572: Landlording vs. Professional Management, How to Increase Your Income as a Real Estate Lender

Welcome to gre. I'm your host Keith Weinhold. Being a hands on landlord versus professional property management, which one is right for you, how often and how much should you raise the rent? Then learn how rather than a landlord to be a lend lord and increase your income by becoming a real estate lender. Today on get rich education. Since 2014, the powerful get Rich Education podcast has created more passive income for people than nearly any other show in the world. This show teaches you how to earn strong returns from passive real estate investing in the best markets without losing your time being a flipper or landlord. Show host Keith Weinhold writes for both Forbes and Rich dad Advisors and delivers a new show every week. Since 2014, there's been millions of listener downloads of 188 world nations. He has a list. Show guests include top selling personal finance authority Robert Kiyosaki. Get Rich Education can be heard on every podcast platform. Plus it has its own dedicated Apple and Android listener phone apps. Build wealth on the Go with the Get Rich Education Podcast. Sign up now for the Get Rich Education podcast or visit getricheducation.com you're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is Get Rich education. Welcome to GRE. From Charleston, South Carolina to Charleston, West Virginia and across 188 nations worldwide. I'm Keith Weinhold and you're listening to Get Rich Education. Before we talk about should you be your own landlord or not and how often do you raise the rent? Let's get more personal. I want to get introspective with you with three questions. Do you focus more on what you have or on what's missing? Yeah. And not just as an investor, but in your overall life. Do you focus more on what you have or on what's missing? As for me, it's what's missing and that might be a shame. I'm definitely grateful for what I have, but probably not grateful enough. If you also focus more on what's missing from your life rather than what you have, maybe you need to be more grateful for what you've got too. But those like me that focus more on what's missing are often accomplishment driven people always trying striving for more. The second question is do you focus more on your past, present or future? Now we all focus on all three, but which one do you focus on the most? For me it's the present and then the future after that. The third question that you can ask yourself to learn more about yourself is do you focus more on what's in your control or out of your control. I focus more on what's in my control. So there you go. Certain combinations of those questions can tell you a lot about yourself. And for example, if you answered that you're most focused on your future and what's out of your control, you could be setting yourself up for some sleepless nights, oh gosh, did I lock the car door? Or really, it's more like, geez, how is that meeting really going to go tomorrow? I do some of that too. Fretting too much about the future for things outside your control. That won't change your future one bit. But yet ostensibly that steals your peace of mind in the present. I don't know who to attribute those questions to, who originated them, but I heard Tony Robbins talking about them and that helps you figure yourself out for some of what we're talking about here on today's show. I want to start off real. Basically here. Most first time real estate investors, they find themselves diving into the world of property management with zero experience and tons of uncertainty. You don't have to put management experience on a resume before you hire yourself to manage your own property. Self managing a rental property, it can be daunting in the beginning, but it also offers you some real benefits like greater control and cost savings and and some hands on learning. But self management comes with its own set of challenges like tenant management and handling maintenance issues. So let's weigh some of those pros and cons of self landlording versus outsourcing it to a professional manager. There are about four key advantages to self managing. I think that most obvious one is the cost savings. Because property management Companies typically charge 8 to 10% of the monthly rent amount for their services, along with an additional fee for placing a tenant or renewing a lease, and maybe even a fee for certain maintenance types. By self managing, you can then avoid these fees and keep more of the rental income for yourself and thereby making your investment more profitable. Say that your property is rented for $2,000 a month, that $200 management fee, because that's 10%, we'll multiply that by 12, that's $2,400 a year. Plus a typical leasing fee when a new tenant is placed is a half month's rent. That's $1,000 in this case. Now you're probably not going to have a new tenant placed every single year, but if you did, then that's $3,400 annually to the manager. And in total between the management fee and the leasing fee. Another advantage of diying is quality control. Now I think people that tend to be control freaks oftentimes have to self manage and they care a little too much. But when you self manage, you do have direct control over the maintenance and tenant selection and the overall condition of your property. And that is going to ensure that your investment is well maintained and, and that your tenants are satisfied. Property managers, they often manage multiple properties, so your rental might not get as much attention. And the most common recurring issue that I hear from investors that use a professional management company is that they don't feel like their property is getting enough attention or that the property