Charles J. Noonan

Foreign.

It's your boy Blue. And on today's episode of Blue, though, we have someone that's going to school all of us in this real estate game because that's what he does. I never even heard of land banks before. And there's just so many different things that and pieces of real estate to kind of learn. But we got none other than Mr. Charles Charles Noonan in the studio today. What's up, Charles?

What's up? What's up? Let's go.

You. You already excited this hearing about my introduction. Because you want to talk about this so bad, man.

It's really more so a message that we got to get out there. It's a message that needs to be heard because an article that I just read and that we just talked about a little bit earlier is that Gen Z is starting to think it's cool to come back home and live with their parents. So that's got to.

They just chilling.

It's not even that, remember? So. So I'll say our era, our generation, you wanted to get out. Out the house.

Yes. Right.

It was like gangbusters. I gotta get out of here. They be moving my stuff, like the curfew and everything. Everything was like, I gotta get out so I could like breathe and be me. But now and then it used to be if you lived at home with your parents at a certain stage in life, right. You were considered like a failure. Right? Like, let's just be. Let's just be. Keep it clear. Right? Let's just keep it 100. If you was in like 25, 26 to 4 before they got sick, you was considered a failure. Then we went through a phase where, you know, just as a culture, we were learning how to care for our parents. So now it's cool if you older, right. In that phase and you got to come back home. Hey, I got to take care of my parents. Right. Okay, now it's cool. But the cycle that we starting to see now is different. It's that 25, the Gen Z. Right. That 19 to maybe like 26, 27, 28. They're okay with having to go back home and living with their parents. Yeah. And that's.

It's even wild from a guy's point of view because imagine being like 32. Like, aight, you could come through. I got crib access today.

Yeah. Ah, man. So you really know what time it was. Right. So we celebrated when we had crib access.

Exactly.

Now it's like, that's that stage. And the article that I recently read it was the New York Times, it was a female that they quoted saying, like, it's almost cool. The stigma's being removed to come back home. And the females are the ones that used to give us the hard time.

Exactly.

So if you had your own spot, you was that dude. The earlier you got your own spot.

You was that dude.

And what happens now is starting to turn. So I'm not with it, bro. I had to prepare my kids to leave, be independent, grow up as kings, as we talked about earlier, and just be able to be self sufficient to where we live in like an abundance mentality. Like there's enough places to live, there's enough room. And furthermore, what's really important is they have to know that there's enough money to where you can buy your own house. Yeah, man.

So let's talk about your origins. So you from the bx?

Born and raised. Born and raised.

You throw the X up everywhere you go?

A little bit. I got a house in Brooklyn now, right.

That is a rarity. But it seems like more and more people are doing that. You got the Bronx moving to Brooklyn sometimes nowadays. Brooklyn's popping now.

That's. Hey, I can't. That's also. Look, I can't deny it.

It's happening.

Brooklyn is just popping. I got into the real estate game early, right? So I knew brownstones were like the thing. Even as we saw the transgression in Harlem, right? You guys remember Harlem used to have those houses for like a dollar or $25. And. And then you see, like the last.

15 years, Harlem just gutted it and just rebuilt them.

Went crazy, right? Gentrification. Then Brooklyn got hot. I don't know if it's gentrification, if it's Jay Z, if it's the Nets. I don't know what it was, right. But Brooklyn just got flaming hot. And I've always been like knee deep entrenched in real estate. So I had to grab a spot downtown Brooklyn. Man, you did it early. Yeah, I was always a Nets fan. Oh, wow. Yeah.

Used to go to New Jersey for the games too.

I did.

Wow, man.

I used to go to the New Jersey Nets game where they had Sly the like the. As like a fox, like their mascot. Oh, wow. Yeah, I got. I had season tickets back in the days. I had pictures with them. That's. Wow. Yeah. So.

So you're a real Nets fan.

Yeah. But sports change, right? Players change all the time. So it's kind of like you really just gravitate to players and you get. You kind of connect with the players. And I'm noticing that, too, with a lot of people in sports. It's like, you, like, the players follow teams. The players more.

I mean. Yeah, they follow the players to the teams. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But now, what was.

What.

What part of the Bronx are you from? And what was your life like growing up in the Bronx in your era, man?

223Rd street and Boston Road.

You said Boston Road. We already know.

Oh, you know Boston Road.

You know Boston Road. Oh, man.

Love it, love it, love it. So look, 223rd is, like, on the. Like, right on the border of Eden Wall and the Valley.

Yeah.

So I kind of got roots in both my early days because, like, the projects was closer. They had the free lunch and everything. I was kind of, like, going up there and I started, like, making friends, playing basketball and stuff. They got a little crazy. Yeah. So when you growing up in it, you don't realize how crazy it is. Right. And then as I got old, as I got older, you really start to see and understand what's going on. So that really went more so to the Valley. That's why I, like, honed my basketball skills, fell in love with the game, and that's really where it was. I bounced around high schools a lot, too.

Okay, so playing ball or like.

Yeah, Okay. A mix.

You was fighting people.

That's what it was. A little bit. Yeah. You almost have to. Right. So based on where you live, you go to school with that group. Yeah, right. Yeah, you go to school with that group. So it's kind of like you have to just kind of hold your own, going back and forth just to, you know, just to just be a normal kid. Right. You have to just go through some of that stuff.

That was my big brother. He got kicked out of Canarsie High School, South Shore, Erasmus. He was. He was wilding.

That's. That's actually my story a little bit. My older brother, Right. Don't laugh at this, but this is true story. My older brother and his crew, they used to go to Edenwall and fight every single day. So a couple times when I used to go to play ball and they wasn't around, everybody start looking at me kind of crazy like, hey, all right, so. So where your crew at?

Oh, yeah.

What?

Oh, wow. He looked like you.

Nah. And so they know I'm always with. I'm always with them. Like the little shorty. I was like the little shorty on the court. I was, like, brought up in basketball.

Okay.

So you fight for your respect. You just naturally have fights in basketball. It might have it happen in jailball, and then afterwards, it's over. Right. You get your respect. But sometimes that stuff carried over. And I noticed, like, that older generation was just different. They were just violent, and they would lay it down. They would travel in packs. So as a kid, I'm going following those footsteps, and I'm like, all right, nah, nah, let me leave them over there. Let me just go start my own identity and my own crew. And then I used to just go the opposite way. Nice. Yeah.

