March 31, 2025 • 53 mins
Summary
In the inaugural episode of the RPP podcast, host, Ian Dietler introduces the concept of real estate investing and the importance of mindset. He is joined by Matt Gougé, a seasoned mortgage broker, who shares his journey into real estate and the significance of taking action. The conversation covers various aspects of real estate investing, including the benefits of owning rental properties, the importance of networking, and inspiring success stories from everyday investors. The episode concludes with a strong call to action for listeners to take the first step in their real estate journey.
Takeaways
The right mindset is crucial for real estate success.
Taking action is essential; don't wait for the perfect moment.
Real estate can create generational wealth for everyday people.
Networking and community support are vital in real estate investing.
Investing in rental properties offers multiple financial benefits.
Mistakes are part of the learning process in real estate.
Education and mentorship can help new investors get started.
Real estate investing is accessible to anyone willing to learn.
Success stories can inspire and motivate new investors.
You don't need a lot of money to start investing in real estate.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to RPP Podcast and Real Estate Investing
03:18 The Importance of Mindset and Borrowing in Real Estate
05:38 Matt Gougé's Journey into Real Estate and Mortgages
12:04 Taking Action in Real Estate Investing
13:03 Services Offered by Matt the Mortgage Guy
19:25 Benefits of Owning Rental Properties and Wealth Building
27:59 The Power of Real Estate Investment
29:25 Networking and Community in Real Estate
32:22 Learning from Experience and Mentorship
34:18 Inspiring Success Stories in Real Estate
42:27 Strategies for Growth and Wealth Creation
44:54 Taking Action and Overcoming Fear
49:15 Resources for Aspiring Investors
53:38 New Chapter
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
Welcome to the Real Prop Pro podcast, where strategy,
innovation, and wealth converge to redefine real estate
investing. Whether you're brand new or a
seasoned pro, we're here to helpyou build, scale, and automate
your real estate business like never before.
From mastering the investor mindset to game changing
(00:33):
strategies like tax deed, tax lien investing, wholesaling fix
and flips, multi family investing, plus so much more.
Each week, we bring you insider secrets, expert guests, and real
world case studies to give you the knowledge and confidence to
take action. So if you're ready to think
(00:54):
bigger, invest smarter, and create lasting wealth, you're in
the right place. Hello and welcome to the very
first episode of the RPP Podcast.
(01:16):
I'm your host, Ian Dietler. I'm a real estate investor and
business owner here in Sacramento, CA.
My journey in real estate investing started back in 2014.
Since then, I've been involved in real estate investing,
networking, and project management.
Beyond just doing deals, my passion is helping everyday
(01:36):
people break free from the 9 to 5 grind and build wealth through
real estate investing. Over the years, I've seen so
many people want to get into real estate investing but feel
stuck. Some people don't know where to
start. Others are afraid of making
mistakes or feeling like they don't have enough money.
That's exactly why we launched the podcast, to break down those
(01:58):
barriers and give you real, actionable advice from
experienced investors, lenders, and entrepreneurs.
All of our guests have been where you are today and worked
hard to breakthrough. Now let me explain what RPP is
and why it matters to you. RPP stands for Real Prop Pro.
It is an education and training platform that also has online
(02:21):
software with nationwide property and property owner
data. This can be used to find deals,
run comps, find buyers, and so much more.
It is built specifically to helpeveryday people invest in real
estate through various strategies.
RPP shows students how to investin tax deed, tax liens,
(02:42):
wholesaling, fix and flips, and various other methods.
Our goal is to help brand new investors and we want to help
people take action and build their portfolios.
We do this through in person events, online training,
mentorship programs, and one-on-one coaching.
(03:03):
Whether you're looking to buy your first property, automate
your investing, scale your full time real estate business, or
implement new strategies, RPP gives you the tools and
resources to make it happen. That brings us to today's
episode. No matter how much real estate
knowledge you have, the right mindset is so important.
(03:24):
Another vital part of real estate investing is borrowing
money. That's why I wanted to kick off
this podcast series with an expert in that space, someone
who has tons of experience working with investors, finding
deals and help his clients buildwealth.
Our guest today is none other than Matt Gouge, also known as
(03:45):
Matt the Mortgage Guy. Matt is one of the top mortgage
brokers in Sacramento, specializing in working with
real estate investors. He is not only help people
finance deals, he's also an investor himself.
He understands both sides of theequation.
Matt, welcome to the show. Ian man, I feel honored to be
(04:06):
the first guest on the podcast. And as you were talking, you
know, being a real estate investor since 2014, that's,
that's when my journey started in mortgage in 2014, February
1st to be exact, is when I got licensed.
So I think, you know, we've beenrunning around looking for
fellow investors looking for, you know, motivation and, and
(04:27):
you know, people to learn from for the same amount of time in
Sacramento. And that's what, you know,
certainly where I met you, right?
Is it another one of these real estate meetups?
You and I have both been to a ton.
I know you have because I've seen you, Adam.
So I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to talk about my own
investing journey. And then obviously through the
(04:48):
eyes of investors, I've helped thousands of people finance
mortgages all across the country.
So it's cool for me to be able to not just share my personal
experience of what I've done, but I've got to see investors,
stuff that works, stuff that doesn't work, the traits that
help investors win. And I'm happy to share that
(05:09):
because I know that first call Ihave with somebody who's brand
new between that person who I meet on the phone and what can
become of it three, 5-10 years later is sometimes magic.
I've got a really cool story to share about investor I started
working with back in 2014. And the the journey that that
(05:31):
that he's taken, people will be,you know, hopefully inspired by
it. But yeah, just excited to be
here, man. Thanks for having.
Me. Wow, thank you so much.
So the first question is what got you into real estate?
So this is a common story and I think people are going to relate
to this because I'm going to be honest about it.
Got into mortgage in 2014 and I got into mortgage.
(05:53):
Somebody just told me, Matt, we know you're a math nerd, you're
good with people, you've got some entrepreneurial type
skills, you'd be good at mortgage.
And to be honest, like that, it is my wheelhouse.
I, I like math, I like people, I'm entrepreneurial and being a
mortgage broker is a little bit sales, a little bit marketing,
(06:15):
some math and, and analytical stuff as well.
And so when I got into mortgage in 2014, I couldn't help but be
around real estate. I couldn't help but be exposed
to all this stuff. So that's when I really started
listening to the Bigger Pockets.I started popping into real
estate events. And I think originally it
(06:38):
honestly might have been I was looking for clients and seeing
all my clients win and seeing the magic of real estate through
their eyes. You know, the guy buying his,
you know, 4th investment property or helping somebody buy
a quad Plex where they're going to live in one unit and rent the
others. I, I really got the itch of, Oh
(07:01):
my gosh, I need to do something personally.
And a quick rewind. I bought my first house in 2006,
which was well before I got intomortgage, actually house hacked.
My wife was just my girlfriend at the time and, you know,
bought a house and, and got engaged O6 and O7.
(07:24):
We, she had a friend who rented a room and I had a friend who
rented a room. So we were house hacking long
before I, I knew or or thought about that term because that
$2800 mortgage in 2006 seems huge.
But when you had two people eachpaying $500 towards it made it a
little bit more reasonable. But what I want to say about my
start is that like most people, I listened to so many real
(07:50):
estate podcasts, Bigger Pockets was, was popular and not as much
YouTube, but literally like forums online.
And I was going to these real estate meetups.
I was talking to people about real estate.
It took years before I took any action.
And you know, when I tell peoplelike they've got to take action
(08:11):
and take the first step and do the first deal, I'm, I'm doing
it, you know, and I'm telling them that from experience, I
like them. Took many more years than I
should have because I think it was 2017 when I bought my first
investment properties. So, you know, three years isn't
a ton of time. I honestly, Ian, know so many
(08:34):
people. And you probably have met these
same people at real estate meetups where you're like, man,
like I've seen this guy's face for eight or ten years, or, you
know, she's been going to real estate meetups and then you talk
to him. We're still working on deal #1.
And I think a podcast like this and what you guys are doing to
help investors and to show them some tools and show them what
other people are doing is vitally important.
(08:56):
Because what I know with absolute certainty is you have
to start. And there's, there's a cool
little quote that I heard that Ireally like that you don't have
to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.
And so, you know, if you want tobe great at anything, like
you're not gonna just wake up one day and be great, you're not
(09:17):
gonna study your way into greatness.
Like you have to take action, but that first action could be
imperfect. So go out and buy a bum deal.
And quick story on my personal thing.
Shout out to my wife who always knows better.
She told me not to invest in Alabama and being a math guy and
(09:38):
thinking I know you know more than I do, I was like listen I
can buy this house in Montgomery, AL for $70,000.
Down payment of 20% is super affordable and not a huge risk.
And they've got low property taxes.
I remember the number, dude, it was $356 principal, interest,
taxes and insurance. And the problem with that,
(10:02):
because if you've tried to pencil it and you say $14,000
down, you know, I'm going to cash flow over $300.00 a month.
And, and you start to look at like 25% returns.
Well, that part of Montgomery, AL wasn't a really sweet place
to live and shots and, and violence, people didn't want to
live there. And so Long story short, it was
(10:22):
a terrible investment, but it was an investment.
It was a learning lesson, you know, if, if you're going to
spend money on education and sometimes can be a deal.
So you know, 2017 was, was that first deal.
A couple years later made the best of investments I've made,
which was a couple fourplexes. But I don't think I get to the
(10:45):
fourplexes and the other single families and the stuff that's
working without a swing and a miss.
Thankfully for me, it, it wasn'ta terrible miss.
I think I, when I sold in 2020, I ended up probably cutting a
check for seven or $8000. I had a few years of, of lost
sleep and negative cash flow, but it didn't break me.
(11:08):
What it did was teach me a few things.
If I ever invest out of state, Inot only, you know, can watch an
online video or talk to somebodyand get lessons from it.
I've got personal lessons about that.
And So what I want people to take away, and I've seen example
(11:29):
after example of this is like you have to take action, get
around people that are going to inspire you to take a first
step. It doesn't have to be a huge
deal. It doesn't have to be, you know,
something that you just wake up and buy something day one, but
you know, 3-6, 12 months of educating yourself, a year of
(11:51):
talking to people. Eventually you want to get out
there and start swinging the bator else, you know, you're going
to be like some of these people.Unfortunately that I know that
have been talking about invest in real estate for a decade and
and haven't done so yet. Yes, absolutely.