manager doesn't really care that much about them after their contract is signed. And if you think that through from the property management industry side, you know, most managers, they're only making that 100 to 200 bucks of recurring revenue per month on each property they manage. And these are pretty thin margins overall. So in order to run a profitable business and pay their employees and cover their other business expenses, these property managers, they need to onboard hundreds of clients and in turn that's going to spread out their efforts pretty thin. And if you've only got a few properties with a manager, well, their main priority sometimes ends up being their bigger clients. So the smaller you are, the further down the callback list you might be. But I'll tell you, even staying in touch with my professional managers a little bit, even the ones I only have a few properties with, I feel like I get what I need. A third advantage to managing yourself is, is better tenant relationships. You've got a level of control that allows you to build relationships with your residents that can lead to longer retention and less of that costly turnover. And having that direct communication that builds some trust, that builds some respect between you and your tenant they appreciate. A landlord like you is probably going to respond quickly to maintenance requests and the fact that you're approachable if an issue comes up. And also by you being more involved in the tenant screening process, you can ensure that you select a pretty good tenant that's going to stay long term and really take care of your property. Another advantage to you self managing is that you do build some valuable skills. I mean, managing a property on your own, that teaches you a big range of pretty versatile skills from like handling maintenance and repairs to, to negotiating leases and just overall managing your finances. These can be pretty helpful skills, not just for your rentals, but for your future business ventures. So really those were some of the upsides of self management. Now how about the Flip side, the challenges of self managing your own rental property. Well, the problem is managing your tenants. I mean, some say that this whole discipline that's called property management ought to be called tenant management and handling tenant relations, that's one of the most critical aspects of being a self managing landlord. I mean, even if you try to build tenant relationships, mismanagement that can lead to vacancies or disputes or it can even go into legal issues. So educating yourself on landlord tenant laws and best practices, that's pretty essential if you want to head off problems and you've got proper tenant screening and addressing tenant concerns and ensuring that rent is paid on time. I mean all that stuff's crucial. Most tenants are pretty reasonable, but you know, there are always going to be a few that will challenge your patience. And it really requires that you be tactful and professional to manage well. Managing contractors, I mean property maintenance, that's another key responsibility. You have to find and hire and coordinate contractors to for repairs and upkeep and poor contractor management, that could lead to cost overruns or really shoddy work and more, knowing how to negotiate contracts and oversee projects, that's crucial to maintaining the tenant satisfaction and the overall quality of your property. Another downside of self management is handling emergencies. I mean plumbing leaks or electrical issues, that stuff could happen anytime. And as a self managing landlord, you might not always be available to respond immediately, which can lead to property damage or unhappy tenants. So self managers, they really need to be problem solvers. Self managing a rental property, things go fine 99 plus percent of the time, but it could get emotionally taxing, especially if those tenant relations become a problem. So you gotta keep personal feelings out of it. That stuff can cloud your judgment and negatively impact your decisions. If you want to self manage, you've got to maintain professionalism and set clear boundaries and remain objective when you're dealing with tenants and property issues. So creating systems and processes help you minimize those emotionally driven decisions and can help you ensure consistency in managing approach. And then there is that legal side. You ought to keep up on that local area's landlord and tenant law. So in conclusion, on whether to be your own landlord or outsource it to professional management, while these challenges are pretty real, you should still be able to self manage your properties even remotely, even across state lines or from thousands of miles away. I mean most of these worst case scenarios that you hear about like a flood at 2:00am, I mean that stuff just never happens. I mean it's never happened to me. Even if you don't have Previous experience. You really can effectively manage your rental properties and see positive results when you got the right tools and the right mindset. And today's tech tools make remote management easier than it's ever been in human history. But any longtime listener knows that I do not manage my own properties. My time is simply too valuable. As a frequent guest on the show here, Robert Helm says life is too short for property management. I just feel a personal sense of freedom and autonomy and some headspace clearance by knowing that no tenant can contact me directly yet that my manager is taking care of them. I mean, it's just not worth doing it myself to get that last 2% 20 toward perfection. When you buy in the most investor advantage areas, you should have enough margin to pay for a manager. All right, well, let's change topics now. And whether you self