70. Unlocking VA Loan Secrets with Dubois Toy

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of the Real Life
Investing Podcast with Jasonand Rachel Wagner.
Today we're going back intoreal estate when we actually
have a former client of mineDubois Toy is here.
All right here.
You got to talk into the mic alittle bit.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Okay, my bad, hey, how's it going.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Everybody, good man Good.
Hey, dubois, we have to startoff with this, because I think
that you're going to bring somuch knowledge about the.
You're a veteran.
Thank you for your service, bythe way, thank you for your
support.
Appreciate it.
But you did something that isjust absolutely incredible.
I'm looking at a closingstatement right here.

(00:34):
You bought a property that waspurchase price $369,000.
Yes, you put down a deposit, anearnest money deposit, of
$3,000.
Yes, I did, and then you got acheck back at closing for $2,600
.
$3,000 minus $2,600 is $400.

(00:57):
You bought a property for $400,dude yes absolutely, it was
great, it was great.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
Yeah, that's insane.
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
What is that and just how did you even come up with
this?
I mean, you and I were part ofthe deal together.
Obviously I represented you onit.
But like, what is this?
And and tell us about the valoan, the benefits that come
from it and and everything thereokay, of course, of course.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
yeah, the earnest money was $3,000 and got back at
about $2,500, $2,700 at closingand it was wonderful because I
was like I got paid to be hereand do this today.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
That's wonderful.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Not everyone gets the 0% down but certain, like
veterans, at a certain rate ofdisability, get to put the 0%
down.
I do have a certain ratingbecause I have ailments that was
affected during my service time.
But the thing that a lot ofpeople don't know is that the
military, like medical system isdifferent from like the

(02:01):
civilian.
So like, if you really learnhow, learn how to navigate, um,
that you could like in themilitary we're taught like, okay
, like you know, be tough, likedon't, like you know, don't
really go to you know medicaland see yourself and everything.
But you get out and then yourealize you're not working as
well or like certain parts ofyou isn't working as well as

(02:21):
before, and you're like wait aminute.
So with that, you know, I wasable to get zero percent down VA
loan I think it's that you haveto be 20 or 30 percent and with
that I was able to purchasereal estate zero percent down.
This isn't the first time I didit.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah, you've actually done two VA loans, yes, in
which you've kind of busted themyth where people, a lot of
people, think you only can useone VA loan.
A lot of people.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, actually, and also I also learned that only
35% like less than 35% ofveterans even use their VA loan,
so it's pretty crazy.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
I actually do want to clarify that.
So any veteran is eligible fora VA loan.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
And then just the amount you put down can vary
based on what your likedisability status is.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Your percentage, yes, Okay, so of course you have to
have honorable or generabledischarge.
Like if you have a dishonorablelike you're you're not eligible
.
But with those two statuses youwill be eligible for a VA loan
and, like you said, with acertain rating you'll be able to
do the 0% down.
There is people that you canreach out to, like the VA or

(03:30):
having a caseworker that canhelp you with that.
I wish I would have learned orknew about those resources when
I got out, but I didn't.
But I could drop those resourcesfor everybody who's watching,
or I can send you a link forlike, with a package of those
resources, of course, or I cansend you a link for like with a
package of those resources, ofcourse, for sure, but yeah, I
purchased these buildings 0%down every time and when I get
the check back, it's amazingKind of use that check, of

(03:52):
course, to go towards, like youknow, anything that the building
might need, or even like stashaway a little bit of an
emergency fund with that.
But it's a great feeling.
Every veteran should use it andyou know thinking about it.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Why do you think veteran, like you said you gave
the stat 35% of veterans are theones using the VA.
Like what are the other 65%doing?
Are they just like not aware oftheir benefits?

Speaker 2 (04:16):
A lot, of veterans aren't aware, like if you talk
to a lot of vets, unfortunately,like they just don't.
Like the military wasn't.
The military today wasn't thesame military.
Yes, like you know, five yearsfrom now, and the one five years
and now was definitely not thesame military five years from
that.
So, man, dude, I've heard somecrazy stories.

(04:37):
Even I was talking to, like anarmy guy the other day and like
they like since he didn'tre-enlist, like back in 2003,
they literally just let him goin a DMZ, which is a
demilitarized zone, which islike if you have this militant
over here, this militant overhere, you're in Korea, like this
is just a whatever zone andthey just they were supposed to

(04:58):
ship him back home but since hedidn't re-sign up, they just
like let him out in the streetsover there and everything like
didn't really give him any help.
Yeah, like it's a lot of horrorstories with like how poor, like
the army and the like themilitary in general has not
educated veteran or justmilitary folks.
Like when they're getting outlike even even when I was

(05:20):
getting out, like the things Iknow now like versus the things
they told me, like that was likelike literally only a slither
of like the things they told me,like a lot of it is me doing my
own, reading my own research,having mentors who you know
could help me, and everything.
I wouldn't be where I am if itwasn't for my mentors.
So like it's just crazy becausein order to be a successful

(05:45):
veteran, like you really have tolike have that type of tenacity
to be willing to learn andnavigate the veteran system and
everything when it comes to that.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah, it's just so interesting because it just
seems like there's a.
I know a lot of people that arelike dude, you don't know this
about.
Most people don't know thisabout the veterans and, like
they, they don't know what theirresources are.
Maybe there's so many resourcesthat there's never like, is
there a class?
Or there, is there ever?
What are the?
What are they teaching you whenyou're in there about like, hey

(06:20):
, here is, here's the help youcan get when you get out.
Do they have like a dischargeor do they have like some type
of a you know, transition,transition course that you take?

Speaker 2 (06:30):
it's called tap, okay , but like it's kind of like the
free trial of something, likeit's not really the good version
of like how powerful you reallyare as a veteran once you get
out, like I said, tap.
Tap definitely did a decent job.
But like a lot of peoplegetting out, I'm like especially
going to specific like areaslike even like in chicago, like

(06:53):
tap can't really like.
I was out in north dakota sothey can't really tell me
specific things out like inchicago to do.
And there's youtubers, oh mygod like civ div combat cra.
And there's YouTubers oh my God,Like Civ Div Combat Craig.
There's YouTubers out there whoare like just teaching a bunch
of stuff and helping millions ofveterans out there.
Those are great places to go.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah, man, like I think I've seen a number of just
videos on, you know, loanofficers creating like, hey,
this is the VA loan, this is howyou can do it.
And like talking about theentitlement like for, for your
example, I actually had to lookup.
On loan officers creating like,hey, this is the VA loan, this
is how you can do it.
And talking about theentitlement For your example, I
actually had to look up.
I'm like dude, how did this guyget two VA loans?

(07:37):
Because even in my mind I waslike I don't think that's
possible, but no, it is.
And here I want to go into alittle bit of the technicality
here because I wanted to look itup on.
Grok.
All you got here because Iwanted to look it up on grok,
okay, so you gotta do, all yougotta do is just plug in a few
things in ai.
You can get a lot of greatanswers, right, all right, and
so, and I took up your, likeyour specific situation, right,
and so you had.
You bought your first propertyin like 2022, right, for like

(07:58):
385.
I looked that up.
And then you bought this lastone for 389 about what?
Two years, two or three yearslater, all right, so here's how
it goes.
So in Cook County, you can buymultifamily properties because,
all right, so it says in 2025,the VA loan limit for a two-unit
multifamily property in CookCounty is $982,000.
Okay, so that takes the VAguarantees 25% of the loan.

(08:22):
So you have this entitlement of25% of that loan.
So you have, like thisentitlement of 25% of that that
value.
So it's like all right, itgives you a number here two 45.
All right, so your firstproperty, which was three, 85,
uses 96,000 of the entitlement.
So, like how this is?
It gets kind of confusingbecause it seems like the
entitlement works as 25% of thevalue of the property, and so if

(08:45):
we know that in Cook County.
You have a total entitlement of245,.
You just used for the firstproperty.
You've got 96,000 of theentitlement, which is 25% of
your purchase price of the 385.
Okay, your remainingentitlement is about 150 grand.
Okay, so that allows you to ifyou go and you so you still have

(09:05):
a remaining entitlement.
People think that like, oh, whenyou use your entitlement like
you've, you've used it all andyou actually can't use it again.
But actually, no, there's likea limit here, right, so you
still have after your firstproperty purchase, you still
have $150,000 that's technicallyavailable for your entitlement.
So how do we get to that secondproperty?
You bought it for $389,000.
25% of $389,000 is $97,000.