So. But it's having that foresight to know, like, even at a young age.

And then it was fun for me. Right. I fell in love with the game, so it was just fun for me and easy to just go somewhere else and play. And then I got good. So now it was like, all right.

And you actually went to go play in college?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You went to D1, D2, Division 2.

A small private school, Caldwell University.

You got a scholarship for that too.

Yeah, full ride, man. It changed my life.

I gotta tell you how so, like, because I think it's important, because sometimes you have, like, these walls in your community and you feel like you can't get out, and then you get those experiences, those exposures. So how exactly did that change your life? And is that where you kind of got business roots?

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Absolutely. Like, 100%. Absolutely. So here's what happens, right? So you're familiar with the Bronx in the community. So we got Eat Em Wal Projects. We got, like, the private houses, which are in the middle, which are dirt poor. We got Boston Road, Parkside, the Valley. All of those are, like, impoverished, underdeveloped communities. Back then, when I was growing up, basketball, which I always credit to saving my life, got me a scholarship, and I actually got the scholarship from playing street basketball.

Wow.

In New York City, it wasn't even the high schools. No, no.

Because you was. You was going to high school. To high school, so you weren't necessarily.

I went to high school. I went to Mount St. Michael. I went to Alberta High School. I went to Evander High School. Evander Childs High School. Okay. That's where I graduated. Which is the worst high school in the Bronx, right? Probably today. Yeah. And that's the funny thing, man. Sometimes it's more so, like, for those that really want it, you can make it. It's those that kind of get caught up and sidetracked. And then when you get faced with the adversity and the hard work, that's where you get tested. If you can push through, you'll be fine. But if you can't, if you kind of, like, weak, you really won't, and you'll fall victim to the environment. Thanks. But getting that scholarship, man, put me in a different environment. And that's why I say it changed my life, and that's why I'm so big on environment. Right? So I went from, like, inner city, underdeveloped, impoverished community to affluent university, $46,000 a year tuition. Only money given was probably to the athletes, so everybody else was cashing out. And then I got around people where it was common for them to, like, spend money that they have, not spend what they don't have. Remember in college, they used to give out, like, a T shirt for a credit card. They used to give a keychain. Remember that stuff?

They stayed on the campus just trying.

To get everybody a water bottle. And, like, you give up? Yeah, yeah.

He was trading it in that $800 limit.

So here's what happened. When I went there, they didn't allow that stuff to happen. They were like, charles, nah, man, you don't have a job. All we got was, like, laundry money back then, right? We got, like, food money and laundry money as an athlete. And what that did was it started to teach me, like, the fundamentals of, like, financial literacy, the fundamentals of credit.

I got the card, bro.

You what?

I got the card.

Oh, you got it in college?

Yeah.

Oh, man. Freshman year?

Sophomore. Freshman year.

Did it jam you up a little bit?

A little bit, yeah. Little Something's learning how to get out of that.

Here's what I credit basketball and college to in that environment. I never got those credit cards right. And today my credit score is in 849.

Wow.

I'll pull it up and show you.

Credit cards, because they wouldn't think so now I have them.

Okay. Yeah, but. But I didn't get them back then, okay. What I got was, like, the education was, like, the norm for that community, right? Which was don't buy things that you can't afford. Don't get a credit card because we don't get any money, right? You can't afford stuff. It's okay. So they're walking around in college, like, where Some colleges, right? It's a fashion show. So I got friends where college was a fashion show. They coming back fresh. They get credit cards and everything. Fashion show. And my school, it was like, it's okay if you don't have it now. You can wear flip flops. You can wear, like, the same sweatsuit and the same T shirt every day. Because we know, like, if we stay the course, we'll be fine later on. So I never got into, like, those bad habits. I just learned, like, financial literacy. But it wasn't. It wasn't because I wanted to. The reason I learned that stuff is because I was in the environment.

Yes.

Like, somehow it just got in me. It became me because everybody around me wasn't doing it. So naturally I wasn't doing it. Now, I came home listening to a little bit of different music, right? I came home with a little different haircut. Flat top was lower and lower, Right. But I just have to attribute a lot of my success to the environment that basketball put me in. Wow.

Wow. So once you're done with college, right? Well, what did you study while you were on the courts?

Environment again, man. So my two sisters were teachers, okay? And they used to be out during the summertime, right? Off school in the summertime. So now I'm the young guy. I'm looking like, damn, y' all, okay, right? I'm like, y' all off during the summer, out at 2:30, tall basketball player from the Bronx. I loved it. I'm like, oh, I want to be a teacher. So I go to school, they're convincing me, like, hey, do social. Be a social studies teacher. And here's why. Here's a thought process of like a 19, 20 year old, okay? I wanted to be a social studies teacher because I thought history would never change. I could learn it one time, right? This is just a mindset, right? I could learn it one time.

That's it. That's it.

I'm just showing up. I'm showing up to school like, hey, guys, 1400s. Here's the 1400s, the 15 and the 16. Get it done and I'm out of here, right? So that was my thought process. But then, you know, sometimes, like, you're destined for certain things. So through my course in college, my family actually put me into a real estate deal that I wasn't necessarily aware of. I wasn't aware of all the details of it. Came home For a tax return One time, had to sign off some papers, and I realized they put me in a deal, and that deal made $48,000 a year. My name was on it. I own the property outright. It's a three family. 915 Bryant Ave, South Bronx, right?

Sobro, Sobro.

Now. Oh, so.

Bro, I know. I know it's being called sobro right now, so.

Man, you gotta. You still in the Bronx?

No, I'm Brooklyn born and raised. Okay, But I know about.

So what you doing all the way uptown, bro? I know it's a part trip, all right? They got Mott Haven.

I used to go to studios up there. That's why.

Okay.

So, yeah, that's how one day I actually ran into Remy Mars. He was popping out of one studio, I was going to the other, right? That was some cast named the Bangers. They used to work with heat makers and stuff.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's why I used to be up on Boston Road with them.

Oh, nice. You know Swizz beats is from there, right?

