you know,we paid, obviously, of
25,000,000. It's worth about31,000,000 now, 32,000,000,
(22:34):
something like that.
Because the the value of incomeproperty, specifically large
multifamily, is based on thevalue that the net operating
income that the propertyprovides. So if you go in there,
you fix it up, and you increasethe rent, you just increase the
value of the property. So that'swhy I say it's worth around 31,
32,000,000 now because we'vegone in, fixed up the units, and
(22:55):
have increased the property'svalue because now we're getting
more rent than we were before.
Scott Hack (22:59):
You've increased the cash flow, basically.
Antonio Cousin (23:01):
Yeah. So the pros and I talked about it from
the LP perspective because mostpeople in the room would
probably be far more likely togo from the LP route right away
than trying to tackle this kindof deal on their own from the GP
side. So from the LP side, thepros will be geographic
diversification because you caninvest anyway. I just told you.
I'm in Louisiana, and I and thatproperty is in Georgia.
(23:23):
It's a 100% passive investmentbecause all you're doing is
putting up money and collectinga return. You're not responsible
for the debt either. The GPs aregonna be the one signing on the
debt, not the LPs. As far ascons, it's not liquid. You
literally have to wait into theproperty sales or refinances to
get out of it and then lack ofcontrol.
Essentially, you're relying on atrack record of the operator.
(23:45):
You don't have any control. Youmake no decisions. Things like
that. And you mentioned what wasit?
The REITs? You asked about theREITs. Yeah. So that's a real
estate investment trust.Essentially, what that is is
it's just like a stock or it'sreal similar to a stock where
you own shares of multipleproperties.
And I gave an example of 1 on onthe in a slideshow. It was an
(24:07):
apartment income REIT.Essentially, that particular
REIT owns 76 different apartmentcommunities in set in 10
different states. And you canjust buy it, you know, on the
open market. So the pros wouldbe they provide real high yield
dividends or high dividendyields, I should say.
The the law requires them todispose 90% of taxable income to
(24:27):
the shareholders, so that's whythe dividend yields are so high.
And And then you get access tocommercial real estate without a
substantial amount of capital. Ithink the one I put on the board
was, like, $38 or $42 a share.So it's just like a stock as far
as that. And then it's highlyliquid.
You could just sell it. You cansell it right now on a on a open
market. Just click a button andit sells just like that. But as
(24:47):
far as the cons, there are taxeson those dividends in addition
to your ordinary income tax. Youhave something called a cert a
surtax, which is 3.8%.
So it's a little bit higher thannormal. And then trends trends
influence REITs heavily. Let'ssay, for instance, you invested
into a REIT that only ownshopping malls. Well, as we
know, you know, that's not inhigh demand right now. A lot of
(25:10):
companies are leaving out ofmalls.
So the stock value is probablygonna go down along with it. And
then they're just you gotta lookout for high fees. There's a lot
of fees involved with thisstuff. You just have to read the
fine print, like transactionfees, management fees, things
like that. But, yeah, that'sthat's those 2.
But I went over 9 different oneswith examples.
Scott Hack (25:29):
Well, I don't I'm not gonna get too much deeper in
that. I'm curious to hear whichone of those 9 methods are your
preferred and which ones youthink would work best in today's
market.
Antonio Cousin (25:41):
So depending on the point of view, are you
talking about from, like,someone that's starting out,
they don't have a portfolio, andthey just wanna get started?
Scott Hack (25:49):
Yeah. Let's let's use that perspective.
Antonio Cousin (25:52):
Okay. So if I was that person, I would 100
well, it's 2 things. Let me canI highlight 2?
Scott Hack (25:57):
Yeah. Absolutely. It's 3 if you think it's
necessary.
Antonio Cousin (26:01):
So if I was just starting out, I had minimal
income, minimal capital, I woulddo the house hacking strategy.
Because you're gonna occupy theproperty with a lower down
payment because you're gonnalive there for a year and run
out that's where you basicallyyou either run out rooms within
your house or you could if youget a multifamily 2 to 4 unit,
you could run out the otherunits. So, essentially, you you
(26:24):
occupy that property with alower down payment as opposed to
if you were just an investor.You have to come to the table
with more down. So the thebenefit of it is, you know,
obviously, lower down payment,but, also, you have a tenant
that's hopefully covering yourwhole mortgage.
If not, the whole mortgage isdefinitely, you know, covering a
large substantial amount becausetaxes and housing are our
(26:46):
largest expenses. So if you canget that partially eliminated or
completely eliminated, you'll befar ahead. And then on the, in
the slides, I showed an exampleof someone purchasing a single
family house versus someonepurchasing a more expensive
duplex and how the numbers mademore sense to just go to duplex
route because you're reducingthe housing expense
significantly. But the coolthing about it is you only have
(27:08):
to do that for a year, and thenyou can repeat the process and
do it again. Move out of thatunit, purchase another
multifamily, and keep the youonly used to have.
Now you're renting it out. Nowyou you're making even more
money in cash flow. That's howyou build your portfolio and
just do that over and over. Thesecond strategy I want to
mention is the BRRRR strategy.The reason I like that one is
(27:28):
and I show as an example on thescreen of a property that me and
some of my partners did.
That one, you're basicallybuying a property that needs
work. Right? So you find a valueadd opportunity. You put money
into it to buy it. You put moneyinto it to rehab it, and then
you rent it out.
Then you find a bank that'sgonna be willing to give you a
(27:49):
loan on the property. So thatway, once you get the loan on
the property, you can get allyour money back or most of your
money. Hopefully, you can getall of it out. The example I
showed on the screen was a,double wide mobile home that me
and I have an investment groupas well. I didn't mention that,
but it's me and 5 other people.
We put our money together everysingle month, and we buy real
(28:09):
estate with it. So of the 253units, 6, maybe 7, I think 6 of
the units we own. So that that's6 of my 253. So I don't own all
those properties 100%. Andthat's a common misconception.
Like, you don't need to own a100%. You just need to own
something. Something is betterthan nothing. I think I only own
7. Me and my wife, a 100%, only7.
(28:30):
7 units. So that's a commonmisconception I wanted to, you
know, go ahead and address. Butwith the BRRRR strategy,
essentially, we put our moneyinto the property, rented it
out, and then refinance it. Sowhen we refinanced it, we were
able to get all of our cash backthat we used to purchase the
property as well as fix it up.So now we have a loan on it.
We have the property rented, andwe're making a cash flow each
(28:51):
month. The difference betweenthose two numbers and that money
we got back when we refinancedthe property, all we did was
take that money and go repeatthe process on another property.
So essentially, you're recyclingmoney, the same money every
single time, and scaling yourportfolio. The cool thing about
it is if you do thissuccessfully, you can get an
infinite return because you'repulling all your money out of
(29:11):
it. So everything, you know, nowis just the the the lender's
money in the deal, you'regetting a return every single
month.
So it's called an infinitereturn because none of your
individual money is in it. Plus,something I pointed out is that
anytime you get a loan, youdon't pay taxes on the loan. So
it's just money in your pocket.In this particular example, we
were able to take out in in theloan more than we invested to
(29:33):
get it, you know, buy it and fixit up. So that's just extra
money in your pocket.
You don't pay taxes on it. Neveron a loan. So that's the 2
strategies I recommend forsomebody just starting out.
Scott Hack (29:43):
Which of those nine strategies do you think does not
make sense, at at in mostinstances? So if you were to
say, hey. I'm gonna take thislist of 9, and we're gonna cut
it down to a list of 8. Whichone would you take off the list?
For for all instances, abeginner as well as, you know,
someone that already has aportfolio, which one do you
think is the least attractive?