(09:29):
Okay, you still have this one,about $150,000 that's available,
minus the $97,000.
You still have entitlement.
Dude, you actually have someentitlement available for a
third VA loan.
No, I know, no, it can't be ashigh of a purchase price.
I actually had to ask this alittle bit later and your
purchase price would have to bein the 200s, which is certainly

(09:51):
a little bit harder to do inChicago.
But literally there's acalculation behind it and one
you can talk to a loan officerthat specifically is in the va
world and does va loans and cando those calculations for you.
But you can also go to grok orany ai and they can also give
you the situation and runthrough it there.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
So I was gonna say I I think it's different, so I'm
and this is my impression.
I might be wrong, so you're intight.
You get that full entitlementfirst off.
The reason I made that face isbecause the 900 000 a year, a
year ago, that was like $800,000.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
So it just went up yeah exactly.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
I was like I got $100,000.
So you get the full entitlement.
That 25% is the percentage ofthe loan that the government
backs.
So they're saying if he defaultlike, we'll back 25, if he
defaults we'll back 25%.
So I used up my full 380, myfull $380,000 worth of

(10:54):
entitlement with that first andthen with the second one I used
another 360 with that and thenthat should leave me with like
about 200, like two yeah, aroundtwo to $300,000 worth of
entitlement.
But you know, like I said toyou guys before, I used to be an

(11:14):
ethical hacker and acybersecurity analyst and I read
documentation all day and I doAPI calls and programming.
So I know how to look at somedocumentation and find some
loopholes.
So are you saying that there's?

Speaker 1 (11:25):
another loophole here that I'm not aware of.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
And then and then, jason, you told me this, the
first, like one of the first,like meetings you had.
You were like yo, you gotta,you gotta partner up with people
and like take small pieces ofthe pies.
So I was like oh well, likemaybe I can do a joint VA loan
with another veteran and thatwould be interesting.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
Yeah, yeah, and actually you asked me about that
at one point, but I can'trecall exactly what the answer
was.
So, yeah, you could totally dothat.
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah so yeah that's definitely the plan.
Like just team up with otherprivate veterans that I know and
just continue using like lowdown payment strategies yeah,
low down payment strategy, okay,yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
Can I ask some questions?
About this so we've talkedabout entitlement before, when
we had somebody else who was onthe podcast, who is a veteran,
and I guess I envisionedentitlement as like a whole one
thing.
But you're saying it's a pot oflike 900,000, basically.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
And it can.

Speaker 3 (12:22):
There's 25% of that, okay, so you could buy one
$900,000 property, or you couldbuy multiple properties that
accumulate up to that, yes, okay.
So if you were tohypothetically partner, then
with another veteran, how wouldthat work with the partnership?
How you split your partnership50, 50, then take the
entitlement 50, 50 of eachperson or 25, 75.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
Okay, yeah, yeah, I think they would would take.
If there's remainingentitlement that's available for
a toy here, then.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
But they could also I don't know, you could do it,
you could.
You could do it any percentage.
You could do it like 10, 90like okay, and then do both.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
99 partners have to be veterans in order for you to
do that one partner is partner,is a civilian, you will still
have to put a down payment down.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
Okay, because you're Get the VA that's backing 25% of
my loan.
So they're like oh, and then Ihave the rating that allows me
to put 0% down.
Okay, so if I have otherveteran friends who are just
like me.
Then I'm like yo.
Instead of you know, instead ofus trying to put money in
crypto and everything, let's getthis free money to purchase

(13:29):
this asset that's worth $400,000.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah, like no one's going to give us $400,000 to
invest in crypto.
Yeah, exactly it's an amazinghack you also talked about, like
the disability right from myunderstanding, is that the
disability is actually it's.
It's.
It's kind of easier to get adisability percentage, Like I or
I I know of a lot of veterans,and you might ask them like, oh

(13:55):
yeah, they actually have adisability, right there's.
But you know, and then there's,there's certain percentages
that help you on the propertytaxes, right?
So once you get over a certainthreshold of a percent
disability, you're able to likefreeze or reduce your property
taxes.
I don't think it's a freeze,it's a reduce, it's a reduction

(14:15):
of the property taxes.
Dude, some some.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
So I was talking to this very well-educated lawyer.
He does like I think's a lawyer,like he does financial literacy
and he does like will and trustand showing all that.
And he broke down how the EVAworks, like so it's like it's,
it's a I don't, I can't do itfor you guys, but it's weird,

(14:39):
like to the point where Ithought it was $250,000, like
off of your property.
But now it's like calculated acertain way to where I you could
have like a $2 million property, like.
And when he broke it down to melike this, I was like so you
telling me I could have a $2million property in Oak park and
not pay no property taxes on itbecause, like it, it it divides

(15:02):
your property like by a certainthing and then it reducts that
$250,000 off the percentage oflike it's some weird math, but
it's crazy because you look atit for face value and then you'd
be like, oh, I'm going to get$250,000.
But then when you run thecalculation you're like oh wait,
this is done differently.
Okay, I get way more than$250,000 off.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
Then and what is all right?
So there's eligibility.
Okay, so I'm I'm grokking thisright now.
You're uh right, okay.
100 disability rating oftenqualifies for full property tax
exemptions in many states.
And then there's partialdisability.

(15:44):
Some states have caps.
All right, let's go to Illinois.

Speaker 3 (15:51):
Can I ask another entitlement question while
you're researching this.
So as you pay down your loanand your equity goes up, does
that free up some of your?
Yes?

Speaker 2 (16:01):
Okay, so over time yeah some of your entitlement.
Okay, yeah, yeah, that's what Ilike about it.
I was like if I could just getyou know 380 000 dollars somehow
pay it off, and then yeah, okayunfortunately, the only way I
could do that now is by dying,and you know so do you have to
refinance every time to unlockthat entitlement?

(16:24):
Yeah, you would have to, youwould Okay, so it's not like it
happens monthly.

Speaker 3 (16:28):
It's yeah, okay, okay .

Speaker 2 (16:30):
Yeah, and like, If you do that, you got to make
sure that you have I think whatis it?
At least 20% of equity in aproperty.
So you don't have to pay PMIBecause with the VA loan, you
don't have to pay PMI.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
Okay, yeah, all right , all right.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
So I think I found this.
Yeah, it's right here.
Yeah, my bad, all right.
So if you've got a disabilitybetween 30% and 49%, you can get
$2,500 off your equalizedassessed value.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
That equalized assessed value is a calculation.
It's not your whole value ofyour property, it's a portion of
the value of your property.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
Yep, yep.
And then if you have adisability between 50% to 69%,
you have $5,000 off yourequalized assessed value.
But if your disability isbetween 70% and 100%, that is
full exemption of property taxes.
Pretty much, it's like it's.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Like it's because the eva, like you, could have a
like two, three, four milliondollar property.
And when I, when I learned that, my pride a little bit was like
get a, get a four milliondollar property, yeah, and have
full exemption right, it'sequalized assessed value.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
Who determines that?

Speaker 3 (17:36):
yeah, so the equalized assessed value.
Who determines that?

Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah, so the equalized assessed value.
So actually in Cook County, howit is, I'm pretty sure.
So you've got your.
So all property taxes arejudged based off of the market
value of what the county assumesit at.

Speaker 3 (17:49):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
Okay, and typically in Cook County the equalized
assessed value, I'm pretty sure,is 10% of that.
So you always just got of movethe the decimal point over.
Actually, we can hear it like,for example, if I were.

Speaker 3 (18:01):
So if you have a hundred thousand dollar property
, based on the comps that theypull, they're going to say your
equalized assess values 10 grandyeah, yeah, all right, so hold
on if I go to the cook countythat made me smell so hard.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
When I learned that, yeah, I was like oh, yeah, okay,
I Okay, I'm going to just here.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
I'm just going to type in ours real quick because
we're in Cook County and you canalso stack tax exemptions as
well.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
So there's a veteran homestead exemption.
So I don't just think you cando like one and not take the
other.
I always stack my exemptionsevery year.
Okay, tax calculator, if youlive with a senior citizen, you
better take that senior citizenexemption for real yeah because
it's really good too okay, theassessment information.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
So, like here, here it is.
This is the assessed, theassessed value.
So first, for some reason,they're saying our property is
worth 490.
That's okay.

Speaker 3 (18:54):
Okay, that's fine, right typically, that's what it
is right, it's.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
The county thinks that your property is worth a
lot less than what the actualmarket value is yeah, that's
fine.
And then the assessed value.
How they come up with that isit's just 10%, right.
And then they do thecalculation of all of how your
taxes are calculated based offof that assessed value.
So I'm pretty sure theequalized assessed you would be.
So they start with that 10%number and then they bring it

(19:20):
down and then they have thededuction.
So if he would have gotten like$5,000 off, so it says $49,000
is our assessed value, so minusthe $5,000, it would be at
$44,000.
Right.
So that's how they would do thetaxes there.

