147: Turning “Weird” Properties Into Cash-Flowing Monsters with Johnny Youssef

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This is the BiggerPockets podcast show 147.

If you're like me and you like thinking right outside of the box of how can I get an opportunity where I can think outside of the box and make much more money? My only advice is you're listening to.

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What's going on, everybody? This is Josh Dworkin, host to the Biggerpockets podcast, here with my co host, Mr. Met himself, Mr. Brandon Turner. What's going on, Brandon?

Did you say Mr. Met himself?

I did.

Is that a thing?

There is a thing. There's a guy with a big baseball head.

Mr. Met.

Yeah.

That's funny. I didn't. I didn't know that our.

He's our guy. He's our mascot.

Apparently, there's a World Series going on right now, and I didn't even know about it until this morning when I find out last night there's 14 Indians, and apparently everybody in the world watched it but me.

I don't know. It was. It was a. It was. I, I. It's. It's hard. It's hard. It was a great game, and I lost. We lost.

You lost it for the nation.

Lost. But, yeah, I know. Like, if I had, I only not gotten from the couch to go get that drink. Yep.

They would have won.

Game would have gone differently.

Yep.

Why do people think that? Like, people are so superstitious about their sports. Honey, do not talk to me. If you talk to me during this game, we're going to lose.

Yep.

I mean, people do that. That's nuts.

For a while, I believed that. Not really. But I used to say that if I watched a game, whoever I liked lost because I never saw a game that my team won. No matter who it was. It was like I'd watch a game and they'd lose.

You're a big fat loser.

Yeah, I'm just a loser. Yeah, that's just how I roll. So that's why last night I watched the Mets.

Damn it.

Yeah, it's all me.

All right, man.

How you doing?

How's it going?

I'm actually in a bit of pain. Want to hear a funny story?

No.

I didn't tell you this. This is a good story.

Anyone tells you if you're in pain, it brings me joy.

Yeah, it does. Okay, I'm gonna tell you anyway. So I bought a treadmill back about a month and a half ago.

Hey, we just bought one, too. About a month and a half ago.

Did you seriously?

I didn't know I did.

Yeah, I didn't know you did.

Bought one, too.

Yeah, I bought a Treadmill. And I'm like. At least I got, like, walk on it or go jog on it. And I'm starting doing, like, interval training where, like, I. I put it on. Like, when it's too rainy, I'll run at, like, speed. 12, right? The fastest speed.

Oh, yeah. And then I'll.

I run for a minute, and then.

I know my limits, Brandon.

So I run for like a minute or, like, 45 seconds, and then I walk for like a minute, and then I run, and then I walk and I run, and I just hit number 12, the fastest it'll go. And I'm just booking it, right? So yesterday I'm doing that. I'm on my second interval, my second set, and I'm booking it at 12 speed. I mean, as fast as I can go. And then out of nowhere, the belt broke.

And it.

I mean, not the big wide one, but the one inside the thing. And it didn't just slow down like I imagined it would. Hard stop. So I smashed into the front of it all. I might somehow did a flip upside down, probably 360, land on my knee, then flip back the other way and landed on my butt. Like, it was the most, like, awful. It was the worst, like, crash I've ever had. And I got, like, bruises all the way up my legs. It was like. It was crazy. And, like, I'm sitting there on the floor just going, oh. And my wife heard the crash across the garage. My office on the other side of the garage. So through the garage, through two doors, my soundproof studio office here. She heard this loud crash and came running, and I'm just, like, laying on the floor, this mangled pile of flesh. Yeah, it was. It was good, but I'm feeling okay today.

That's great.

That there.

There's a weight limit on those things, apparently.

Apparently, I'm the. That guy that can't run on a treadmill.

You might want to return it.

Well, I bought it from a friend, and so now it's like.

I'm like.

But it was only, like, 300 bucks. But still, it's a really good treadmill. Apparently. It just was at that breaking point and nice, nicely, whatever. Anyway, that's my story. I'm sticking to it.

That's a great story. Speaking of your story, I've got one quick last question before we start getting down to the show here. So I'm sitting, I'm talking to you, and you have this ugly brown sheet. I don't understand normally, you know, the whole point. We do videos, man. This is this is live on YouTube, people. Not live, but it's on YouTube. People can see it.

Check this out if you want to see something real fun. I've got a cardigan.

No.

What does this say?

That's like a knit blanket. A blanket?

Yeah.

And I can keep turning around. You can see there's more blankets.

Used to make me knit shoes.

Really? That's amazing. Yeah, I think so. What I have is I built myself a little audio recording studio here because.

I'm out of sheets.

Out of sheets.

Grandma's. Instead of the egg cartons that you're actually supposed to.

I've got hollow core doors like the ones that you put on your house. You know, I had a bunch of extra in my garage. So I lined my desk with these hollow core doors. So they're in a. I'm in a box. And then I covered them with blankets, whatever I could find in the garage. And I'm now in a soundproof little like made up studio because I'm recording. I'm recording the audio for the new book on rental property investing. So every day I'm trying to do an hour a day and I'm recording the audio. Audio or audible? If you listen to audible book. That should be out pretty soon. So.

Awesome.

It's going to be awesome.

It's actually going to be great.

Yeah, yeah, it's going to be. I mean I actually got the first printed copy and it's like 2 inches thick or something. It's pretty awesome. It's a very exciting. It's pretty.

It's exciting. Listeners, stay tuned. This is coming out soon. Announcing it. Get ready. Get your copy of the book. Is the books. We have two books.

They're gonna be amazing.

Outstanding. Can we get to the show?

Let's get to the show. Today's an awesome show.

Actually.

It is an awesome show and I.

Never say that and so I really mean it this time.

Wow. Yeah, it's good. So today's a great show and you know, again ahead of time, big thanks to everybody for listening. This is show 147 of the BiggerPockets podcast featuring Johnny Youssef. We have a quick tip. Today's quick tip. Today's quick, super quick, quick tip is.

To watch this on YouTube because you'll see my ugly sheet hanging behind me.

There you go. Watch it on YouTube. And on YouTube we've got all the other shows. Well, not all of them, but most of us all. And we're catching up. And we got lots of other videos too. So check us out. Big YouTube.com biggerpockets There you go. All right, let's get.

You know what I was gonna say maybe. Well, yeah, we don't need to make it a quick tip, but we have a new course that just got launched on BP. So biggerpockets.com courses you can go take the Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing. It's a course, video course, video course.

Of our ultimate beginners guys. Totally free. Check it out.

Yeah, let me know what you think. We're just kind of developing new courses that are gonna be all free for you guys. So check it out, see what you think and let me know.