Yeah, you're right. We, we all know people like
that. Similar to you, I also had that
same kind of experience to whereI spend a couple years also just
(12:15):
learning. I spent a couple years also just
learning and analyzing deals andnot taking action.
And it wasn't till 2019 that I finally did take action and
purchase, you know, my first fixand flip project.
So great to hear that. I love that our, you know,
(12:36):
stories and timelines, you know,aligned so well, you know, as
from when we started to when, you know, we actually got into
it. Obviously you've been doing
really well in the mortgage lending business.
Can you talk a little bit about that side and how and kind of
what services you provide for, you know both residential home
(12:58):
buyers and also what kind of like programs and stuff you have
for investor buyers? Yeah, and so 2014 was when I got
started. Worked for a small retail
mortgage outfit until 2018 and then since 2018 I've been a
mortgage broker. Just just means I can go out
there and shop different wholesale lenders and, and have
(13:19):
a, you know, wide array of products.
I think the number now is like 400 or 450 million in in funded
loans. So I've, I've closed over 1000
loans. I don't say that to to brag.
I say that to say a normal person with a lot of, you know,
(13:40):
at bats and a lot of swings is, is going to get good at
something. So I think that, you know, my
experience and, and my quote UN quote expertise doesn't come
from me being a PhD or some, youknow, smart guy.
I've just done it a lot. And over those years I've done
first time home buyers, I've done move up buyers and
(14:03):
investors have always held a special spot in my heart.
I guess because I see the magic of real estate investing and I
can take lessons and things I learned from 1 investor and help
the next investor. And so from non QM loans to, you
know, literally anything you canthink about on one to four unit
(14:26):
properties is stuff that we do. I've got plenty of contacts and
somebody tells me I want to buy a 10 unit apartment complex or
want to buy an office building. Like I've got contacts for that.
But like as a residential mortgage broker, my stuff is 1
to 4 unit. But you'd be surprised at how
much wealth somebody can build, you know, buying 1 to 4 units
(14:48):
over these years have, you know,had a, had a mix of, of all
kinds of different buyers. Investors probably make up 35 or
40% of the business I'm doing. And now as of 2021, since I
joined U mortgage, we're nationwide.
So I'm doing it in 48 states, which is really cool to me.
I get to see like, hey, what's going on in Florida?
(15:09):
What are these people doing in, in Tennessee or Texas or
Arizona? And you know, I ask people
because I'm curious and I'm constantly learning as well.
Oh, that's cool. Like you're doing Co living in
Arizona. Tell me how that works.
You know, and I've got a client who's an IT professional making
(15:29):
multi 6 figures a year with the W2 and after acquiring 5
properties, which isn't huge, right?
Like that's things that people need to remember.
Like you can change your life with a handful of investments.
We're not talking about like 8000 doors and you want to be,
you know, Brandon Turner from Bigger Pockets, we're talking
about like 555 single family homes.
(15:54):
That's what this investor clientof mine has.
I think last I talked his like bottom line net after expenses
is $22,000 a month. And so he's in this glorious
position where he's like, I'm not doing the IT stuff anymore.
If, if in a few years I can create a business that's
(16:15):
generating $22,000 a month without me punching a clock and,
and being, you know, held to a schedule that's that's dictated
by a company. All I have to do is repeat that
and I go from 22 to 44,000, probably get better at it,
probably optimize that. But you know, he's just doing Co
(16:35):
living. He's, he's actually providing
great service in a niche that I believe in real estate is one
that there's there's really a need for right affordable
housing. And so if you charge somebody
$275 a week or $225 a week to have their own bedroom and their
(16:57):
own space and their own parking spot and whatnot inside of a 567
bedroom house, that's great. And so I don't even know where
this question started because there's there's so many
different ways that we can go. But you know, I'm doing neat
stuff like that all over the country.
You know, I've got guys that arebuilding ground up construction
in Kentucky. I've got others that are doing
(17:19):
other type of stuff. And, and they're buying a, a
fourplex. They're going to live in and in
Florida. And you know, at 22 years old,
that's that's one thing that hopefully your podcast reaches
some of that younger demographic.
When I talk to somebody about buying a multi unit property as
(17:40):
their first investment in their 20s, like there is some true
magic that happens there. Because real estate is really a
game of time. And the longer you can be in the
investment, the better. You know, there's no stock
market investor that tells you like, hey, I hit a home run.
(18:00):
You know, all the Warren Buffettand those guys talk about what
compound interest does over time.
Like, real estate is no different.
You buy it, you hold on to it. Sometimes you exchange it,
sometimes you optimize it. But the true wealth comes from
somebody who's like, yeah, I wasin this game for 30 years.
(18:22):
I started out buying single family.
I saw an opportunity where, you know, where I picked up an 11
unit complex, You know, I sold that in 1031.
And I I found a space that worked in my local market
around, you know, retail, whatever it is, over decades,
you've got normal people who create massive amounts of
wealth. And you know, I don't know about
(18:44):
you, but I would think that the listener and, and, and myself,
like I don't want to save my wayto $5,000,000, a $5.00 bill at a
time, right? Like I want stuff going on in
the background where you're like, Oh my gosh.
Like this real estate I've ownedin California has appreciated
(19:06):
5.9% per year. And you know, that's hundreds of
thousands or, you know, 7 figures in a lot of people's
cases over a few decade horizon.That's, that's the neat stuff,
man. We'll, we'll dive into that like
number stuff I'd love to talk about and we'll dive into that
stuff too. Yeah.
I mean, I'd like to keep kind ofgoing on with that right now
(19:29):
actually because it's it's so powerful to think about what
rental, what owning rental real estate can do.
So can you take a little bit of time to kind of talk about that?
Like obviously like you should be having positive cash flow.
So I mean that that's one thing that's a benefit, but you were
also just kind of talking about holding it long term.
(19:51):
You know, you get the debt pay down, right?
So your tenant is actually paying your mortgage, and that's
dropping how much you owe and dropping how much you owe, plus
the appreciation of what the property is worth.
Just every month you're just increasing the equity in in that
property. So can you kind of talk a little
(20:11):
bit about the benefits of owningrental properties?
Yeah, I'd love to. And I think people do really
well with examples, real simple examples, you know, public
school guy like me. And of course the, the mortgage
business has been going well. So I've, I've got some, some
great income coming in, but it doesn't take, you know, being a
(20:33):
$500,000 a year engineer to be areal estate investor.
You know, I, I work with people that you know, are making 60
seventy $80,000 a year. You know, they were smart enough
to have bought something with, you know, 3 1/2% down FHA and
held on to it. And then they bought their next
house and all of a sudden, you know you've got a handful for
(20:58):
California numbers. Let's say you get yourself to
four properties. This is not like something
that's so far out of reach in the stars that people can't
relate to. So you're an everyday person and
you acquire 4 properties. Those four properties are worth
$2,000,000. And you know, maybe you're in
Ohio, maybe you're in another part of the country where that
(21:18):
number seems high. Great.
You can cut it in half or you can do what you want with it.
But you know, $2,000,000 in realestate, which in this case is
just four properties, you know, depending on the interest rate
and depending on other stuff, you know, the, the, the debt pay
down might be different. But to your point, like there's
multiple things going on when you own real estate, there is
(21:40):
the appreciation and people willnot California real estate, the
5.9% number that I used like that's the average appreciation
over the last 39 years in California.
And so if you own $2,000,000 in real estate while you sleep, the
average me not trying to be optimistic or, or, or, you know,
(22:00):
paint it, you know, more rosy than it should be. 5.9% of
2,000,000 is $118,000 a year. So so $118,000 a year net worth.
You're adding $10,000, you know,give or take to your net worth
every single month while you sleep, just owning that real
(22:21):
estate. Depending on your interest rate
and whatnot, you're probably paying a few $1000 a month down
on the debt. So maybe you owe $1.4 million on
that because you've bought some and appreciate it, you know,
then you bought the next one with 10% down and that one's
appreciated. But you know, if you owe 1.4
(22:43):
million and it's are paying the rent, this isn't your money.
And you know, one month you owe 1.4, the next month you owe
1.397, then 1.394, you know, so maybe there's $3000 a month
that's being paid down on the debt.
Like that's another $36,000 a year.
(23:05):
That's for all intents and purposes happening while you
sleep. It's relatively passive.
I'm not ACPA, so I'm not going to talk about the exact, you
know, tax write offs, but owningreal estate, you're going to
have, you know, tax write offs and and certain costs that are
associated with it are going to be written off.
The interest that you pay, quoteUN quote, your your tenants pay
(23:27):
is going to offset the income you get from it.
All of this, Ian, and we're not even talking about cash flow.
And honestly, when I talk to people who own on the coast or
in these more expensive markets like California, my real estate
would be a great investment if Ihad 0 cash flow ever.
You know, I happened to, you know, cash flow great on the
(23:50):
four plexes I bought, the singlefamilies I have.
It might only be a few $100 a month, but since I've got such
low interest rates on those, I think the debt pay down last I
checked. As a math nerd, I love it dude.
Like I think it was like 1000 orsomething last year got paid
down on the debt. Like that's really cool to think
about that over the next decade without a single dollar bill
(24:14):
coming out of my pocket, I'm going to owe a half $1,000,000
less on this real estate that I own.
And last you know, numbers I checked, it was something like
3.3 million. And so like at 5.9% a year, over
a decade, that might be like, it's definitely going to be 7
(24:36):
figures in appreciation, right? Like historically 6% we'd be
talking about, you know, like 180 grand a year.
But you know, conservatively we say over a decade, like it's
going to be worth a million and a half more and I'm going to owe
500,000 less like $2,000,000 normal dude, public education,
(24:58):
right? Like $2,000,000 in net worth
going on there regardless of what I choose to do, you know,
as a mortgage broker or you know, quote UN quote working.
And that's the, the, the power of real estate that like I'm
talking to everyday people. I'm not talking about a guy
who's, you know, a multimillionaire who comes from
(25:20):
multimillionaires and is puttinga half $1,000,000 down on a 30
unit apartment complex. Talking about a normal dude that
bought a fourplex and then bought a single family and then
bought another 4, you know, and over time collected some real
estate that's going to like be generational wealth that quite
(25:42):
honestly, like my dad was a truck driver, right?