Speaker 3 (19:33):
Okay, wow.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah, anyways.
So yeah, yeah, all good, okay,wow, yeah, anyways.
So yeah, yeah, all good, allgood stuff.
So definitely.
So I'm just curious are youwilling to share what your
disability status?

Speaker 2 (19:45):
is or not.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
Okay, that's cool, that's yeah I don't know if
that's a sensitive question, andyeah, it is a little bit okay
yeah, cool veterans don't likeanswering that question and it's
protected by the law.
Oh, in a sense there you go.
Yeah, all right, well, forgiveme no, you're all good, it's
okay man like this is a podcast.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
I know you're gonna ask questions.
This is all good, but yeah,like I said, like veterans just
need to realize like this isthis is about getting a top tier
investment, because no otherinvestment tool and like, of
course I'm living here, this ismy home, but I mean, if my home
could be an investment, thenthen why not?
You know, this is America,we're allowed to do that.

(20:22):
So I mean we're able to getthree to four I mean one to four
unit of buildings.
So we do that, and you could doit with no PMI.
You could reuse it and you caneven pair it with, like a jumbo
VA loan.
I know you guys don't probablyknow this either, but now you're
all good.
I'm going to tell you thislittle gem as well Each county

(20:44):
has their VA limit, right.
So, you just said how Chicagohas, I think you said $900,000.
So most counties it's aboutlike and this was like last year
I was doing this research atleast Most counties the limit is
$800,000 for your VAentitlement.
However, you have those notcounties, yeah, counties, states

(21:07):
, whatever.
You have those states andcounties who are a bit you know,
okay, we know this is expensive.
So if you go to places like newyork, california, hawaii, I
think, in alaska, like placeslike that, your va entitlement
actually goes up to, I think,one to two or 1.4 mil yeah,
right, yeah, so it varies bystate, it varies by county, yep,

(21:29):
for sure so even if I did runout of my va entitlement here, I
could just go to hawaii andlike ah see, you are the
loophole man I just go to hawaii, wow wow, that's fascinating.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah, yeah, very interesting, very interesting.
I actually didn't think aboutit from that perspective, but
yeah, no, that's, that's, that'sa cool thing, right, so you're
bringing a lot of knowledge of,like, all right, here's how you
can utilize the benefit.
And, boy, if rachel I don'tknow if you heard this, but if
you max out your benefit here inIllinois, there might be a

(22:04):
higher benefit that you could goto, like Alaska or Hawaii.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
Yeah, so then you can like take the rest of that
piece of pie from.
Yeah, that's amazing.

Speaker 1 (22:13):
Yeah, no, it's, it's a great thought, that's a great
thought.
All right, let's see what else.

Speaker 3 (22:17):
Yeah, no, it's, it's a great thought that's a great
thought, all right, let's seewhat else.
So I guess we've kind ofcovered this, but a little more
directly.
The VA loan is not commercial,only residential.
But you can buy multifamily, soone to four units, with the VA
loan right, okay, you can do.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
You can do condos, you could do townhomes, you
could do like single familyhomes Right residential any
residential, any residentialstatus okay you can't do
commercial you can what?

Speaker 3 (22:42):
okay, yeah, so I want to know about that, this too
I'm gonna that.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
That's gonna be extra .
I'm gonna leave that in thenotes, but yeah, you, you
definitely I found a way youcould definitely okay, no, we
know about that yeah, you coulddo mixed use.
You could do up up, like youcould do 15, 20.
You just got to get supercreative with it, though, and
like I read the guidelines.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
So you're saying you can buy a 20 unit apartment
building with a VA loan?
Yep.

Speaker 3 (23:09):
What.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
Okay, no way.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
I don't believe it.
Brock isn't going to help youhere In any state.
Yeah, isn't going to help youhere in any state.

Speaker 3 (23:19):
yeah, yeah, okay, it's just how creative you are
when you do it like, and if youlike?

Speaker 2 (23:22):
do you just like split your loans?
Yeah, okay, it's something.
Not, you could use a whole valoan okay I think jason's like
hold on.
I'm digging I'm digging into it, man it's a loophole all right.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
The instant reply is no.
You cannot use a va loan topurchase a 20 unit apartment
building.
Va loans are designed forresidential properties,
specifically one-to-four-unithomes.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
I'm smarter than Gronk, you guys.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
Isn't that so awesome ?
Because he's the hacker, he'sthe ethical hacker.

Speaker 3 (23:47):
The ethical hacker?
Yeah, I didn't know what thatwas.
You had to explain that to me.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
All right into that, all right.
So what do you, what do youthink, or, or how, how do you
work around that?
So the and this is, and this isthe, this is.
You feel me okay, like this isextra, you guys, I'm dropping
gems right here, for real can'tbe found with ai, so it can only
be found with toy, only befound with me in this podcast
right now yeah so, basically,how you do it is if two veterans

(24:19):
and this you have to like bro,I've read 2 000 pages of the va
lenders handbook.
Okay, like I, I like when itcomes to when it, okay, let me.
Let me reel it back.
My mentor had got on me likereal bad.
He was like, why are youtrusting a realtor or a loan

(24:41):
officer to like help navigateyou through this?
You should read thedocumentation so you you know
and like you know the rules andgo through it.
Cause he was like, so likethere's realtors and there's a
lot of like people out there whojust know how to sell the
product but they don't actuallylike know the nitty gritty of

(25:02):
the product for sure, for sure,yeah.
Kind of like you know howMcDonald's cooks know how to
make a burger but, like outsideof a McDonald's burger, they
don't really know how to like.
You know, they don't reallyknow the essence of a burger
type thing.
So yeah, through reading it Ilearned a lot of things, with a
lot of loans, that people sayyou can't do, that you actually
can do.
And I read the VA handbook andit actually says that if two

(25:24):
veterans, if two veterans, buy abuilding, then it could be up
to an extra unit for eachveteran.
So if you buy a four unit withtwo veterans, you'd have two
extra units for two veterans,which you can buy a six unit,
which me and my friend are aboutto do.

Speaker 3 (25:42):
Interesting.

Speaker 1 (25:43):
Wait, I didn't follow it.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
So each veteran has, you can get an extra unit, which
means the total property canhave up to six units, right?
So individually you can buy oneto four, but if you have two
people coming together you canbuy a six unit up to a six unit.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
Oh, because you get the X, because you can get the
extra unit.

Speaker 2 (26:06):
Yeah, yeah, because you have an extra veteran in
there, like they have a specialclause where it's like each
veteran can have their own unit.
That's like a special clause ina in a thing.
So if each veteran can havetheir own unit, they said you
could do that infinitely.
Even if it's seven veterans,that'd be an additional unit.
I mean not seven.
If it's three veterans that'sgoing in to get an apartment

(26:29):
building, now you have a sevenunit because that extra veteran
that came in needs his unit.
So theoretically, if 21veterans came together, then
yeah, we could buy a 21 unitapartment building.
Yeah, Wow, I was wondering that.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
I was like how big of like a syndicate you could put
together here to buy like amassive apartment building and
it doesn't matter crossing thethreshold of residential into
commercial.

Speaker 2 (26:53):
So that's how I'm about to buy a commercial
building with a 0% down andyou're about to watch me collect
another check.

Speaker 3 (26:59):
All right.

Speaker 1 (27:00):
We're going to watch you do it.

Speaker 3 (27:01):
Yeah that's insane.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
We're going to have you come back on as soon as you
pull it off.
Wow, dude, that's awesome.
Okay, wow, all right.
There you go.

Speaker 3 (27:08):
I guess, because they must be looking at it as, like,
each veteran is going to occupyone as their own, and then the
remainder is allowed for yourinvestment purposes yes, okay,
okay, all right, wow, hold on.

Speaker 1 (27:19):
What if I just say what if for veterans?
Come on, grok, you got to beable to give me some answers
grok's listening right nowthough I know and re-spin it out
yeah depending on the city youguys go to veterans.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
Veterans like you can have like a lot of vehicle
perks.
So when it comes to licenseplates and like parking, I get
vehicle perks here in Chicago.
Because of that, please checklike for your local programs to
help Like if you're facinghomelessness.
I have a couple friends who,whoa, you got it, bro.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
I know I do I have a couple friends who, whoa, you
got it, bro.
I know it says, yes, it may bepossible for four veterans to
use a va loan to purchase aseven unit building, but there
are specific conditions thatmust be met, all right, and so
it goes into it.
But, like bro, wow, let's go.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
Thanks, man see, this is why people need me on their
team, bro because, I'd be.
I'd be in it.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
I'd be in the nitty-gritty of things that is
the nitty-gritty, that, wow, Idid not realize that, holy shit
I'm glad, oh, I'm glad, I wasable to bring that type of value
in a podcast.
Yeah, I made jason say holy shityeah, that's a mind-blown
scenario there, right, becausewhat's, what's funny is that
when you ask the question oneway, you get a no response, but

(28:39):
then when you rephrase it, butwait a second.
But what if I do this?
Oh well, yeah, no we can makeit happen right so it's all
about asking how right and Ithink you've you've been able to
figure that out.
It's like how can I do this?