manage or you outsource it to a pro, you know you've got to ask, how much and how often should landlords raise the rent? That is the question. Let's say you've crunched the numbers and expenses are climbing like they have these past few years, and the market is shifting and your rent hasn't changed. That really leaves you with one big question. Should you raise the rent and should you raise it every year? And if you're new to landlording, it can kind of feel complicated. It could feel like if you raise the rent too much, you risk losing a great tenant if you raise it too little or not at all. And you might fall behind on costs then or even undervalue your property if you don't keep your rents up there. Because five plus unit property values are based on the rent, which goes into the noi, your net operating income. And really, this is one of the more common dilemmas that landlords face. But really the good news is that there's a pretty clear way forward. So let me help you determine when a rent increase makes sense and then figure out an amount that keeps your unit competitive, keeps and keeps your rental income on track. Now, some people, they actually believe that landlords are required to raise the rent every year. And to a tenant, it might seem like that's what happens. But no, landlords are not required to raise the rent every year. They often choose to do so to keep up with inflation or stay competitive in high demand markets and keep up with shifts in local rental trends. Gradual, smaller increases can help you avoid the need for making larger jumps later. That stuff can surprise or frustrate your tenant. You want to go for those big rent jumps between tenancies we've covered that part before. Now, some landlords prefer to keep rent steady, like when they have long term reliable tenants or they're just focused on building equity over time and they want to stay hands off and don't really need the cash flow so much. Now, in a lot of cases, maintaining that same rent amount, that sure can reduce your turnover in vacancy costs. Those things are your biggest expenses. But often that is not the best approach in the long run because you probably are a leveraged investor, meaning that you have a loan on the property or well then a rent increase. That helps you out more than it does for the less educated, paid off, free and clear property owner. Because you can widen your delta faster, you widen your cash flow faster because your biggest expense, your principal and interest payment, stays fixed. Yes, you are getting leverage on both the asset value overall and the income. Yes, this is winning that third crown of GRE's inflation triple crown. So ultimately, deciding how often to raise the rent, that really depends somewhat on your goals and also the condition of the rental. You got to factor in how satisfied you think that your tenant is. That's part of it and the state of the market as well. Now, if you're unsure what the right rent price is for your area, there are increasingly sophisticated tools for helping you figure that out. Rent Finder AI can help you. One of my property managers uses it. It's a really cool AI driven report that looks at 25 rent comparables in the area. Again, that tool is Rent Finder AI. Now, when should landlords raise rent? Finding the right time to do this, that helps you stay aligned with the market value, all while supporting your financial goals. But there are also times where it might be smarter to hold off on hiking the rent. The most common times that you implement a rent increase are at lease renewal. That's really the most common and appropriate time to raise the rent, provided that you give proper notice. You usually got to give 30 to 60 days notice. Another common time to raise the rent are after you make significant upgrades like installing new appliances or, or renovating a kitchen or updating flooring. I mean, this is when it might be reasonable to adjust rent to reflect that added value. Another time is when overall market rents are rising, even if you haven't improved the unit or anything. Because if rental prices in your area are up, well then raising your rent helps keep your property in line with local rates. But you got to keep in mind that rent price increases require a well thought out strategy to avoid pushing away good tenants. Another time to increase the rent Is to keep up with inflation and expenses over time. Especially these last few years, we've all had higher operational costs like higher insurance, higher property taxes, higher maintenance costs. So even a small annual rent increase definitely helps offset those rising expenses. And but you got to avoid basing your rent price solely on operating expenses. When you do raise the rent for this reason though, let the tenant know just which operating expense rose. That is going to help reduce tenant frustration. Now on the flip side, there are times when keeping your rent steady could be the better choice. Especially if you have a long term reliable tenant. I mean good tenants that pay on time and take care of the property, they are worth retaining. Not all times, but sometimes avoiding that rent hike can help you maintain a good relationship there. Another time to avoid it is when the rental market is soft. I mean, if there's more competition in your area or high vacancy rates in your area, well then raising the rent could lead a tenant to look somewhere else. Especially if there are vacant properties nearby they that they could move into another time to not raise the rent is if the property hasn't changed. If you haven't made any of those improvements, sometimes a rent increase might not be justified. Or obviously you don't want to raise the rent if you really really want to avoid a vacancy. So keeping