Antonio Cousin (30:03):
Okay. Given the the current environment we're
in, I would say short termrentals. And that's because what
I've seen is a lot of differentordinances, well, municipalities
are creating are making it alittle harder. Like, for
example, in New Orleans, theyhad a big thing where they
(30:24):
basically are limiting theamount of short term rental
permits that go out now becausethey felt like a lot of
investors were buying theseproperties and putting them on
short term rental, which washurting the local market, the
rental demand well, not thedemand, but hurting the rental
supply in the markets becausepeople need to rent. But if
you're buying up all theproperties and putting them on
short term rentals, that'smaking a number of available
(30:46):
housing lower.
And, you know, they have thelobbyists for the hotels. You
know, that's a big touristyarea. So the hotels were not
feeling it too much. So, theymade it really, really difficult
right now. They have a a they'renot giving any, actually, right
now, short term rental permits.
So if you have one and itexpires in a year, you know,
they're not they're probably notgonna renew you. So it's just
(31:06):
making it real difficult.Another example in Atlanta, a
lot of people are buying theseproperties and, you know,
putting them on short termrental. And Atlanta said, you
know what? We're gonna cut putan end to this, and we're only
gonna allow each person to have2 permits.
So just imagine those people whoare buying multiple properties.
Now they have to figure out aexit strategy. Am I gonna rent
(31:26):
it out, or am I gonna sell it?So that's that's the environment
we're in right now with shortterm rentals. They could change
the laws at any moment.
So that's one of those that I'mpersonally not investing in. I
don't even own any short termrentals because I just don't
like the the amount of work ittakes. Mhmm. I don't have that
kind of time. And, yes, I couldhire a manager to do it, but I'm
just not interested in doingthat.
(31:47):
And, so that's short termrentals. I wouldn't do that.
Another one, I'm a get you onemore. More. Wholesaling.
So wholesaling, that's the thepeople you see with abandoned
signs around town that says webuy houses, any condition, you
know, that kind of thing. Thoseabandoned signs you'll see
everywhere. That's a wholesale.Essentially, what they do is
they get the house on thecontract from somebody who's in
(32:08):
a distressed situation. Maybethey don't wanna list with an
agent because it needs work.
That's most more times out 9times out of 10, that's gonna be
the situation. They don't have,funds to fix it up, or they just
don't want people coming throughtheir house, whatever. So the
the wholesaler get it undercontract for, let's say,
$50,000, then they'll go findend user who's a buyer to buy
that contract from them for,let's say, $60,000. And they'll
(32:31):
keep the 10,000 in the middleonce they close it. So that's
what a wholesaler does.
The reason I said, I added thatto the list because right now in
in different states, differentcities, you're starting to see
that pop up where they'restarting to question the
legality of it. I know inLouisiana, I don't know what's
the situation on it, but I knowcongress, they were trying to
put in where you had to have areal estate license to do
(32:52):
wholesaling because they feltlike it was taking advantage of
people. And some wholesalers areare like that where they will
take advantage of you. They wantyou to use their paperwork, but
the the paperwork is gonnaprotect them, which I
understand. But in the example Ijust gave on the, in the slides
at the presentation, I justshowed them a property that I
buy a property I bought.
I'm sorry. Property I boughtfrom a wholesaler. I I love
(33:13):
wholesalers because they outthere doing the work to find
these properties that I don'thave time to do. So I I don't
mind buying from a wholesale ifthe numbers make sense. They
they serve a purpose.
Scott Hack (33:22):
Yeah.
Antonio Cousin (33:23):
But that's that's what I would say.
Scott Hack (33:24):
I I think that, Kentucky is a similar market to
Louisiana and that we have beenrecently trying to put laws in
place. They did pass somethingthat says that a wholesaler
needs to be a licensed agent.But the enforcement of it and
the way that they wrote itdoesn't necessarily, doesn't
really make it have a lot ofteeth yet. I think that it was a
(33:45):
good good try initially, andand, obviously, they'll have to
make another pass at it to tomake it a little bit better. But
I agree.
Wholesaling is certainly afunction of the market that
needs to exist, but there'sdefinitely, an ethics situation
that comes into play when peopleare essentially just taking
advantage of people.
Liz Hack (34:03):
Yep. Antonio, I had a question for you. If if you were
to go back and, besides that onere regret that you had about
waiting so long and you were togo back and and be able to tell
yourself, hey. Don't do thisthing. What would it be so that
people can learn from it as theyget into investment portfolios?
Antonio Cousin (34:28):
So my one thing would be don't wait. Just do it.
Just do it and course correct.Like, you have to take action.
Stop, like Scott mentionedearlier.
What was it? Paralysis? Byanalysis?
Scott Hack (34:39):
Yeah. Analysis paralysis.
Antonio Cousin (34:41):
Analysis paralysis. Yeah. That was me.
Like, I always felt like I justneeded to know one more thing.
And then I'll get that one morething, and then I'll come up
with something else.
I continue to let fear stop me,and that's one of life's biggest
regrets for me. Never again.
Liz Hack (34:55):
When you decide to buy that office building, would you
suggest people buy, a resident aresidence? Or would you suggest
them to to to do what you did,which is buy an office space
first?
Antonio Cousin (35:09):
No. I never so currently, in this this market
we're in right now, office is inthe dumps. Yeah. I would not
recommend you buy an office. Youdefinitely wanna start with
residential.
But I would just say this,residential for sure, go with
what you're familiar with,though. So if you're familiar
with single families, duplexes,traffic, whatever, just do
something you're familiar withand get help along the way.
(35:29):
Don't don't think you have to doeverything. Don't even think you
have to buy everything byyourself. Like, partner with
people that's that's have a,like, interest as you, and you
can grow from each other.
Like, don't be afraid to just doit. If if that's what's stopping
you, you know, you feel like youdon't know enough. Partner with
somebody that does, and you canfind those partners everywhere
these days. YouTube Universitygive you all the information,
(35:51):
but going to your local realestate investment associations,
like the local RIAs, they'llhelp. You can get on Facebook
and type in, you know, your yourcity and real estate investing
behind it.
I'm sure you'll find a groupthat does some real estate
investment in your area. You canget on meetup.com. There's
bigger pockets. There's so manyopportunities and so many
avenues now to connect with likeminded people and get those, get
(36:13):
those skills that you'remissing. And I told them in the
class, I said there's 3 when itcomes to investing, real estate
investing, specifically.
There's 3 different areas youwanna, to look for. So there's
the capital. Do you have thecapital for it? Do you have the
time? Or do you have the skills?
If you're lacking one of those,then find somebody that has it
and partner with them. Them. Butthose are the three things. So
(36:34):
capital, time, and skills. Ifyou don't have all 3, find
someone that does.
Scott Hack (36:40):
So skipping ahead a little bit, Antonio, to,
basically the end of yourpresentation. So you did you did
your presentation, and yourpresentation was for roughly an
hour. So after your presentationwas over, what are some of the
questions that some of theaudience members came up to you
and you all had discussions withlater that day and into the
night?
Antonio Cousin (36:57):
Okay. So the way I ended the presentation, I had
a quote on the screen by HarleyDates. It says, when writing the
story of your life, don't letanyone else hold the pen. And
what I was saying by that wasdon't leave your livelihood up
to the economy and its impact onthe housing market. Take control
by diversifying your incomestream.
So I after that, I going into,you know, the following week
(37:20):
weeks since then, I've talked tomultiple people. I gotta like to
connect with people that have meat conferences, especially if
you have a good vibe. And it'sbeen more so, like, just trying
to, better understand where theyshould start. And I'm just like,
you gotta start. I'm here tohelp, but I I've been teaching
real estate investment everysingle Tuesday night for the
last it's me and 4 other people.