Speaker 2 (28:52):
it was really it.
So it wasn't even that man.
Like I said, it was my mentor.
Like you know, read this so youcan fully have all the power.
And I just read everything andwhen I was reading I was like,
oh snap, this is why he said todo that.
And it was really just throughreading and, like I said,
searching for loopholes.

(29:19):
I, as, even when I was a kid,like my mom and dad, could tell
you I love bending the rules,Like I love figuring out ways.
Well, you said this, so I didthis instead, but I didn't break
the rules, like type thing, andlike now, like I like it just
grew into this, like where I'mlike, okay, you know I want to
do this.
My mentor gave me like thelight and everything, like how I
know I could do all these cooltype of creative financing.

(29:40):
That's what I really feel likecreative financing is like
bending the rules, because a lotof normal consumers don't don't
do or use creative financingand, yeah, not like using it
with the VA loan.
It's just very like fulfilling.
I'm like it's awesome.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
That's, that's amazing, yeah, man.
No, I love it.
Well, because so I've just beenon the other side of that,
where you know, I've been ableto partner with people that were
doing the FHA loans and, likeyou know, a lot of people think
you can only have one FHA loan.
But like, if you do which iskind of the case but I own
buildings that have multiple FHAloans because of this
partnership deal where you findsomebody else, oh Right, so they

(30:18):
live in the property, they getthe loan, but I am on title
because I'm helping them splitthe deal right, giving them the
mentorship and making sure thatit's successful.
So that's kind of one of thecool perks, and I think that's
what you were alluding to alittle bit.
It was like, yeah, jason is ableto kind of like partner with
first-time house hackers.
They utilize their fha benefitto buy a property with lower

(30:39):
down payments.
I'm there to help split themonetary involvement in that and
then we own the building.
You know we split the buildingthat way.
So that's how we cantechnically kind of have two fa.
You know, multiple fha loans.
But it's not really.
The debt's not in my name andthe debt is in the partner's
name.
Now, that's genius it, you know.
And if I don't know why a lotof people like don't do that.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
Right, I didn't even think of that.
I was pretty smart.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
Well, yeah, yeah so but it's along the same lines,
right.
It's like if you were going tocome together again.
It's all about we know that,because of we, you know how I
met you was a real estate meetup.
Yeah, right, and when you go toreal estate meetups, you meet
people that are like-minded yeah, absolutely, you just start
talking and like.

(31:23):
Over time you buildrelationships with people and,
like you know, maybe you getcrazy enough.
You're like dude, take a lookat this deal like, what do you
think?
And you want to do it together,right, yeah?

Speaker 2 (31:33):
yeah, no, for sure I, man.
I appreciated your help and,like Jason has even, like,
looked over a couple of my dealsor one of my deals and like,
help run the numbers andeverything and make me more
confident in the deal.
So I appreciate that.
And yeah, man, like you said,networking events, your network
is your net worth.
Like dude, if you're a realestate investor and you're not

(31:55):
going to at least two meetups amonth, you're doing something
wrong, bro, you have to beconnecting with other real
estate investors.
You have to be in that line ofintelligence, of intel from
different real estate investorsabout what's going on in the
market.
What are they doing, me andJason having this high-level

(32:17):
conversation right now.
These things wouldn't happen if, like jason said, we weren't
around like-minded people.
So, yeah, the real estatemeetups are like legit, like 100
and most of them are free manit's like exactly that's the
cool part, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
And people actually like, want to reach out their
hand and say like oh hey, whoare you?

Speaker 3 (32:35):
yeah, you know all you gotta do is walk in the door
aren't there any veteranmeetups, veteran real estate?

Speaker 1 (32:40):
meetups in chicago.
Actually, that's, that's how wemet.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
So andrew gerazio oh, okay he runs one specific for
veterans yeah, one specific forveterans.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
Okay, and that's how?
Because andrew asked me to be aspeaker at his okay and so I
presented, and that's how I mettoy yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:55):
Okay, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, so there is.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
So, yeah, we'll have to.
We'll have to drop AndrewDorazio's veteran meetup and
yeah, no, I'm pretty sure thatthere's, they're still doing it.
You probably went to a recentone.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
I haven't been in a little bit, but I went to a
recent one.
There I started a Veterans RealEstate Guild for Chicago group

(33:40):
on Facebook.
I was definitely going to tryto invite you to the page so you
could you know a landlord oreven if they have programs or
things they want to do outsideof that.
I also wanted to touch on thatbecause I didn't know this.
I didn't know this before butwhen I first got my building
there's a bunch of like statetraining programs that the state
gives you um well, veterans, tohelp like learn different
things, like.
Of course, we all know you havethe GI Bill, but here in

(34:03):
Illinois we have the IVG grantas well and you can use that at
any trade school or college onthis list to like learn
different skills for free.
Home Depot also has like abunch of different contractors
or carpentry classes thatveterans can like use.
But it literally took me likesearching, like it's not like a

(34:26):
lot of people.
There are veteran fairs thatgoes on, don't don't get me
wrong but usually they're in themiddle of the day where like
people are working.
You know, not a lot of peoplecan go to those type of events.
So it's taken me taking offwork researching this stuff to
actually build these resources.
Like I see other veterans whoare either homeless or like
trying to get a home, like tomove out in their own space, or

(34:50):
like trying to be a landlord andeverything and, like I said,
like the information is notreally an essentialized space
you have to kind of go out andreally hunt for it.
But I want to bring all thatinformation to a centralized
space for veterans and justnormal people as well.
So definitely look out forthose types of programs, even
when it comes to you know youowning your own home.

(35:12):
Like those type of programs tofix things around the house can
be instrumental.
Because my neighbor actuallyhelped me.
Like I have good neighbors andthen I have neighbors from hell.
But like my good neighbortaught me how to replace a water
tank.
Like taught me how to do like alot of stuff.
Like walk me around myapartment building, show me like
certain things.
When I first moved there I wasjust introducing myself to like

(35:35):
the neighbors and everything.
Like each of my neighborsno-transcript know little

(36:03):
chihuahua gets out and goesaround trying to run after
people pooping in people's yardsand like dude their kid even
totaled my car.
Like ran into the back of itand everything.
Yeah, it was.
It was crazy like Like, thankGod, like you know, my
girlfriend has a car now andlike we can use her car but and
I can buy my own car.
I just don't want to right now.

(36:24):
But it helped me identify thegood ones that can help and then
the ones who might be a littlebit of trouble and I also want
to give out resources to helppeople.
I'm going to try to send youover a link and other people
like 3-1-1, calling the policeor animal patrol when people,
dogs, get out, like building abuilding, a trail of things.
You know, taking pictures.

(36:44):
I have the security cameraswill help your case.
When dealing with thoseneighbors from hell to like calm
them down because, yeah, if youdon't do anything, then of
course they run wild.
But I had to like look forresources and go through a bunch
of things like yo, what can Ido to help keep them accountable
, because they're causingproblems for everybody.
I mean it's just not acceptable.

(37:05):
I even had to stand up for acouple of neighbors.
I had this one neighbor justthrowing trash and I live next
to a senior citizen who's alsoblind and this woman would just
throw trash in his yard, likeand I'm just like bro, like who
raised you?
Like that's absolutely insane.
This guy is you rent here firstoff.
This guy lives here and you'rethrowing trash and it's going on

(37:26):
.
So I had a confrontation withher a couple times and being
like yo, like you can't do that.
I stand up for the neighborhoodbecause I live there and I pay
property taxes.
Like not anymore, but still,when I was paying property taxes
I'm like I looked at that billand I was like yeah, I'm paying
for the school and I don't evenhave kids like what yeah right

(37:49):
it's not really fair, is it?

Speaker 1 (37:51):
yeah, yeah do you have like on your block?
You know, sometimes when you godown the streets of chicago you
see like welcome to the, youknow, 77 block or something and
like you know, on in, like theymight have a sign that says we
protect each other, like here'sthe rules or whatnot.
Does your, does your block kindof have like a little associate
?
It's like almost like a littlehomeowners association on the

(38:12):
block, right, I see what you'resaying.
Yeah, do you have anything likethat?

