46: Cash Low to Cash Flow with Ayesha Selden

Welcome. This is Real Estate Investing Live from New York with James Nelson, the principal and head of Avis and Young's Tri State Investment Sales Group. In this program, you'll learn about the world of commercial real estate and find out why it is one of the largest investment opportunities in New York and around the world. Now here is your host, James Nelson.

Welcome everyone to episode number 46 of.

Real Estate Investing Live from New York. This is your host, James Nelson. And wow, can't believe summer's over. We're here to the fall. We are coming up on a year of this show and just want to thank you all for all your support, your comments, your ratings, telling your friends. We're really building an incredible network here and couldn't be more excited for the future. As I've announced on the last few weeks, we are working on a LinkedIn group for the show where you'll be able to post your comments. We're also keep a lookout for an invite for a zoom where you'll be able to jump on with me, ask your questions and potentially appear on this radio show. I just wrapped up two teaching sessions this past week. I guest lectured at Wharton and had a really great conversation with some of the students out there as far as what they should be thinking about for future investments. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to use that clip as that was done for one of their classes. But I did do a session with some of the Colgate undergrad students who right now are spending their time quarantined so then they can get out into the classrooms once everyone is in the clear. So I did a Q and A with them and we'll be having some of those clips in the future. But for today's show, got a real treat for you. We have Ayesha Selden, who is an entrepreneur who built her portfolio in Philadelphia from the ground up. She's also a licensed broker dealer and got involved in the stock market. But she's got an incredible story. I heard it when she spoke to the real Estate Board's group and asked her to appear on the show. She also recently published a book that she'll talk about and she'll tell you how to connect and get some great advice on how to invest and get into the game. So we're going to have a brief word from our sponsor and we'll be right back.

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And now it's time for our Investor Spotlight. And today I am thrilled to have with us Aisha Selden who's got an incredible story. She's a huge influencer out there, so urge you to definitely check her out on her social media channels and we'll get into the interview and she'll tell you how to follow her. But I love this bio or the words that she has on her homepage@Aishaselton.com, which is born in the projects. Introverted comedian, Instagram and Twitter legend, certified financial planner, millionaire landlord has it, flaunts it. So welcome Aisha.

Thank you. Thank you James for having me.

Of course. Absolutely. I've got to say I'm almost a little jealous because I wish my bio was that cool. Like my bio is kind of like he graduated, he did that, he does this. But I love how you just get to the point and you make investing so easy and so accessible. And you know, I was introduced to you through our mutual friend Michael Rutter and you spoke to the Real Estate board in New York about your story and your investment philosophy. So I was really excited when you agreed to come on our show here today. So tell us, you know, tell us where it all began. Where did you grow up? How did you get started? And just, you know, tell us your story.

Yeah, so I'm. I'm. I'm born and raised in Philadelphia, not too far from. From New York City. In fact, we spent. We spent a good deal of time, my family and I, a good deal of time in New York. I mean, we're. We're roughly 90 minutes down the turnpike. I'm born in South Philly, a really, really rough area. Grew up, you know, with a single mom. My mom was actually a teen mom. Had my sister at 16 and me at 19. So I think that we are probably the epitome of the story that you could see of folks or kids who wouldn't make it. And there was. We had a gazillion strikes against us. I mean, we were poor. We grew up not really having anyone in our family who could teach us things like financial literacy. My mom is first generation college educated, and we just, you know, we had a lot of love, which is, I think, why we are, my sister and I, and we have a much younger brother at this point. I think the love was kind of like what pushed us and guided us in the right direction. So that's me in a nutshell. And ultimately, I think that what becomes problematic for our community, the black community in general, is that people make it, but then they don't look back to help others who were in similar situations. So the reason that I'm so very vocal about owning things, owning stocks, I talk about owning businesses, owning real estate is because I believe that I wasn't given that education. I kind of stumbled and figured it out. Not everyone has that opportunity. So I'm extremely vocal about what I did and what I'm doing so that people can hear messages from folks that will resonate with them. I mean, my Aisha seldon.com bio is what it is, because I believe that my message resonates with people who look like me and people who come from where I come from. And I want them to realize that people who look like them can have an opportunity to own some stuff.