the rent the same might encourage them to renew. So factors to consider before raising the rent and how to calculate an appropriate increase if your unit is aging or needs repairs. Raising the rent without improvement, that could discourage renewals. So consider creating a value checklist to quantify certain improvements. Like new appliances could be 25 to $50 a month in additional rent or a renovated kitchen, $75 a month or new H vac that could be $30 to $50 a month. Think about neighborhood changes like gentrification or new schools or increased transportation access or nearby commercial development. I mean all that stuff can raise demand. Building a Whole Foods nearby, having a new office space with high wages nearby, that can increase your rent. Look at city planning announcements and local news. You can help stay ahead of the trends. And that way. And if your neighborhood is seeing a rise in new businesses or housing demand, I mean that is justification for a moderate increase and a modest annual rent increase tied to inflation that can help offset your rise in costs. You can reference the cpi. Yeah, the bls, they don't just report national inflation, but they do this by region as well. Now, is there a limit to the amount of your rent increase? Well, depending on where your property is located, there might be legal limits to how much you can raise the rent. And they're typically defined by state and local rent control laws. That can vary a lot across the US in cities or states with rent control or what's called rent stabilization, there are strict caps on how much you can raise the rent annually. And those caps, they're often based on the local CPI. They might range from 2% per year to 10% a year depending on the area. And if your rental properties in a place without rent control, well then there might not be any legal limit on how much you can raise the rent. Really that's sort of situation normal. So you do have to look at those local laws. Of course. Here at GRE we recommend buying and owning properties outside of any rent control jurisdictions which are often those places in big northeastern cities or on the west coast where they have rent control. Well, your success as an investor, it has a lot to do with how much of your money you are leveraging. But funds that are leveraged into property that you own directly, they're not very liquid. Any prudent investor keeps a liquidity bucket of funds. And, and for me personally, I don't keep many of them in these online only savings accounts that might yield a 3% or 4% return today because that is simply too low. What I do with my liquid funds is I get a return that's more than twice that amount. Where I am not the landlord, I'm the lend lord. Yes, L E N D Lend Lord tell you how to increase your income that way. That's next. I'm Keith Weinhold. You're listening to Get Rich Education. The same place where I get my own mortgage loans is where you can get yours. Ridge lending group and MLS 42056. They provided our listeners with more loans than anyone because they specialize in income properties. They help you build a long term plan for growing your real estate empire with with leverage. Start your pre qual and even chat with President Chailie Ridge personally. While it's on your mind, start@ridgelendinggroup.com that's ridgelendinggroup.com you know what's crazy? Your bank is getting rich off of you. The average savings account pays less than 1%. It's like laughable. Meanwhile, if your money isn't making at least 4%, you're losing to inflation. That's why I started putting my own money into the FFI liquidity fund. It's super simple. Your cash can pull in up to 8% returns and it compounds it's not some high risk gamble like digital or AI stock trading. It's pretty low risk because they've got a 10 plus year track record of paying investors on time in full every time. I mean, I wouldn't be talking about it if I wasn't invested myself. You can invest as little as 25k and you keep earning until you decide you want your money back. No weird lockups or anything like that. So if you're like me and tired of your liquid funds just sitting there doing nothing, check it out. Text family 266866 to learn about freedom Family Investments Liquidity Fund Again, text family to 66866 this is our rich dad Poor dad author Robert Kiyosaki Listen to Get Rich Education with Keith Weinhold. Don't quit your daydream if you love the income from rentals but you don't like the vetting and the tracking and the tenant calls. This episode is for you. I've openly shared with you before that I don't keep much money in a savings account since the returns are often lower than true inflation. Today it's about where I invest my own funds that I want to keep fairly liquid yet get a strong return. We're talking to who owns and runs those very funds that I'm personally invested in. She Co founded Five Freedom Family Investments. They're a firm with over $50 million in assets under management and they have a 100% track record of investor payouts to those investors that include me. After building her own wealth through real estate, she made it her mission to help investors create freedom, safety and peace of mind in their portfolios. She specializes in turning hands on real estate strategies like turnkey rentals into relatively passive scalable income. In it has real estate backed returns that get fairly high. You'll see how high today. She's got a great plain English approach and focus on recession resilient needs based assets that have earned her repeat invitations to Get Rich Education and other top real estate shows. She and her husband Flip also co wrote a great book called Get Real which I have on my bookshelf. Hey, it's great to have you back on gre. Dannielyn Robison thank you so much Keith.