We've been doing it every singleTuesday night since August of
(37:42):
2020. And we do a differenttopic every single Tuesday. We
have investors not investors.Other people come in that has a
specialty and teach. You know,their specialty to the group is
about 700 members in there, butnot everybody shows up because
it's free.
But it's on Zoom. And, we'vebeen doing it for that long. So
I always invite people there ifthey're interested in learning
(38:02):
more. I have books. So I've beenI sold some books at the
conference too, by the way.
But I have one from listed tosold, 55 expert strategies to
selling your home in any market.And originally, I had that book.
I put it out to send to for saleby owners and as a lead capture
mechanism. But what I realized,a lot of realtors were buying
the book because it teaches youhow to sell a house. So then I I
(38:23):
curved my marketing to torealtor.
So I sold that book. I haveanother one, on it's called I'm
Out Escaping the Rat Race 1Income Stream at a Time. And
it's basically documenting how Iescaped the rat race and how you
can do it too. That one's gearedto more than 9 to 5 employee
that wants to get out and don'tknow how. But, yeah, sold those
books and the conversationssince then has just been
building, just growing therelationship.
(38:44):
Hopefully, I can get somereferrals out of it. If anybody
wanna invest down here and viceversa, I can send some
referrals. You'll wait. Butthat's all it's been about, just
building those relationships,
Liz Hack (38:53):
growing. That's what we like to hear. Right? We like
to hear people creatingrelationships and building that
community. So it's because it'snot just your market, but, that
we that you can serve.
You can serve so many other,people in different markets as
well.
Scott Hack (39:10):
So, Antonio, you mentioned your books. How can
people get those books? Wherewhere are they located at?
Antonio Cousin (39:17):
So I have a course as well, but all of this
is gonna be ongotincomestream.com. That's
www.gotincomestreams.com.
Scott Hack (39:27):
And then, how is the best way for someone to connect
with you? If they've gotspecific questions, they wanna
have a conversation with you,they wanna send you a referral,
to Baton Rouge or to, NewOrleans or somewhere in between.
How is the best way for someoneto connect with you?
Antonio Cousin (39:44):
So the easiest, I'm heavy on social media,
especially Instagram. I I postevery single day. Except last
year, I I missed 2 days, thewhole year. So I went 363 or 365
last year. I was upset too.
It's 2 Sundays I'll neverforget. I just forgot to post.
But cousin, c o u s I n, sales,s e l l s l a, is my Instagram,
(40:07):
YouTube, and TikTok handle. Socousin sales LA, and I'm pretty
much on there regularly. I keepmy notifications off, but I
check it multiple times per day.
If you wanna call me, it's504-220-7297. That's my cell,
direct cell. And if you'reinterested in investing in
Louisiana Southeast theSoutheast market specifically,
(40:27):
you could just go toantoniocousin.com.
Scott Hack (40:32):
Alright. That's awesome. Real quick before we
jot out, any last words forpeople that are, you know,
they're inspired. They've beenlistening. They're they they
solve the What's
Liz Hack (40:43):
that first step?
Scott Hack (40:44):
Yeah. The 5, the 5 things and the 9 ways. So so
they're ready to pull thetrigger. What what is the what
is the last piece of advice youwanna give people?
Antonio Cousin (40:53):
Take action. Just start. You can course
correct along the way, but youhave to start.
Scott Hack (40:58):
It sounds like it sounds like a Nike commercial.
Liz Hack (41:00):
Just do it. Yeah. Antonio, we've I've got on my
bucket list to come down and seea parade there in New Orleans.
Scott Hack (41:10):
You should. So It's
Antonio Cousin (41:11):
a great time. Especially the last 2 weeks
before Mardi Gras. Yeah. Youdefinitely should.
Liz Hack (41:18):
It's on the list. I don't think I've told Scott yet,
but now he knows. Thanks forbeing here with us, Antonio.
This has been awesome. It'salways good to hear from you.
Antonio Cousin (41:27):
Absolutely. I had a good time. Thank y'all for
having me.
Liz Hack (41:30):
That was Antonio Cousins from Service First Real
Estate, from Baton Rouge to NewOrleans, Louisiana.
Announcer (41:38):
That's a wrap for this episode of the Real Estate
Distilled Podcast.Visitrealestatedistilled.com for
more tips, and jump into ourFacebook group to keep the
conversation going. Here's tomaking every transaction a
smooth pour. Cheers.
Bought the first property, which was a commercial
office building in 2018, and nowI currently own over 253 doors.
6 year time frame. So I can onlyimagine had I started when I
should have started, where Iwould be now. So I didn't
technically lose a $1,000,000 incash, but I lost the opportunity
to purchase properties at thebottom when I knew it was the
right thing to do. I continue tolet fear stop me.
Announcer (00:22):
Welcome to the Real Estate Distilled Podcast. Get
ready for a smooth pour oninsights on sales, marketing,
lead conversion, and technology.All shaken, stirred, and
perfectly balanced to help yousucceed in real estate. Mixed
(00:44):
just for you.
Liz Hack (00:48):
Hey. It's Liz Hack here with Scott Hack, your
enthusiastic host for RealEstate Distilled, the podcast.
We are back with another greatepisode. This time, who we
having on today?
Scott Hack (01:01):
Mister Antonio Cousin.
Liz Hack (01:03):
And Antonio is from the great state of Louisiana.
Scott Hack (01:07):
Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge.
Liz Hack (01:09):
We like saying that, don't we?
Scott Hack (01:11):
Yes. We do.
Liz Hack (01:12):
Antonio is gonna talk about investing again. He was
one of our breakout speakersfrom the 2024 conference. People
were out the door, listening,standing, wanting to hear what
Antonio had to say. So, stickaround for some of the great
information that Antonio's gonnashare with us today on the Real
(01:33):
Estate Distilled podcast.
Scott Hack (01:35):
Thanks, everybody, for joining us. And as a really
quick note, we recorded ourconversation with Antonio
sometime in either March orApril, and it's now December
when we're finally releasingthat. So if you hear any
references to things about theconference last month or a few
weeks ago, just know thatthere's a little bit of delay
there. But Antonio is a wealthof knowledge. He has a
(01:58):
background in, banking andfinance, So that is one of the
reasons why he has made such aeffortless leap into being a
landlord and doing investing.
So
Liz Hack (02:07):
Basically killing it.
Scott Hack (02:08):
Yeah. So we're we're excited to share with you a
little bit more from Antonio,and and share the story with
you.
Antonio Cousin (02:17):
I'm here. I'm happy to be here as well.
Scott Hack (02:20):
Awesome. So Antonio's coming us to us today
from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.He's got a independent brokerage
there, Service First RealEstate, that covers, all of
Southeast Louisiana betweenBaton Rouge and into New
Orleans. So thanks again forjoining us, Antonio.
Antonio Cousin (02:37):
Thank you for having me.
Scott Hack (02:39):
So you were one of our speakers at Real Estate
Distilled this year, and youattended in 2023 as well. So, we
get to spend some time togetherand over the past couple of
years and gotten to know eachother. And I know your talk this
year was, really popular. We,
Liz Hack (02:57):
Yeah. The room was packed. Yeah. Like, standing
room only for Antonio.
Scott Hack (03:02):
So one of the, the goals of our podcast today in
getting you on is to basicallyshare some information from your
talk because we ran with amultitrack setup this year. So
there were people who attendedthe conference that might have
wanted to hear your discussion,but weren't able to because they
were in a different room. So,I'm going to, step away from the
(03:24):
mic and let you, step throughwhat, you know, the the premise
of your talk was and and,basically, give people a high
level, overview of what yourdiscussion was and really what
you wanted people to take awayfrom it.