I really appreciate and thank you for saying that and such a need for diversity and inclusion within our industry. And for those of you who did not hear my podcast with Don Peebles, definitely go back and check it out, because there's so much good work that needs to be done there. And so really appreciate what you're doing and it starts with providing that exposure and that education and making it simple and breaking it down. So I gotta imagine growing up under the circumstances so challenging, you know, how did you get by? I mean, as far as. I mean, tell us, you know, what were you like as a student? Were you doing odd jobs along the way? Did you kind of have that entrepreneurial bug at an early age?

You know, I was, I was, I was a strange kid. It's funny because I used to even just up until probably a year or two ago, I would always like kind of tout myself as this self made investor. And then I really had to like sit back and think about it and say, you know, I had opportunities that were afforded to me that, you know, I mean, literally you can look from the outside in and think, okay, Your mom was 19 when she had you. You guys first lived in the projects and then you lived in, not in the projects, but still a rough area. So, like, that doesn't really seem like you had advantages, right? But the advantage that I had more than most is I had a mom who like really, really loved us and cared. So one of the things that she used to do for my sister and I when we were kids is she used to. We lived in a pretty rough neighborhood of South Philly, but right outside of Philly is probably one of the most affluent neighborhoods in the country. We call it the Mainline Gladwin, specifically is where she used to take us. So she would pile us in the car, my sister and I, and take us out to see these houses that look nothing like I had ever seen. I mean, it was like, it was like incredible. And she used to tell us, my sister and I, like, one day you guys are going to be able to like afford something like this. Like, like she wanted to get us outside of our neighborhood, outside of like, I mean, row homes and what we saw every day and introduce us or expose us to things that we wouldn't ordinarily have even. I mean, we would have seen them on tv. But to actually know people legit live like this, this is not just television. So that was very instrumental in getting me to think outside of the box. One thing that she also did, and I don't really talk a lot about this, is she was like, she was like super anal about our academics. Like, if I was done with my schoolwork, she'd assign us her own personal books to read. We couldn't turn on the television until a certain time of day. I mean, she was like, I mean, and I say a lot about advantages of having A young mom, obviously, there are a ton of disadvantages of that, but a huge advantage is that at 19 or 20 or 21 or 25, you have a ton of energy. I mean, she could work. I mean, she became an rn. She had the energy of, like. I mean, like, she could go work 12 hours and come home and ride my ass, pardon my friends. So she had, like, a ton of, like, just time and energy to make sure that we were doing what we had to do. And, like, you know, for. We went to. She enrolled us in parochial school. I went to Catholic school early on, from kindergarten through fifth grade. And, you know, so our schoolwork, our academics were very important to her. Like, our friends would go home and tell their parents they got straight Cs. And, you know, it's like, thank God you're not failing. If I had, like, all A's, one B and one C, she'd be like, a C and a B. Like, why didn't you tell me you were struggling? Like, I would have gotten you tutor. I'm like, mom, are you kidding me? So academics were extremely important. The other thing that was kind of innate in me, and this is actually unlike most people in my family, is I was a very frugal kid. Like, money, for some reason, just resonated with me. I mean, this is like, there's no one in my family that you could say today. Like, did you imagine Aisha, when she was a kid, being where she is today? No one would be surprised about that. I'm not surprised. No one in my family would be like, aisha. I mean, they knew how I was with money. I tell the story a lot about how when I was a kid, my mom sent me to a Christian camp for a week with $200. And it was our responsibility to pay for breakfast, lunch and dinner while we were at camp, plus any souvenirs or gifts that we wanted. And I came home after five days. Now I had to pay for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I came home after five days with 175 bucks. So, James, don't tell me what I couldn't tell you to this day. What I ate. I don't know how I survived. I don't know exactly what I did, but I came home with my 175 bucks. I put it in a shoebox and I slid it under my bed and like, that. And I was, like, as content as I could possibly be. Like, I had money. So, you know, that was like, movies, like Wall street for me as a kid. That was like, wow, this is different. I'd watch movies like Trading Places as a kid with Eddie Murphy. So those were things that resonated. Yeah, classic, classic Duke and Duke based right here in Philly. So those were things that resonated with me as a kid. So, like, I was a bit different than most of the kids I grew up with. But a lot of what my mom focused on and the energy that she put into us and the support that she had, she had an amazing village. We had aunties that were always around. My grandmother, my nana was like a second mom. I mean, she had a ton of resources that also poured into my sister and I sort of. So that's my background. I mean, that's kind of how I came of age and then, you know, coming out of college, because again, my mom was first. I went to Temple University. My mom is an RN at Temple. So my sister and I got to go to Temple for free. So it was a no brainer. I mean, I think Temple may have been the only place I applied. And it was a free education. Where else am I going to go? So I started Temple. I got a dual degree in economics and marketing with a minor in communications and came right out of college and I became a licensed stockbroker. I graduated from Temple University, May of 2000, started studying for my exams the very, very following month. I've been a licensed stockbroker for 20 years, a little over 20 years now.