I'm so excited to be here.

Danny we'll discuss rates of return for the investor shortly, but first I think that any prudent investor asks about that foundation. What is the investment backed by? What are the underlying assets? Tell us about that.

So that's really important to me as well. And real estate is my love and passion. So this is a Fund that is based on recession, resilient needs based real estate. What that means is we're really focused on the needs over economies, down economies. No matter what is going on the market, is there demand, is there enough demand that the cash flow is going to continue on? And so our asset classes inside this fund are multifamily housing and then senior housing, build to rent and self storage. And by concentrating on all of those, we're just staying aligned with the fundamental needs of American families. Which is why, why we're freedom family investments.

Right, okay. So yeah, pretty stayed stable underlying assets there, like you say, these are needs based items, items that people need and tell us more about how the investment is structured for that investor. And these investors like me, looking for predictable passive income, this is something that's.

Really important to me. I'm always talking to our investors and finding out what's important to them, what are they investing in right now, how do they feel about the market, what's important to them. And out of that has come every single fund or offering that we have created. And so what I love about this one is it combines a whole bunch of things all into one place. So this fund, the way it's structured provides diversification because as a private money lender you are lending on one asset. So you're dependent on that one asset actually performing and being able to pay you back. Now, as you said at the beginning of the episode, we, we have a 100% payout track record. And that's because I think my very first episode with you was about private money lending. And I told this story about this duplex where we lost, I want to say over $50,000. And I talked about the importance of investor relationships to me. And that long term relationship means more to me than anything else because if you don't have trust, then you don't have anything. You don't have a business, you don't have, you can't grow long term. So even though we had lost so much money on that duplex and made a lot of mistakes, the investor got their full principal paid back, they got every penny of interest during the time that they were owed. And that testament has happened over and over again. And that's also why I've always preached volume. Because deals like that in real estate, it's going to happen. And anybody who tells you otherwise, just run. Because there's going to be times where you peel back a wall and there's something, you know, big that you're going to have to take care of and there's times when contractors aren't going to do what they say they're going to do and it's going to go over budget. And because of that, volume is important. So if I'm doing 10 deals a month and two of them go bad, I've got eight that do really, really great. So that's the diversification piece that is so important to me and therefore also important to my investors because we've talked about that, we've talked about those conversations. So in the fund, being balanced and diversified across those four asset classes ensures that no matter where the market is and what we're investing in, some of them could be doing really good, while some of them may not be doing as good. And we're just evening out and protecting ourselves and our investors with that separate asset classes and multiple doors. Then the other thing about that I've heard loud and clear is liquidity. And you and I were talking about this right before we pressed record and I always laugh and I was like, liquidity and real estate just don't go together. So let me figure this out. And we worked with our attorneys and figured out different ways to provide liquidity to real estate investors while still protecting just the way everything was structured, because that promise and making sure that I'm always giving that money back to the investors and paying them on time every single time was so important. We structured a fund that allows people to invest and then get their money back in a year if they want it. But if they don't, then they get to continue investing for a period of time. And so that marriage and balance has really been a win for us and for our investors. And so I'm really excited about this fund.

Danny Lynn, It's a little sad. Before our chat today, we learned about another industry professional that offered a fund to investors and that fund imploded, for lack of a better term. And you divulge with me that you're actually familiar with that fund and with that operator that offered it. And you know, you talked about how there were really some red flags, some warning signs there. You have third party eyes on your fund for its lifespan from beginning to end and here in the present. And the other thing is that you invest the funds in your own businesses so you have more control over that when you talk about these four different assets, set types that you're involved in. So can you talk to us about that?