My dad made not a lot of money. My mom was cleaning houses and
working in the cafeteria of my elementary school.
And so 0 silver spoons in the house and you know, not a single
penny in, in, in wealth handed over what I'm able to do for my
(26:05):
kids. And like with the clients that
I'm talking to, the stuff that they're able to do for their
families is, is magical. And, and what I think people
should hear and should be inspired by is it's everyday
people. You can do it if you're
listening to this and you have the ability to work and make
(26:26):
money and you're, you know, openminded enough to go out there
and talk to fellow real estate investors and go, oh, I didn't
think about that. That's working in Sacramento.
That's a strategy that I think Ican get behind.
I've got a skill set that that might align with acquiring
properties that way or buying that type of property.
I'm going to try that. Or you meet somebody that says,
(26:47):
here's what I'm doing in Phoenix, AZ.
It would work in your market. I know it would.
Oh yeah. That person's doing it.
That person's doing it the, the,the amount of opportunity that
exists in real estate and it always does.
Last year, this year, next year,the year after that, it's always
going to be there, right? There's going to be different
ways that that are better or worse than others, but there's
(27:11):
dozens and dozens of ways that any individual can get into it
and do it. And so I'm passionate about it
because I know it works. I've seen it what I've seen
everyday people do it time and time again.
And it's it's really cool, man. Like I went and spoke at this
church that somebody asked me tospeak at.
(27:33):
And I felt like I was breathing life into some of these people
where home ownership wasn't evenon their radar.
And I'm like, listen, like you've got a great day job
working for, you know, PG&E. If you bought a duplex and lived
in one side and rented out the other at your age like that
(27:56):
thing will be worth $1,000,000 and it'll be paid off by the
time you're 55 at worst, right? And that's one property.
Yeah, that's one property and maybe you've moved out by then,
which is likely the case. And now each side is renting for
$2500, probably more in the future because, you know, carton
(28:17):
of eggs will probably cost $30 by then.
But either way, like that's either $1,000,000 that gets
exchanged into some other type of property or it's 5-6, eight,
$10,000 in income to, to fund this person's retirement.
(28:37):
And so it's, it's neat and it's not exclusive, you know, to
people that are in some club or have a silver spoon or, you
know, have been handed down properties or wealth generation
to generation. This is like everybody can
participate and, and everybody should quite honestly, it's just
a matter of being able to have the confidence and get out there
(29:04):
and, and take action and, and learn from it.
Real estate is something that always has worked and will
continue to work. So if if you're listening to
this and any of this is resonating with you, I, I urge
you to to. Take action, absolutely.
(29:26):
Absolutely. So some of that action, you
know, it might be going to in person meetups.
I feel like that's a great way to network and talk to people
like you'd mentioned, talk to people and figure out what's
working for them, what's not, you know, figure out how you can
provide value to them. If you're just getting started
(29:49):
and you don't know where to start, maybe find a mentor, find
someone that you know, like I said, that you can provide value
to, you know, and people who arejust getting started might be
like, well, I don't have anything to offer, you know, a
big real estate investor. You know, First off, we're not
all big real estate investors. So don't, I would encourage you
(30:11):
not to be intimidated by real estate investors.
I mean, some might be pretty offputting, but in my experience,
almost everyone that I've met inthis industry has always been
very welcoming, very nice. And they understand that people
have to start somewhere. And in my experience, it's just
(30:32):
been a very open and caring community.
So I encourage you guys to get started, get out there, start to
meet people again, figure out how you can provide value.
You know, maybe you drive aroundlooking for distressed
properties and shoot those addresses over to a real estate
investor. They take them down and they
(30:53):
might give you a little kickback.
Or you can go to other real estate investors and be like,
hey, do you need someone to manage a project?
You know, that's kind of how I got started is I went to a real
estate investor and said, hey, can we JV on this?
Can we do a joint venture agreement here?
I'll bring in some cash, I'll manage the project, I'll get
everything done and at the end of the deal we'll split the
(31:15):
money. And that's actually who I now
work with on Real Prop Pro. He was my first joint venture
partner. So I think that anytime that,
you know, you think that maybe you don't know enough or you
know, you don't think that you might be able to help people or
other investors, I argue that you can.
(31:36):
And I think it's important to learn as much about this
industry, learn as much about the different strategies that
are out there. You know, we're going to talk a
lot more with different investors in future episodes of
what strategies you can implement.
And, you know, not all of these strategies require a ton of
capital. So if you're sitting there with
(31:57):
like, not that much money or, you know, not that much
experience, that's OK. You know, just taking action and
learning is really the the, the main thing.
And like I said, the community is very open, very understanding
to newer people. So, you know, just just start
showing up, you know, figure outwhere the meetups are, figure
(32:18):
out where people are, you know, doing business and just show up.
Yeah, I, I agree wholeheartedly.I've been to a lot of these real
estate meetups and you know, you'd be surprised you, you show
up to some of these and without even knowing it, you know,
because some really high level real estate investors aren't
(32:38):
flaunting their wealth. You know, and you might see him
and be like, why would this guy who's got forty $50,000 a month
in passive income coming in likeyou can travel and, you know,
sit on a beach and doesn't have to work another day in his or
her life. Like why are they at this meet
(32:59):
up? They're at the meet up because
they love real estate. They love talking to real estate
investors. They love being involved in
deals. And like most any industry, the
people that have found success really get a lot of joy at
helping others up because at onetime or another, they were the
(33:20):
new person. They were somebody who was new
to the space and somebody else helped them out.
And so I've had many a conversations.
I've learned so much. You know, I was at a real estate
event last month in Las Vegas and I'm talking to a guy who's
like at the top of the mountain and, you know, a 20 minute
(33:43):
conversation where I got, you know, in, in my mind, like
thousands of dollars worth of education out of this person
through a conversation, you know, super humble, super
willing to share because, but that's, that's what they love.
And anybody who's been involved in real estate and seen the
(34:06):
magic of it and created, you know, wealth through real
estate, I, I don't know, I, I personally feel like it's almost
like you owe it to the real estate community to give back
because real estate's done so much for you.
And so before I forget, man, I want to tell this story because
I think it's motivational. It, it inspires me.
It really like fires me up. I got into real estate investing
(34:29):
in 2014 and like you, I'm popping into real estate
meetups. I'm meeting fellow real estate
investors. You know, some of these meetups
have 100 people, some of them have 7.
You know, some of them are in the back of a Denny's.
Like you find these real estate meetups everywhere and I, I
don't remember the exact location, but I remember it was
(34:53):
one of many meetings I went to where like you're there and
you're like, what am I doing here?
Like what, what is this place, right?
Like I'm in the like, in a, likean office that feels abandoned
because it's 7:30 at night and everybody's gone home and it's
like, oh, we're all following each other down the hallway to
meet in this conference room that's might be dusty and, and
(35:13):
whatnot. And so.
I was I was going to ask if it was at a ballroom dancing place
because I know which meet up that is.
Well, this was like a cross fromArden Fair Mall, like in 2014
and God, I think it was like Point West Dr. wherever it was.
And I'm there, I meet somebody who's my age and he has his real
(35:37):
estate license. He's flipped a few homes and we
just hit it off. And and so we start talking.
We both like the Sacramento Kings and you know, I've shared
the story. I think he shared it.
I don't think he would care about me, you know, sharing his
name. But Jazz Creep ends up becoming
a great mortgage client of mine because as we're talking, he's
(35:58):
like, yeah, I do some flips, butsome of the stuff I hold on to,
I've got a partner. We're going to put 30 year, you
know, conventional financing on it.
My partner in Mountain View has great W2 income.
And So what I want people to getfrom this story as Preet's going
to these small little meet ups, he's meeting other investors,
he's taking action and he's doing single family flips in
(36:23):
Antelope and Rosemont. You know, for anybody unfamiliar
with Sacramento like stuff at that time in 14 was probably
trading for high 2 hundreds, lowthree hundreds.
And so nothing really special, nothing that like an investor
who's starting would be like overwhelmed or think like this
(36:45):
is beyond, you know, my scope orsomething that I could do.
It's like buy a house and get itfor 215, put $40,000 and rehab
into it and sell it for 325, right?
And make a spread. Well, to make a Long story
short, sometimes I'm I'm long winded.
Me and Jazz Preet stay in touch.Me and Jazz Preet share some
(37:05):
King season tickets. You know, 1251020 flips later,
you know, holds, holds one of the properties after flipping 5,
then holds another one and you know, puts together what I think
at its Max was like 26 single family homes.
(37:26):
I think they were all in 95826 like Rosemont or Antelope.
And so 20 and 21. Those houses are probably worth
$500,000 each. They've got debt on them just
like we've talked about. The tenants are paying down the
debt. The homes are appreciating over
time. It's doing the magic that real
estate does. And, you know, Jazz Preet's got
(37:50):
a family. He's busy with life.
I'm busy with life. You know, we're still in touch,
but less of my services are needed.
So, you know, I'm not financing these properties like I was
before. And, and these aren't the exact
numbers that don't hold me to it, but roughly speaking,
there's equity extracted. Some of these houses are sold,
(38:13):
some of them are refinanced and equity is taken out.
He's got an opportunity and through these real estate meet
ups and through talking to people, they're like, man, like
if you do it right, hotels can be pretty profitable.
And so a normal person like me or you or anybody else who's
listening to this, who's, you know, starts with what I believe
(38:36):
is kind of like the easy stuff, you know, a single family flip
puts, I think it was something like 1.8 million.
And again, this isn't like we'resaving $10 a month for, for 900
years. It's like this property went up
200,000 since I bought it. This property appreciated 250.
(38:57):
Like it's, it's all this magic of real estate appreciation that
that was able to afford a normalguy like me and you $1.8 million
down to buy this 7 or $8 millionapartment.
Him and a partner, they've got somebody who who is on site at
(39:18):
this out of state hotel whose compensation is tied to how the
property performs. So like make sure the property
performs well, that it's, as youknow, fully occupied as
possible. And I believe last time I spoke
to him, that hotel was generating somewhere in the
neighborhood of like $90,000 a month.