Did you have internships along the way or how? I mean, coming from your background, not having experience with Wall street and saying, look, I'm gonna go take my, my Series seven or seven, whatever it was, and I'm gonna go become a stockbroker. I mean, how is that even in your mind? And how did you even think that was possible?

You know, it was partially fate. Call it God, whatever, the universe aligning in your favor, call it any of that. A good buddy of mine that I went to high school with, I went to a very, very good school, high school here in Philadelphia Central High School. And a friend of mine was a communications major. I asked her just in one of our classes, what are you gonna do after college? And she said, I'm with. At the time it was American Express. Most people don't know American Express used to have a financial advisors division. And she said, I'm going to go interview with AMEX to be a financial advisor. And I'm like, well, you're a communications major, I'm an economics and marketing major. Like this is just my minor, these communications classes. So I said, can I get the number for the manager. And this was our first semester senior year. So I actually did go end up interning with a guy. So my first semester of my senior year, I interned at amex as a financial. For a financial advisor. He was an advisor and manager, and he kind of showed me the ropes. I watched what he was doing, did a lot of his filing, his paperwork, most of my senior year. So by the time I graduated, I'd done about a year of interning with him. But quite frankly, you don't really learn until you're in the trenches. Amex at the time had a really, really good new advisor training program. In fact, most of the big firms out there, the Merrills, the Morgan Stanleys, used to tell kids right out of college, like, if you want to work for us, go work for amex for a couple of years. If you can survive their training program, come back to us after you stuck it out for a couple of years. I mean, it was literally. I remember I started the summer of 2000 with like 120 kids. By the end of the summer, there were like, maybe 20 of us left, 30 of us left. And by the end of, you know, the following year, there may have been like 10 of us left. I mean, it was literally like just every man for himself. I mean, it was a madhouse. I mean, it was like if you've ever seen Boiler Room, it was very much like that. And I listened to what I was told. I put my head down, and I just outworked everybody else around me. So, I mean, I was used to working. It's funny because my mom worked a lot. I mean, she's an RN, so she worked 12 hour shifts. So when I was in high school, I worked for a local franchise owner at a McDonald's when I was 16. And that was probably one of the best experiences for me because the franchise owner was like a total, like. I mean, looking back on it, like he was running a total chop shop. I mean, it was completely illegal. I think I probably was working 45 hours a week at 16. And the guy, a guy named Steve that he had running the McDonald's, used to, like, tell us off. I mean, he used to curse us out like we were kids. Like this, like 6 foot 4, 6 foot 5. Like, big dude used to, like. I mean, like, if you dropped a hash brown, he'd, like, rip you a new one. And I look back on it. I remember the first time it happened. I remember he, like, reamed me out. I don't know what I Did. And, like, I cried, and I went to the coat room, and I was thinking, like, you can either quit, like, you can go home and you can tell your mom she's gonna make you quit your job. I knew that. Or you can, like, suck it up, wipe the tears off, and get back out there and, like, do what you gotta do. And I remember thinking, like, this. $4.25 an hour. This is good money. Like, I need it. So, like, I just. I wiped my tears, and I got back out there, and I remember it became so. I mean, this, and I don't encourage this at all. I mean, it was like. It was like, abuse. Like, who does this? I remember one day, it became such a pattern that, like, one day he's telling me off, and I just started laughing in his face, like, dude, you're a grown man. Like, why are you talking to me like this? But you know, in retrospect, looking back, I mean, I started out cold calling as a broker. Like, the abuse that I took over the phones, like, calling people, pounding the phones, calling people over and over again. By the time I was 22, I was used to that. I'm like, look, dude, I've been taking this in my face at 16. Like, there's nothing you can say to me over the phone that, like, is gonna offend me. Like, next caller. So, you know, I think that all of the events in my life just kind of culminated to, like, a perfect storm of. Or a faded storm of me going from where I came from to where I am. And I'm grateful for all of it. I'm grateful for all of it.

Amazing. So tell us how you got into real estate, then. So you're out there, you're trading stocks, and. Yeah. Tell us about your first investment.