Speaker 2 (38:15):
so we have we just have good neighbors, that kind
of look out for each other.
We have signs where it's likeyou know, pick up after your dog
here and there.
But like the block hasdefinitely gotten a lot better
over the years and I've calledlike 311 to and stop, like stop
signs on like some of thestreets and everything, because
we didn't even have stop signslike where they were supposed to
be and people would be flyingthrough that they got speed
bumps and everything so peoplecan slow down and the

(38:37):
neighborhood dude austin, likeoh, bro, when I first bought my
property, it like when I firstbought that first property, I'm
over there in austin.
And then I went to your meetupand you're like, yeah, austin
was the number one appreciatingneighborhood in chicago.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
Yeah, you're like oh baby.
Yes, sometimes we get lucky.

Speaker 2 (38:56):
I was like yo, I guess that's awesome, so lucky.
So yeah, dude, austin has likechanged a lot over the past
couple years, like completelydifferent, and that's probably
because it's next to oak parkand there was a lot of
incentives from the city ofchicago to invest in austin too,
because it was like a reallybad like village or city before
then.
But it's really coming around,so I'm glad I invested there.

Speaker 1 (39:19):
For sure man.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
Well, I'm just looking at this.
I'm just looking at, like, hereI am right, I'm a, I'm the data
guy, right and so, because allagents have so much access to
information, right, so so take alook at this, take a look at
this Actually, it's actually abetter look from here.
So, 10 years ago in Austin, youcould buy a two to four unit
property for under $100,000.
So January 2025, the mediansale price in Austin was $80,000

(39:42):
.
The median sale price today, 10years later, is $354,000.
So, yeah, there's been somehell of appreciation.

Speaker 3 (39:50):
So when you first said that it was 2015,.
Right, I mean or 2020.

Speaker 1 (39:55):
So 2020?
All right, hold on, let me goback.

Speaker 3 (39:56):
Well, no, I think you might've misspoke Cause you
said in 2025, you could buy itfor.
Oh, okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,I'm sorry, I'm not sure about
that 2015.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
Sorry, all right, okay, go on.
So let me ago.
You could buy a property foreighty thousand dollars what, oh
wow 10 years ago and now themedian sale price in the same
neighborhood is 354 I was gonnasay man, that is it in just 10

(40:30):
years when so, when we look on afive-year basis, five years ago
, so in 2020, 235 was the mediansale price.
So when did you buy yourproperty?
2022, 2022, all right, mediansale price in 2022 was about 300
and now it's at.
It's at 354.

(40:51):
Just again, like when we'relooking at, like when we're
trying to find neighborhoods ofwhere to invest I mean, I, I
love looking I think we weretalking about this off air is if
you can get specific statsabout your neighborhood and
where the historical trends havebeen, it just helps you make
better real estate decisions.
A hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
Right, a hundred percent.
Yeah, dude, that's like havingthe sauce.
But I want to argue that or notargue, necessarily.
But I want to say, dude, 350,you're not going to get a four
unit for 350 in austin.
Oh, this.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
So this is a two to four unit so okay, so right, so
it's, it's a multi it's themulti-family right.
Yeah, not a four unitspecifically, but the it's the
two to four unit space and soit's.
So it could be a two unit,could be a four unit.
It's really kind of what thewhat is the median sale price of
that property type?
I see, I see, so that's whatthat's looking at.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
Yeah, I was cause.
I was going to say, like inAustin, when you in 2022, you
could buy a four unit for likethree, 20 to mine was a little
on the high end, but I thinkthat was because of the
proximity to oak park, like youknow.
Three like 80.
Now you're not finding anythinglike under 440 like under 450

(42:05):
over there for a four unit likemaybe half a mil, but like
probably half a mil, and it'sjust like me looking at it, I'd
be getting scared for like newinvestors I'd be like bro.
Prices were not this high whenI started.
Prices were not this high, andI'm Prices were not this high
and I'm like yo.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
Well, that's why you don't want to wait, right,
because a lot of people arewaiting for, like you know,
rates to come down.
The reality is is that we'rejust under this supply crunch.
We don't have the inventorythat's available because it all
stems back to, you know, thisCOVID phase, when everybody
locked in these low rates.
And you know, because theylocked in low rates, they're not

(42:41):
incentivized to sell and so itkeeps the supply of listings
coming to the market pretty lowand overall, we went through a
big demand boom during COVIDwhere people wanted housing and
so they all got snatched up, andnow people aren't letting them
go and so when you have a lackof supply, you're going to have
an upper pressure price andthat's what you're seeing.

(43:02):
You're seeing upper pressureprices and Chicago has been one
of the leaders right now,actually this past year of the
whole country because of ourlack of supply, because we have
not we're nowhere near where wewere pre-pandemic levels.
We're still down like 40% wherewe were like pre-pandemic, like
a few years prior to thepandemic.

(43:23):
Our inventory levels are downstill 40% from where they were
previously.
So that is a massive reductionin the amount of supply that's
in the marketplace and whyChicago is accelerating while,
like some of these other cities,florida or or states are not
right.
You're actually seeing like acorrection in Florida.
You're seeing a correction inTexas right now because there

(43:45):
was a glut.
There was a glut of inventorythat's coming to the market
because COVID caused people togo to those States.
Right, they, there was a bigmigration towards Florida.
Florida was the free and openstate.
Right, they didn't have as manypolicies that were going into
when we had, when we had covet,right, and so there was a lot of
people that moved down toflorida for those specific
reasons.
Well, and then they got airbnbsdo I couldn't tell you how many

(44:07):
people actually it was.
You know, a family member waslike, hey, we should get an
airbnb down in florida.
Seemed like a good idea, buteverybody was doing it, and now
the airbnb market is kind oflike it's suffering there.
Yeah, right, right, because Imean.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
I ain't got no Airbnbs down there but I know I
know the market down in Floridais not doing too hot right now?

Speaker 1 (44:27):
Yeah, we actually took a vacation down to Florida
and I couldn't believe it Justdriving just driving down the
highway I was like dude for sale.
Sign for sale, sign for sale,sign for sale, sign it Like.
It is a drastically differentmarket in Florida than it is
here in Chicago.
Chicago is very safe right now.
Very safe, especially when youlook at the metrics.

Speaker 3 (44:48):
So can I ask a question again on the VA loan?
With regards to rates, are theyrelatively the same market
rates or is there any variance?
Do you get savings or a higherrate because you're not putting
enough?
It's much down.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
Yeah, I think I do get a little bit of a higher
rate sometimes, since I'm notputting much down okay, but that
never really hurts me, I alwaysrun the numbers and you know,
like cash flow is the mostimportant thing for me and like
a lot of people, be like don'tuse the va loan because you know
you're going to be upside downon your mortgage.
But we're in chicago, we'reseeing that appreciation here.

Speaker 1 (45:21):
Yeah, we are so like.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
That doesn't even apply to me.
Like I could still put in 0%down and like still see mass
appreciation because, of likethe market I'm in and still cash
flow while house hacking and togo deeper in that.
Well, did I answer yourquestion?

Speaker 3 (45:36):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
To go deeper in that.
Also do the renting by roomthing to help.

Speaker 1 (45:41):
Oh, yeah, let's talk about that.
Hold on.
Hold on Before we get into that, because as part of the VA loan
there is a VA funding fee andthe VA funding fee can be kind
of expensive.
But as I look at yoursettlement statement, you don't
have a VA funding fee on here,so what happened?
Do you know why yours gotwaived Because of my disability
rating?

Speaker 2 (45:58):
Because of my disability rating, because of
the disability rating, yeah, sothat's.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
another benefit to that is that if you have a
disability rating, you can getthat VA funding fee waived.

Speaker 3 (46:06):
So let me ask do typical loan officers or even
agents know those things?

Speaker 2 (46:15):
Are those things you had to know and had to ask for
to get those things waived?
Some of them do, but the oneswho don't?

Speaker 3 (46:18):
deal with veterans, don't Okay?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
Yeah, yeah, because the VA funding fee can be pretty
hefty.
Yes, it can.
I'm just wondering like?
Are those like questions?

Speaker 3 (46:26):
they're asking you as you're putting in your
application, or are those thingsyou need to bring to the table
and be like hey look, I ameligible for all of these things
, so make sure you put it on adesignation in terms of like
disability, or what Do you think?