(39:38):
Bottom line, like after expensesare paid, right?
And so him and his partner $45,000 a piece and someone else
is managing it, someone else is getting paid 6 figures to make
sure that it's managed and it's efficient and it's hitting, you
know, the, the KPIs of the business.
He's not done right. He's in contract on the second
(39:59):
hotel. And I tell that story to say
like, that's me, that's you, that's anybody listening who's
done that. And maybe that's not your path.
Maybe you take, you know, some of your real estate, you know,
fortune that you accumulate overthe next decade or two, and you
(40:19):
roll it into buying. Commercial property that, you
know, 7-11 rent space from or whatever the case may be, right.
But like, there's so many different ways to create insane
wealth. And I, and I think why that
story really resonates with me and why I get really excited
(40:39):
about it is because you might see a hotel owner, you might see
somebody who owns a big commercial property.
You might see these people who own things and you think to
yourself, like, man, that is somebody who's up here.
That is somebody who's, you know, dad owned a sports
franchise or something. No, it's somebody who showed up
(41:02):
to A7 person meet up in a dingy backroom across from Arden Fair
Mall and then took action and then took action after that and
took action after that. And so, you know, if that
doesn't inspire you, I don't know what will.
Like everyday people creating generational wealth for
themselves and their family through real estate.
And that's one of 5000 differentways can be done.
(41:28):
I, you know, know personally that like Jazz Preet is a really
great human being. And so like those stories and
seeing him win really, really inspires me.
And, and I've got dozens of others, you know, who have done
it multiple different ways. And over time, I'm like, oh wow,
(41:49):
I remember when I helped that guy buy his first duplex.
And now he's got, you know, XY and Z and he quit the job at
Netflix and he's, and he's doingthis or, you know, wow.
You know, she was excited as a first time home buyer to buy her
first place in 2016. And now she's got 7 properties,
you know, single mom and, and you know, has $14,000 a month.
(42:12):
That's relatively passive and you know, could stop now and be
fine without working, but is going to keep going because she
enjoys her job and and so, you know, everyday people, man and
and real estate is is truly magic.
Yeah, Thank you so much for sharing that story because that
was great. And I like how the story kind of
(42:33):
highlights that like you can graduate, you know, from one
level to the next. You can start real simple, real
basic, you know, low money down and stuff like that.
Hey, I'm going to wholesale, I'mgoing to find deals.
And then after you're successfulat that, you can step up, you
know, you can keep leveling up in real estate.
And you know, you'd mentioned the 1031 exchange for our
(42:56):
listeners that's just basically deferring tax when instead of
selling the property and having to pay taxes on that sale, you
can exchange into another like kind property and that will
that'll defer your tax payments to a later date.
So you can exchange from one property into let's say a bigger
(43:20):
property that you know, maybe ifyou had, you can also use a
couple of different ones. You could have like two or three
single family homes and 1031 exchange those into one larger
like multi family deal, for instance.
And instead of paying taxes on the sale of those three single
family homes, you've now deferred that tax liability into
that new property. So just great stuff.
(43:43):
Thank you so much for being a part of this first podcast,
Matt. I appreciate it.
You're such an amazing person. You have so much wisdom and I'm
just so grateful that you are our very first guest on the RPP
Podcast. Man, it was my pleasure.
And I and I think too, like nowadays, you know, 2025 and
beyond, people don't have any excuse.
(44:04):
There's so much information out there, right?
If you can't make it to an in person real estate meet up,
which I recommend, there's there's nothing better than in
person. You know, there's endless
content on YouTube, there's endless real estate investing,
you know, forums where you can glean this information from.
And so like, if you're an investor in the 1980s, you know,
(44:25):
you, you got to meet somebody ata coffee shop or you're, you're
reading about it in a magazine or a newspaper or, or a book
that somebody wrote. But nowadays there's so much
information out there that there's really no excuse.
And, and so, you know, you want to get out there and you want to
learn, you want to get around other people that are doing
(44:46):
stuff. And I think the getting around
other people is part education and part learning and part
reminding yourself that it's possible.
I think that's like when I talk to new real estate investors, I
need to remind them that they need to remind themselves that
like, you know what, this is possible because I get so many
calls, Ian, interest rates are high.
(45:07):
I don't know, you know, I'm onlya single income and I make this
and like day in and day out, I'mlike, listen, if you bought a
duplex, you know, we could use the rental income from the other
unit to to offset your payment as far as qualifying goes.
So I could qualify for somethingthat's 550.
Yeah. Here's what the payment would
look like. I know rents would be about
(45:28):
this. You'd get that from the other
side. Well, that's kind of neat.
I didn't think I could, you know, and that is like step
number one is the belief that it's possible and then you go
out and execute on it. Absolutely.
And think of like a fourplex, right?
Like how much could a normal person or a couple qualify for
(45:50):
on a fourplex? I mean, you're talking
$1,000,000 loan, right? Yeah.
I mean, that's, that's the thingtoo is, is, you know, you make
your income and then the lender knows that, you know, if you're
going to own and occupy this fourplex, the other 3 units are
going to be occupied by somebody.
You know, they're going to be tenants that are paying you
rent. You know, it's, you get to take
(46:10):
those, those market rents. You know, it's, it's a 75%
multiple of it that you can use for income.
But you know, without getting too far in the weeds of the
mortgage stuff, the other piece of advice for new investors is
talk to somebody. The the process of getting pre
approved and knowing your numbers, what you qualify for,
(46:32):
what it might look like. It's free.
It doesn't cost you anything, right?
Like that's, that's an educational course that I know
is free. And you know, we operate in 48
states. This isn't a plug for me or my
business. Like somebody who you like and
trust who's going to be able to,you know, intake your, your
application, your documents in most cases, just do a soft
(46:53):
credit pull. You don't do a hard credit pull.
And then they go, all right, Sally, based on everything we've
got, if you bought a single family house with, with the 5%
down that you have, you'd qualify for up to about 400,000,
right? And here's what the, the
mortgage payment looks like on a$400,000 purchase.
If you bought a duplex, here's what you'd qualify for and you
(47:16):
know, you could buy that duplex either 3 1/2% down FHA or 5%
down conventional. You're going to owner occupy and
live on one side and rent out the other.
Those are the conversations. Those are the things that all
real estate investors start somewhere.
And so, you know, you talk to somebody and you're getting
yourself pre approved mortgage broker like myself, like we know
(47:44):
what you know, that person wantsto know, needs to know, should
know. And and so you're going to get
those those lessons along the way.
And then it's just magic what you know, that first action can
do. Because I think it's not like
(48:04):
you all of a sudden have all theknowledge in the world and
you're a real estate expert. I think more than anything like
the light bulb goes off and you go, it's possible.
And if, if there's one piece of advice that I could give to real
estate investors, it's like takethat first step, take that first
action and you'll surprise yourself.
(48:26):
You'll, you'll surprise yourselfwith like all of a sudden the
lights on in the room and, and anything's possible.
If, if you don't ever take that first step, all of it feels
foreign. All of it feels like, you know,
it's something that is, is just a dream, but you take the first
step, you go, man, I bought a duplex.
I didn't think that was possible.
(48:48):
What should I do next? Should I, should I buy a single
family? Should I go out there and buy
another duplex? And, and I'm speaking this
through experience because I've seen it just happen hundreds of
times. And so if, if you're listening,
let this be inspiration to you. Let let your story be the next
story that's told. That sounds great.
(49:11):
Where can people connect with you and learn more about what
you do? If people go to YouTube, Matt
the mortgage guy, I've got over 1500 videos.
You know, my, my whole goal there is empower people through
education. Matt the mortgage guy, umm, on
Instagram, if you go to mtmg.com, you know I paid big
(49:33):
money for that domain. So people don't have to type in
mattthemortgageguy.com, right? Just mtmg.com and I promise you,
if you're searching Matt the mortgage guy, you're searching
Matt Gouge, mortgage broker, you're going to find a way to
get in touch with me. I'm not hard to find and that's
done on purpose because I, I like helping people out.
I like serving people. And so if, if we can help in any
(49:56):
way, I'm more than happy to. If it's not me, I still think
that it's vitally important thatno matter where you're listening
or where you're at in your journey, you start talking to
people that can help you with, with, with the mortgage side
and, and the numbers matter. And I don't want people to get
(50:17):
stuck in and, you know, not takeaction just because they don't
know, because you don't get fined, you don't get thrown in
jail. Like if you don't qualify, you
don't qualify then then you thenyou're on a plan and and you're
on a path to figure out, you know, what it might look like in
six months or 12 months. But like, you have to start
somewhere. You have to know those numbers.
(50:40):
What happens more often than notand is somebody calls me, man,
my landlord is selling. It sucks.
I'm going to have to go rent. 20minutes later, that same person
on the phone was like, Matt, thank you so much.
Like, I didn't think that I could even qualify to buy this
house. Well, you don't know what you
don't know, right? If you don't have the
(51:00):
conversation, you're never goingto know.
And so, so find out whether it's, you know, buying that
single family you're renting, whether it's, you know, buying a
duplex and you know, that's the base of it.
And, and not enough people startwith, with that real estate's
really cool to look at. It's really cool to pop in to
open houses. You know, it's really cool to go
(51:20):
to real estate investor meetups and, and talk about all the
different types of real estate investing for your personal
investing, you might talk to a hard money lender And, and hey,
I was thinking about a flip. How does that work?
You might talk to, you know, residential mortgage broker like
myself and say I've got eligibility as a veteran, like
(51:41):
how does the VA loan work? Would I qualify for that?
You know, ask those questions. There's plenty of people out
there that are, are willing and able to give you the answers.
And, you know, real estate investors, very, very successful
ones are born every day. So, you know, you, you got to
start and, you know, surprise yourself with what you can do.
(52:04):
Yeah. Thanks again so much.
Matt. Before we go, I want to, I want
to leave the listeners with this.
One of the biggest things that separate successful real estate
investors from those who never get started is taking action
despite uncertainty. Every single investor, including
Matt, myself, and everyone you'll hear on this podcast,
(52:25):
started with 0 experience. They didn't have all the answers
they didn't have, or in some cases they didn't have a ton of
money to get started and they all made mistakes.