I have been in the room with him. I don't know him personally, we're not friends or anything, but I know him and I Know what happened as that fund progressed. And when I looked at the fund structure, I love the promissory note idea because it's simple to understand. There's a Warren Buffett quote I love talking about that you shouldn't invest in something you don't understand. And I believe in simplicity. I believe in making sure that you understand exactly what you're getting into when you're putting your money on the line. And in that particular fund, it was very hard to understand the assets that he investing in. And so it was a lot of businesses, I would view them as high risk. I felt like even the monthly distributions were a little risky as well, because sometimes you just don't know if the money's going to be coming in. You know, you might be in a building phase where you actually need the capital to work on and grow and improve the business or the real estate. And so we always structure things in a way that we do two tiers. There's an income track and there's a growth track to allow us to balance everything out and be able to give the investors a lower rate of return if they want income and a higher rate of return if they want growth. Because that higher rate of return, we can do that because they are allowing us to use that capital to be able to work on properties, to work on. Businesses have that growth trajectory. And when it comes to our businesses, I'm glad you brought that up because he did invest in businesses, and I don't historically do that. I love real estate, but I do invest in my own businesses because I know me, I know my character, I know my track record. I know what I promise I'm going to do. No matter how hard it is, I'm going to make sure that I fulfill those promises. And so if I have, like, ownership and direct control of everything, I feel very confident in my ability to move forward. And that's really where the masternote program comes in. We now call it Freedom Notes because we just love Freedom so much. We're just rebranding everything. So the Freedom Note program really does help us invest in businesses as we're growing. And it's our own businesses. So super excited about that opportunity. Structured the exact same way as the flagship fund.

You use the term promissory note there just so that no investor is left behind. What is a promissory note?

A promissory note is really like an iou. So I always like to compare it to bank loans. Whenever our private money lenders would come and talk to us about private money lending and they'd say, can you explain this to me? I'd say you're bank of America. Like you're the one with the lien on the property. So you're in first lien position. And so if something goes wrong, then you have the ability to foreclose and get that property back. So Promissory notes essentially is a loan to this fund. And this fund is then going to use that money to purchase or acquire or invest in or do recapitalizations of those projects that we talked about. So in the flagship fund, those four asset classes, masternodes or the Freedom Notes, also invest in those same asset classes, but they also invest in the businesses as well.

So we're talking about predictable passive income for the investor here. About as close to passive as it gets. Hands off management. You've got the professional underwriting, the servicing and the reporting done by a third party. You actually use InvestNext. That's the third party company that administers this. Tell us more about the investor qualifications, about the minimum investment amount and accredited versus non accredited. Tell us about that.

We have programs for both non accredited and accredited investors. And like I said, they're set up structurally very, very similar, but they are, it has to be SEC compliant. Right. So for the non accredited investors, it is the Freedom Note program and it's set up so your funds are in a separate bank account all by itself. It's fully tracked that way by our accounting team. And you can always go in and say, hey, can you guys tell me where my funds are placed? And we can always track that information. So it's a little bit more work on our part, but it does allow non accredited investors to participate in something until they have the opportunity to reach a point where they do meet that accredited status and they can participate in the fund. And then the fund is the accredited vehicle. It's a 506C, again, fully. It's a regulation D, fully vetted by our attorney. They're just actually finishing the documents right now. I didn't tell you before this, but you're actually the very first group that we're like talking to this about. And I told you how much I love our relationship and how long we've known each other and how I just want to do more things with you. And so we're like, this is perfect that we get to actually launch it to Keith's group first. So we're excited about that as well. And then you talked about InvestNext. This is the piece that I think is important to me, no matter who you invest in is what does their financial transparency look like? How are the investments tracked? Where are the funds? Who is looking at those funds? So not only are we tracking all of the funds in house, but our CPA has to look at the funds and what's happening there. And, and originally we had nav, which is a fund manager. Now we've moved over to InvestNext and it probably took us six months to get onboarded with them because of all the compliance pieces required for a company like that to bring you on board. So I just think that's one of the important pieces that makes me feel safe because I want a bunch of eyes on the financials and it makes our investors feel safe as well.