Speaker 2 (46:42):
Yeah, I think it depends on who you go with and
how thorough they are.
Okay.
Yeah, you could possibly gowith somebody who's you know,
not that thorough.

Speaker 3 (46:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
And not turn out well because they're like oh, you're
a veteran.

Speaker 3 (46:52):
Right, you're just leaving money on the table.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:03):
Jason on grok again.
Yeah, I know, yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah, okay, so so if you did so
, the va funding fee, if you'reless than five percent down over
, it's two percent, it's 2.15 ofthe loan amount.

Speaker 3 (47:09):
It ranges from like 1.25 to 2.15, so it's
significant, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:19):
so the fact that you were able to get that waived is
again.
It's another benefit that, ifyou don't necessarily know that,
like the power of being aveteran, and if you have a
disability, you can save on downpayment amount, you can save on
the VA funding fee, you cansave on property taxes.

Speaker 2 (47:32):
There's VA down payment assistance programs too,
just in case.

Speaker 3 (47:36):
Oh, there you go.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
If you're not eligible, then okay, there's VA
down assistance of paymentprograms that you can use.
There's VA programs to help ifyou're behind on your mortgage.
I'm going to, like I said, I'mgoing to try to send over all
those resources to you so wecould have it like maybe in the
show notes, but all types ofthings.
Where is it?
Oh yeah, programs to help withmortgage.
There's a partial claimsprogram where, like, if you miss
a mortgage payment, they allowyou to like pay that on a back

(48:04):
end, I think like of yourmortgage payment.
To help with like veterans withtheir mortgage, there's loss
mitigations options.
There's VA loan technicians,where the VA will pair you with
a loan technician that will lookat your loan, like and who's
your loan servicer, and help younavigate what you can and can't
do, how to make things easierfor you and everything.

(48:24):
There's a veterans housingalliance homes buyer grant
program and that's just anotherlike little program or grant
veterans can use to help themwith down payment assistance and
a bunch of more like programsveterans can use.
One thing I do want to highlightand a lot of veterans face this
because you might be cominghome from service and might not
be getting along with your peeps.

(48:45):
This wasn't the case for me.
I'm blessed to have peeps thatallowed me to stay at their
place when I was, when I cameback from service, cause I
didn't just have an apartmentwhere I was like, yeah, I'm
gonna hop back in there and like, got to find a job and
everything.
But unless you have a job,getting out of service, if you
are, you know, facing homelessissues or if you're couch
surfing, living at you know youknow a homie's place, or you

(49:08):
know your parents not going tolet you stay there forever.
Please look into the HUD VASHprogram.
It's basically section eightfor veterans and if you are
going through any of that,they'll pair you with a
caseworker to help you with yourVA stuff, like appointments,
like maybe getting a disabilityrating, like you know, you know
health things wise and they'llput you, they'll place you in a

(49:31):
home or a place that acceptssection eight, but it's just for
veterans and it's like a reallystreamlined process and there's
a lot of veterans that qualifyfor it and, yeah, like the
government has like money setaside for veterans who are
struggling with housing and ittakes about two months.
It's way quicker than sectioneight for normal, like normal

(49:53):
civilians yeah, yeah, wow,that's another powerful program.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
Yeah, that's awesome.
I don't think we asked you whatbranch did you serve?
Serve in Air Force.
You're in the Air Force, oh,okay, yeah, yeah, man, that's
cool.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
I almost joined the Marines, but my grandmother
talked me into joining the AirForce.
That was like the best thingever, bro, like the Air Force is
treated the best out of all theother branches.
Yeah, I was talking to someArmy guy a couple days ago.
I just met him on like, uh, theriver chicago river, yeah,
river north or whatever, or theriver walk, that's what I was

(50:23):
thinking of.
He was telling me like thefirst time he went to the defect
.
He was like wow, you guys areeating like this, like because
the army sleeps in tents, likewe kind of sleep in like hotels,
and it's it's crazy, it's crazybad.
Like the air force is treatedway better than other branches,
even like our our.

Speaker 1 (50:39):
Why do you think that is?

Speaker 2 (50:41):
Man because of toxic Air Force.
I mean toxic military culture.

Speaker 3 (50:45):
Like.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
I mean, I get you need to make Army folks like you
know tough and go throughthings, but you don't have to
treat them that whole waythrough their like enlistment,
like you feel me, theydefinitely can deserve better
and still go out and perform themission and do the duties that
we need to do.
You know what I'm saying?
So honestly, in my opinion,it's just old military mentality

(51:08):
and there are still a lot ofold military mentality things
that's not really fair that'shappening in certain areas of
the military that small reformis happening, small change is
happening.
So people going into themilitary to make a difference,
people going into politics tomake a difference, like all of
that really matters because it'slike sacred cowbells type

(51:31):
things.
Like they're like oh, we'vebeen doing this forever or you
know this, this, and that theyhad a rule where, like that,
they had a couple of rules thatwere like racially insensitive
to like a certain demographics.
That's being a couple rulesthat were like racially
insensitive to like a certaindemographics.
That's being in review andbeing revised, like to today,
because they like it's just likeyo, this is a different time
now.
This is different air force.
We don't want to be like that.

(51:51):
So I mean, like, like I said, 10years ago they were beating on
people like, like they wouldlike it's called wall-to-wall
counseling.
Yeah, they will beat on you tolike correct you and everything,
and even like I mean someveterans will call it like fake
wars or like what the hell arewe doing out here where wars
have been over, like inAfghanistan or other deployed

(52:13):
areas, and they just havesoldiers just there?
I guess I don't know, maybe ifanything kicks off or anything,
but they're not even reallyfighting a war, like they're
just there in terribleconditions, like waiting to be
like called back and everything.
And I've had like friends likebe frustrated.
Like why the F are we out here?
Like we're not, we can besomewhere else doing something.

(52:34):
Like why are we out here?
It's hot as hell, like it's alittle bit of a hostile
environment, so the civiliansdon't really want us here, like
you know this type type thingyeah, that that exit to
afghanistan was crazy.
Like I mean not too too crazy,but they finally left
afghanistan, left a bunch oflike I mean they couldn't take
everything with them, but leftweapons behind.

(52:56):
Like yeah, it was crazy, themilitary could be a crazy.
You know people that were thatwere over there when all that
exit was happening yeah, myhomie was well, not the exit,
but my homie was in afghanistanand everything.
And it's funny because I meanlike even when I was, because I
was deployed in kuwait, whichwasn't necessarily a combat zone
, but I did see certain thingspop off off base, like here and

(53:18):
there and like here, but like wenever had like mortar attacks
on our base, basically, and myhomie he had like mortar attacks
on his base, but he'd nevertake it like he's, like it's not
too serious.
They attack one side of thebase and like the alarm goes off
at 3 am in the morning and,dude, I'd never forget when is
it okay to cuss on the podcast,dude, one time he said that shit

(53:39):
went off at 4 am in the morning.
It was like fuck it, if I die,I die because he just got so
tired.
You get like desensitized to itso like like you, you learn how
to make funny, like funnies, outof the best situations or like
just bad situations.

(54:00):
Even when I was deployed, likestill have fun times, like out
there and everything, and likevery memorable times and
everything.
So I'm still grateful for thewhole experience.
To be honest, would you do itagain?
Oh oof, like if I get the VAloan and everything, absolutely
no questions, no questions, allyour service or your deployment

(54:22):
was worth it for the va loan howlong were you in the service
for?
I was in the service for fouryears four years, yeah, okay I
only did a four-year uh service,pretty much how long were you
deployed?
I was deployed for about likeeight months okay, wow yeah, I
was a vehicle.
I was a vehicle maintainer ormechanic when I was in the air
Force.
Okay, yeah, it was okay.

(54:43):
I mean I wanted to go in for,like, it and computers.
I tested for it but they waslike, no, we're going to make
you a mechanic because we needmechanics.
And I'm like, well, I guess I'mgoing to be a mechanic.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
Yeah, so then how did you learn all your IT stuff?
Where'd that come from?

Speaker 2 (54:56):
Dude, dude.
I just had a passion for it andI started, like when I, when I
was getting out of the military,I was like yo, I want to get an
IT, that's what I want to do.
So I did have the opportunityto go into the reserves and do
like IT in the reserves andeverything, but it was reserves,
like you know, once a month and, dude, like that type of IT was

(55:17):
nothing compared to like,because the Air Force and the
military has their proprietarysystems that they use that no
one else use.
So you're not like.
I mean you're using some thingslike Outlook and everything.
But once you go into the privatesector, like now that I'm
working like in a private sector, I get paid a lot more money, I
have a lot more freedom andlike there's so much more tools

(55:38):
and like my knowledge has grown.
So like APIs, programming.
If I was still like doing thatstuff in the Air Force, I
wouldn't even be nowhere nearthe level I am at today.
So like it really took gettinginto the private sector and like
getting into a company thatallowed me to just attack
different things that need to beattacked, to where I was really
able to grow with, like my ITknowledge and everything and

(56:00):
it's really been a blessing,even in my real estate journey.
Sorry if I'm too far from themic.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
No, you're all good, you're all good.
I have to ask you because,being an ethical hacker, what is
it, what's the outfit you wearwhen you're an ethical hacker?
Because everything is alwayslike hood up, sunglasses on or
mask on.