A word.

Yeah. All right. So.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go. There we go.

So where were we?

Yeah, we're just talking about. I'm trying to think. Trying to backtrack myself, too.

Oh, that deal. 915 Bryant.

Yes.

That's. That's why it's a three family. They rented it out, section eight.

But this is. Your family set this up. When you say your family, who in the family set that up? That was your parents?

I don't. It wasn't. It was a. It was unbeknownst to me, for the most part. I knew most of it. Right? I knew. And that's why I kind of go beast mode when I go in it, because I'm charged with, like, an energy to just outdo people that were before me, just to, like, crush it, right? So I'm coming. I'm signing off on the papers, right? My tax return. And then I realized. So it was like, a negative situation, realistically, because I didn't really know how much money was being made. I wasn't getting no money. So that's why I felt the way. Right? It was like, you know, like they was buying properties on the block. So we actually own 917 Bryant, 915 Bryant, and 913. But 915 was in my name. Okay, Right.

Got you.

So I saw the money, and I'm like, damn. Like, I'm starving up there. School. I can't. Like, y' all ain't throw me nothing.

So the meal plan wasn't enough. You got extras to buy, bro.

It kind of charged me though. And that's why I don't speak on it negatively because it just kind of like made me the beast that I am today.

Cause you knew there was money in it at that point.

That's all I needed to see. Like, I just needed to see the opportunity. So I saw that 48,000 and then my sisters, they have masters and moved on to be principals and stuff. They were making 40.

Yeah.

So automatically $8,000 passive just trumped my whole goal. So when I got out of school, I knew it was real estate that I wanted to do.

Got it. Got it. So if we get social studies, we leaving that out the window.

Out the window, bro. But you know what's common is that no one really uses what they went to school for as far as masters and their bachelor's.

Big fact. And then most. Most companies kind of show you what you need to do to survive there anyway once you get there.

Yeah, right. I really think from what I get out of school is like the network and the discipline. Okay. That's like my main two takeaways. A lot of subject matter stuff. I don't think it applies when you actually get some. Some. Right. Some professions of course. Right. But some most or a lot. Not necessarily. It's more so like the subject matter. You need some of it, you need to learn like the basis. But that college education versus real life is different and you learn a lot more in that actual work workplace.

So now graduating school, finishing that, finishing college. Right. What did you do first? Did you say I. How did you jump into real estate or did you hit corporate America first?

I had like a small job as like a job developer, but I knew. And my college roommate, he's like my best friend to this day. Right. Which is weird story, but he's like, he's basketball player too. So we just kind of finished school. But once I saw that money and I started to just really try to get educated on real estate. So when I graduated, I had a job, but I really, my goal was like to get a two family house or a three family, like straight out of school. That's what I was focused on. So I worked for like six months and I saved up enough money and I did like a. I'm gonna say like a syndicate deal with two of my friends where we actually buy our first property, renovate it, rent it out, refinance. Let me get those guys off and they could buy their own.

Okay.

Yeah, man. And I did this. I Had to be like 21, 22 years.

And you had people renting from you after that.

Yeah. So renting was always easy. Like it's the Bronx.

Yeah, yeah.

People, we never had a problem renting property out.

And did you rent a section 8? Did you rent a. Like, what do you know about that? Because some people are on the fence of do I rent a section eight?

So here, remember, right. The upbringing and having two partners. We have to make it make sense some way financially. So we actually chopped it up and rented out rooms. So now you got three six footers, right. Going to these houses on Saturday mornings, collecting rent every Saturday.

So just imagine like Debo coming through.

Just imagine that, right? Like. Like I'm thinking I need 100 of these.

Okay.

My friends are thinking they need 100 too. So when it works, it's working. We getting money, right. It's like we leaving like 5, 6, $7,000 when it's not working. It's like fights, arguments, they calling the police on us. It was illegal anyway back then, right? It's not that it was illegal. We just didn't know the route to go to make it like a s. Back then.

What's the sro?

Single room occupancy. Okay. So that's a real.

You could legitimize that. Yeah. I didn't know that. Cause even when I was house shopping for my house, I had walked into one situation in Queens where it was three floors and every bedroom was like different, like families or people. And I was just like, this is wild. I would have to gut the whole thing if I bought this. They didn't have a real kitchen or anything, you know.

Let me ask you this, did you do the math on that?

See, I was thinking about my own occupancy.

Yeah.

But had I had bought it to rent it out then. Yeah, that's some nice math.

If it was registered like that.

Yeah.

It would have definitely paid a lot. Yeah. So we was doing that for a while and then the bubble kind of busted where real estate just got out of hand. So at that point in time, I probably had like six houses in the Bronx, just spread out throughout the Bronx. My friends had like five or six. So we was going crazy. But what happened?

Making the cash from. Yeah.

Wow.

Just flipping it.

Oh, yeah. I was killing.

Nice.

I was killing the game. But of course, like the lack of education and experience.

Right.

We're all owning these properties, but real estate is changing dramatically. So we were buying houses at 200,000, 300,000.

What years was the.

Was this. Oh, three, four. Got it. Five, six. 2008.

That was it. Yeah.

Went crazy.

Yeah.

So. So I had a relationship with him with a mortgage broker. Okay. She used to let me sign because she knew I was gonna make good on it. So we made so much money. There was times where you just had to, like, have a signature and a pulse and you can get a mortgage, right?

Those balloon mortgages, too, back then.

And that's why the bubble. That's why they say the bubble busted. But I'm gonna say, man, just. Just. Just being a dog in real estate, right? Just going at it with everything. I was able to do well. But I started getting offers on my properties at, like, real, like, serious money. Like, I was buying for $250,000. They were selling for, like, 450. Wow. So I started to cash out, right? And I actually started to buy properties in other areas. And then. So I really cashed out at that point. My friends cashed out too. So we were able to make a ton of money. And we had a lot of money early. We still had really good, solid foundations of financial education. So we were solid there. But I missed the game, right? I had no more real estate. I probably had, like, two. We call them pieces. I had, like, two pieces left, right?

That's the terminology. When you rolling around with all the.