Antonio Cousin (03:37):
Okay. So first off, I would say this, that I
will be there in 2025 as well.Looking forward to it. That's
gonna be one of my annualconferences because I like the
small knit community as well asthe information. So I I feel
like I was able to talk toalmost every single person that
attended this year, which wasamazing in my opinion instead of
having those 1,000 peopleconferences where you can't
(03:59):
really get to talk to people.
So I felt like, that was great.That was a really good benefit.
I enjoyed that part of it, and Iwill be there in 2025 and going
forward. So We can't wait tohear you. With this.
Thank you. My topic at the,conference was unlocking your
earning potential beyond realestate sales. And the reason I
decided on this topic is becausejust looking at the numbers.
(04:22):
Right? The data.
So the National Association ofRealtors, they put out that
every year, and something thatstood out to me was existing
home sales. So if you go back to2021, existing home sales were
6,100,000 and 5,500,000 in 2022and then 4,100,000 in 2023. So
it's showing a trend. Right? Soexisting home sales have
(04:45):
declined for 3 straight years.
Mhmm. So looking at the numbers,it's a very high probability
that the majority of people thatwent to the conference also had
some kind of decrease in theirbusiness over the last year
compared to 2022, me, myselfincluded. So my speech was more
so behind increasing your incomewithout just relying on real
(05:06):
estate sales. Because I feellike we, as agents, like, we
have access to the to the theproperties. Right?
We're pushing these propertieson people, but we're not
investing in them ourselves. Andthat's a real big problem in my
opinion. So I just started itoff by telling everybody my
story. I think that helpedbecause I I captured their their
(05:27):
attention right away. I toldthem, you know, who I was.
Basically, I've been licensedsince 2010. I started in Dallas,
Texas. And then I want me and mywife, we got engaged, and we
wanted to move home to well,first of all, we got engaged. I
got my license because I wantedto help pay for the wedding. I
didn't wanna have to go in debtfor a wedding.
I know a lot of people do that,and I just don't subscribe to
(05:48):
that. So I got my license justto make some extra money. At the
time, I was working as a bankexaminer full time for the
federal government, so I wasdoing a lot of traveling. But I
got the license just to makesome extra money. And my first
sale occurred, I wanna say, ayear and a half into it.
And I just there was somethingabout that sale that just stood
out to me and made me feelspecial. It made me feel good by
(06:09):
helping somebody achieve homeownership. And it was just
something completely differentfrom what I was doing in my full
time career. And I just knewthat that was the way. I didn't
wanna, you know, work as a bankexaminer because I didn't see
the value in it.
I didn't see the the end userbenefit. So, I did the both of
them simultaneously for a numberof years. I actually just quit
the bank examiner job inDecember of 2021. So for 11
(06:32):
years, I was working both at thesame time.
Scott Hack (06:34):
Uh-huh.
Antonio Cousin (06:35):
But I started it off by telling them my story. So
my story goes like this. In2007, I read a book called Rich
Dad Poor Dad. 1 of my friendsrecommended it to me. When I
read that book, you know, at thetime, I I knew that was my way
out.
Real estate was gonna be my wayout. So I began searching for
answers. Because Rich Dad PoorDad in and of itself is just a
(06:55):
mindset book. It doesn't giveyou any type of technical advice
of telling you how to get intoreal estate. So I started off by
talking about that and justletting everybody know how I
lost a $1,000,000.
So I read the book. I startedgoing to all kind of
conferences, reading more bookson real estate investing,
attending networking meetings.However, I didn't take any
action. And a lot of peopleprobably have my same or a
(07:19):
similar situation growing upwhere they don't have access to
the resources or friends orfamily that's doing real estate
investing. So I was scared to doit.
So I read that book in 2 2007.You know, the market crashed in
2,008, so properties werereally, really cheap starting
about 2,008 going into 2,009. Istill didn't take action because
I was scared. So 2,010 rollsaround. As you as you probably
(07:41):
remember, during that time,there was a tax credit incentive
to incentivize homeownership bythe federal government.
It was $8,000. So I figured I'djust start there. Plus, I was
tired of, you know, hearingeverything my neighbors were
doing. I was in an apartment atthe time. When I say everything,
I mean everything.
You could hear everything theywere doing. And so I knew I had
to get out of the apartment. Somy my fiance and I at the time,
(08:04):
we went ahead and bought thehouse. We got the $8,000 tax
credit, but I still didn't getfeel satisfied. So that was in
2010.
Bought my single familyresidence, my owner occupied
property. Right? So about 2years later, Warren Buffett, he
purchased 420 Acres right by me.And Toyota moved at North
American headquarters less thana mile away from my house. So
(08:24):
property values skyrocketed.
But 2010 to 2016, I still didn'tpurchase anything because I was
scared. I always felt like Ineed to know more or I need to
know I need to do a little morehomework about this or I need to
do you know, I just I let fearstop me. So I didn't purchase
anything during that time frame.We moved back home in 2016
because we wanted to start afamily, and we wanted to be
(08:44):
close to the family to help usraise the kids. So I moved back
in 2016.
We sold our house that wepurchased in 2010. We sold it
for 6 figures more than we paidfor it. Put it on the market. We
had 6 offers all over askingprice on the very first date.
That's how hot that area was.
So we took that that profit.Obviously, we didn't pay our
taxes on it because y'all knowabout the the capital gains
(09:06):
exclusion on the primaryresidence that the IRS allows
you for. So that became our seedcapital. So moved back home
2016, I still didn't buy nothingbecause I was scared. And then
one day in 2018, I just saidforget it.
Like, I've been putting it offall this time. I went ahead and
I purchased an office building.So it's not your traditional,
(09:26):
you know, single familyresidence, probably what most
investors do for the first one.I didn't do that. And I I don't
even know why I purchased theoffice, but I did it.
That was in 2018. And it just sohappened that that's where our
brokerage is based out of now.But I kinda I have a situation
where it was rented. It'sbasically one office with 4
individual offices. And when Ibought it, all 4 offices were
(09:47):
rented.
So it's like a house hadsituation to a office building,
which is crazy. It's different.But 2,007 all the way to 2018, I
let 11 years go by withoutpurchasing anything. Although I
knew what I wanted to do, and Iknew real estate investment was
gonna be the way for me, but Iwas scared. So I left fear.
And if you think about it, like,back then, property values were
(10:08):
so low. So I could have made somuch money had I just taken
action ins instead ofoveranalyzing. So at this point
in time, you know, I bought thefirst property, which was a
commercial office building in2018, and now I currently own
over 253 doors. So that's in a 6period 6 year time frame. So I
can only imagine had I startedwhen I shoulda started where I
(10:30):
would be now.
So I didn't technically lose a$1,000,000 in cash, but I lost
the opportunity to purchaseproperties at the bottom when I
knew it was the right thing todo. I continue to let fear stop
me. So one thing I wanna, youknow, let everybody know out
there that's listening is youwill never know everything.
Sometimes you just have to startand course correct along the
way. So I started off like that,telling them about my story just
(10:52):
so they have an idea of whothey're talking to.
And then from there, I told themmy objective, which was to show
you other ways to generateincome outside of the hustle and
bustle of selling real estate.Because that they know, like, a
lot of people, they they focus alot of realtors, they don't own
real estate. Or they theythey're basically depending on
the next sale to survive, and Idon't want you to be like that.
(11:13):
And
Scott Hack (11:14):
I'm I'm sorry.
Antonio Cousin (11:15):
You're about to take some
Scott Hack (11:15):
Analysis paralysis, I mean, for sure, that that's
definitely something that thethat we're stuck with. You're
right. There's there's no what'swhat's the one of the sayings
that, you know, I hear a lot ofpeople talk about? Like, don't
wait to buy real estate. Buyreal estate and wait.