Yeah, awesome. Alright guys, let's get to the show. Today's show is featuring Johnny Youssef. Johnny is a real estate investor, 29 years of age who's been investing for the last seven years and has built this pretty cool little empire out of nothing and really clever guy who's just very, very smart. If you're a new investor, haven't started yet. This guy, this guy's got some stuff you want to hear if you've been doing it for a while. He gets into stuff all about thinking outside the box. And so I definitely recommend taking a listen and hearing what Johnny has to say. So let's get to this. Let's bring him on. All right, Johnny, welcome to the show, man. So before we go anywhere, I've got to say we're recording the show right now. It's Wednesday, October 28th. Last night was probably one of the best baseball games I've seen in a long time. Yes, sadly, your Kansas City Royals.

Just.

By a hair, beat my Mets in, What was it, 14 innings.

Oh, yeah, and we just started. Just wait for tonight, man.

It's on.

Yeah, it's on.

We're good.

Everyone here is freaking out about it.

Yeah. Was it crazy in the streets of.

Kc, you know, I wasn't out, but just social media, I mean, literally everyone today is just. I can't. I didn't sleep last night. Taking a nap at work. I mean, everyone just stayed up, went crazy and we're all waiting for the final win because we're going to go crazy.

Oh, there's no final win needed. And you know us New Yorkers at heart, you know, I mean, we don't need naps, none of that golly stuff that you guys. But, you know. All right, well, it's good to have you on the show despite the fact that you guys took game one. We will be victorious at the end. But let's get into the show. Let's talk about you.

All right, Johnny. So who are you? What do you do? How'd you get into real estate?

Who am I? So Johnny Youssef here. Originally born in Egypt, my dad was just in business. He had a lot of businesses there. So I just grew up in a, in a family with just entrepreneurship, always thinking business. And then when we moved to the U.S. my dad had to start over. My parents just all over from the beginning. But how I really got into real estate is when I was in college. And that was back in 2006, 2007. And there were homes for sale around college and my university. And then I just crunched some numbers and I went to my parents and I said, hey, if we buy one of those properties instead of renting all throughout college, I can rent it out to my friends, they can pay the mortgage and I will just manage it and I don't have to pay rent. So even though prices at the time were high, the return wasn't great. But also was the time where everyone can get a mortgage. So my parents applied for mortgage, got one and that's really how I got into it. I started managing the property I was living in. We owned it and I had renters in it. And my parents really liked the idea. So before I knew it, they bought six homes next to each other. I don't know how they got mortgages for them, but again, at the time, everyone got mortgages if they wanted to. So before I knew it, I was 20 years old and I was a property manager for 35 students. And that's how I really got into it.

Wow. Wow. What inspired it? I mean, like, was it just, hey, look at these houses. I mean, it just literally a bell rang in your head. I mean, there wasn't, you hadn't had any real estate experience or business classes that talked about it.

Yeah. I would say honestly, the biggest thing that inspired it is just the idea that rent was money that's being wasted. And I was aware of that. You know, first two years of college, I'm just looking at money just being wasted away. And again, I didn't know. And even neither my parents, we didn't know anything about return, about, you know, how find a good, good property. We didn't know anything about that. But it just, once we crunched the numbers, it just made sense that buying even its worst case scenarios would still be more beneficial than renting and, you know, not investing in that.

And you went to school in Kansas City?

Nope, actually I went to, we moved From Egypt when I was young to Virginia. And I went to vcu, Virginia Commonwealth. And then, you know, I did the rentals in Virginia. And then after buying seven houses, I was like, snap. I should have gotten my real estate license. Because if I would have gotten my real estate license, I would have been the agent and we would have made like $20,000 in commission. I didn't think about that until it was too late. We just got an agent that sold us the seven houses. So I got my real estate license in Virginia, and really I just sold one house in Virginia. I got my license primarily because I wanted to move to Kansas City to do an internship with a chur. And.

I just needed some money to be able to make the move. So I just literally got my license, sold a house, made the money that I needed, and then a week later, I moved to Kansas City. My plans were not to get into real estate in Kansas City, but once I moved here and looked at the market, I felt stupid not going after it.

Hey, really, really quickly, do you still have those properties? Your parents still have those properties in Virginia?

Yep, they still have the seven properties in Virginia.

Okay, right on. Cool. So you're in Kansas City, you went out for this, this internship, and suddenly it hit you again, what the heck am I doing? I need to get into real estate again. Because this is such a good thing. I mean, how did that go?

Yeah, so I did the internship. It was six months, and the plan was to go back, but then, you know, just looking on Zillow and different websites, I was finding houses for 25,000, you know, 30,000. And that was in 2009. So that was when everything was, know, going downhill. And my idea was, I just want to buy a little $25,000 house here. Even if I plan to move back to Virginia, I'll just have a rental here again. Once I did it, it just made sense to do it, especially that my parents homes were, you know, 200, $250,000 each. So that was literally 10% of the prices of Virginia where we were. So I connected with an agent, and after I connected with her and got to know a little bit about the real estate market, I just did the math and I was like, okay, I can go back to Virginia and get a, you know, get a regular job, or I can stay here and see the opportunity and go after it. So decided to get my real estate license in Kansas City. And mostly I got it not for the paycheck. I got it because I wanted to learn. But in that I Took on a niche that no one in the office that I was in wanted to take on. So, you know, in the office I was working on as a realtor, everyone wanted to sell and buy for clients that were with expensive houses. But no one wanted to help the investor that wanted to look at 30 properties for, you know, $200 checks and commission. So I was the new guy. I 23, and I just went after every agent and I said, look, if you guys have any investor, any guy that, you know wants to buy a house and you guys don't want to deal with it because it's a lot of pain for not much commission, I'll take them. So that's really what got me into the investment niche, because here I was, before I knew it, I just had tons of investors and even first time home buyers that couldn't qualify for more than 40 $50,000 loans. And you know, even though the commission was a lot less, I went after understanding that market, helping them, and I had great connection from that. And that's really what got me into the investment niche.

That's awesome. I love that. I love that you just hustled and took the leftovers. But, you know, the beauty is that the leftovers, if you put it all together, there's a whole lot of it, isn't there?

Yeah, absolutely. And that actually got me into starting a leasing division. And it was the same thing. My broker came to me and she said, you know, there's a niche for leasing. Again, especially with the economy. A lot of people are going through foreclosures. People couldn't qualify at the time, 2009, 2010. So she said, look, do you want to start a leasing division? No one wants to start it. And I've been trying to get someone to do it in the last couple of years again because it wasn't worth the money. You're showing houses for rentals and you're making $300 checks. But because I already had the investors and because I had the investors who wanted to buy more, but they needed help with renting it, I said, hey, let's just start that. So that really helped me understand the market, understand the investment, understand what to look for, understand everything as far as ROIs and all that. And then it also helped me, you know, how to lease and what sign and you know, so it was all free education and I was really just getting paid for it. And that really got me into, you know, knowing how to start from finding a property all the way to renting it successfully.