Houses, yo, we used to ask, like, how many pieces you got, right? That's just what it was. Okay, so I'm going to corporate America at this point. Eventually, we just realized, like, all right, we gotta do something. So when you're buying at 250 and now the prices are 506 and 7, it just. Mentally, you can't buy the same house or the same two family.

Yeah, it's not worth it.

It doesn't matter. The math doesn't math for you. It doesn't work. So it was just a challenge. So we're going to corporate America. I spent some time at American Express and did really well there. But then I had two kids, and I started to realize, like, all right, I have to get them into real estate early. And then you start to realize, like, the real estate ownership model is the same across the country. There's an owner and there's a tenant, right? That's all it is. It doesn't matter where it is, right? You can go to New York. There's owners and then there's tenants that pay the rent. Because South Carolina, there's owners and tenants. So I was thinking about. And this is funny that we started the conversation off this Way, right? So now I'm in Brooklyn, I have this brownstone and that price is tripling too, right? We going from 600,000 to 800 to a million to 1.5. Same house.

Same house.

Same house. Same block.

Same block, same. You got a pebble in the corner now, Connecticut muffin around the corner.

Yes.

Chipotle is probably.

You know, what comes, right? Brooklyn bagel, huh? The doggy parks happy.

We got bike lane, bus lane. Yeah, all of that.

Bike lane, the bus lane, Starbucks, of course.

I grew up on Bergen and Nordstrom. Franklin and Park. I cannot afford those right now.

Yeah. So here's what happened. I started to see that. So I'm living in a house and on a block that if I had to buy at that point in time, I really wasn't able to afford a house on my own block.

Yeah, yeah.

So I got two kids and I'm now starting to think about my kids and I'm saying they're going to go to college. They're. They're almost splitting images of me, right? Cool, chill, laid back, good character individuals. But they didn't necessarily have like the road paved out for them to be like top in education, top in class, go get a job that's going to pay 3, 4, 500,000 out of school to where they could afford 1.5, 2.5 or whatever it is now, right? So here's what I'm thinking. I have to do something for them to where so you know, we established our era, right? Yeah, I gotta do something to where they not thinking it's cool to be here at 25, 26, 29, 30 years old.

They'll be like, yo dad, you gonna be out, right?

Hey, I need the, I need the house. I'm like, what? They already taking cars and credit cards now you need the house too? Nah, we couldn't die. You already feel it. Yeah. It wasn't gonna pan out right. It was just gonna be too much. We fight as it is. Somet we're like three twins, but you know, it gets ugly sometimes, right? So I'm like, all right, here's where I got into land bank houses. So I knew the concepts of real estate and I know them very well. I knew how to find tenant friendly states and non tenant friendly states, like New York. We fight, landlords fight.

You take forever to evict somebody.

Six months, six years. You hear all these horror stories.

It's living for free.

Living for free for you. There's people that know how to manipulate the system in New York. So Obviously I didn't want my kids to go through that.

Shout out to great tenants though, too. Shout out to the great tenants.

Shout out to the great tenants. Hey, look, if you ever have a tenant that pays you on time, do not get rid of those tenants. I actually did a study in Detroit with one of my tenants. I own a block of properties in Detroit. And I asked the tenant, if I never raised the rent, would you always pay? Would you look to leave and would you have any issues? And she was like, no, I claim this house as. As it's my house today. She's like, oh, I'm not leaving. So the takeaway from that was because. And I'll tell you how I got them debt free. The takeaway from that was like, hey, you have to value good paying tenants. Yes. If you could produce a model that makes people feel like the house is theirs, they'll stay longer. I try to find, and I try to teach people to find tenants with younger kids. So that now, and the psychology is, you know, what's important for kids is like stability. So if you can find a tenant that has kids, husband, wife, boyfriend, girl, whatever, that has kids, I kind of want those type of tenants. Because if we could find reasonable rent for them, make them be able to claim the house as their own, and then we got the kids living there, they create and develop relationships on the block. They own it and they never want to leave.

Yeah.

So as landlords, right? That's your dream. That is your dream. Yeah. And that's how I wanted to start a real estate portfolio. So here's what I did actually. I actually turned Trulia and Zillow upside down. Right. I did like a national search, turned it upside down for the lowest cost properties. You know, some, a lot of sites. High to low.

Yeah, yeah.

So I did a search. High to low and low to high. Low to high, low to high. And I found what we know today as land bank properties for a thousand dollars.

So you stumbled on it just like that?

I stumbled on it. I was looking to really just cash out like $50,000 houses, 40,000. And I'm thinking I'm gonna give these to my kids debt free. I'll do one for him, one for Charles, one for Kaden. Right. And just, just stack them and this.

You just going to let the value build over time. That was the plan.

I wasn't even thinking about value because in real estate I don't count appreciation.

Okay.

I never factor that in. And that's a dangerous model because sometimes you might have markets that don't appreciate, right? So there's places in like upstate New York where The houses are $60,000 today. They were $60,000 ten years ago. Got it. Right, got it.

It's just going to.

Yeah. So my motto is, like, if you could be successful without factoring appreciation. Appreciation is a cherry on top. Appreciation, right, is where you could like multiply your wealth, but you can still get wealthy without factoring it in. Right? You can, you can advance it, but you don't have to factor it in, so to speak. So I'm looking, I'm just like, let me cash out on some houses for these guys. And then I saw houses for a.

Thousand dollars and like, I gotta buy this, I gotta try this.

There was no question, really, I was gonna buy like 10 of them.

Really?

Yeah, like that was the answer for me.

But where were they? Like, where was the first one that you bought and like, what condition was it even in? Because I'm assuming you buy a house for a thousand dollars, you probably gotta at least put in $20,000 to renovate it. Yeah, that was it.

So it was in the, at that time, the murder capital of the country.

Camden.

Detroit.

Detroit, okay.

At that time, at that time, this had to be like 17, 18 or 19. Okay, 2007.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Detroit's always, always up there. It's top three. So it's so funny. We come from the same city, man. We know this stuff. You say cabinet, right?

It could be any interchange, the per capita as well.

So it's right now Chicago is fighting for numbers.

Yeah, they like, yo, we south side, we trying.