But the key is that they didn't let fear stop them from getting
started. So if you're sitting there
thinking, I want to invest in real estate but I don't know
(52:45):
where to start, or well, I want to get started in real estate,
but what if I fail? Just know that the only way to
guarantee failure is to never start at all.
Your first deal may not be perfect, your financing may be
difficult, but if you take the next big step forward, you'll be
miles ahead. Miles ahead of everyone else who
(53:07):
is still waiting for the perfecttime to get started.
Take what you learned today and do something with it.
Whether it's making calls to motivated sellers, running
numbers on rehab projects, or just getting educated.
Whatever it is, take action. That's how you went in real
estate and that's how you went in life.
(53:28):
Thank you so much for tuning in to the first RPP podcast, and
I'll see you guys on the next episode.
Thank you. Thanks man.
That was fun dude. Thanks.
Welcome to the Real Prop Pro podcast, where strategy,
innovation, and wealth converge to redefine real estate
investing. Whether you're brand new or a
seasoned pro, we're here to helpyou build, scale, and automate
your real estate business like never before.
From mastering the investor mindset to game changing
(00:33):
strategies like tax deed, tax lien investing, wholesaling fix
and flips, multi family investing, plus so much more.
Each week, we bring you insider secrets, expert guests, and real
world case studies to give you the knowledge and confidence to
take action. So if you're ready to think
(00:54):
bigger, invest smarter, and create lasting wealth, you're in
the right place. Hello and welcome to the very
first episode of the RPP Podcast.
(01:16):
I'm your host, Ian Dietler. I'm a real estate investor and
business owner here in Sacramento, CA.
My journey in real estate investing started back in 2014.
Since then, I've been involved in real estate investing,
networking, and project management.
Beyond just doing deals, my passion is helping everyday
(01:36):
people break free from the 9 to 5 grind and build wealth through
real estate investing. Over the years, I've seen so
many people want to get into real estate investing but feel
stuck. Some people don't know where to
start. Others are afraid of making
mistakes or feeling like they don't have enough money.
That's exactly why we launched the podcast, to break down those
(01:58):
barriers and give you real, actionable advice from
experienced investors, lenders, and entrepreneurs.
All of our guests have been where you are today and worked
hard to breakthrough. Now let me explain what RPP is
and why it matters to you. RPP stands for Real Prop Pro.
It is an education and training platform that also has online
(02:21):
software with nationwide property and property owner
data. This can be used to find deals,
run comps, find buyers, and so much more.
It is built specifically to helpeveryday people invest in real
estate through various strategies.
RPP shows students how to investin tax deed, tax liens,
(02:42):
wholesaling, fix and flips, and various other methods.
Our goal is to help brand new investors and we want to help
people take action and build their portfolios.
We do this through in person events, online training,
mentorship programs, and one-on-one coaching.
(03:03):
Whether you're looking to buy your first property, automate
your investing, scale your full time real estate business, or
implement new strategies, RPP gives you the tools and
resources to make it happen. That brings us to today's
episode. No matter how much real estate
knowledge you have, the right mindset is so important.
(03:24):
Another vital part of real estate investing is borrowing
money. That's why I wanted to kick off
this podcast series with an expert in that space, someone
who has tons of experience working with investors, finding
deals and help his clients buildwealth.
Our guest today is none other than Matt Gouge, also known as
(03:45):
Matt the Mortgage Guy. Matt is one of the top mortgage
brokers in Sacramento, specializing in working with
real estate investors. He is not only help people
finance deals, he's also an investor himself.
He understands both sides of theequation.
Matt, welcome to the show. Ian man, I feel honored to be
(04:06):
the first guest on the podcast. And as you were talking, you
know, being a real estate investor since 2014, that's,
that's when my journey started in mortgage in 2014, February
1st to be exact, is when I got licensed.
So I think, you know, we've beenrunning around looking for
fellow investors looking for, you know, motivation and, and
(04:27):
you know, people to learn from for the same amount of time in
Sacramento. And that's what, you know,
certainly where I met you, right?
Is it another one of these real estate meetups?
You and I have both been to a ton.
I know you have because I've seen you, Adam.
So I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to talk about my own
investing journey. And then obviously through the
(04:48):
eyes of investors, I've helped thousands of people finance
mortgages all across the country.
So it's cool for me to be able to not just share my personal
experience of what I've done, but I've got to see investors,
stuff that works, stuff that doesn't work, the traits that
help investors win. And I'm happy to share that
(05:09):
because I know that first call Ihave with somebody who's brand
new between that person who I meet on the phone and what can
become of it three, 5-10 years later is sometimes magic.
I've got a really cool story to share about investor I started
working with back in 2014. And the the journey that that
(05:31):
that he's taken, people will be,you know, hopefully inspired by
it. But yeah, just excited to be
here, man. Thanks for having.
Me. Wow, thank you so much.
So the first question is what got you into real estate?
So this is a common story and I think people are going to relate
to this because I'm going to be honest about it.
Got into mortgage in 2014 and I got into mortgage.
(05:53):
Somebody just told me, Matt, we know you're a math nerd, you're
good with people, you've got some entrepreneurial type
skills, you'd be good at mortgage.
And to be honest, like that, it is my wheelhouse.
I, I like math, I like people, I'm entrepreneurial and being a
mortgage broker is a little bit sales, a little bit marketing,
(06:15):
some math and, and analytical stuff as well.
And so when I got into mortgage in 2014, I couldn't help but be
around real estate. I couldn't help but be exposed
to all this stuff. So that's when I really started
listening to the Bigger Pockets.I started popping into real
estate events. And I think originally it
(06:38):
honestly might have been I was looking for clients and seeing
all my clients win and seeing the magic of real estate through
their eyes. You know, the guy buying his,
you know, 4th investment property or helping somebody buy
a quad Plex where they're going to live in one unit and rent the
others. I, I really got the itch of, Oh
(07:01):
my gosh, I need to do something personally.
And a quick rewind. I bought my first house in 2006,
which was well before I got intomortgage, actually house hacked.
My wife was just my girlfriend at the time and, you know,
bought a house and, and got engaged O6 and O7.
(07:24):
We, she had a friend who rented a room and I had a friend who
rented a room. So we were house hacking long
before I, I knew or or thought about that term because that
$2800 mortgage in 2006 seems huge.
But when you had two people eachpaying $500 towards it made it a
little bit more reasonable. But what I want to say about my
start is that like most people, I listened to so many real
(07:50):
estate podcasts, Bigger Pockets was, was popular and not as much
YouTube, but literally like forums online.
And I was going to these real estate meetups.
I was talking to people about real estate.
It took years before I took any action.
And you know, when I tell peoplelike they've got to take action
(08:11):
and take the first step and do the first deal, I'm, I'm doing
it, you know, and I'm telling them that from experience, I
like them. Took many more years than I
should have because I think it was 2017 when I bought my first
investment properties. So, you know, three years isn't
a ton of time. I honestly, Ian, know so many
(08:34):
people. And you probably have met these
same people at real estate meetups where you're like, man,
like I've seen this guy's face for eight or ten years, or, you
know, she's been going to real estate meetups and then you talk
to him. We're still working on deal #1.
And I think a podcast like this and what you guys are doing to
help investors and to show them some tools and show them what
other people are doing is vitally important.
(08:56):
Because what I know with absolute certainty is you have
to start. And there's, there's a cool
little quote that I heard that Ireally like that you don't have
to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.
And so, you know, if you want tobe great at anything, like
you're not gonna just wake up one day and be great, you're not
(09:17):
gonna study your way into greatness.
Like you have to take action, but that first action could be
imperfect. So go out and buy a bum deal.
And quick story on my personal thing.
Shout out to my wife who always knows better.
She told me not to invest in Alabama and being a math guy and
(09:38):
thinking I know you know more than I do, I was like listen I
can buy this house in Montgomery, AL for $70,000.
Down payment of 20% is super affordable and not a huge risk.
And they've got low property taxes.
I remember the number, dude, it was $356 principal, interest,
taxes and insurance. And the problem with that,
(10:02):
because if you've tried to pencil it and you say $14,000
down, you know, I'm going to cash flow over $300.00 a month.
And, and you start to look at like 25% returns.
Well, that part of Montgomery, AL wasn't a really sweet place
to live and shots and, and violence, people didn't want to
live there. And so Long story short, it was
(10:22):
a terrible investment, but it was an investment.
It was a learning lesson, you know, if, if you're going to
spend money on education and sometimes can be a deal.
So you know, 2017 was, was that first deal.
A couple years later made the best of investments I've made,
which was a couple fourplexes. But I don't think I get to the
(10:45):
fourplexes and the other single families and the stuff that's
working without a swing and a miss.
Thankfully for me, it, it wasn'ta terrible miss.
I think I, when I sold in 2020, I ended up probably cutting a
check for seven or $8000. I had a few years of, of lost
sleep and negative cash flow, but it didn't break me.
(11:08):
What it did was teach me a few things.
If I ever invest out of state, Inot only, you know, can watch an
online video or talk to somebodyand get lessons from it.
I've got personal lessons about that.
And So what I want people to take away, and I've seen example
(11:29):
after example of this is like you have to take action, get
around people that are going to inspire you to take a first
step. It doesn't have to be a huge
deal. It doesn't have to be, you know,
something that you just wake up and buy something day one, but
you know, 3-6, 12 months of educating yourself, a year of
(11:51):
talking to people. Eventually you want to get out
there and start swinging the bator else, you know, you're going
to be like some of these people.Unfortunately that I know that
have been talking about invest in real estate for a decade and
and haven't done so yet. Yes, absolutely.
Yeah, you're right. We, we all know people like
that. Similar to you, I also had that
same kind of experience to whereI spend a couple years also just
(12:15):
learning. I spent a couple years also just
learning and analyzing deals andnot taking action.
And it wasn't till 2019 that I finally did take action and
purchase, you know, my first fixand flip project.
So great to hear that. I love that our, you know,
(12:36):
stories and timelines, you know,aligned so well, you know, as
from when we started to when, you know, we actually got into
it. Obviously you've been doing
really well in the mortgage lending business.