Yep. Yeah. So absolutely.
Antonio Cousin (11:35):
A 100% agree. So that that's just one thing.
That's 11 years that I wasted,that I will always regret. But,
you know, I'm still doing goodnow, but I'm just imagining what
I could've been had I done itback then. But, my objective was
just to show the listeners orthe the audience that they need
to diversify the income and notbe fully 100% relying on selling
(11:56):
real estate.
And I I I brought up the pointof how we're experts in the
area. We know the market as wedo this on a day to day basis.
So why aren't we investing init? And I told them that if this
doesn't resonate with them, youknow, at least they can take the
information because you becomemore valuable to your clients
when you have the knowledge. Sothe more I always tell my agents
this or the the agents that Ipartner with at the brokerage.
(12:18):
I don't like to call them myagents. But, I say the more
knowledge knowledgeable you are,the more valuable you become.
And I truly mean that. So I fromthere, I went on talking about
the 5 different, ways that realestate pays you. Most people are
aware of the cash flow.
That's the amount of money youkeep each month. So the amount
of money you bring in from rentminus all your expenses for that
(12:40):
property, whatever you have leftover, that's the cash flow. Then
I talked about appreciationslash equity capture.
Everybody's familiar withappreciation. You know, over
time, property values go up evenin the hood over the long period
of time, but they go up invalue.
And then equity capture, as yourtenant is paying down the
mortgage or as your tenant ismaking their rent payments,
you're paying down the mortgageif you have one, which is
(13:02):
increasing your equity in theproperty. Then depreciation,
that will be the third thing. Ididn't really go into too much
details here because this onecan be a little tricky and
confusing. But, essentially, thegovernment, they offer so many
tax advantages and encouragesinvestors to buy real estate.
The tax laws, the way I look atit, is basically like the brew
the blueprint and teach you howto play the game if you wanna
win.
With depreciation, essentially,their government is providing
(13:24):
you with an incentive to buyinvestment real estate, and it
allows you to pay a lesseramount in taxes on the actual
cash flow that you bring in. Soyou can look it up if you're
interested. Residentialproperty, you could depreciate
over 27 and a half years. But,yeah. So it allows you to keep
more money in your pocket andthen leverage.
The banks are gonna be willingto finance you up to 85% on the
investment property. Youbasically make the banks your
(13:46):
partner and keep all theownership benefits. So you get
to keep the cash flow, theappreciation, and the
depreciation tax write off. Andthen the 5th one, the most one
of the most important ones thatpeople don't really understand
is called inflation profiting.Basically, by borrowing money
from the bank, you're locking ina loan in today's dollars.
We all know how inflationincreases and shrinks your
(14:06):
purchasing power. But with realestate, when you're borrowing
money, you are locking in thatamount, and the bank can't
require you to pay more thanthat said amount. So we can all
agree that 30 years from now, xamount of dollars won't be
looked at the same as it istoday. However, that doesn't
matter because that's theagreement we signed with the
bank, and they can't make us paya penny more unless you default,
of course. But over time, you'llget wage increases, you'll make
(14:28):
more money, but you've locked inthat amount owed to the bank.
So let's say if I lock in a aprincipal interest payment to
the bank of $1,000, 10, 15 yearsfrom now, I'm still paying that
back $1,000 with cheaper dollarsbecause we know that the the
value of the dollar goes downevery single day because of
inflation. So they're basicallythe banks are your friend and
not the enemy. You just have toknow how to use them to your
(14:48):
advantage. That's the 5 waysreal estate pays you. I I turn
it back over to you, Scott,because I feel like I'm talking
too much.
Scott Hack (14:54):
No. No. All that I mean, that's all awesome. And
and that's definitely what Iwanted to do is stay out of your
way and let you, share yourexpertise. I think that, number
5 is super interesting.
You know, just as a side topicto your conversation because we
are in a an environment rightnow where as you were talking
about the number of transactionshas been declining. And I think
that it would not be a stretchto say one of the reasons why we
(15:18):
are seeing a decline in thenumber of transactions is
because so many people havelocked in an interest rate on
their mortgage that is, let'sjust let's say sub 4 4%. So they
are you know, even on a primaryresidence, they're taking
advantage of that. What whatterm did you call number 5,
inflation locking?
Antonio Cousin (15:38):
Profit inflation profiting.
Scott Hack (15:39):
Inflation profiting. So, I mean, I think that there's
a lot of people that, are takingadvantage of that. I had a
conversation with, the agents atmy brokerage probably about a
month ago, and we startedrunning through some near
scenarios where there's apossibility for some move up
buyers that it makes more sensefor them to keep their primary
(16:01):
residence and convert it to arental and then apply that cash
flow to the mortgage on a newprimary residence instead of
selling and moving up, Justkeeping that primary residence
as a rental and starting theirportfolio.
Antonio Cousin (16:16):
Yeah. I 100% agree. I looked at a stat
recently. I just we talked aboutthis. I wanna say 2 or 3 weeks
ago on my podcast, I have apodcast called the Financial
Flows Podcast.
And there's a stat that Redfinput out that said 83% of all
homeowners that had a mortgageunder, were under 5%. So,
essentially, why would you sellthat 5% or lower mark of a house
(16:40):
to buy a 7% house that that'sgonna probably be more
expensive. It just doesn't makefinancial sense. Right? I'm I'm
I wish I would have taken takenadvantage of those low interest
rates more because I bought afew properties.
I try to buy at least 1 a year,but I wish I had bought more. I
have some, investment propertieswith 3.25, 3.6, 3.9. It's
(17:00):
basically look like a looked atlike an asset now having that
low of a debt. You know? Ityeah.
So I do wish I had takenadvantage of it. I didn't.
Scott Hack (17:08):
Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. So you
went through and shared aboutwho who you were and your
history, and then you wentthrough and laid out your the 5,
the 5 ways that real estatepays. And then and then what
what did you do from there?
Antonio Cousin (17:24):
Talked about the disadvantages, which is,
obviously, you can't sell itimmediately. It's not liquid
like a stock. Down paymentrequirements, whenever it's an
investment property, it'streated differently than if
you're gonna live in it and ownor occupy the property. So down
payment, you know, for singlefamily, you're looking at 15%.
Multi family, you're looking at25%.
There are certain exclusionsjust depending on the property
(17:44):
because I have done it beforewhere I didn't pay anything down
for an investment property, butit was a renovation loan. And I
bought it at such a peakdiscount that, the value was
there where the bank didn'trequire me to put anything down.
And then ongoing maintenance. Soyou're responsible for fixing
anything that breaks. And I toldthem about how on January 8th
this year, one of my propertiesgot hit by lightning.
(18:05):
It didn't catch fire. Wow. Whenthe lightning hit the property,
it, basically knocked out themotherboard on the oven, on the
tankless water heater. Itknocked out the blower motor on
the HVAC. It It knocked it didsomething to the coil on the
HVAC.
It knocked out a lot of the theoutlets in the house, the camera
system that she put in. And whatelse? It knocked out a few more.
(18:27):
The garbage disposal stoppedworking. So I thought that I can
get all these things donewithout having to go through
insurance because I have thetheir their, contacts.
Right? So I thought my refer mymy deductible is 25100. I
thought I can get it done forless. But I ended up spending
$4,086. I was so upset.
I could've just filed aninsurance claim. But $4,086
(18:48):
later, we got it back together,and everything is fine now. But
I just wish I had just filedthat claim to save that $1500.
Yeah. That's the thing, ongoingmaintenance and then tenants.
You have to deal with tenants.Sometimes that could be a good
thing. Sometimes it could be abad thing. I'm working on
training my tenants better tostop calling me or texting me so
late. I'm on do not disturbanyway, but it just bothers me
(19:10):
when I wake up the next morningand see a late text.