Yeah, we try to get the crowd. Yeah, but that's another story, man. So look, the mission, right, the mission, the motive was like, I got regular inner city kids, well mannered, they're not geniuses, right? They're just basketball players, good kids, good students, good character. And I didn't have a way paved for me from the educational route. So I'm thinking, how do I get this done for them? So I feel like I connect with inner city, underdeveloped, impoverished communities because it's where I came from, right? You're not afraid to go to Washington Heights, Mott Haven, whatever. But you're just cool, right? It doesn't feel dangerous to you. So I'm thinking, let me give this thing a try. Because if I could pull this off, they'll be set like five year plan. Come home from college, they already are going to have portfolios and money coming in every single month to now where you get out of school. You're not worried about student loans. You're not worried about, like, living back with your parents. You're not worrying about debt. You're more so able to kind of live a life where you could feel. Focus on your passions, focus on what you went to school for, and focus on the things that you really enjoy in life. So land, bank, properties. Man, it changed my life.

That's just dope parenting right there. And you gotta be applauded for that.

Oh, thank you, man. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. So one of the things I realized in that, too, is that, you know, our era, we were taught to, like, go get it. It's competitive. Like, it's a competitive world. We have summer youth employment. Right. Remember that you was able to get a job at 14. You get working papers. Remember working papers?

Yeah, all of that. Yo. And then. But my dream job at the time, I wanted to work in foot Locker so bad. They never hired me, of course, for the kicks, for the purse, but, yeah, I got you.

Yeah, man. So that was, like, what they drew out for us.

Yeah.

Right. So for me, just as a parent, it was like, we have to find a way to not have our kids fight for themselves today because the cost of things is so high. They cannot compete without us, the previous generation, like, laying the foundation. You have to. It could be a point of enabling, but when you look around at other cultures, it's done. It's done. It's normal. It's taken care of. They're not coming out of school with tons of debt, bad credit.

They got the wedding money. Everything is already done by 25, it's already in place.

Yeah, man. Some cultures are getting really advanced with it, too. They're passing down, like, life insurance policies. They're structuring those out. They're structuring out real estate through trust. They're structuring out so many things that if we had the same model that our parents had, we would never close that wealth gap. Yeah. Even if we close the information gap and gave them the information, we're still generations behind. Right. So it's a matter of implementing. And I struggle with it because I'm like, how am I just setting them up to where they just get, like, $9,000 a month? And I thought it was enabling, but when you really look at it, you have to do things like that to at least try our hardest to get them at least on level, to compete with everybody, all the other cultures.

It's not a level playing field.

Yeah.

So let's talk about I still want to understand the meth. Right. Because how many did you buy to get you. Did you buy 10 when you first did land banks?

So you actually have to buy one, renovate it, then go, then go back to the land bank and you can buy another. And you're now.

So you're building a relationship with that one specific land bank? Absolutely.

Yep. So that land bank, you're building a relationship with them, you now deemed a trusted advisor or trusted contractor, and then they kind of like open the books up to you and allow you to buy more. Wow. So me again, just gangbusters, man. I did so well. They. They allowed me to buy blocks of property.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

You buying blocks in Detroit?

Yeah, whole eight miles east side and the west side. Yeah.

Wow. So in that, do you have property managers that are in Detroit that kind of help you out with that and collect the rent? Like, what is your best approach?

Or I don't have to go anymore because like, I'm gonna say two reasons, two parts. One, I have like a complete system, right. From contractors to property managers and just a network of individuals that we work with. But what happened is like my local community started to see the value in what I was doing. They started asking me how and asking me to show them the way. So I created something called the Land Bank Team, where it's a group of individuals, like minded individuals, where they kind of follow my investment strategy and I kind of just open the books and pass on my resources to them. I do things like Shadow Day, where I actually bring them to Michigan. Yeah, man. Oh, wow. Yeah.

So that you put them. Planting them right in Detroit.

Yeah. With the relationship still. Okay. Yeah. So I'll bring them to the hardware stores that I use. Wow. Sometimes because I have an office there in downtown Detroit, I'll host events where I actually invited Land bank personnel. So I think it's Reginald Scott, who's the chief operating officer of the Detroit Land Bank. He came out and spoke a couple of times to the group. Then we have board members that actually come out and speak to our groups as well. So it's. It's been a pretty rewarding task, I have to say.

Oh.

Six so. So here's what I got to say, man. Like giving. When you. When you have like this mindset, this abundance mindset and you give, what happens is just naturally the universe finds its way to give back to you. Right. And just multiples. So actually the C level people of the land bank introduced me to other land banks and I was able to buy like 300 parcels of land in Alabama.

Parcels, like lots of lots.

Lots, yeah. Quarter acre, half an acre, 1, 2 acre lots in Alabama.

And how many pieces on each lot is it like one piece a lot.

Like every parcel is a lot considered. Lots are in parcels, like subsets of parcels. So I have over 300. And what I did was I opened up 100 of those pieces to members of my community. So October 6th, we're having something called deed day, where it's going to be crazy, everyone getting their deeds. So everybody has it.

Okay.

I organized like a bus trip. It's a bus trip and it's a mastermind. So the bus trip, we're gonna all get in a tour bus actually. It's like a 55 passenger tour bus.

Right.

And we're going to actually go for the first time for a lot of them to see their land. Wow. But I'm bringing like my entire team again. I'm bringing my project manager so they won't actually have to like, go back and forth. This model will allow you to invest in land, invest in real estate in different parts of the world. Alabama is next, by the way. If I could give anything to your audience. Alabama, Birmingham, okay. Birmingham is like the next hottest city in real estate. Just watch it grow. Just watch it grow. I've done, you know, years of homework.

And he's moving to Birmingham.

Is that a lot of companies are moving to Birmingham.

Tax breaks.

They got $7.7 billion cash infusion to develop in Birmingham. And Kay Ivey, who's the governor, announced that last year. There's like a ton of companies that are moving there.

Wow.

Yeah. So it's next.

Yeah.