Nice.

So do you recommend. I mean, obviously it worked out well for you, but do you recommend that other people get their real estate license as well?

Yeah, I think it really depends on the person and what they're looking for. So for me, because I was a young guy, I. It didn't hurt much, you know, it was totally worth it for me. I've seen people that overthink. Should we get the license? Should we get the license? And I'm like, guys, you know, the whole thing is going to cost you $1,000. You know, it doesn't hurt. Like in one sale, I was able to get my money back. But if you are someone with 9 to 5 job and you have a family and you're really looking for investments and, you know, you may not need the real estate license, but for sure you will need a good realtor that you can trust.

Yeah, yeah, that's for sure. So let's talk about. So you got your license. Now how did you get into your own rental properties? I'm assuming in Kansas City. Then is that where you ended up buying your own properties?

Yep, yep, it was all in Kansas City.

Okay, tell us about that. How that. How did you get into that part?

Yeah, so how it started. And that's actually, you know, people say all the time that you need money to be able to get in real estate, but I am a prime example that I didn't have any money and I got into it buying property. So how it started really is after a year of work, I applied for a loan. I applied for an FHA loan. I wanted to buy my own house. And in the process, I was looking, and I was really looking for something where I can have equity in it, something that I can create value. That way I can make money out of it and start investing in other things. And that's when I found the duplex. Foreclosure. Really good deal. Needed a lot of work, definitely. Because it was my first time, I underestimated the amount of work it needed. But I said, hey, I can buy that from the other side. And the big thing for me was creating value. So that duplex, the great thing about it is that it was rented previously. $600 a side. So each side, 600. It was making $1,200 a month. Well, I bought this duplex. It was right in front of right across the Bible school that I did the internship in. And I was able to fix it up and rent it one bedroom for $300. And it was five bedrooms each side because I finished the basement, too. So Before I knew it, I had 10 bedrooms and I was making, you know, if we count myself as paying rent, I was making $3,000 a month plus, you know, they were paying for utilities. So I turned this property from 601 side to 1500 more than double. And that's really how I got started because then what I started doing is I started saving that cash. And on top of that I was able to go back and get a line of credit against my house for, you know, because I created value. So I was able to get $60,000 line of credit which another house rental. So that's really how I got going. And that's when I did flips too. So I did flips and rentals. I did both of them for a long time. But the first property I bought with the money, I was able to save $20,000 from work and from the rental income that was coming because my mortgage on it was $500 a month. So when I'm making 3,000, my mortgage is 500. It's not a bad deal. So I took that money and I bought a little townhouse, $20,000 townhouse. And I started just a very small flip. And it just kept growing, growing. And from this townhouse I did a bigger townhouse to a three bedroom ranch home to a five bedroom, you know, two stories houses. So I actually used the same money that I started with, 20,000. And I kept growing it in the flips to, you know, I think the last one we sold was 180,000. So that 20,000 just kept growing with me.

Wow. That's unbelievable.

Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.

So what does it look like today? What does your portfolio overall? How many units do you have and how many flips have you done?

Yeah. So how many units I have right now? I have 17 units. And as far as flips, I probably flip now about somewhere between 12 to 15 flips so far. Yeah. And that's in five years.

That's great.

That is amazing. Yeah.

Did you do all your own work or were you hiring contractors to do all the rehabs on these projects?

Yeah, no, I hired contractors. I did not want to mess with that. I did not want to touch it. I would mess up pretty bad.

How was that experience?

Yeah, I was gonna ask that, like, what was that like?

Yeah, I mean, I learned the hard way. Again, biggerpockets is amazing because you don't have to learn the hard way. Just read and learn for real. I wish I had that just, you know, five, six years ago. But the first duplex I Bought. You know, of course it was emotional buying. I mean, I did the math and it made sense and I'm so glad I did it. But once I started flipping it, I didn't know what I. So, you know, I was getting the expensive pain, the expensive cabinets for, you know, for a rental. But anyway, one big mistake I did is I hired the wrong people that, you know, told me all the promises. They told me how much it will cost, but I didn't hold them accountable. I didn't sign anything with them. You know, they were 70% done with the project and then they were like, hey, we give you small estimate and we can't afford it, we're leaving. So I definitely learned the hard way. So I would say my advice is, you know, when you're buying, especially if you're just starting, it's gonna be tempting to be emotional about things. You're gonna go after the guy that just seems really nice, or you may go after the guy that just promises you the lowest bid. You're gonna get emotional about what to buy. You're gonna want to pay extra for things that are unnecessary. So I just encourage you, especially if it's an investment, if it's your own home, that's one thing. But if it's an investment, just do your best to take emotions out and be able to just assess what you're doing. And I definitely encourage anyone, sign with whoever you get and ask people for references and get several bids and hold them accountable with signatures and dates. And don't. Big thing is never give someone the final payment until they're completely done and you're satisfied. Yeah, I did that too.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think I've made every one of those mistakes that you just said multiple times.

Yeah. Awesome. So these are, these are mostly lower end properties, correct?

Yes.

Okay, so for somebody who's new, who's listening, who's thinking about getting into lower end properties, what is the level of finish that you should be doing? I mean, you know, I'm assuming you're going to furnish a refrigerator, but what else? I mean, what other utilities, what other appliances? I mean, are you going to supply? What level of appliance?

Sure.

Can you talk about that a little bit?

Yeah, absolutely. So one thing real quick. Even though they are lower income properties, they are not in bad areas. A lot of my properties are good blue collared working people, you know, and I was able to, even though I'm telling you examples of buying $20,000 properties, but after I grew, I was able to buy you know, 50, 60,000, $70,000 properties. So I say my rentals average when I buy them are about $50,000. And the reason I'm saying that is just because it's really appealing for some people to just get the cheapest property that's typically in a rough area, Section 8. And I tell people their turn is going to be the highest, but you have to deal with a lot of pain. You have to deal with, you know, maybe bullets, you know, going on your house, because there was one, you know, one of my clients just went a different direction and he just bought in really rough areas and he got great return, but he has to deal with things like that. So in order to answer the question, I would say one thing I look at is I look at the items I'm gonna buy and the finishing I'm gonna do. And I ask myself, is it the best in the neighborhood or not? And if it's the best, is it way too much or not? So my point is, I try to do the best for the neighborhood so I have the edge. And I'm getting the best renters in the neighborhood.