Speaker 2 (56:17):
You know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 1 (56:22):
Do you just when you were doing that, ethical hacking
, would you any?
Would you do any of that stuff,dude, like I mean?

Speaker 2 (56:27):
so my girlfriend makes fun of me sometimes, but
I'd like rose, it's normal.
Like you see, like it's it'sgotten way more popular than it
was.
Yeah, when I was doing it backin 2020, but when I was working
with people, it was really likeolder, like kind of a little bit
of older age guys and they're35.
And like they're like, yeah, anage range of 35, maybe 30, 30

(56:49):
to 35.
Or like you do, is you do meetquirky people in IT.
I'm not going to lie, but youmeet them in IT because they
have special abilities that helpthem in it.
Like that no one really elsehas.
Like I have a friend who is aveteran and like, dude, this guy
is like a god at math.

(57:10):
Like really, yeah, like he likeoh, calculus too, like is
nothing to him, like he findssolace and like he like it calms
him down and everything.
And even with me, like I said,I have an affinity to find
loopholes and end up trying todo things my way.
So, like that helped me when itcame to and curiosity and I

(57:31):
liked it, it helped me when itcame to ethical hacking and
everything I just thought it was, I was like, wow, these guys
will pay us to do this, like,like.
This is awesome, like, andthere's different types too.
You know there's like hacking,you know technology and
everything or a networkinfrastructure, and then there's
also physical penetration,testing, and I did that for like
, I didn't do it, I get paid forit.

(57:52):
But I was a practitioner.
I would like train and like, dolittle stuff around the house
and like at my, at my workplace,of course, letting my boss know
like hey, this door can bebroken into because this lock is
installed wrong.
Or there's this like tool likethat you could use for hotel

(58:13):
door rooms or in server rooms,where you're like you stick it
underneath the door and then,like it flips up and it grabs
the handle and you can kind oflike pull it to open the door
from the other side dude wowyeah there's a lot of doors like
if you go to a cons, likethere's some doors that have uh
sensors at the top because whenemployees are walking out, it
wants the door sensor to triggerand then like it

(58:36):
unlocks the door to walk out.
And I learned from a blackhills conference and black hills
training they're like thisethical hacking training that
goes on in south dakota that youknow you could take a vape pen
and you can blow it in thesensor and like it'll mess with
the temperature gauge in it andit'll unlock the door.
So like you just go in thecrevice of the crack, like rip

(58:57):
from the pen and then like blowit and then like you could like
yank the door open what in theworld?

Speaker 3 (59:05):
but like you just gave people a lot of tips yeah,
dude, you're dropping.

Speaker 2 (59:09):
You're dropping knowledge bombs everywhere here
and this is awesome dude, butlike company and like hotel
rooms, even hotel key card rooms, and like hotel rooms you might
I don't know if you heard forit, heard about it a lot but
it's easy to break into somehotel room doors and everything
from certain things and but likethose hotels need to pay people
like us.
So we could show them, like yo,this is how you could protect

(59:30):
against that, like this is howyou could do things so you don't
have to I don't know rely onthese systems or have antiquated
like locks and everything onyour doors and everything, not
Not to say you have them, butI'm just giving the example.

Speaker 3 (59:43):
We always have the deadbolt at the hotel.

Speaker 1 (59:45):
Yeah, that's why you got to have, that's why you need
to flip that.
No, can't come in.

Speaker 2 (59:49):
Even when it comes to connecting to that wifi you
better, you better make sureyou're actually connecting.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
Yeah, you didn't give Toy our wifi password.
No.

Speaker 3 (59:56):
I didn't.
No, I didn't.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
It's okay, I don't need it Probably not.

Speaker 3 (01:00:00):
Shit, oh my gosh All right, dude.

Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
Well, this has been awesome.
We're going to wrap this uphere.
So how we wrap up these showsis just we talk about our
biggest takeaway of theconversation and so, Rachel, I'm
going to flip it over to youBiggest takeaway from this
conversation today.

Speaker 3 (01:00:17):
I think the entitlement piece being able to
be split across differentproperties or across different
loans, I had definitely alwaysthought you could hold one VA
loan the same way you can holdone FHA loan, and really it's a
pot.
You can't go over thiscumulative pot, but you can
split it among multipleproperties or multiple loans and

(01:00:40):
that is a really reallyvaluable thing to know, right,
really valuable.

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
Yeah, I think just to kind of piggyback off of this
is that there's really a lot ofveterans just don't know what
they have, and I think you kindof brought the light to that is
that there is like you've got todo your own research and I
think we're just in an age rightnow where you've got to do your
own research, and I think we'rejust in a in an age right now
where you got to do your ownresearch about everything.
You know you can't, you can'trely on you know your neighbor,

(01:01:08):
your mom, your dad, you're likeyou.
You literally have to go do thework yourself.
You read 2000 pages of the VAhandbook like wild.

Speaker 3 (01:01:17):
And I want to piggyback off that too, because
it's it's so specific to eachveteran I think that was
something that you mentioned toois it's like well, I'm eligible
for this because I have this,or you know some people somebody
mentioned to you don't do theVA loan because you're going to
be underwater, well, maybe inyour market, but that's not true
in the market that you're in inChicago.
So it's like it really is sospecific to each veteran, where

(01:01:38):
they're at, where they're tryingto buy, what their status is.
It is not a one size fits all,so you really do need to do your
own research and understandyour capability and eligibility.
I guess is a better way to putit.

Speaker 2 (01:01:49):
Yeah, If you're a veteran, definitely go back to a
state where you have mostbenefit, where you have a lot of
benefits, like here in Illinoisand in Texas.
They treat veterans like Kings.

Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
So that's good to know those two states.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
Yeah.
So if you're getting out in themilitary, go to a state that
will treat you really right likea king, because there are
states that will do that.

Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
Are there states to avoid that you know of?

Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
Yeah, I mean states that don't have any benefits for
veterans.
I'm like, why go there?
Why go there at all?

Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
I haven't even thought about that.
Is your state that you live ina veteran-friendly state?
Yeah, interesting.

Speaker 3 (01:02:25):
I guess it makes sense, because there's like
retirement-friendly states,right?
Like there are states that aremore beneficial to retire in
than not, so that makes sense,yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:33):
And just you know, and Cook County would be one of
them because it's a high market,expensive market, right.
So you do get that upper limitof you.

Speaker 2 (01:02:40):
Know the eligibility of the va yeah and like on the
back end of that.
When it comes to investing, ifyou want to do that, make sure
you invest, like I've investedplaces where the infrastructure
was already there, like I'm.
I bought a place next to oakpark or I bought a place next to
a college that has that type ofinfrastructure, has that type
of activity going on, even ifyou're in the next neighborhood.

(01:03:02):
Over, like that stuff carriesover.
So, that definitely plays a hugepart in everything, and I just
want to also go back over ormention business resources for
veterans as well.
There's like VetBiz, the SBVAand there's even maybe some
business colleges in your areathat gives free college courses
to veterans to do some powerfulstuff.

(01:03:24):
I know out here in, out here inillinois, they have the joseph
college, the joseph businesscollege, and they're dude.
Joseph business college is alike they're global and I really
underestimated how powerfulthey is.
But they have any classes onyou know, federal contracting,
how to do this, how to do that,like really important, great

(01:03:44):
stuff that you know is just freefor veterans.
So a couple more things arementors are important, having
you know spreadsheets for yourcontractors and everything as a
landlord having your vendors andeverything, just those people
you can go to that has the dealson everything.
I have the hookup when it comesto kitchen cabinets.
Bro, like bro, I can get kitsch.

(01:04:06):
I can do like kitchen remodelsfor like five grand because,
like I granted, countertop cookup, I got it.
Like cabinet hookup, I got it.
So that's awesome but in thoserelationships are important too
okay last but not least, knowingwhen operations have gotten too
big for you.
So don't be afraid to hire avirtual assistant I'm not saying

(01:04:27):
someone who lives in the UnitedStates, because people in the
United States you need to pay,like health care, and you got to
pay them minimum wage.
Virtual assistants, people inthe Philippines or people in
other countries who are morethan willing to go above and
beyond for what you're like, forlike $7 an hour, $8, because
that's a lot where they're fromand you don't have to worry

(01:04:48):
about like the taxes or anything, because Upwork just does it
for you.
You don't have to worry aboutmedical care and everything.
Like it's great.
And did we go over renting byroom?