So it's all like, foresight. It's all like being connected to the banks, the mortgage companies, the developers at this point. They tell me where they're gonna go. That's crazy. So I put together this day, right? We got the project managers, we got the attorney, like title attorneys are gonna be there to pour into my group. Project manager is gonna be there to tell them exactly what he does. We have contractors, right. Who are gonna build and then. Which is kind of crazy. I don't love this concept. Right. I like us to buy the properties and keep them, but we're getting attacked by realtors because they know, like, pre development sales are a thing. Because there's a shortage of housing. Right. There's a shortage of starter homes across the country. Right. There's no more $300,000 home. It's just gone. Yeah. So we're building duplexes and it's costing us. So we. Economies of scale, we've been able to drive down the cost.

Because you're buying so many.

Because we're buying so many. So we're getting them at like 150. I've been attacked by realtors because they want to sell them for 250.

Yeah.

I don't love the sell your house model. However, I'm allowing a realtor to come if anybody. Just like they. They've asked me. And sometimes in certain cities where you don't live, you have to play nice in the sandbox, right? You have to kind of like, be nice. So I'm having a realtor come as well. And then, by the way, it's a diverse community of. It's a diverse team that I have.

Okay.

So I also have a female who owns a septic tank company who's part of the group. She's going to pour into the community. She's also going to teach on USDA loans because land can qualify. Land in rural areas qualifies for USDA loans. USDA loans. United States Department of Agriculture loans can be. Get. Can be. Can be gotten at 0% down. So you can actually fund. So you can actually fund the entire development project with no money down. That's crazy. Yeah, that's pretty cool.

The more you know.

Yeah, man. So October 6th, it's gonna be. It's gonna be crazy.

Wow.

It's gonna be a movie. Wow.

Is this the biggest thing for you so far in your real estate journey? This one day.

I gotta say. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So in my community, right. Every day, just about, we get the pleasure of seeing someone buy a new property. Because I'll give you a site. BuildingDetroit.org is a land bank site where you can go on and buy properties through two ways. Own it now. And there's an auction model that they have. So, you know, I put together the community and I taught them how to buy and sell buy properties and rent them out for the most part. So I do get the luxury of kind of like waking up and seeing in our network people buying and congratulating each other on properties every day. But this, this buying land, seeing it is different. It's like I know something big is about to happen. And I keep saying it to myself, like, the magnitude of this, right? These are our people that own land that it's never going to be taken away from. Right. It can be passed down for generations. I'm teaching them how to build. And just seeing it, it's like, it's like this level of growth that I'm giving back that I really can't prepare for. Right. You don't know how it's going to be. You just don't know. I know when people get houses, they cry. Yeah. And sometimes on the Land bank show, the podcast, I asked them, like, what was that moment for you? And sometimes it's like the closing. Sometimes it's like when they go inside. Sometimes it's that first check. Yeah.

This.

I don't know what to expect. Right. So I'm used to that. I'm used to going to buy a clothes sign.

But you build in a city you like Akon out here, this is different, this old city.

I don't know how I'm going to feel. Sometimes I want to bring champagne and it's a celebration, Right. Because you have to celebrate stuff like this. Then I'm like, do I bring a bunch of poppers and just make a mess in the community? I don't know. I don't know. I got a cowbell. I got a cow. I don'. Know. I don't know. I'm struggling with, like, how to prepare, but I know it's going to be big. How.

How do you dispel fear in people? Because I think everyone has. Because it's like a. Almost like a new concept to people of ownership. Some people have never bought a house. You know, this might be their.

How.

How do you break that fear?

It's. It's two things that I say move people, right? You have the fear of loss, Right. So the vacant houses, there's only a finite number before it starts getting bought up. Harlem had vacant buildings at one point. Now you can. You cannot buy a building in Harlem, Right. You could only wish. Same thing with Brooklyn. We had vacant properties here at one point. They're gone. Yeah.

Park Slope, they was giving them away in the 80s, man.

Park Slope. I love Park Slope. I love Park Slope. Fort Greene, too, is my favorite neighborhood. Yeah. Now that I'm a visitor, you know, I still consider myself a visitor, by the way.

That's funny. In Brooklyn now.

So look, I also, because my kids go to school in Westchester, I got another place in New Rochelle. So I kinda. I got two places. So I still, like, you know, I'm in the middle. But look, there's fear of loss and hope of gain. Those are two things that are gonna move people. You're either gonna realize, like, they're not making any more land and people are getting hip and smarter and starting to prepare for future Generations. Or. And you're going to go buy some. Or you have this desire in you to say, I'm going to stop paying rent. I don't want to live check to check. I don't want my kids to live check to check. Like, it's not right. It's not fair. It's not how life is supposed to be. And we all say that, right? When things are down and you don't have money, or you don't know where your next dollar is coming from, you really start to think and realize, like, this can't be how it's supposed to be. So it's really like, it has to. And I boil down to this. I'll say that just to answer your question. Extenuating circumstances are usually the driver for people to take action. You get fired. You don't have fear anymore. You have to go make a move and do something. Here's another thing that gets people to contact me. Having a baby every time. And I ask people, hey, what made you reach out to me? What made you join? Oh, I had a baby. And, you know, I just wanna make sure that the baby is straight. I just wanna do something to make sure the kids are straight. Divorce is a big thing too.

Okay?

You get divorced, I think you start losing half. Exactly. You gotta make up the other half. You don't have no time to be like, look like you not scared of nobody in the city. Cause you about to be living right there. So it's like, look, I gotta buy this house, bro. Like, help me clean it up. Right? You're not. You don't have the fear. So I have to say, man, the most common is extenuating circumstance that overcomes the fear. But what I'd like it to be going forward is education. Okay, Right. The more we know. So you're scared of going into a community or neighborhood that's deemed violent that you don't know. But once you get the education, you find that the violence is on the south side. The north is cool. Now you're educated. Now you're like, all right, I'll go to the north. And then you start to like it. And now you're educated. Educated. So what I really hope to do, and a lot of my mission is to educate people on land, bank properties. Educate people on the value of buying land and acquiring that. And let's start to get a lot of that stuff in our last name.

I want to hear about some of the ugliness of it. Right. So what are some of the worst situations you've Seen people in either for yourself or someone that's gotten into it. Like, if they've taken a wrong turn, like.

Yeah, and that's a good question. That's why I did it as a team. That's why I created a team. There's just strength in numbers. So when you're by yourself and you don't know how to invest, you do it wrong because you just don't have the network and the individuals. So I've got my window stolen, My furnace has been stolen. Brand new fridge, hot water tank. So look, now people just bust the.