For the highest income, coming in for the highest rental rate. But at the same time, if the best in the neighborhood is homes that have been updated 10 years ago, well, I'm updating them now. I don't need to put granite. I just need to make it nice and it will still be the best. So one mistake I did when I started is I really just wanted to go after properties and put granite countertops, you know, put the extra stuff that wasn't necessary. Now I just say, okay, if I'm putting the nicest stuff out there, let's put the lowest of the nicest stuff. So I'm still the best, but at the same time, I'm not putting stuff that's not gonna bring me the money back. Yeah. So one thing I do is just, I, yeah, I do a couple of things that just give me the signature. I do, you know, recessed lighting. It doesn't cost me that much. I really like hardwood floors. Most of the homes, because they're built, you know, older build, they already have them. So I totally encourage everyone. Hardwood floors are the way to go. Carpet, you know, are cheap, it's cheaper, but just plain. Every three, five years you're gonna replace that. So I do hardwood floors. I do. And then I just get the nice clean cabinets that are not, you know, high end, that will last for a while.

So perfect. That sounds great. And I love the recessed lighting thing. I Mean, I think that's one of the finishes that most people don't do on the lower end of the scale. And I think it definitely would make a property stand out for somebody.

Well, and that's the thing. Like, at first I was putting fans, for example, but I had an investor that gave me really good advice, and he said the more you put into a property, the more you're going to get maintenance requests. So if you're going to put fans, if a fan break, you're going to need to fix that. If you're going to put carpet every few years, even with normal wear and tear, you're going to need to fix that. You know, at first I was going to put. Put granite. What do they call them? It's like granite tile for the. Instead of granite slabs, because that's really expensive. So some people put the tile. The floor tile for granite, but they just put them as kitchen countertops. I was like, well, that's gonna cost me just as much as regular laminate countertops. But then he told me that means that every couple of years you're gonna need to come and update them or maintain them. So what I do is I try to find stuff that's actually. Even if it's a little bit more expensive, that's actually gonna help me not have to worry about five, 10 years down the road. So recessed lighting, maybe it's going to cost me a little bit more in labor than fans at the beginning, but I know for sure that in the future it's just a light bulb that needs to be replaced. I don't need to fix and repair things like that.

Yeah.

That's awesome. Yeah.

I was going to say, my buddy Darren Sager always says.

Yeah, tenant proofing your properties, like, that's his big thing.

Exactly.

I love that. Right? Yeah. Well, think about what can your tenants do to it, how much you're going to have to do work on the future, do it right up front, and you will save yourself tons of work. And doing it right up front doesn't actually take that much more money. It just takes, like, intelligence. Thinking about it, like, planning. I mean, like you said, ceiling fans are probably more expensive than putting it in a recessed light yet. Or at least probably comparable in price. But the ceiling fan, they just break and I don't know, kids hang from them and other, like, liability. Liability, yeah.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And the one thing I do that it's probably unnecessary to do, but it's kind of my signature and it makes my rentals. It's almost a guarantee that when someone walks in they're gonna rent. It is I get stainless steel appliances because, you know, the neighborhoods I'm in. Again, a lot of, you know, the appliances when you go in are, you know, decent 10 year old white appliances, plain, you know, so if I get brand new black appliances or bring brand new white appliances, I'll still be on top of it. But for that hundred, two hundred dollars more once I get stainless steel appliances, it's like as soon as the wife walks in, man, she says, we're getting this. And my rentals would be 50 to $100, sometimes $150 more than the average in the area. But so I get paid that money back real quick. But not only am I guaranteed a greater return, but I'm also, I'm guaranteed a better renter because renters that are willing to pay fifty, hundred, one hundred and fifty dollars more than what the comparable homes in the area are, are renters that care about quality living and that pays off for me.

Yep. And I love that you talk about the wife because, you know, in most cases, fact of the matter is the wife tends to make the decisions on, I don't know, at least in my case, everything.

Absolutely. As a realtor and when I flipped houses, I actually learned to think, what would the wife want? Like, I would actually picture like women clients in my head that I showed house to their husbands and I would think, okay, most of them like white cabinets. Most of them would really like this or that. And again, it's, you know, you may be paying for stainless steel appliances, 100, even 200, $250 upfront, but you're going to get it back in a couple of months of rent. And on top of that, you're going to get a better renter that will really take good care of the property.

Love it. Yeah. So you mentioned return. You know, you get a greater return. Do you have an actual number that you look for? I mean, when I do webinars, people ask me that all the time, what kind of return on investment should I be looking for? Is 10% good? Is 5% good? What do you look for?

Sure, yeah. So the market is shifting. Unfortunately, you don't find any $20,000 homes in my area anymore. You know, things are going up now, so I have to lower my expectations as things are changing. When I started the property I bought, I was looking for the duplexes I bought with student housing that I was saying I was looking for 20 to 22% return and I was able to do it. And for regular home, single family, you know, three bedroom, one bathroom kind of deal. I was looking for 15, 16% return, but now, you know, I'm looking more for 10 to 12 in single family if I can find it. And the student housing is still up there, still 18 to 20%. So I'm still doing pretty well with it.

Yeah.

And I'm assuming that's just your cash on cash return, like your cash flow coming in, Right. That doesn't take into account appreciation and stuff in the future, right?

Yeah, that's. Yep. That's just the cash return. Yeah. Yeah.

And that's typically what I mean. That's generally what I look for when I think of if I want to buy a nice property in a nice area, I want to get better than the stock market. So I want better than 10 or 12%. Knowing that, you know, that's okay, but knowing that the house is in a good area, it should go up in value. The loan is being paid down, which should help my return. I get that tax benefits as well. And so overall the return is a lot better than just that 10 or 12% that we, that we physically see on cash flow.

So yeah, it's. It's a lot better than that. Absolutely. Yeah. That's just what I'm. That's just the cash.

Yeah. Cool.

Cool.

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And then so overall, you kind of gave us a description of all your properties. Now, are you. They're lower end. There's some houses in there. You said you have some multi families, right?

Yep.

Okay, what's your favorite kind of property to buy? What are you currently looking actively for right now?