Can you talk a little bit about that side and how and kind of
what services you provide for, you know both residential home
(12:58):
buyers and also what kind of like programs and stuff you have
for investor buyers? Yeah, and so 2014 was when I got
started. Worked for a small retail
mortgage outfit until 2018 and then since 2018 I've been a
mortgage broker. Just just means I can go out
there and shop different wholesale lenders and, and have
(13:19):
a, you know, wide array of products.
I think the number now is like 400 or 450 million in in funded
loans. So I've, I've closed over 1000
loans. I don't say that to to brag.
I say that to say a normal person with a lot of, you know,
(13:40):
at bats and a lot of swings is, is going to get good at
something. So I think that, you know, my
experience and, and my quote UN quote expertise doesn't come
from me being a PhD or some, youknow, smart guy.
I've just done it a lot. And over those years I've done
first time home buyers, I've done move up buyers and
(14:03):
investors have always held a special spot in my heart.
I guess because I see the magic of real estate investing and I
can take lessons and things I learned from 1 investor and help
the next investor. And so from non QM loans to, you
know, literally anything you canthink about on one to four unit
(14:26):
properties is stuff that we do. I've got plenty of contacts and
somebody tells me I want to buy a 10 unit apartment complex or
want to buy an office building. Like I've got contacts for that.
But like as a residential mortgage broker, my stuff is 1
to 4 unit. But you'd be surprised at how
much wealth somebody can build, you know, buying 1 to 4 units
(14:48):
over these years have, you know,had a, had a mix of, of all
kinds of different buyers. Investors probably make up 35 or
40% of the business I'm doing. And now as of 2021, since I
joined U mortgage, we're nationwide.
So I'm doing it in 48 states, which is really cool to me.
I get to see like, hey, what's going on in Florida?
(15:09):
What are these people doing in, in Tennessee or Texas or
Arizona? And you know, I ask people
because I'm curious and I'm constantly learning as well.
Oh, that's cool. Like you're doing Co living in
Arizona. Tell me how that works.
You know, and I've got a client who's an IT professional making
(15:29):
multi 6 figures a year with the W2 and after acquiring 5
properties, which isn't huge, right?
Like that's things that people need to remember.
Like you can change your life with a handful of investments.
We're not talking about like 8000 doors and you want to be,
you know, Brandon Turner from Bigger Pockets, we're talking
about like 555 single family homes.
(15:54):
That's what this investor clientof mine has.
I think last I talked his like bottom line net after expenses
is $22,000 a month. And so he's in this glorious
position where he's like, I'm not doing the IT stuff anymore.
If, if in a few years I can create a business that's
(16:15):
generating $22,000 a month without me punching a clock and,
and being, you know, held to a schedule that's that's dictated
by a company. All I have to do is repeat that
and I go from 22 to 44,000, probably get better at it,
probably optimize that. But you know, he's just doing Co
(16:35):
living. He's, he's actually providing
great service in a niche that I believe in real estate is one
that there's there's really a need for right affordable
housing. And so if you charge somebody
$275 a week or $225 a week to have their own bedroom and their
(16:57):
own space and their own parking spot and whatnot inside of a 567
bedroom house, that's great. And so I don't even know where
this question started because there's there's so many
different ways that we can go. But you know, I'm doing neat
stuff like that all over the country.
You know, I've got guys that arebuilding ground up construction
in Kentucky. I've got others that are doing
(17:19):
other type of stuff. And, and they're buying a, a
fourplex. They're going to live in and in
Florida. And you know, at 22 years old,
that's that's one thing that hopefully your podcast reaches
some of that younger demographic.
When I talk to somebody about buying a multi unit property as
(17:40):
their first investment in their 20s, like there is some true
magic that happens there. Because real estate is really a
game of time. And the longer you can be in the
investment, the better. You know, there's no stock
market investor that tells you like, hey, I hit a home run.
(18:00):
You know, all the Warren Buffettand those guys talk about what
compound interest does over time.
Like, real estate is no different.
You buy it, you hold on to it. Sometimes you exchange it,
sometimes you optimize it. But the true wealth comes from
somebody who's like, yeah, I wasin this game for 30 years.
(18:22):
I started out buying single family.
I saw an opportunity where, you know, where I picked up an 11
unit complex, You know, I sold that in 1031.
And I I found a space that worked in my local market
around, you know, retail, whatever it is, over decades,
you've got normal people who create massive amounts of
wealth. And you know, I don't know about
(18:44):
you, but I would think that the listener and, and, and myself,
like I don't want to save my wayto $5,000,000, a $5.00 bill at a
time, right? Like I want stuff going on in
the background where you're like, Oh my gosh.
Like this real estate I've ownedin California has appreciated
(19:06):
5.9% per year. And you know, that's hundreds of
thousands or, you know, 7 figures in a lot of people's
cases over a few decade horizon.That's, that's the neat stuff,
man. We'll, we'll dive into that like
number stuff I'd love to talk about and we'll dive into that
stuff too. Yeah.
I mean, I'd like to keep kind ofgoing on with that right now
(19:29):
actually because it's it's so powerful to think about what
rental, what owning rental real estate can do.
So can you take a little bit of time to kind of talk about that?
Like obviously like you should be having positive cash flow.
So I mean that that's one thing that's a benefit, but you were
also just kind of talking about holding it long term.
(19:51):
You know, you get the debt pay down, right?
So your tenant is actually paying your mortgage, and that's
dropping how much you owe and dropping how much you owe, plus
the appreciation of what the property is worth.
Just every month you're just increasing the equity in in that
property. So can you kind of talk a little
(20:11):
bit about the benefits of owningrental properties?
Yeah, I'd love to. And I think people do really
well with examples, real simple examples, you know, public
school guy like me. And of course the, the mortgage
business has been going well. So I've, I've got some, some
great income coming in, but it doesn't take, you know, being a
(20:33):
$500,000 a year engineer to be areal estate investor.
You know, I, I work with people that you know, are making 60
seventy $80,000 a year. You know, they were smart enough
to have bought something with, you know, 3 1/2% down FHA and
held on to it. And then they bought their next
house and all of a sudden, you know you've got a handful for
(20:58):
California numbers. Let's say you get yourself to
four properties. This is not like something
that's so far out of reach in the stars that people can't
relate to. So you're an everyday person and
you acquire 4 properties. Those four properties are worth
$2,000,000. And you know, maybe you're in
Ohio, maybe you're in another part of the country where that
(21:18):
number seems high. Great.
You can cut it in half or you can do what you want with it.
But you know, $2,000,000 in realestate, which in this case is
just four properties, you know, depending on the interest rate
and depending on other stuff, you know, the, the, the debt pay
down might be different. But to your point, like there's
multiple things going on when you own real estate, there is
(21:40):
the appreciation and people willnot California real estate, the
5.9% number that I used like that's the average appreciation
over the last 39 years in California.
And so if you own $2,000,000 in real estate while you sleep, the
average me not trying to be optimistic or, or, or, you know,
(22:00):
paint it, you know, more rosy than it should be. 5.9% of
2,000,000 is $118,000 a year. So so $118,000 a year net worth.
You're adding $10,000, you know,give or take to your net worth
every single month while you sleep, just owning that real
(22:21):
estate. Depending on your interest rate
and whatnot, you're probably paying a few $1000 a month down
on the debt. So maybe you owe $1.4 million on
that because you've bought some and appreciate it, you know,
then you bought the next one with 10% down and that one's
appreciated. But you know, if you owe 1.4
(22:43):
million and it's are paying the rent, this isn't your money.
And you know, one month you owe 1.4, the next month you owe
1.397, then 1.394, you know, so maybe there's $3000 a month
that's being paid down on the debt.
Like that's another $36,000 a year.
(23:05):
That's for all intents and purposes happening while you
sleep. It's relatively passive.
I'm not ACPA, so I'm not going to talk about the exact, you
know, tax write offs, but owningreal estate, you're going to
have, you know, tax write offs and and certain costs that are
associated with it are going to be written off.
The interest that you pay, quoteUN quote, your your tenants pay
(23:27):
is going to offset the income you get from it.
All of this, Ian, and we're not even talking about cash flow.
And honestly, when I talk to people who own on the coast or
in these more expensive markets like California, my real estate
would be a great investment if Ihad 0 cash flow ever.
You know, I happened to, you know, cash flow great on the
(23:50):
four plexes I bought, the singlefamilies I have.
It might only be a few $100 a month, but since I've got such
low interest rates on those, I think the debt pay down last I
checked. As a math nerd, I love it dude.
Like I think it was like 1000 orsomething last year got paid
down on the debt. Like that's really cool to think
about that over the next decade without a single dollar bill
(24:14):
coming out of my pocket, I'm going to owe a half $1,000,000
less on this real estate that I own.
And last you know, numbers I checked, it was something like
3.3 million. And so like at 5.9% a year, over
a decade, that might be like, it's definitely going to be 7
(24:36):
figures in appreciation, right? Like historically 6% we'd be
talking about, you know, like 180 grand a year.
But you know, conservatively we say over a decade, like it's
going to be worth a million and a half more and I'm going to owe
500,000 less like $2,000,000 normal dude, public education,
(24:58):
right? Like $2,000,000 in net worth
going on there regardless of what I choose to do, you know,
as a mortgage broker or you know, quote UN quote working.
And that's the, the, the power of real estate that like I'm
talking to everyday people. I'm not talking about a guy
who's, you know, a multimillionaire who comes from
(25:20):
multimillionaires and is puttinga half $1,000,000 down on a 30
unit apartment complex. Talking about a normal dude that
bought a fourplex and then bought a single family and then
bought another 4, you know, and over time collected some real
estate that's going to like be generational wealth that quite
(25:42):
honestly, like my dad was a truck driver, right?
My dad made not a lot of money. My mom was cleaning houses and
working in the cafeteria of my elementary school.
And so 0 silver spoons in the house and you know, not a single
penny in, in, in wealth handed over what I'm able to do for my
(26:05):
kids. And like with the clients that
I'm talking to, the stuff that they're able to do for their
families is, is magical. And, and what I think people
should hear and should be inspired by is it's everyday
people. You can do it if you're
listening to this and you have the ability to work and make
(26:26):
money and you're, you know, openminded enough to go out there
and talk to fellow real estate investors and go, oh, I didn't
think about that. That's working in Sacramento.
That's a strategy that I think Ican get behind.