Door open and take everything out.

It's just like everything else, man, when you don't know. So the neighborhoods that we grew up in, when people don't know where they're going, they just look like they don't know where they're going. They look like they don't know. So. Right. So you know exactly what I'm talking about. You're laughing because you know what it is. You know they're not from this block, right? So I'm in Detroit, and I came up, remember, I came up with nothing. I came up with a brown refrigerator, a black stove, and, like, none of my products match. Yeah, stainless was. Stainless was not a thing. So now I'm an investor, and now I'm like, in this mold where I'm building for my children. So I wanted to buy, like a matching. Not only a matching stove and refrigerator, I wanted to buy a matching hot water tank and furnace. So I go, I spend all my money, I buy all of that stuff. The smoke is coming out the chimney. I got the stickers on the windows all brand new. All brand new. In the middle of Detroit. East side of Detroit. East side of Detroit.

But they stole the windows while they were installed.

They unscrewed them neatly. So look, yo, I thought it was.

Just like on the side, prepared to go in.

So here's the story, and here's one of the things why I really enjoy teaching and I enjoy educating because I never want this stuff to happen again. I'm preparing for my first tenant. And remember, this is not even my money. It's really like my kids money. So I'm preparing. I told them, the carpenter, hey, leave the heat on high. So tomorrow when we come in, the tenant gets to feel that blast of heat. I grew up in places where it's cold. I grew up in places, bro, where it's colder inside than outside because we didn't have any heat. You ever walked in a place that's colder inside?

Yeah.

All right, so look, so now you know why I said, turn it up. I'm like, you want that warmth? Yeah, I want it to smack the tenant.

Yeah.

So I line everything, bro. We go in the house. It's colder inside than it is outside. The windows in the back are gone. I didn't notice this yet.

You had the first tenant with you.

First tenant. I lined everything up like 9 o'. Clock. We going in until the. The realtor. Don't go in tenant, don't go in. Carpenter, don't go away. Because I want them to really, like, experience. Yeah, bro. So I'm like, oh, man, he left the thing off. I went to the thermostat. I turned it all the way up. It was all the way up already. I'm like, all right. So now you go to click it, right? You're like, dad, they really. It's new. I'm like, it gotta click. I'm like, don't worry about it. So I'm thinking, the pilot went out. Cause that's what we used to think when our gas gets cut. So, oh, the pilot's out, but really the gas is off. Everything's off. I go down, bro. There's wires hanging from the vents where the furnace used to be. Brand new furnace, brand new. Hot water gone. I left nice smoke coming out the chimney. It was hot and everything. So I'm all right. Damn. All right. So we had an issue. But let me show you the kitchen.

Kitchen. I'm still doing the tour.

So you doing real estate? What wins women? The kitchen. Kitchen and bathrooms, Right. Nice tile in the kitchen. Nice bath. Nice. Whatever. Kenmore, right? I'll never forget this because I got it from home. From Home Depot? Not Home Depot. I said, you going way back. Serious. So I got the Kenmore. Matching, right? The blue tape. I left the blue tape on. You know that blue tape? That appliance blue tape, brand. I left the tape on. Specifically, I want them to peel the tape off. The whole experience is gone. The whole experience. The fridge, the stove, the matching fridge and stove is gone. Horror story. Nightmare. And this is what? A couple things I didn't do, right? One, I didn't know that in certain parts of the country, you don't have to give them appliances. So there's certain cities in America where the tenants bring their own stove and refrigerator. They don't even expect it. Wow. So again, just being new and going gangbusters and just being like a New Yorker and thinking, like, we gonna just. Do we know everything. We made it in New York. We know everything. So that was just dead wrong. They will okay to rent an apartment or a house without the mechanicals in because they know what time it is in that city. They will allow you to install them the day that they move in. That's 1, 2. They bring their own stuff. And I teach this stuff so it doesn't happen to individuals like me. And then more importantly, your first line of defense and security in the Midwest when you're renovating property is the neighbors. So build a relationship, teach everybody, right? Go to every single house, introduce yourself. Hi, I just bought this house, 11712 up the block. I'm a developer. I'm looking to change the neighborhood. I'm looking to enhance it. I'm looking to make it safe for you and your children to go to school, right? Some of these places, right, there's vacant problem, vacant property problems. They don't want the vacants, the vacant properties there. They really need people like us who may have a little bit more money to come in and renovate instead of.

There being trap houses on the block.

So I'm a New Yorker, and I'm thinking with the New York state of mind, I'm not. I'm never. I don't. If I don't know the neighbors, I'm not talking to them. So I'm just doing my. I'm just doing what I'm doing. Right? That's just how we are. Right.

You will see them every day. And I talk to them.

They ain't never said, what up?

I'm not saying what up until they.

Say something to you.

Now we talk. Now we cool.

So I'm thinking I'm just doing my thing, right? I'm just thinking about what I'm doing. And that's where I also learned, too. Like, developing properties in different parts of the country serves two purposes. One, it certainly serves profit, but the other is purpose. You don't realize it, but there are kids that live on those blocks. There's the elderly that lives on those blocks. So when you're renovating that one house, it's eliminating like a crime potential location. There's animals in there that really realistically trap houses.

Yeah, all of that. Yeah.

And it's just unsafe, Right. Just imagine you're sending a little girl to school that has to walk past trafficking abandoned houses to get to the bus stop. So I had to make the adjustment. And I teach this all the time. And they. Although in your mind, you may be afraid to go in that neighborhood because it has a bunch of vacant Properties on it. However they're welcoming you, they're embracing you. So once that situation happened, the neighbor started to come out, they introduced themselves, they started to say they thought it was the contractor. But I had like four different contractors. So that's one horror story, man, that I'll never forget. It really hurt me, but the way I turned it was I try to make sure that none of my team members ever gets robbed. I try to make sure that that never happens to anybody else that comes behind me and goes into developing.

You ever knocked on the door of one of those neighbors and they're like, yo, but that's my trap house.

Though that ever happened, they are so happy.

Okay.

They will overly call you for every. They'll call you when you're a contractor's there.