That's a great question. I am, because the market is shifting. I am actually in the process of examining everything and I don't only have lower properties. So, you know, Robert Kiyosaki, in his book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, I remember him giving an advice, you know, find an equation that's making money and just keep going at it. You know, my problem as an entrepreneur, and I'm sure you guys relate, is I just like different ideas. I like seeing what's out there, and I end up diversifying, which is good. But at the same time, sometimes I feel like if I just focus on one and just keep going, that's where I can, I can have. Exactly, exactly. So I would say, you know, I have different models. That is a hard question to answer, by the way, because I'm going through all that, but, like, my biggest thing that gets me going is creating value. So like I said earlier, those duplexes the investors looked at and said, okay, these are $600 aside. You know, even if we fix them, they're going to make 700, 750. I was able to look at something outside of the box and say, no, we can actually do student housing. And that will make a lot more because students are looking for how much they're paying per room. So that's what I did. Another property I bought, and that's a really unique one, and I'M actually selling it this week. But I brought the property that no one wanted to buy. It was a 10 bedroom house, six bathroom, huge on five acres in a decent area. But no one wanted to buy it because it used to be a caregiving facility and it just looked funky, like the layout of it is funky. So families didn't want to buy because it lacked a family home feel. And investors didn't want to buy it because who is going to look for a 10 bedroom rental? So what I did with it is I looked at that again outside of the box, creating value. And I said, this is right next to different huge places that people come visit to all the time. This would be a great Airbnb property. And that was before Airbnb. So it was a great bed and breakfast without the breakfast, just a retreat center. I looked at it and I thought this, if I rent a room for $40 a night, I'd make really good money. So I bought the property, furnished, it really well, made it look really pretty. And I put it online where people can book online. And I connected with different churches, different organizations in the area where they have retreats, conferences. Again, it's on five acres and all that. And I was able, just in my first year, I bought it for 150,000 because no one wanted to buy. Because everyone is thinking in the box of this is too big for rental, too weird for a family to buy. So I bought it just for 150 for this huge property, 5,000 square feet. And then I turned it into a bed and breakfast. And just in the first year, I was able to net profit $80,000. So it was incredible. Now, you know, again, challenge with that is you end up doing so many different things and you're, you know, some. Now I'm in a place where I'm just selling the property because I got a huge offer on it, a caregiving facility, said we're gonna come, we're gonna buy, turn it back into a caregiving facility. So I did the math and I'm like, great, I will go ahead and sell it. So to answer the question, I know I'm not really answering the question, but to answer the question is I say what I'm looking for right now in the stage of life I'm at is I'm looking for something that will give me good return, but I'm also counting the cost of the time and how can I put it into my system. I think that's the thing I'm looking at right now, which is something that I Didn't look at back in the day because I was just looking at different opportunities. Now that I have opportunities and I have business in place, I'm looking at something that I can put inside my system. And it's not going to be tons of headache, even if the return is going to be a little bit less, but put it in that system and keep growing.

Hey, Johnny, I know you're in the process of selling. I don't know if you're able to tell us how much you're selling it for.

Sure, I am selling it for 342,000.

How long ago did you buy it?

I bought it three years ago for 150, and I put about, you know, 20,000 in it. I have furniture in it for another 20,000, but I'm gonna keep that furniture for different things. So, you know, I would say outside of the furniture, I invested 170, 180. I'm selling it for 340. I would have kept it. That was one of the big lessons I learned on that is if you're like me and you like thinking right outside of the box of how can I get an opportunity where I can think outside of the box and make much more money. My only advice is make sure that whatever you want to do is not going to be an issue with zoning or neighborhood. Because I had the okay from the city. But I did the mistake of just rushing into a. And then I had that one neighbor that just loved having the property. The property was abandoned for years, and he had his horses living on the property, strolling on the property. He liked that no one ever went into his street. So he went after me, just wanting me, pressuring me to sell it. So I just got to a place where I said, hey, you know, I'm just gonna go ahead and sell it. But so I just encourage you, if you're looking for something outside of the box, just make sure that you're doing everything with the neighborhood, with zoning, so you don't. You don't come back and regret buying it or go through trouble.

Yeah, yeah, agreed. You talked about systems. What systems were you referring to back then?

Well, back then, I didn't have a system.

Oh, no, back then, like now, I mean, when I showed it a couple minutes ago.

Yeah. So right now, when I'm talking about system is. I'm talking about how can I have a property that I can put into my spreadsheets with other properties, that I can have the same maintenance process that other properties go through, that I can have the same leases that other properties go through so that everything is easy. As I'm training someone to handle leases or someone to handle repairs, it's all under the same system, under the same style. If I'm trying to sell it, it's all the same thing, which that's what I'm trying to do right now, Because I found that when I'm having a lot of different things, like that bed and breakfast, the issue is, it is I had to hire someone entirely different to oversee cleaning, to oversee booking. So I couldn't put it under a system. It was its own thing. So it felt like I was just juggling different jobs. So that's what I'm talking about. Right now. I really have two different systems, One for flips and one for rentals. And I try to have them under that, and if they're going to be way outside of that, then a lot of times, typically just not worth it for me.

Okay, and so you're still doing flips right now, right?

I have slowed down. Flips have. You know, I don't know if that's just in my area. I think it's more of a national thing, but flips are kind of cleaning out, and people are starting to look into building now. So I'm getting a lot less flips coming in the market. So I'm doing a lot less of that. Of that. I probably do one flip a year. If one comes out and it's just a really good deal, I jump on it. But it's becoming a rarity. And, you know, I would say when I started real estate, flips were a lot more appealing to me because I was just looking at the money. I'm like, oh, my gosh, I can buy this and sell this, and in three months, I or four months, I can make $30,000. This is so much better than making $700 check and rental. But looking back at it and now that I'm a little bit more sophisticated and educated, I would say, yeah, flips is a quick money, but the risk is higher. And also it's not sustainable. So the people I know that just did flips and they were not interested in returns, Everyone I know that just did flips and did not do anything with returns did not think passive income are out of it now. They're completely out of the business. Out of the business? Yeah. Because if you're gonna just do flips, you're not interested in passive income, Then you have to be willing to move from one place to another every five years or so. Because I really Think every, and I read that somewhere that every five years or so, typically the area will just be oversaturated with investors. You won't have as many flips and you have to be willing to move around. And that's not what I was going for.

Yeah, right on.

That's, that's really good advice. I mean, like, yeah, flipping is great. I enjoy doing it. It's great to have that profit. But if that is all you rely on and it can be difficult, you know, that's why, you know, the best flippers that I know are getting into rentals, they're getting into other businesses, they're doing other things that multiple streams of income, knowing that, you know, flips will eventually dry up. They're great at sometimes and they're not great at other times. And so just a lesson for all the flippers listening today. So cool.

Diversify.

Yeah, diversify a little bit. I think it's good.

Absolutely.

Now, how do you manage your property? Do you have a property manager or.

Do you do it all yourself managing a property? So right now I am training someone because I have enough properties where I want to be able to just focus on growth. And I realized the past year or so I have slowed down dramatically on focusing on growth because I have 17 properties that are keeping me busy. I've heard this before and I think it was a really good advice. I was told that the worst thing you can have is own 5 to 15 properties. And I was like, why is that? Or 5 to 20 properties? And what I was told is if you have less than five properties, it can be a hobby, you can have a full time job, make income and it can be something on the side. If you have more than 20 properties. I mean, if you have less than 20 properties, then you're stuck in the middle where if you have a job, you still feel so busy and you're running around fixing stuff and taking care of things. If you don't have a job, it's not enough to make an income. So I'm trying to get out of that middle ground of, you know, where I can have enough properties where I can completely have full time management. So right now I just really finished training someone and she will be handling, you know, leases, she's handling repairs, all of that. So I can just focus on growth right now.