Speaker 1 (01:05:00):
Oh yeah no yeah, give us a, give us a quick breakdown
on that renting by room candefinitely 10 extra cash flow
ever.

Speaker 2 (01:05:09):
Unit rents for 1500.
If you rent per room you couldprobably do it like, depending
on the area, seven, likeanywhere from six to a thousand
dollars per room and that hasexponentially grown my cash flow
for my properties, as well asusing the tax deductions and my

(01:05:30):
unit two thirds.
If you have one roommate, theneverything in the unit that you
buy in your unit, if you stay inthe unit, basically if I stay
in the unit and I have aroommate and I buy a flat screen
TV unit, like and I basicallyif I stay in a unit and I have a
roommate and I buy a flatscreen TV, well that's for the
roommate and that's for me.
So half of that is taxdeductible because it's used for
the rental property as well asthe fridge, as well as the

(01:05:50):
dishwasher, as well as anythingyou upgrade in a unit.
So a lot of people would belike, oh, I don't want to live
with a roommate, this is thisand that, bro, I get to choose
my roommates.
So if I want to live with theit roommate who works out and
like, we're both like living,we're both operating at a high
level and everything helpingeach other and everything they
paid me to live here and I gettax deductible right off, so I'm

(01:06:13):
like half the stuff I buy my.

Speaker 1 (01:06:14):
it's just a sweet deal yeah, so is that how you're
doing it?
You're kind of finding peopleyou know to help live with you,
or is it you're posting it onAirbnb?

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
Yeah, stuff like that , just posting it on like
certain vetted websites so I canvet out my roommates before
they come in, because I don'tjust accept anybody Like.
I'm really picky when it comesto my roommates.

Speaker 1 (01:06:35):
So what do you use?
So I use Roomies, spare Room,facebook Marketplace sometimes
oh okay, so not Airbnb, so I useRoomies, spare Room, facebook
Marketplace sometimes.

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
Oh, okay, so not Airbnb.
I would be down for Airbnb.
I haven't done it yet.
I honestly want to do Airbnbfor expats.
I want to be that I want to getin that niche market.

Speaker 1 (01:06:52):
Oh, interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
The traveling the world thing.
I've been in expat homes andthey welcomed me.
When I've been to paris, likeyou know, she welcomed me.
She told me about the wholething.
When I've been to likedifferent places throughout
germany or barcelona, they'rejust so welcoming and I'm like
yo, they would like.
When I tell them about chicago,they get hyped.
They're like oh, this isn'tthat.
So I'm like yo, I would love toopen my like space open to

(01:07:16):
different people from around theworld vettedetted people, of
course, who would just like toexperience Chicago.

Speaker 1 (01:07:21):
Dude, I love it.
Man, that's awesome.
Thanks, killer, are you, areyou willing?

Speaker 3 (01:07:26):
are you willing to be a resource then for other
veterans?
You're dropping so many likevaluable resources, like can
people reach out to you and ask?
You specific questions.
Okay, you're willing to be thatmentor now to help the next
person?

Speaker 2 (01:07:38):
Yeah, sure, absolutely no problem at all.
I actually built a ai bot tohelp veterans too, so I could
like drop the link to that yeah,for sure, sweet hell, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:07:49):
So yeah, how?
How could they reach out to you?

Speaker 2 (01:07:51):
oh, you can reach out .
I'm gonna like get I don't know.
I guess I should give you likeI don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:07:56):
That's a good question, like I guess you can
give them a phone number, yougive them your email, you can
give them your facebook, myemail.
Whatever you want to do emailon facebook.

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
All right, yeah, for sure.
I have a question for you guysyeah do it book recommendations.
Top two books, one on businessand one on personal growth.
Rich dad, poor dad, nice yeahyeah did you read it?

Speaker 1 (01:08:17):
I did it took me.

Speaker 3 (01:08:18):
It took me, like, I think, three or four years into
our real estate journey to readit, even though that was like
the first one you read, but yeah, that one for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:08:25):
Yeah, no, that one's great.
And then what I really like is,honestly, like, traction is a
great book because it's like howto establish a business, like
as you you know, because I ownmy own brokerage and like, as
you start to, you know, you kindof get past the first couple of
years of like startup phase andthen you're trying to like
really establish, like what youridentity is and what your, what

(01:08:47):
your business goals are.
That was a really tremendousbook.
But then I also like, from thethe investment side, brandon
Turner man, he, he put togetherthis.
You know I can't remember whatit is, but it's.
It's a two part series.
It's on multifamily investing,but it was like there's a part
one and there's a part two.
And honestly, like as you, aseverybody starts in real estate

(01:09:08):
investing with like these one totwo, you know one to two unit
properties, three, four, youknow, like in the residential
space, but like there is aprocess to transition,
transition into the five plusRight and so that that, that
second part book that he has,the book, I'm pretty sure it's
called like the book on realestate investing or something.
I got that book but yeah, yeahit's, it's, it's really good,

(01:09:29):
it's really, really good, and sothey give you the models, they
give you how to you know,analyze the deals and it's, it's
a really great elementary andadvanced book to read.

Speaker 2 (01:09:39):
So Nice, okay, yeah, how really great elementary and
advanced book to read.
So nice, okay, yeah.
How about yourself?
So have you read the four cash?

Speaker 3 (01:09:45):
quadrants from rich dad for dad.
No, that's.
Is that the second or the thirdone?
We own it.
That's gonna be.

Speaker 2 (01:09:49):
I haven't read it yet yeah yeah, you're gonna love
like four crash quadrants iswhat really nailed it down to me
.
Like really nailed it down andlike helped me, like for the
rest of my life, learning thedifference between an employee,
investor, business owner andself-employed, like I'm telling
you you're going to love it Forme growing as a man for so I did

(01:10:11):
mental, physical, emotional,you know, business-wise and
everything.
I like to cover those pillars,so I'm going to just run through
them real quick For mental me,growing as a man and being more
mature.
Marcus Aurelius the meditationsof Marcus Aurelius he's a Stoic
philosopher, awesome guy.
A lot of what he says alignswith the Bible.
I also like to read the Biblefor that as well.
He was the emperor of Rome.

(01:10:33):
He had complete control overeverything.
He still chose to live a Stoiclife and was better than a lot
of like.
He didn't go crazy like Juliusand just stab random people on
the streets because he could.
He was a very noble man.
He was like, very like, had awonderful mindset, awesome guy
for strategy, discipline and allthat.
The book of five rings byMusashi Mazumoto famous samurai

(01:10:56):
in the time of the feudal periodwhere everyone it was custom to
fight with one sword.
He challenged it and he was thefirst guy to fight with two
swords, had over 50 duels to thedeath, won them all.
Very famous samurai, hadstatues of him and everything.
A lot of samurai nowadays areactually modeled after him.
Love his book.
Like good stuff in it.
The 10X Rule, crank CardoneAwesome book For Our Work Week

(01:11:21):
by.
Tim Ferriss and for real estate.
I want to tell the audiencesI've read a lot of Brandon
Turner's and Bigger Pocketspodcast books on real estate,
but the most comprehensive bookon real estate that I've come
across so far is Real Estate forDummies.
Real Estate for Dummies issuper comprehensive.

(01:11:47):
I've read that book and I waslike it's stuff in here that
even like the bigger pocketspodcast didn't even cover
sometimes.
So real estate for dummies is avery long and powerful book.
It has a lot, it has everythingin there.

Speaker 1 (01:11:58):
that's funny.
Like, yeah, that, yeah, there'sso many dummy books.

Speaker 2 (01:12:02):
I love the dummy series.
I love the dummy series.
Hey, that's awesome yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:12:08):
All right, Well, toy.
Well, it was a pleasure man.

Speaker 2 (01:12:10):
Thank you for having me on.

Speaker 1 (01:12:11):
Thank you, thank you for coming on and dropping all
this, all this great stuff and,I guess, to everyone else.
If you found any value in theshow, which I know you did,
please share it and get thismessage out there.
There's so many veterans thatcould really use some help and
really break into real estateand toy really just kind of
broke it down here for us.
So this is super, supervaluable.
So please share the show and wewill catch you on the next

(01:12:32):
episode.

Speaker 2 (01:12:33):
Peace veteran special .

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