Something about that just hurtsme. But, after the the
disadvantages, then we wentthrough and I talked about which
was the core concept of what Iwant to share with the people,
which was different real estateinvestment methods. So I went
through 9 different ones. Thereare a ton of them out there, but
I just honed in on 9 differentones. And I showed exactly,
(19:31):
like, pros and cons of all 9, aswell as case studies showing
some of my properties as well assome of my client's property.
And those 9
Scott Hack (19:39):
Yeah. You said well, yeah. Let's let's list them in.
I'm I'm curious to hear whichone are the ones that you think
are most viable in today'smarket.
Antonio Cousin (19:46):
Perfect. Okay. So the 9 include buy and hold,
which is your traditional, youknow, buy a property. I run it
out. Hold it for the long term.
Then the second one was theBRRRR strategy. Basically, buy
what is it? Buy, renovate.
Scott Hack (19:59):
Refinance.
Antonio Cousin (20:00):
Buy, renovate, rent, refinance, and repeat.
Then fix and flips, you know,that's everybody's familiar with
fixing and flipping. That's theHGTV stuff you see on TV, but
it's not really like that inreal life. Woah. Short term
rentals.
Short term rentals was number 4.REITs, real estate investment
trust was number 5. Wholesaling,number 6. Syndications, number
(20:24):
7. Crowdfunding, 8.
And then house hacking, number9. And then I went through pros
and cons of all 9 and just showsome examples, like my
properties and numbers, thingslike that.
Scott Hack (20:37):
I don't know if I know the difference between
syndication and a REIT in, thegrand scheme of things.
Antonio Cousin (20:45):
Okay. Well, let's talk about it. Okay. So
with syndications, that's gonnabe where you have a GP, general
partner, and a LP, limitedpartner. And a GP is the person
that's responsible for and I sayperson, but it could be multiple
people.
But they're the people that goout and find the deal. They put
the business plan together. Sois it a value add opportunity
(21:08):
where we're gonna go in, fix theproperty up, fix the units up,
raise the rent to increase thevalue? They're gonna be the ones
signing on a note responsiblefor the debt. And the LPs are
gonna be the ones that'sbasically putting up the money,
like, putting up the equity inthe property, and they're
getting a return.
Right? That's monthly,quarterly, whatever the the
(21:28):
structure, however that'sfigured out. And so I had an
example on the screen of a 240unit apartment complex that I'm
actually the owner in. It's inDalton, Georgia, which is, north
of Atlanta, south ofChattanooga. But it's the,
Chattanooga MSA.
So it's, you know, that thatarea. But it's they call it the
corp the carpet capital of theworld. So that's where most of
(21:51):
the carpet is made. Real bluecollar. You know?
But a syndication, essentially,you you wanna put that together
because in this deal, forinstance, this is $25,000,000.
Like, who has $25,000,000 topurchase a property? So you have
to go out and raise that money.The debt, you have to get that
financed, you know, through alender. But then the equity
side, you have to raise thatfrom limited partners where they
(22:12):
put up money and they getthey're expecting a profit.
A quote some some form of profitfrom the cash flow of the
property, but when you sell atthe end of the that holding
period, whatever that is, inthis case, it was 5 years. So we
bought this in August of 2021.The goal was to sell it in 2026.
Sell it for more than you know,we paid, obviously, of
25,000,000. It's worth about31,000,000 now, 32,000,000,
(22:34):
something like that.
Because the the value of incomeproperty, specifically large
multifamily, is based on thevalue that the net operating
income that the propertyprovides. So if you go in there,
you fix it up, and you increasethe rent, you just increase the
value of the property. So that'swhy I say it's worth around 31,
32,000,000 now because we'vegone in, fixed up the units, and
(22:55):
have increased the property'svalue because now we're getting
more rent than we were before.
Scott Hack (22:59):
You've increased the cash flow, basically.
Antonio Cousin (23:01):
Yeah. So the pros and I talked about it from
the LP perspective because mostpeople in the room would
probably be far more likely togo from the LP route right away
than trying to tackle this kindof deal on their own from the GP
side. So from the LP side, thepros will be geographic
diversification because you caninvest anyway. I just told you.
I'm in Louisiana, and I and thatproperty is in Georgia.
(23:23):
It's a 100% passive investmentbecause all you're doing is
putting up money and collectinga return. You're not responsible
for the debt either. The GPs aregonna be the one signing on the
debt, not the LPs. As far ascons, it's not liquid. You
literally have to wait into theproperty sales or refinances to
get out of it and then lack ofcontrol.
Essentially, you're relying on atrack record of the operator.
(23:45):
You don't have any control. Youmake no decisions. Things like
that. And you mentioned what wasit?
The REITs? You asked about theREITs. Yeah. So that's a real
estate investment trust.Essentially, what that is is
it's just like a stock or it'sreal similar to a stock where
you own shares of multipleproperties.
And I gave an example of 1 on onthe in a slideshow. It was an
(24:07):
apartment income REIT.Essentially, that particular
REIT owns 76 different apartmentcommunities in set in 10
different states. And you canjust buy it, you know, on the
open market. So the pros wouldbe they provide real high yield
dividends or high dividendyields, I should say.
The the law requires them todispose 90% of taxable income to
(24:27):
the shareholders, so that's whythe dividend yields are so high.
And And then you get access tocommercial real estate without a
substantial amount of capital. Ithink the one I put on the board
was, like, $38 or $42 a share.So it's just like a stock as far
as that. And then it's highlyliquid.
You could just sell it. You cansell it right now on a on a open
market. Just click a button andit sells just like that. But as
(24:47):
far as the cons, there are taxeson those dividends in addition
to your ordinary income tax. Youhave something called a cert a
surtax, which is 3.8%.
So it's a little bit higher thannormal. And then trends trends
influence REITs heavily. Let'ssay, for instance, you invested
into a REIT that only ownshopping malls. Well, as we
know, you know, that's not inhigh demand right now. A lot of
(25:10):
companies are leaving out ofmalls.
So the stock value is probablygonna go down along with it. And
then they're just you gotta lookout for high fees. There's a lot
of fees involved with thisstuff. You just have to read the
fine print, like transactionfees, management fees, things
like that. But, yeah, that'sthat's those 2.
But I went over 9 different oneswith examples.
Scott Hack (25:29):
Well, I don't I'm not gonna get too much deeper in
that. I'm curious to hear whichone of those 9 methods are your
preferred and which ones youthink would work best in today's
market.
Antonio Cousin (25:41):
So depending on the point of view, are you
talking about from, like,someone that's starting out,
they don't have a portfolio, andthey just wanna get started?
Scott Hack (25:49):
Yeah. Let's let's use that perspective.
Antonio Cousin (25:52):
Okay. So if I was that person, I would 100
well, it's 2 things. Let me canI highlight 2?
Scott Hack (25:57):
Yeah. Absolutely. It's 3 if you think it's
necessary.
Antonio Cousin (26:01):
So if I was just starting out, I had minimal
income, minimal capital, I woulddo the house hacking strategy.
Because you're gonna occupy theproperty with a lower down
payment because you're gonnalive there for a year and run
out that's where you basicallyyou either run out rooms within
your house or you could if youget a multifamily 2 to 4 unit,
you could run out the otherunits. So, essentially, you you
(26:24):
occupy that property with alower down payment as opposed to
if you were just an investor.You have to come to the table
with more down. So the thebenefit of it is, you know,
obviously, lower down payment,but, also, you have a tenant
that's hopefully covering yourwhole mortgage.