That's great.

That's right.

And I think that is an important, an important point you made there, about there's that middle ground that's awkward. And I've experienced that for a number of years now where you're not big enough to take on a full time employee necessarily, but you're not, you know, you're not so small that it's easy to manage. And so it's a very awkward time. And so I think you've been awkward for like.

Yeah, I've been very awkward. No, so this, this is a, like, I mean it's a, it's a thing you have to almost like invest in yourself and say, look, I'm going to go bigger or I have to go smaller, I don't have a choice. And so I'm going to go ahead and, and take that risk of hiring somebody knowing that, you know, even if it's part time to begin with, I mean, that's what I did. I hired a part time lady to answer phone calls and stuff like that. Like, I'm going to take that risk knowing that I have to do that in order to grow my business.

Exactly, exactly. I mean, it was hard for me because I'm just doing the math and I'm like, gosh, I can do all this. Do I really want to pay someone that much money? But it just comes to a place where, okay, I don't have to hire someone, but I guaranteed I'm not going to have the capacity to keep buying. And I'm, and, and I felt it because when a good opportunity would come out, even though they're harder to find now where I am, instead of getting really excited like I used to be, I would be kind of torn. I'm like, oh, I got to go check out this property. But oh, I don't want another proper, you know, so that's when I knew, no, pay someone, don't stop that.

Yeah, first world problems, Johnny.

First world problems. I know, right? Life is hard. But I would say too, you know, I have seen a lot of people with money opportunities to buy. When I was just a real estate agent and I was helping investors, I've seen people back out of buying properties because of the hassle. You know, it's those things like, do we want to hire someone, do we want to manage that? We like our 9 to 5 coming home, not worry about it. But I would say the perks of being in real estate investments and the free freedom it gives me is way better than the 9 to 5. You know, I recently just went to Egypt. Just last week I was in Egypt. I was able to raise money over a online campaign and go to families that have been, you know, just hurt by ISIS and all that and hand them money and Spend time with them and go for two weeks and do stuff like that. And I was able to do that because of the real estate. The nine to five friends of mine that had opportunities like mine can do that. You know, sure, you can come home at 5 o' clock and you can guarantee that you're not going to have to worry about anything after work hours, but you don't have that freedom. So it's definitely worth it.

Wow, that's awesome, man. Yeah, yeah, that's great that you're using it for, for good. I mean, my God, there's some craziness happening out there and it's good to know that you're, you're helping out.

Well, just to add on to that point, I mean, I've never really, I don't maybe verbalized or thought about in this way, but the idea that a lot of people talk about financial freedom in a selfish sort of way, right, we talk about, I can't wait to quit my job so I can go lie on a beach or so I can go and travel Europe for the rest of my life or I can go and, you know, it's all me, me, me, me, me. But the other side of financial freedom is having the freedom to be able to help other people and to be able to, you know, make a difference in the world that you can't do when you have that 9 to 5 job. And I think that's awesome way to look at it.

Well. And I have one of my really good buddies, he started flips the same time I did. And he just did flips. He was an interest in passive income. So sure enough, he's out of it now. But I'll tell you, he was obsessed with that idea of I want to be able to do flips and make 30, 40,000 at a time and go to Hawaii. Go to the. And I'm not saying that those are bad. I went to Hawaii. I like to be able to enjoy my time. But I'll tell you that I think one of the reason he actually burnt out, it's not just that he wasn't doing passive income. It's because he was just looking at money as a way to have fun. But eventually he had enough fun where I think he just felt like what he was doing, he wasn't passionate about it, didn't serve a purpose. So I would say that wears out pretty quick. If your focus is just making money to just have fun with it. I think eventually you're going to, you're going to wake up one day and Say, this is just my. I'm not doing something with a meaning to it. So those are my thoughts.

I love it.

That's great. Johnny, vacancies I know you had. When we kind of did the pre interview, you talked about how you really wanted to kind of get into a little bit about how you minimize vacancies. Was that kind of the. Where you go and you're putting in the stainless appliances and making just the best property or was there something more to that?

Yeah. Yeah. So I'm so grateful because my vacancies just have been really low. I mean, I really think so. Honestly, guys, in the past five years of owning student housing, which is how many rooms is that? That's 30 rooms that I'm renting for students. I've had one room vacant one month out of all 30 for three years.

And then for the homes, I've never had a vacancy for more than two weeks. And I would say few things that really helped me. Like you said, putting extra stuff that is not going to be way expensive, but it's going to give it an edge. Stainless steel appliances, hardwood floors. I've had a couple of properties without hardwood floors, carpet. But I spend that extra money and again, it's just, it sells. And when I'm showing properties, I tell people we're putting hardwood floors because you don't have to worry about your deposit. And it gives people peace of mind. So one thing is putting the extra stuff or making it nicer than average in the neighborhood. Another thing I do, and I do it ethically, but I create urgency when I'm showing people houses. I get a lot of times and I learned that the hard way in the beginning where people would really like it and say, okay, it's, you know, $100 more expensive than the rest, but it is much nicer. But let us think about it. And I say, okay, just call me back. And then two days later they just go and negotiate or find something else and they call me back and I just wasted time. So I always put an urgency. I tell people what I'm showing them and that I typically have no vacancies. If I have, I try to put my showings in the same day back to back just to save myself from driving. But I say I'm always, I always blame it on the system, not on me. So I'm the good guy. It's just the system. So I say, I really like you guys. I'd love for you to have it, to have you. But I do have three other people that I'M showing it afterwards, so I'd hate for you to lose it. So please let me know. And hey, if you guys decide to do it, you will save me time from showing it to more people. So I'm the nice guy, but I'm blaming on the systems to people feel like the sense of urgency. But I'm not a jerk about it because you don't want to be that guy. That's like, well, why don't you sign now? Like that. That is just a turn off on your story. So I put a sense of urgency. I make it nicer than average for not much more than average. Another thing is marketing. I don't spend much money on marketing. It's just, you know, I mostly just take really good pictures. I invested in a nice camera because we all know if you go to Craigslist or if you're looking for places for rentals, a lot of landlords that do not know anything about photography, they go with a crappy camera, you know, and they take picture of a wall and they say bedroom number two, and that's it. But I go in, I have a nicer camera with, you know, with a zoom that can capture even a small room. So I take pictures that look nicer and fresher. So nicer marketing, better properties in the inside sense of urgency. And then the last thing I would say is quicker at responding, sending documentations and making it easier for the renter to move forward without having it too complicated. Like, one of the things that are really complicated, I've heard that from renters, is a lot of renters, you need to call their landlord. And when you call their landlord, the landlord says, hey, I can't tell you anything until you send me something with their signature. And that's totally legal. And you're supposed to do that. And I do that. But what I do is I already have that form ready. So when they're looking at the property, I have them sign it. That way we don't have to waste an extra two or three days of them getting it in an email, finding a printer, printing it out, signing it, sending it back. So just thinking, how can I get the process fast and easy for them so that they are just encouraged to move forward? They're not feeling clueless and overwhelmed.