Oh word.

They call you when you're a contractor leaves they. They're sitting there, right? And again, it's the. It's underdeveloped cities. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So not everybody in the house is working. Somebody's always home for the most part. So they'll call you and they just tell you everything. But they are your best level of security. When they see somebody going in, it like wakes them up. They'll call you coming out, they'll call you. So yeah, I definitely teach that man. Like always just, just work the block. That is your best security. Then I teach put up security cameras. Like we have WI fi, solar powered cameras. So even though they're vacant houses, you may think you need WI fi and security and electricity to have them work. You don't. They're solar powered cameras that you can connect to your property and you have visibility, full visibility with sight and sound to your property. Sick.

Now before someone contacts you and they're like, yo, Charles, I want to be down. I want to get like how much revenue should someone be expected to bring to the table? Especially in some of these cities that you're looking at, if someone wants to invest, what's a real number right now, present day, that they need to start.

So to start, I would say probably somewhere around $3,000.

That's it.

To start. That's it. Yeah. Because the way I structured the team where you just need money to buy a house, we have staff that will help with business funding and credit to renovate the property. So if you do have struggles with credit, you can we have like a free credit repair website, like a do it yourself. So actually with a good credit score, I had to learn credit. Right. And then I started to teach it in my community. Best Practices, just everything. How to get things that shouldn't be on your credit report removed, and to really build a strong credit foundation. So we actually have a credit specialist and a funding specialist. So really, when you come into the community, I really just want you to have the heart and the desire to, like, do right by another community. And what happens is you end up, like, being taken care of as far as getting a property, getting tenants in it, and learning how to buy and renovate real estate.

Now, you started out in a group with two other friends. What do you think about group buyers at this point in time? Especially, I mean, with land banking? It sounds like it's. It makes it so easy that you could do it as an individual. Yeah, but what's your thought on, like, the groups?

I don't recommend it. And that's just my personal preference. I work so hard. I don't. And the prices are so low. The price point is so low.

Yeah.

So I say get it. If you're going to do it as a group, come in as a group and buy. But you don't have to be on each other's houses. Got it. It's more so like, these houses are for future generations. You're building, and then it's. We have like an assortment of individuals. Some are buying for their kids, some are trying to catch up on retirement, some are just trying to make extra money. But the price point is so low. I said 3,000, but@buildingdetroit.org, the prices start at a thousand. That's crazy. Yeah. So I don't think it's necessary. You can do it, like, collectively. Right. So you get one, I get one, and we can try and buy in the same area.

Yeah. You ever have hoop dreams still or when did that fade away for you?

No, man, I had to ask this.

What's your ball?

Yours, man, my son kicked my behind so bad, I was like. So I'll say this, that was one of the happiest days, right, for them to kind of like me to set them up, to actually go like a structured route to get scholarships. So the younger ones in high school, he has a scholarship in high school. The older ones in college has a scholarship. And I was happy that I was able to guide them. Not the street route, but more like the structured pay for training, get exposure through AAU basketball, scholarship route, going to the right educational institutions to get scholarships. But no, man, I'm a jogger.

Okay.

Basketball beats you up. Yeah, yeah, Basketball.

I try. And then elbows, ankles, the next day.

Your back yeah, it's too much. I'm a runner.

Got you. Yeah. You go up for a rebound, somebody hits you in the back. You feel it tomorrow?

Nah. Yeah, man, I'm not getting. I don't have the. No, I love the game.

Okay.

I love it. I'm super passionate about it. But Prospect park, that three mile run is where. That's my workout.

Top five NBA players of all time.

Oh, top five. So I gotta go. Michael Jordan, without question. Do I gotta go in order?

You don't have to.

All right. Cause there's a battle, right, between Kobe and LeBron. Yeah.

I'm on one side of it.

So I'm gonna say Michael Jordan, Kobe, LeBron, Larry, Legend. Because he was a bad. That boy was bad. Like, I saw a clip. He played a game with his left hand.

Left hand.

Yup. You saw that?

Yeah. Left hand.

Who's doing that?

Crazy.

Who's doing that today?

Crazy.

No one like it. It wasn't even out of the question. They wasn't going crazy on the mic. They was like, oh, he just scores with his left again. I'm like, what?

Switch it up for the whole game.

Imagine LeBron James playing all lefty. Nah, nah. Right? He's a B. So you said not in order.

Yeah.

And then my fifth. This is my favorite play of all. The second of all time. Michael first. But this guy, I just loved his game. Dominique Wilkins, human highlight film. Human highlight. Beast mode.

Yeah. One of the best dunks of all time. Yeah. You a ballist. I had to ask you that, man.

I appreciate it. That's such a controversial question, bro.

It is.

Barbershops have like, oh, yeah. Most heated debates. Right? That's what. I'm gonna go crazy.

I'm Kobe all day. But number one, Kobe number one. That's his personal. I'm. No, but mj, I respect him. Yes, he is the greatest player of all time. But my personal favorite all times, Kobe.

That you relate to.

Yeah. Love Kobe.

Okay. So cool.

How can everyone find you? You mentioned the podcast. Where can they listen to that? And then if they want to get down with the program and start investing. Right. For future generations, where do they go?

So for the most part, people find me on Instagram, Arlesj Noonan and I started a podcast just to kind of get in the minds of what makes people join and then like to share or understand non traditional methods of real estate. Because I feel like I get in, I got in through a non traditional method. Right. So it's the Land bank show on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, there we go. And it's actually taken off pretty. Pretty big too, man. To where we do well on audio and like Pandora, Amazon.

Pandora.

Yeah, we got listens from in Pandora too. It's wild. I didn't even again, when you just look to serve, it just magnify. It multiplies so many times over.

I say this whole podcast thing just is a big surprise all the way around. Like, we have so much listeners in Ohio. Shout outs to Ohio. I don't know why. Like, I didn't even have made guests from Ohio. I had to make sure I started bringing on guests from Ohio too. But you never know where it all goes.

But the name.

Exactly. That's it.

N Blue Dope. Yeah, if you. If we really dig it. It's the name, bro.

Yeah, that's what it is, man.

That name is fire.

That's it. Good looks, man.

Sam.

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