If not, the whole mortgage isdefinitely, you know, covering a
large substantial amount becausetaxes and housing are our
(26:46):
largest expenses. So if you canget that partially eliminated or
completely eliminated, you'll befar ahead. And then on the, in
the slides, I showed an exampleof someone purchasing a single
family house versus someonepurchasing a more expensive
duplex and how the numbers mademore sense to just go to duplex
route because you're reducingthe housing expense
significantly. But the coolthing about it is you only have
(27:08):
to do that for a year, and thenyou can repeat the process and
do it again. Move out of thatunit, purchase another
multifamily, and keep the youonly used to have.
Now you're renting it out. Nowyou you're making even more
money in cash flow. That's howyou build your portfolio and
just do that over and over. Thesecond strategy I want to
mention is the BRRRR strategy.The reason I like that one is
(27:28):
and I show as an example on thescreen of a property that me and
some of my partners did.
That one, you're basicallybuying a property that needs
work. Right? So you find a valueadd opportunity. You put money
into it to buy it. You put moneyinto it to rehab it, and then
you rent it out.
Then you find a bank that'sgonna be willing to give you a
(27:49):
loan on the property. So thatway, once you get the loan on
the property, you can get allyour money back or most of your
money. Hopefully, you can getall of it out. The example I
showed on the screen was a,double wide mobile home that me
and I have an investment groupas well. I didn't mention that,
but it's me and 5 other people.
We put our money together everysingle month, and we buy real
(28:09):
estate with it. So of the 253units, 6, maybe 7, I think 6 of
the units we own. So that that's6 of my 253. So I don't own all
those properties 100%. Andthat's a common misconception.
Like, you don't need to own a100%. You just need to own
something. Something is betterthan nothing. I think I only own
7. Me and my wife, a 100%, only7.
(28:30):
7 units. So that's a commonmisconception I wanted to, you
know, go ahead and address. Butwith the BRRRR strategy,
essentially, we put our moneyinto the property, rented it
out, and then refinance it. Sowhen we refinanced it, we were
able to get all of our cash backthat we used to purchase the
property as well as fix it up.So now we have a loan on it.
We have the property rented, andwe're making a cash flow each
(28:51):
month. The difference betweenthose two numbers and that money
we got back when we refinancedthe property, all we did was
take that money and go repeatthe process on another property.
So essentially, you're recyclingmoney, the same money every
single time, and scaling yourportfolio. The cool thing about
it is if you do thissuccessfully, you can get an
infinite return because you'repulling all your money out of
(29:11):
it. So everything, you know, nowis just the the the lender's
money in the deal, you'regetting a return every single
month.
So it's called an infinitereturn because none of your
individual money is in it. Plus,something I pointed out is that
anytime you get a loan, youdon't pay taxes on the loan. So
it's just money in your pocket.In this particular example, we
were able to take out in in theloan more than we invested to
(29:33):
get it, you know, buy it and fixit up. So that's just extra
money in your pocket.
You don't pay taxes on it. Neveron a loan. So that's the 2
strategies I recommend forsomebody just starting out.
Scott Hack (29:43):
Which of those nine strategies do you think does not
make sense, at at in mostinstances? So if you were to
say, hey. I'm gonna take thislist of 9, and we're gonna cut
it down to a list of 8. Whichone would you take off the list?
For for all instances, abeginner as well as, you know,
someone that already has aportfolio, which one do you
think is the least attractive?
Antonio Cousin (30:03):
Okay. Given the the current environment we're
in, I would say short termrentals. And that's because what
I've seen is a lot of differentordinances, well, municipalities
are creating are making it alittle harder. Like, for
example, in New Orleans, theyhad a big thing where they
(30:24):
basically are limiting theamount of short term rental
permits that go out now becausethey felt like a lot of
investors were buying theseproperties and putting them on
short term rental, which washurting the local market, the
rental demand well, not thedemand, but hurting the rental
supply in the markets becausepeople need to rent. But if
you're buying up all theproperties and putting them on
short term rentals, that'smaking a number of available
(30:46):
housing lower.
And, you know, they have thelobbyists for the hotels. You
know, that's a big touristyarea. So the hotels were not
feeling it too much. So, theymade it really, really difficult
right now. They have a a they'renot giving any, actually, right
now, short term rental permits.
So if you have one and itexpires in a year, you know,
they're not they're probably notgonna renew you. So it's just
(31:06):
making it real difficult.Another example in Atlanta, a
lot of people are buying theseproperties and, you know,
putting them on short termrental. And Atlanta said, you
know what? We're gonna cut putan end to this, and we're only
gonna allow each person to have2 permits.
So just imagine those people whoare buying multiple properties.
Now they have to figure out aexit strategy. Am I gonna rent
(31:26):
it out, or am I gonna sell it?So that's that's the environment
we're in right now with shortterm rentals. They could change
the laws at any moment.
So that's one of those that I'mpersonally not investing in. I
don't even own any short termrentals because I just don't
like the the amount of work ittakes. Mhmm. I don't have that
kind of time. And, yes, I couldhire a manager to do it, but I'm
just not interested in doingthat.
(31:47):
And, so that's short termrentals. I wouldn't do that.
Another one, I'm a get you onemore. More. Wholesaling.
So wholesaling, that's the thepeople you see with abandoned
signs around town that says webuy houses, any condition, you
know, that kind of thing. Thoseabandoned signs you'll see
everywhere. That's a wholesale.Essentially, what they do is
they get the house on thecontract from somebody who's in
(32:08):
a distressed situation. Maybethey don't wanna list with an
agent because it needs work.
That's most more times out 9times out of 10, that's gonna be
the situation. They don't have,funds to fix it up, or they just
don't want people coming throughtheir house, whatever. So the
the wholesaler get it undercontract for, let's say,
$50,000, then they'll go findend user who's a buyer to buy
that contract from them for,let's say, $60,000. And they'll
(32:31):
keep the 10,000 in the middleonce they close it. So that's
what a wholesaler does.
The reason I said, I added thatto the list because right now in
in different states, differentcities, you're starting to see
that pop up where they'restarting to question the
legality of it. I know inLouisiana, I don't know what's
the situation on it, but I knowcongress, they were trying to
put in where you had to have areal estate license to do
(32:52):
wholesaling because they feltlike it was taking advantage of
people. And some wholesalers areare like that where they will
take advantage of you. They wantyou to use their paperwork, but
the the paperwork is gonnaprotect them, which I
understand. But in the example Ijust gave on the, in the slides
at the presentation, I justshowed them a property that I
buy a property I bought.
I'm sorry. Property I boughtfrom a wholesaler. I I love
(33:13):
wholesalers because they outthere doing the work to find
these properties that I don'thave time to do. So I I don't
mind buying from a wholesale ifthe numbers make sense. They
they serve a purpose.
Scott Hack (33:22):
Yeah.
Antonio Cousin (33:23):
But that's that's what I would say.
Scott Hack (33:24):
I I think that, Kentucky is a similar market to
Louisiana and that we have beenrecently trying to put laws in
place. They did pass somethingthat says that a wholesaler
needs to be a licensed agent.But the enforcement of it and
the way that they wrote itdoesn't necessarily, doesn't
really make it have a lot ofteeth yet. I think that it was a
(33:45):
good good try initially, andand, obviously, they'll have to
make another pass at it to tomake it a little bit better. But
I agree.
Wholesaling is certainly afunction of the market that
needs to exist, but there'sdefinitely, an ethics situation
that comes into play when peopleare essentially just taking
advantage of people.
Liz Hack (34:03):
Yep. Antonio, I had a question for you. If if you were
to go back and, besides that onere regret that you had about
waiting so long and you were togo back and and be able to tell
yourself, hey. Don't do thisthing. What would it be so that
people can learn from it as theyget into investment portfolios?