Awesome. Yeah, that's great. That's great. And you know, I mean, at the end of the day, you know, not only are you serving your tenants, but by serving them, you're keeping them. So that's. That's a beautiful thing.

Absolutely. One thing I Do, too. And this is just something that I started doing two years ago, and it worked out great. Is, you know, for Christmas, I just don't tell that to my tenants. But I buy $5 mugs that are just nice, you know, five bucks. I wrap them up and I just drop them off at their houses. You know, again, if you have 200 properties, you can't do that. Or maybe you have to. You probably can afford someone to do that. But I drop off, like, just a little gift for Christmas. Cost me five bucks, you know, five, ten dollars. Once a year during, you know, in July, or I do a barbecue and I send an invitation to all the tenants. But those little things make the tenants feel really. And which I love to do, but also it makes them feel like they're part of family. So my rate of tenants staying and signing again is really high. I mean.

I would say over 80% of my tenants renew their contracts for a second, third year.

That's great. That's great. I love that you talk about making your tenants feel like family. We had. I'm totally blanking out, and I see his face in my brain right now. We did a show before. Somebody else does the same thing. He'll do the barbecues. He'll kind of get all the neighbors together and do things like that. And it's really helped him out. Gosh, I wish I could think of who it was. But, yeah, I love it. I mean, it's just the little things that you do that make you stand out, that kind of minimize your churn and keep everything great. It's all about being creative, and you kind of always done that. It sounds like this whole thinking out of the box thing that you keep talking about. So that's awesome. Well, before we move on, I want to get one last question. We've talked about this great business that you've built, and you're doing great things. Surely it hasn't all been easy. Surely it hasn't all been positive. Do you have any tenant horror stories? Any landlord horror stories?

Tenant horror stories? Good question. The biggest challenge I've had had is with the room rentals for students, because I was able to do that and rent per room, get a higher return. The biggest problem I had is I had some drama before with tenants, you know, getting in. I mean, you have students living together, and a lot of them just didn't know each other before moving in. So you have fights and, you know, and threats and all that. But honestly, nothing was really out of control. I mean, it was pretty easy and, you know, I. With, with room rentals, what I did is I have them sign an extra document of how they're going to behave. House rules, loud music or loud TV at night, you know, so it was easy to put them in place. I've never really had anything worse than that. So now that I think about it, it's not too bad.

Right on. Right on. All right, I got one last question, then we're going to move to the fire round. Do you have any tips for new investors who are thinking about getting into the business? What would your best piece of advice to those guys be?

Yeah, my best advice. That's actually a great question because I have had, again, a lot of people that were almost buying had the money or had the opportunity and they backed out. And I have three reasons why, but I would say all of them have to do with wanting to have full control. Looking at investments as a 9 to 5 job, do you want to know exactly what's the salary, how many days they're going to have off of the year? And that's when I say you have to give a little bit of control. Yes. With risk, you have to have educated risk. I'm not encouraging anyone to do, you know, things that are risky without. Without studying and planning for them and having educated risk. But at the same time, my biggest advice is give up control. If you're getting into this business, you have to be willing to. To learn and be flexible and not be in control of everything all the time.

Right on.

I like that.

That's great.

I think that's huge. Just in any business. Right. Like just outsourcing and trusting that other people can help you do the work if you train them. Right. And delegating and.

Yeah.

I mean, just not always being the one that has to control every single aspect because you can't do it.

So. Yeah, and when I say control, again, like, it's the person that want to go into this and they know that their friend got a 16% return. So they're not going to buy anything until they get something 16% or higher, you know, and they find a great opportunity and. And it's 13%. I really have a scenario like that. But they're not going to go into it because they want to be in control. They want to have the best thing. And then once they have it or once it's out there, they want to know exactly before even buying how much it will cost to paint or how much. So it's good to have all that planning, but you just have to Be willing. Hey, you're opening a business. If the numbers make sense, if you've done your homework, you have to be willing to just give it up a little bit and learn as you go.

Excellent. Excellent. Yeah.

Cool.

All right, well, let's move on to the world famous Fire round.

It's time for the Fire round.

All right, this Fire round, questions that come directly out of the Bigger Pockets forums. So these are questions that Real Life BiggerPockets members are asking and we're going to throw them at you. So number one, where do you store cash reserves? Like security deposits or just other cash reserves? Do you have them in a savings account? Money market, stocks, CDs? Like, where do you keep any cash reserves?

Right now I just have them in a savings account. Okay.

Under your pillow.

Under my pillow, Yep.

Okay.

That's where I have mine too, is a savings account. So.

Fair enough, fair enough. All right, what kind of real estate strategies are realistic if you're gone all the time? So say you travel a lot, you're kind of working a road warrior, so to speak. What do you think would be some of the best real estate strategies?

I would say if you're gone all the time, start slow, one at a time, one property at a time. And you will definitely need a property management or at least someone you can really trust that is not traveling around with you. Cool.

Number three, how do I find a good home inspector?

So few things, I mean definitely Google research them. Google. There are several websites where you can go and get, you know, get feedback. I mean mostly really it's been Google for me, just googling and seeing what other feedback we're getting. Another thing you can do is call trusted agents or maybe some of the best agents in your city and tell them who do you guys refer for inspections and find the credentials and definitely do not get an inspector that does not offer some sort of insurance.

Interesting.

Okay, yeah, why not? What's your take on that?

Well, I've had inspectors. I. The inspector I use has insurance so that if they damage anything while they're working or if they miss anything during inspection and there's a potential lawsuit or anything like that, they have an insurance for their errors. And we, I've actually seen it wasn't with me with. It was with another agent friend where they hired an inspector and he was really good inspector, he had insurance but they missed on something really big with foundation. They didn't notice that the foundation was in a really bad shape and they didn't put that in the report. Well, a couple of years later, the buyer sued the inspection company and they actually went after the agent too. But the great thing is that inspector, because they had insurance, they were able to settle it outside of court and not have to go through a lot of trouble with the agent. So I would say insurance is huge.

Right on. Cool. Great. All right, last question of the fire round. Is it crazy to start real estate investing with a 14 unit property?