For those wondering why I invest my funds here, yes, You've got that third party auditing like you've mentioned, and you're investing only in your own businesses, so you have control. That's a big part of what makes me feel good. Well, let's talk about the fun part. Danny, tell us about those rates of return and the liquidity.

The rates of return are anywhere from 8 to 14%, but the 14% can go up to 16% because there's a 2% bonus upon maturity. And that 8 to 16% is in two series. So there is an income series and there's a growth series. And the income series is what appeals to investors who want those quarterly distributions and who want the passive income and cash flow. And so that particular series is anywhere from 8 to 10%. And again, depending on how much you Invest, there's a 2% bonus in that series and then the growth series is even higher. And the reason that is is because these are the long term investors who are looking to really accelerate growth in their portfolio. And that allows us peace of mind that we've got capital to be able to use for the renovations, for whatever is needed, depending on the market and how the cycles are going. As I said before, real estate is illiquid and you have to structure and balance things based on that. And the growth series is a win for the investors because compounding on, let me see, it's 10 to 14% returns, plus, depending on how much you invest, there's a 2% bonus. That compounding adds up fast. We have done math for our investors are like, oh my gosh, I'm never moving my money. I love this. They just love to see the, the growth trajectory. It's a win for us too, because we get to use that capital as needed in order to ensure that we've got successful investments at the end of the day.

Okay. So the income series has 8 to 10% returns based on how much you invest, that pays out quarterly. And then the growth series that has those higher rates of return up to 14, even 16, where the payout is made at the end. And how long is one waiting until the end? I know it sounds like most people want to continue that compounding and roll it forward, but what does the end look like for the Growth Series fund?

Yeah, I'm glad you asked that. So that's the liquidity piece and that's the thing that we went back and forth with our attorneys about because real estate is naturally illiquid. And so what we did is it's a recurring annual renewal. So it's an auto renewal, meaning that every single year you have the opportunity to say, hey Danny, hey Freedom. I would like to go ahead and give you notice that I would like to get my funds back. And so that gives us enough notice be able to plan for those funds to come back to you. Principal plus interest. And then every year if you choose not to ask for your funds back, it auto renews for a total of five years. I believe it is. You'll have to look at the documents just to confirm everything that I'm saying. Because what I'm speaking to is our Freedom Note program, which is what this was built off of because it was so popular when given investment opportunities. Everybody was just like, I want to go into those Freedom Notes. I like those because it gave them peace of mind, the ability to take out their cash if they needed it, but allowed for compound or fast growth and a long term investment if they felt that was right as well.

Okay. This Freedom Note program, either the income series or the growth series. And we're talking about rates of return here. What's interesting is we're in a period where federal funds rate drops are anticipated. Anticipated. When that happens, the return on your savings account does fall by that amount. However, these funds don't.

That is correct, yes.

We're talking about again these funds that are backed by needs based real estate like senior housing, workforce apartments and self storage demand that stays steady even in downturns. And I know that you have an investor story as well. Tell us about that.

Yeah. So we have so many investor stories and you can actually see the videos and audios on our website and I encourage you to go check them out. But we like to call this investor story Jane because we've heard the story so often that we call her Jane. So this is really the investors who have been investing with us as private money lenders and turnkey investors and they're, they realize that number one, the in and out of investments as a private money lender means that they always have this capital sitting and earning nothing at some point in time. And the turnkey investors, they think it's passive. And then they realize, oh gosh, there are tenant issues. I do have to, you know, manage this, the property management company. I do have to double check all the financials. I do have to approve a tenant or approve repairs. And it ends up being a little bit more work and sometimes a lot more work than they ever anticipated. Those investors in particular are the ones that love working with us the most because suddenly what they thought was freedom going into the investment opportunity turned out to be a little bit different than they anticipated. And so they're like, I'm so thankful to finally, you know, be in an investment with a company that I trust, but that can be there, give me liquidity options, give me a good return, but it's 100% passive. So we call that investor, Jane, because we just hear this story over and over and over.

Before I ask about how our listeners can learn more about this if it might interest them, is there any last thing that you want to tell the audience? Maybe something that I didn't think about asking you?