I've got a skill set that that might align with acquiring
properties that way or buying that type of property.
I'm going to try that. Or you meet somebody that says,
(26:47):
here's what I'm doing in Phoenix, AZ.
It would work in your market. I know it would.
Oh yeah. That person's doing it.
That person's doing it the, the,the amount of opportunity that
exists in real estate and it always does.
Last year, this year, next year,the year after that, it's always
going to be there, right? There's going to be different
ways that that are better or worse than others, but there's
(27:11):
dozens and dozens of ways that any individual can get into it
and do it. And so I'm passionate about it
because I know it works. I've seen it what I've seen
everyday people do it time and time again.
And it's it's really cool, man. Like I went and spoke at this
church that somebody asked me tospeak at.
(27:33):
And I felt like I was breathing life into some of these people
where home ownership wasn't evenon their radar.
And I'm like, listen, like you've got a great day job
working for, you know, PG&E. If you bought a duplex and lived
in one side and rented out the other at your age like that
(27:56):
thing will be worth $1,000,000 and it'll be paid off by the
time you're 55 at worst, right? And that's one property.
Yeah, that's one property and maybe you've moved out by then,
which is likely the case. And now each side is renting for
$2500, probably more in the future because, you know, carton
(28:17):
of eggs will probably cost $30 by then.
But either way, like that's either $1,000,000 that gets
exchanged into some other type of property or it's 5-6, eight,
$10,000 in income to, to fund this person's retirement.
(28:37):
And so it's, it's neat and it's not exclusive, you know, to
people that are in some club or have a silver spoon or, you
know, have been handed down properties or wealth generation
to generation. This is like everybody can
participate and, and everybody should quite honestly, it's just
a matter of being able to have the confidence and get out there
(29:04):
and, and take action and, and learn from it.
Real estate is something that always has worked and will
continue to work. So if if you're listening to
this and any of this is resonating with you, I, I urge
you to to. Take action, absolutely.
(29:26):
Absolutely. So some of that action, you
know, it might be going to in person meetups.
I feel like that's a great way to network and talk to people
like you'd mentioned, talk to people and figure out what's
working for them, what's not, you know, figure out how you can
provide value to them. If you're just getting started
(29:49):
and you don't know where to start, maybe find a mentor, find
someone that you know, like I said, that you can provide value
to, you know, and people who arejust getting started might be
like, well, I don't have anything to offer, you know, a
big real estate investor. You know, First off, we're not
all big real estate investors. So don't, I would encourage you
(30:11):
not to be intimidated by real estate investors.
I mean, some might be pretty offputting, but in my experience,
almost everyone that I've met inthis industry has always been
very welcoming, very nice. And they understand that people
have to start somewhere. And in my experience, it's just
(30:32):
been a very open and caring community.
So I encourage you guys to get started, get out there, start to
meet people again, figure out how you can provide value.
You know, maybe you drive aroundlooking for distressed
properties and shoot those addresses over to a real estate
investor. They take them down and they
(30:53):
might give you a little kickback.
Or you can go to other real estate investors and be like,
hey, do you need someone to manage a project?
You know, that's kind of how I got started is I went to a real
estate investor and said, hey, can we JV on this?
Can we do a joint venture agreement here?
I'll bring in some cash, I'll manage the project, I'll get
everything done and at the end of the deal we'll split the
(31:15):
money. And that's actually who I now
work with on Real Prop Pro. He was my first joint venture
partner. So I think that anytime that,
you know, you think that maybe you don't know enough or you
know, you don't think that you might be able to help people or
other investors, I argue that you can.
(31:36):
And I think it's important to learn as much about this
industry, learn as much about the different strategies that
are out there. You know, we're going to talk a
lot more with different investors in future episodes of
what strategies you can implement.
And, you know, not all of these strategies require a ton of
capital. So if you're sitting there with
(31:57):
like, not that much money or, you know, not that much
experience, that's OK. You know, just taking action and
learning is really the the, the main thing.
And like I said, the community is very open, very understanding
to newer people. So, you know, just just start
showing up, you know, figure outwhere the meetups are, figure
(32:18):
out where people are, you know, doing business and just show up.
Yeah, I, I agree wholeheartedly.I've been to a lot of these real
estate meetups and you know, you'd be surprised you, you show
up to some of these and without even knowing it, you know,
because some really high level real estate investors aren't
(32:38):
flaunting their wealth. You know, and you might see him
and be like, why would this guy who's got forty $50,000 a month
in passive income coming in likeyou can travel and, you know,
sit on a beach and doesn't have to work another day in his or
her life. Like why are they at this meet
(32:59):
up? They're at the meet up because
they love real estate. They love talking to real estate
investors. They love being involved in
deals. And like most any industry, the
people that have found success really get a lot of joy at
helping others up because at onetime or another, they were the
(33:20):
new person. They were somebody who was new
to the space and somebody else helped them out.
And so I've had many a conversations.
I've learned so much. You know, I was at a real estate
event last month in Las Vegas and I'm talking to a guy who's
like at the top of the mountain and, you know, a 20 minute
(33:43):
conversation where I got, you know, in, in my mind, like
thousands of dollars worth of education out of this person
through a conversation, you know, super humble, super
willing to share because, but that's, that's what they love.
And anybody who's been involved in real estate and seen the
(34:06):
magic of it and created, you know, wealth through real
estate, I, I don't know, I, I personally feel like it's almost
like you owe it to the real estate community to give back
because real estate's done so much for you.
And so before I forget, man, I want to tell this story because
I think it's motivational. It, it inspires me.
It really like fires me up. I got into real estate investing
(34:29):
in 2014 and like you, I'm popping into real estate
meetups. I'm meeting fellow real estate
investors. You know, some of these meetups
have 100 people, some of them have 7.
You know, some of them are in the back of a Denny's.
Like you find these real estate meetups everywhere and I, I
don't remember the exact location, but I remember it was
(34:53):
one of many meetings I went to where like you're there and
you're like, what am I doing here?
Like what, what is this place, right?
Like I'm in the like, in a, likean office that feels abandoned
because it's 7:30 at night and everybody's gone home and it's
like, oh, we're all following each other down the hallway to
meet in this conference room that's might be dusty and, and
(35:13):
whatnot. And so.
I was I was going to ask if it was at a ballroom dancing place
because I know which meet up that is.
Well, this was like a cross fromArden Fair Mall, like in 2014
and God, I think it was like Point West Dr. wherever it was.
And I'm there, I meet somebody who's my age and he has his real
(35:37):
estate license. He's flipped a few homes and we
just hit it off. And and so we start talking.
We both like the Sacramento Kings and you know, I've shared
the story. I think he shared it.
I don't think he would care about me, you know, sharing his
name. But Jazz Creep ends up becoming
a great mortgage client of mine because as we're talking, he's
(35:58):
like, yeah, I do some flips, butsome of the stuff I hold on to,
I've got a partner. We're going to put 30 year, you
know, conventional financing on it.
My partner in Mountain View has great W2 income.
And So what I want people to getfrom this story as Preet's going
to these small little meet ups, he's meeting other investors,
he's taking action and he's doing single family flips in
(36:23):
Antelope and Rosemont. You know, for anybody unfamiliar
with Sacramento like stuff at that time in 14 was probably
trading for high 2 hundreds, lowthree hundreds.
And so nothing really special, nothing that like an investor
who's starting would be like overwhelmed or think like this
(36:45):
is beyond, you know, my scope orsomething that I could do.
It's like buy a house and get itfor 215, put $40,000 and rehab
into it and sell it for 325, right?
And make a spread. Well, to make a Long story
short, sometimes I'm I'm long winded.
Me and Jazz Preet stay in touch.Me and Jazz Preet share some
(37:05):
King season tickets. You know, 1251020 flips later,
you know, holds, holds one of the properties after flipping 5,
then holds another one and you know, puts together what I think
at its Max was like 26 single family homes.
(37:26):
I think they were all in 95826 like Rosemont or Antelope.
And so 20 and 21. Those houses are probably worth
$500,000 each. They've got debt on them just
like we've talked about. The tenants are paying down the
debt. The homes are appreciating over
time. It's doing the magic that real
estate does. And, you know, Jazz Preet's got
(37:50):
a family. He's busy with life.
I'm busy with life. You know, we're still in touch,
but less of my services are needed.
So, you know, I'm not financing these properties like I was
before. And, and these aren't the exact
numbers that don't hold me to it, but roughly speaking,
there's equity extracted. Some of these houses are sold,
(38:13):
some of them are refinanced and equity is taken out.
He's got an opportunity and through these real estate meet
ups and through talking to people, they're like, man, like
if you do it right, hotels can be pretty profitable.
And so a normal person like me or you or anybody else who's
listening to this, who's, you know, starts with what I believe
(38:36):
is kind of like the easy stuff, you know, a single family flip
puts, I think it was something like 1.8 million.
And again, this isn't like we'resaving $10 a month for, for 900
years. It's like this property went up
200,000 since I bought it. This property appreciated 250.
(38:57):
Like it's, it's all this magic of real estate appreciation that
that was able to afford a normalguy like me and you $1.8 million
down to buy this 7 or $8 millionapartment.
Him and a partner, they've got somebody who who is on site at
(39:18):
this out of state hotel whose compensation is tied to how the
property performs. So like make sure the property
performs well, that it's, as youknow, fully occupied as
possible. And I believe last time I spoke
to him, that hotel was generating somewhere in the
neighborhood of like $90,000 a month.
(39:38):
Bottom line, like after expensesare paid, right?
And so him and his partner $45,000 a piece and someone else
is managing it, someone else is getting paid 6 figures to make
sure that it's managed and it's efficient and it's hitting, you
know, the, the KPIs of the business.
He's not done right. He's in contract on the second
(39:59):
hotel. And I tell that story to say
like, that's me, that's you, that's anybody listening who's
done that. And maybe that's not your path.
Maybe you take, you know, some of your real estate, you know,
fortune that you accumulate overthe next decade or two, and you
(40:19):
roll it into buying. Commercial property that, you
know, 7-11 rent space from or whatever the case may be, right.
But like, there's so many different ways to create insane
wealth. And I, and I think why that
story really resonates with me and why I get really excited
(40:39):
about it is because you might see a hotel owner, you might see
somebody who owns a big commercial property.