I would say it's not crazy if you know what you're doing and if you have the right people around you, it's possible. I mean, it's scary. If you would have told me that when I started, I wasn't ready for it, I would have, you know, put tons of expensive granite countertops and stuff and ran out of money real quick. So for a typical person, I would probably say it's crazy. But if you know what you're doing, if you just have the right people around you, you can make it happen.

Right on. Great answer.

All right, well, why don't we. Before we get out of here closes with our world famous famous for. All right, these questions are asked of every guest and let's see what you have to say. Number one, what is your favorite real estate related book?

Favorite real estate related book is the e. Myth. I don't know if you guys heard of it. It's one of my favorites. Okay. You did. Okay, good. You know, maybe it's not as much real estate because it talks about business in general, but I consider it my favorite real estate book because it just talks a lot about building systems, about how to be able to manage. So when I applied the book on properties and rentals, it helped me tremendously. Cool.

We actually had Michael Gerber, the author, here on the podcast back like three or four months ago.

Yeah, I missed that episode. I gotta go check that out.

Come on, Johnny, really? I mean, you said you were a big fan of the show.

I listened to 99% of the episode. So that was that one. It was.

It was episode 125. So people can listen to that one@biggerpockets.com show one two five.

I'm doing that right after this. This is great.

All right. Awesome, man. What about business book? What's your favorite business book?

Oh, man, I should have my favorite, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So maybe I reversed it, But I would say rich dad, poor dad. And I know that's everyone's answers, but that book. I'm not a huge reader. You guys. You guys actually spoiled me. Because after bigger pockets, I'm Like, I don't need to read anymore. I can go in and find the answer and find help and interaction real quick. So now it's like, why do I want to read 300 pages book? But rich dad, Poor dad was for me just a great business book because it really just helped me with basics. And I love that he's just politically incorrect in everything he says. So he just says it as it is and that really helped me. Cool.

Me too. Politically incorrect, like the hosts of what show?

We're not politically incorrect. We're just, you know, offensive. There's a difference.

Something like that. All right, man. Hobbies. What do you do for fun?

What do I do for fun? I love people, so I'm usually really involved in my community and I have a Bible study and all that. So people is what I do for fun. That sounds weird, but also I like traveling a lot.

Speaking of incorrect.

Yeah, yeah, right. I like traveling a lot. So I travel all the time. And again, I love my, you know, my real estate because it gives me the opportunity to do that. So travel people. And I blog. I have a blog, johnny you.com and I blog about everything but real estate because that's kind of how I get out and do different things. And for you take time off from real estate.

Yes. Cool. And at least you, you don't do people for business.

No, no.

Questioned. My last question of the day, Johnny, what do you believe sets apart the successful investors from those who give up, fail, or never get started to begin with?

I would say the things that would set you out of being successful versus not being successful is being able to take educated risk. And I would say the second thing is being teachable. You have to be willing to learn. I've seen stubborn people that just kept going, going, going until they hit the ground because they weren't able to learn and ad whether to market changes or whether to mistakes they're doing. And thirdly is surrounding yourself with the right people. Whether it's the right inspectors, the right repairman, the right assistants. So surrounding yourself with people, being able to learn from your mistakes and being flexible and being able to assess risk.

Well, perfect. That's great.

Yeah, I like that a lot.

You mentioned your blog. Where can people find out more about you?

Yeah, I'm on bigger pockets. I'm still growing there. I've actually had a million meeting with someone I met on Biggerpockets to talk business. So that was great. So I'm on Biggerpockets, but I'm also. My blog is johnny u.com g o h n-n y o u.com and Instagram. Periscope is the same username. Johnny U. I've started periscoping videos about just real stages to help people. So I'm on there too. Cool.

I'm going to follow you on Periscope.

Perfect. That's awesome.

Oh boy. You better not mess up now. Hey, real quick. He's going to Periscope him periscoping you.

For those people who have no idea what Periscope is. What is Periscope? Periscope, Johnny.

Periscope is my new favorite thing. I think it's going to be huge. It's basically you can go live and your friends or your followers can go on anytime while you're live and they can watch you, they can comment while you're talking live and they can give you some hearts. So I love some hearts. Branding. Give me smarts.

I will give you some hearts, Johnny. All right.

He likes, did you people. He likes hearts.

Oh boy.

This is just going downhill very quickly.

Well, all right, Johnny, listen, man, it's been an absolute pleasure, really, really enjoyed the show. It's kind of cool hearing about your philosophies. I think of everything else. Just kind of learning about how you think about things again. This whole thinking outside the box is great and I think people should contemplate the idea if they haven't already. It's awesome. So thanks for being on the show and thanks for being a part of bigger part pockets.

Thank you so much. It was a pleasure. Thank you guys.

Yeah, thank you. We'll see you around.

See ya.

Alright guys, that was Johnny Youssef. Yes, it was. Thanks again for him for coming on the show. Sadly, Johnny is going to be crying as his Kansas City Royals have lost the World Series to the Mets. At the time that this show has gone live. Are you predicting that I'm wrong?

You're going to look like an idiot.

You know, I've looked like one of those things before, so it's all good. But definitely link up with Johnny. And thanks for listening to the show, Brandon. I mean, it was great.

That was a great show. Yeah, I mean, I like guys who think outside the box. I like guys that are creative thinkers and they don't just accept yes or no. And Johnny's definitely that guy. Thinks outside the box, figures out how to put together a deal. When everyone else turns down something, he's going to figure out how to make it work. And I love that.

And his energy is just captivating. You just want to you want to listen to him and his whole philosophy.

About financial freedom to be able to help other people. I think that's just inspiring. So I love it.

Yes, yes, yes, indeed. So big thanks to Johnny. All right, guys. Well, thank you for listening. Show147 BiggerPockets podcast is. We're done.

We did it.

We survived. Yet another one.

We done it.

Nice. Nice. Okay, whatever that means.

We done it.

Yeah. Well, thanks for listening and we will see you next time week. If you haven't already, make sure to jump on biggerpockets.com, create an account, start networking with other investors like Johnny. Get on the forums, ask questions, answer questions, listen to the podcast, share the podcast, get out there, use BiggerPockets and the tools that we provided for you. And you know, doing so will help you be more successful. I mean, there's nothing more to say than it's a fact. If you do it, if you use it, if you're on it, you're going to be more successful. So lots of luck and let's get out of here. I'm out. This is Josh Dworkin. Sign it off.

You're listening to Bigger Pockets Radio. Simplifying real estate for investors large and small. If you're here looking to learn about real estate investing without all the hype, you're in the right place. Be sure to join the millions of others who have benefited from bigger business. Pockets.com your home for real estate investing online.

Hold on.

What?

Brandon, your mic's not on.

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