That's a great question. Here's the thing that I always like to say. When you're investing with somebody, I think it's important to ask about the worst thing that's happened. What they did, how their investor was treated, what was the financial outcome. I think those questions are people don't think to ask that. Like when you get on the phone with somebody, everybody's going to tell you the rosy stories and all the good things and this is why you should invest. And they're not going to go down the road of like, what happened? Like what are the bad things? Because every business and every real estate investor experiences bad things. So finding out the character of the person I think is how you find out is by asking what happened in that worst case scenario. So I think that's a really great question to ask. You can ask us anytime. I transparently tell my horror stories all the time and just always am saying how important our long term investors are with us.

It's just like the title of your book, Get Real. If you don't have a messy story to tell, you probably haven't been in business for very long. Are there any fees in order for one to get started no, there are no fees.

That's another investor feedback piece, is the confusion. It's like they want to invest, but they're so confused by investment opportunities and what they're really making. So when you invest with us, the return that we tell you you're going to get is actually the return that you're going to get. So whether it's, you know, 8%, 9%, 10%, whatever that is, that's the return you'll get. If there's any fees in within the fund itself, there's none in the Freedom Notes program. If there's any fees within the fund itself, it comes from the actual underlying properties, not from investor returns.

Well, it doesn't take very much documentation in order to get started. This could really help you make more of the funds that you want to keep more liquid as fast as 90 day liquidity. Danny, tell our audience how they can get started and if they just want to learn more about this to see if it's right for them.

We have done something super special this time. I think I've been on your podcast probably four or five times now. This time I'm going to tell you to go to freedomfamilyinvestments.com gre so it stands for get rich education. So freedomfamilyinvestments.com gre what we've done this time is we're really tailoring what we do to Keith because this relationship has just been such a great relationship we've had over time that we want to make sure that the investors that come in from your audience are just a rise to the top for our investor relations team so that anything that you need, we're just right there for you. We've got an investor concierge and we're just doing as much as possible to make sure that you guys are prioritized.

Feel free to let them know that you learned about this through me. You'll get the VIP treatment. Danny, thanks for being such a responsible custodian of my own funds for years. It's been great having you back on the show.

Thank you so much, Keith.

Look, the key to most anything in business or investing is for you to provide something that's of value to someone else. Look for something that makes somebody else money and then go get a piece of that for yourself. And because this is where I park my own funds for liquidity, I do need something that I can count on. Recession resilient needs based real estate assets that people rely on in every economic cycle. So this is backed by frankly, pretty plain things with durable demand, limited supply and and strong demographic tailwinds. And again, those four underlying assets are multifamily housing, senior housing, build to rent, which are new single family rental communities, and self storage, which is something proven to hold up even in recessions. And what makes these funds from Freedom Family Investments different is that like we said, they have third party financial eyes on them and the control is there because the funds are invested in their own companies. And now there's no such thing as a zero risk investment or even a 100% passive investment. But this is about as close to real estate passivity as you can get. There's more of that than there is with direct ownership of turnkey real estate. They'd surveyed investors to find out what they want. That's why you can choose from again Freedom Family Investments either their income series, which has 8 to 10% returns but it can be up to 12% at higher investment amounts, you get quarterly distributions or their other is their growth series, 10 to 14% returns, but it can be up to 16% at higher investment amounts with the option to have your funds back annually. These are fixed rates of return and a declining interest rate environment like we're in now cannot touch those rates of return. I think for someone that's not in real estate and doesn't understand how real estate pays five ways, they might find it unusual that an investment can reliably return more than 10% like this. But those that are initiated, they get it. It's pretty simple. I mean you are going to increase your income $10,000 per year if you invest 100k at a 10% return. If you'd like to learn more and see if it's right for you, it's been made pretty easy. You can do that one of two ways. Text family to 66866 just text the word family to 66866. Yes, this is how you can, rather than a landlord, be a lend lord with the liquid component of your investments. So you can learn more about Freedom Family Investments just visit freedomfamilyinvestments.com gre that's freedomfamilyinvestments.com gre until next week, I'm your host, Keith Weinhold. Don't quit your daydream.

Nothing on this show should be considered specific personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own. Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of Get Rich Education LLC exclusively.

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