You might see these people who own things and you think to
yourself, like, man, that is somebody who's up here.
That is somebody who's, you know, dad owned a sports
franchise or something. No, it's somebody who showed up
(41:02):
to A7 person meet up in a dingy backroom across from Arden Fair
Mall and then took action and then took action after that and
took action after that. And so, you know, if that
doesn't inspire you, I don't know what will.
Like everyday people creating generational wealth for
themselves and their family through real estate.
And that's one of 5000 differentways can be done.
(41:28):
I, you know, know personally that like Jazz Preet is a really
great human being. And so like those stories and
seeing him win really, really inspires me.
And, and I've got dozens of others, you know, who have done
it multiple different ways. And over time, I'm like, oh wow,
(41:49):
I remember when I helped that guy buy his first duplex.
And now he's got, you know, XY and Z and he quit the job at
Netflix and he's, and he's doingthis or, you know, wow.
You know, she was excited as a first time home buyer to buy her
first place in 2016. And now she's got 7 properties,
you know, single mom and, and you know, has $14,000 a month.
(42:12):
That's relatively passive and you know, could stop now and be
fine without working, but is going to keep going because she
enjoys her job and and so, you know, everyday people, man and
and real estate is is truly magic.
Yeah, Thank you so much for sharing that story because that
was great. And I like how the story kind of
(42:33):
highlights that like you can graduate, you know, from one
level to the next. You can start real simple, real
basic, you know, low money down and stuff like that.
Hey, I'm going to wholesale, I'mgoing to find deals.
And then after you're successfulat that, you can step up, you
know, you can keep leveling up in real estate.
And you know, you'd mentioned the 1031 exchange for our
(42:56):
listeners that's just basically deferring tax when instead of
selling the property and having to pay taxes on that sale, you
can exchange into another like kind property and that will
that'll defer your tax payments to a later date.
So you can exchange from one property into let's say a bigger
(43:20):
property that you know, maybe ifyou had, you can also use a
couple of different ones. You could have like two or three
single family homes and 1031 exchange those into one larger
like multi family deal, for instance.
And instead of paying taxes on the sale of those three single
family homes, you've now deferred that tax liability into
that new property. So just great stuff.
(43:43):
Thank you so much for being a part of this first podcast,
Matt. I appreciate it.
You're such an amazing person. You have so much wisdom and I'm
just so grateful that you are our very first guest on the RPP
Podcast. Man, it was my pleasure.
And I and I think too, like nowadays, you know, 2025 and
beyond, people don't have any excuse.
(44:04):
There's so much information out there, right?
If you can't make it to an in person real estate meet up,
which I recommend, there's there's nothing better than in
person. You know, there's endless
content on YouTube, there's endless real estate investing,
you know, forums where you can glean this information from.
And so like, if you're an investor in the 1980s, you know,
(44:25):
you, you got to meet somebody ata coffee shop or you're, you're
reading about it in a magazine or a newspaper or, or a book
that somebody wrote. But nowadays there's so much
information out there that there's really no excuse.
And, and so, you know, you want to get out there and you want to
learn, you want to get around other people that are doing
(44:46):
stuff. And I think the getting around
other people is part education and part learning and part
reminding yourself that it's possible.
I think that's like when I talk to new real estate investors, I
need to remind them that they need to remind themselves that
like, you know what, this is possible because I get so many
calls, Ian, interest rates are high.
(45:07):
I don't know, you know, I'm onlya single income and I make this
and like day in and day out, I'mlike, listen, if you bought a
duplex, you know, we could use the rental income from the other
unit to to offset your payment as far as qualifying goes.
So I could qualify for somethingthat's 550.
Yeah. Here's what the payment would
look like. I know rents would be about
(45:28):
this. You'd get that from the other
side. Well, that's kind of neat.
I didn't think I could, you know, and that is like step
number one is the belief that it's possible and then you go
out and execute on it. Absolutely.
And think of like a fourplex, right?
Like how much could a normal person or a couple qualify for
(45:50):
on a fourplex? I mean, you're talking
$1,000,000 loan, right? Yeah.
I mean, that's, that's the thingtoo is, is, you know, you make
your income and then the lender knows that, you know, if you're
going to own and occupy this fourplex, the other 3 units are
going to be occupied by somebody.
You know, they're going to be tenants that are paying you
rent. You know, it's, you get to take
(46:10):
those, those market rents. You know, it's, it's a 75%
multiple of it that you can use for income.
But you know, without getting too far in the weeds of the
mortgage stuff, the other piece of advice for new investors is
talk to somebody. The the process of getting pre
approved and knowing your numbers, what you qualify for,
(46:32):
what it might look like. It's free.
It doesn't cost you anything, right?
Like that's, that's an educational course that I know
is free. And you know, we operate in 48
states. This isn't a plug for me or my
business. Like somebody who you like and
trust who's going to be able to,you know, intake your, your
application, your documents in most cases, just do a soft
(46:53):
credit pull. You don't do a hard credit pull.
And then they go, all right, Sally, based on everything we've
got, if you bought a single family house with, with the 5%
down that you have, you'd qualify for up to about 400,000,
right? And here's what the, the
mortgage payment looks like on a$400,000 purchase.
If you bought a duplex, here's what you'd qualify for and you
(47:16):
know, you could buy that duplex either 3 1/2% down FHA or 5%
down conventional. You're going to owner occupy and
live on one side and rent out the other.
Those are the conversations. Those are the things that all
real estate investors start somewhere.
And so, you know, you talk to somebody and you're getting
yourself pre approved mortgage broker like myself, like we know
(47:44):
what you know, that person wantsto know, needs to know, should
know. And and so you're going to get
those those lessons along the way.
And then it's just magic what you know, that first action can
do. Because I think it's not like
(48:04):
you all of a sudden have all theknowledge in the world and
you're a real estate expert. I think more than anything like
the light bulb goes off and you go, it's possible.
And if, if there's one piece of advice that I could give to real
estate investors, it's like takethat first step, take that first
action and you'll surprise yourself.
(48:26):
You'll, you'll surprise yourselfwith like all of a sudden the
lights on in the room and, and anything's possible.
If, if you don't ever take that first step, all of it feels
foreign. All of it feels like, you know,
it's something that is, is just a dream, but you take the first
step, you go, man, I bought a duplex.
I didn't think that was possible.
(48:48):
What should I do next? Should I, should I buy a single
family? Should I go out there and buy
another duplex? And, and I'm speaking this
through experience because I've seen it just happen hundreds of
times. And so if, if you're listening,
let this be inspiration to you. Let let your story be the next
story that's told. That sounds great.
(49:11):
Where can people connect with you and learn more about what
you do? If people go to YouTube, Matt
the mortgage guy, I've got over 1500 videos.
You know, my, my whole goal there is empower people through
education. Matt the mortgage guy, umm, on
Instagram, if you go to mtmg.com, you know I paid big
(49:33):
money for that domain. So people don't have to type in
mattthemortgageguy.com, right? Just mtmg.com and I promise you,
if you're searching Matt the mortgage guy, you're searching
Matt Gouge, mortgage broker, you're going to find a way to
get in touch with me. I'm not hard to find and that's
done on purpose because I, I like helping people out.
I like serving people. And so if, if we can help in any
(49:56):
way, I'm more than happy to. If it's not me, I still think
that it's vitally important thatno matter where you're listening
or where you're at in your journey, you start talking to
people that can help you with, with, with the mortgage side
and, and the numbers matter. And I don't want people to get
(50:17):
stuck in and, you know, not takeaction just because they don't
know, because you don't get fined, you don't get thrown in
jail. Like if you don't qualify, you
don't qualify then then you thenyou're on a plan and and you're
on a path to figure out, you know, what it might look like in
six months or 12 months. But like, you have to start
somewhere. You have to know those numbers.
(50:40):
What happens more often than notand is somebody calls me, man,
my landlord is selling. It sucks.
I'm going to have to go rent. 20minutes later, that same person
on the phone was like, Matt, thank you so much.
Like, I didn't think that I could even qualify to buy this
house. Well, you don't know what you
don't know, right? If you don't have the
(51:00):
conversation, you're never goingto know.
And so, so find out whether it's, you know, buying that
single family you're renting, whether it's, you know, buying a
duplex and you know, that's the base of it.
And, and not enough people startwith, with that real estate's
really cool to look at. It's really cool to pop in to
open houses. You know, it's really cool to go
(51:20):
to real estate investor meetups and, and talk about all the
different types of real estate investing for your personal
investing, you might talk to a hard money lender And, and hey,
I was thinking about a flip. How does that work?
You might talk to, you know, residential mortgage broker like
myself and say I've got eligibility as a veteran, like
(51:41):
how does the VA loan work? Would I qualify for that?
You know, ask those questions. There's plenty of people out
there that are, are willing and able to give you the answers.
And, you know, real estate investors, very, very successful
ones are born every day. So, you know, you, you got to
start and, you know, surprise yourself with what you can do.
(52:04):
Yeah. Thanks again so much.
Matt. Before we go, I want to, I want
to leave the listeners with this.
One of the biggest things that separate successful real estate
investors from those who never get started is taking action
despite uncertainty. Every single investor, including
Matt, myself, and everyone you'll hear on this podcast,
(52:25):
started with 0 experience. They didn't have all the answers
they didn't have, or in some cases they didn't have a ton of
money to get started and they all made mistakes.
But the key is that they didn't let fear stop them from getting
started. So if you're sitting there
thinking, I want to invest in real estate but I don't know
(52:45):
where to start, or well, I want to get started in real estate,
but what if I fail? Just know that the only way to
guarantee failure is to never start at all.
Your first deal may not be perfect, your financing may be
difficult, but if you take the next big step forward, you'll be
miles ahead. Miles ahead of everyone else who
(53:07):
is still waiting for the perfecttime to get started.
Take what you learned today and do something with it.
Whether it's making calls to motivated sellers, running
numbers on rehab projects, or just getting educated.
Whatever it is, take action. That's how you went in real
estate and that's how you went in life.
(53:28):
Thank you so much for tuning in to the first RPP podcast, and
I'll see you guys on the next episode.
Thank you. Thanks man.
That was fun dude. Thanks.
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