Antonio Cousin (34:28):
So my one thing would be don't wait. Just do it.
Just do it and course correct.Like, you have to take action.
Stop, like Scott mentionedearlier.
What was it? Paralysis? Byanalysis?
Scott Hack (34:39):
Yeah. Analysis paralysis.
Antonio Cousin (34:41):
Analysis paralysis. Yeah. That was me.
Like, I always felt like I justneeded to know one more thing.
And then I'll get that one morething, and then I'll come up
with something else.
I continue to let fear stop me,and that's one of life's biggest
regrets for me. Never again.
Liz Hack (34:55):
When you decide to buy that office building, would you
suggest people buy, a resident aresidence? Or would you suggest
them to to to do what you did,which is buy an office space
first?
Antonio Cousin (35:09):
No. I never so currently, in this this market
we're in right now, office is inthe dumps. Yeah. I would not
recommend you buy an office. Youdefinitely wanna start with
residential.
But I would just say this,residential for sure, go with
what you're familiar with,though. So if you're familiar
with single families, duplexes,traffic, whatever, just do
something you're familiar withand get help along the way.
(35:29):
Don't don't think you have to doeverything. Don't even think you
have to buy everything byyourself. Like, partner with
people that's that's have a,like, interest as you, and you
can grow from each other.
Like, don't be afraid to just doit. If if that's what's stopping
you, you know, you feel like youdon't know enough. Partner with
somebody that does, and you canfind those partners everywhere
these days. YouTube Universitygive you all the information,
(35:51):
but going to your local realestate investment associations,
like the local RIAs, they'llhelp. You can get on Facebook
and type in, you know, your yourcity and real estate investing
behind it.
I'm sure you'll find a groupthat does some real estate
investment in your area. You canget on meetup.com. There's
bigger pockets. There's so manyopportunities and so many
avenues now to connect with likeminded people and get those, get
(36:13):
those skills that you'remissing. And I told them in the
class, I said there's 3 when itcomes to investing, real estate
investing, specifically.
There's 3 different areas youwanna, to look for. So there's
the capital. Do you have thecapital for it? Do you have the
time? Or do you have the skills?
If you're lacking one of those,then find somebody that has it
and partner with them. Them. Butthose are the three things. So
(36:34):
capital, time, and skills. Ifyou don't have all 3, find
someone that does.
Scott Hack (36:40):
So skipping ahead a little bit, Antonio, to,
basically the end of yourpresentation. So you did you did
your presentation, and yourpresentation was for roughly an
hour. So after your presentationwas over, what are some of the
questions that some of theaudience members came up to you
and you all had discussions withlater that day and into the
night?
Antonio Cousin (36:57):
Okay. So the way I ended the presentation, I had
a quote on the screen by HarleyDates. It says, when writing the
story of your life, don't letanyone else hold the pen. And
what I was saying by that wasdon't leave your livelihood up
to the economy and its impact onthe housing market. Take control
by diversifying your incomestream.
So I after that, I going into,you know, the following week
(37:20):
weeks since then, I've talked tomultiple people. I gotta like to
connect with people that have meat conferences, especially if
you have a good vibe. And it'sbeen more so, like, just trying
to, better understand where theyshould start. And I'm just like,
you gotta start. I'm here tohelp, but I I've been teaching
real estate investment everysingle Tuesday night for the
last it's me and 4 other people.
We've been doing it every singleTuesday night since August of
(37:42):
2020. And we do a differenttopic every single Tuesday. We
have investors not investors.Other people come in that has a
specialty and teach. You know,their specialty to the group is
about 700 members in there, butnot everybody shows up because
it's free.
But it's on Zoom. And, we'vebeen doing it for that long. So
I always invite people there ifthey're interested in learning
(38:02):
more. I have books. So I've beenI sold some books at the
conference too, by the way.
But I have one from listed tosold, 55 expert strategies to
selling your home in any market.And originally, I had that book.
I put it out to send to for saleby owners and as a lead capture
mechanism. But what I realized,a lot of realtors were buying
the book because it teaches youhow to sell a house. So then I I
(38:23):
curved my marketing to torealtor.
So I sold that book. I haveanother one, on it's called I'm
Out Escaping the Rat Race 1Income Stream at a Time. And
it's basically documenting how Iescaped the rat race and how you
can do it too. That one's gearedto more than 9 to 5 employee
that wants to get out and don'tknow how. But, yeah, sold those
books and the conversationssince then has just been
building, just growing therelationship.
(38:44):
Hopefully, I can get somereferrals out of it. If anybody
wanna invest down here and viceversa, I can send some
referrals. You'll wait. Butthat's all it's been about, just
building those relationships,
Liz Hack (38:53):
growing. That's what we like to hear. Right? We like
to hear people creatingrelationships and building that
community. So it's because it'snot just your market, but, that
we that you can serve.
You can serve so many other,people in different markets as
well.
Scott Hack (39:10):
So, Antonio, you mentioned your books. How can
people get those books? Wherewhere are they located at?
Antonio Cousin (39:17):
So I have a course as well, but all of this
is gonna be ongotincomestream.com. That's
www.gotincomestreams.com.
Scott Hack (39:27):
And then, how is the best way for someone to connect
with you? If they've gotspecific questions, they wanna
have a conversation with you,they wanna send you a referral,
to Baton Rouge or to, NewOrleans or somewhere in between.
How is the best way for someoneto connect with you?
Antonio Cousin (39:44):
So the easiest, I'm heavy on social media,
especially Instagram. I I postevery single day. Except last
year, I I missed 2 days, thewhole year. So I went 363 or 365
last year. I was upset too.
It's 2 Sundays I'll neverforget. I just forgot to post.
But cousin, c o u s I n, sales,s e l l s l a, is my Instagram,
(40:07):
YouTube, and TikTok handle. Socousin sales LA, and I'm pretty
much on there regularly. I keepmy notifications off, but I
check it multiple times per day.
If you wanna call me, it's504-220-7297. That's my cell,
direct cell. And if you'reinterested in investing in
Louisiana Southeast theSoutheast market specifically,
(40:27):
you could just go toantoniocousin.com.
Scott Hack (40:32):
Alright. That's awesome. Real quick before we
jot out, any last words forpeople that are, you know,
they're inspired. They've beenlistening. They're they they
solve the What's
Liz Hack (40:43):
that first step?
Scott Hack (40:44):
Yeah. The 5, the 5 things and the 9 ways. So so
they're ready to pull thetrigger. What what is the what
is the last piece of advice youwanna give people?
Antonio Cousin (40:53):
Take action. Just start. You can course
correct along the way, but youhave to start.
Scott Hack (40:58):
It sounds like it sounds like a Nike commercial.
Liz Hack (41:00):
Just do it. Yeah. Antonio, we've I've got on my
bucket list to come down and seea parade there in New Orleans.
Scott Hack (41:10):
You should. So It's
Antonio Cousin (41:11):
a great time. Especially the last 2 weeks
before Mardi Gras. Yeah. Youdefinitely should.
Liz Hack (41:18):
It's on the list. I don't think I've told Scott yet,
but now he knows. Thanks forbeing here with us, Antonio.
This has been awesome. It'salways good to hear from you.
Antonio Cousin (41:27):
Absolutely. I had a good time. Thank y'all for
having me.
Liz Hack (41:30):
That was Antonio Cousins from Service First Real
Estate, from Baton Rouge to NewOrleans, Louisiana.
Announcer (41:38):
That's a wrap for this episode of the Real Estate
Distilled Podcast.Visitrealestatedistilled.com for
more tips, and jump into ourFacebook group to keep the
conversation going. Here's tomaking every transaction a
smooth pour. Cheers.
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