Another. Another story in my life. So we grew up in South Philly, and where we grew up, James was like a neighborhood. But at the time, it was so rough, we called it Saigon. I mean, it was like. It was like a shithole, right? So. But the neat thing we had was location. And I remember. I remember telling my mom, I said, mom, we were leaving the neighborhood. We were moving. We needed a larger house as our family grew. And I told my mom, I said, mom, don't sell this house. I was 18, 19. I just started my first year in college. I said, don't sell our house, because I got a great feeling about this neighborhood. I mean, we're five blocks from South Street. Like, if you know Philly, we're within walking distance to downtown Philly. I'M like, it's bad now. But something tells me that, like, this neighborhood could be worth some money one day. My mom, you know, she got nervous. She had a tenant, she was getting a tenant. She's like, I'm nervous that the tenant's going to leave if, you know, because the tenant wanted to buy the house. She's like, I don't want to end up having to pay two mortgages. So she sold the house for 35 or $40,000. And then as I started, I finished college, started my professional career, that same neighborhood started to change, just like I said it would today. That house that my mom sold for 35 or 40,000 in the condition we left it in, would easily sell for 5, 600,000. I mean, it's just based on the location alone, the neighborhood, the housing project that was like in the, like a block from us at the time is knocked down and now green space. It was, you know, a huge change to the neighborhood. So when I, when I got out of college, when I started my job, investing just made sense for me. And I remember thinking like, I want to own property. You know, I want to. I called that right. That neighborhood right when I was, when I was a kid. And I'm going to make sure that, you know, I call it revenge season. I call it for the asset that my mom didn't know to hold on to. I said, at some point I'm going to buy real estate to take advantage of the opportunity that we lost out on as a family. So, so I did. I started buying stocks, you know, as a stockbroker at 22, 23. And then I bought my very first house at 24. I bought a foreclosed property and then I bought. So that was 2002. I bought my first property.

How much first property, if you don't mind me asking.

67 grand. It was dirt cheap.

It was dirty with the money. Did you have that, did you get a loan or do you remember how you did it? Did you have outside investors?

Great question. So James, you remember how, how, how the financial markets were back pre 2008. Right. So they were throwing folks money hand over fist. I actually got 108% financing on that deal. Like, I mean, again, a part of the reason why. Yeah, yeah. Like, yeah. So I got 108% financing. But I mean, I was two years out of college, I was working as a broker. I had, I had money. So what I ended up doing was I used the cat, some of the cash that I had because I got financing for the, for basically all of the property plus closing costs. I use the cash that I had just to do the cosmetic. I mean the place had like pink carpets. It needed like some, some, some plumbing work. I mean, it needed some, some love. I probably put 15 grand cash into just like ripping out carpets, doing some of the plumbing work, painting the entire place. So I did some, some work that needed to get done. And I also did idea what you.

Were doing at the time. Like, had you ever done a renovation before or were you just on the way?

No. Yeah, I mean, like I was asking friends like, who's your plumber? I was like, you know, I did the painting myself. I think I pulled up the carpets myself. I mean today you've got like YouTube where like literally I could probably have figured out the plumbing myself, just like on YouTube university. But I mean, I was just. No, I'd never done any of this before. I'd never owned a home before. So I was just kind of like going along with it. I've got money like, you know, I'm interviewing plumbers. Like, all right, what's your number? What's your number? Well, like, you know, you seem like you know what you're talking about, so I mean, it was all a huge risk. But what I did was I did a popular thing that people call today, although I didn't have a term at the time, house hacking. So I got a roommate. I had a three bedroom house and it was just me and a hellcat that I eventually adopted. But I got a roommate and she basically paid for her rent, paid basically in my whole mortgage. So I used the fact that I had free housing and stacked some cash to buy another, another rental property. And interestingly enough, that very first property that I purchased ended up being kind of the equity piggy bank that I would later use to go from. I mean, I bought that property in 2002. I didn't buy the sex second rental property until 2004. I went from 2004 to like 2011 with only buying my primary residences in that span. In that span. Because my investment philosophy, and I kind of learned this from Warren Buffett over the years, is to do the exact opposite of what everyone else is doing. So there were so many folks that were like jumping into real estate. Like the prices were just escalating way too high for me. So once I saw the crash of 2008, I just kind of watched the Philly market. It crashed like 2008, 2009. Ish. And then I watched the Philly market numbers just Kept dropping for us until 2011. And then by 2011, I said, all right, enough is enough. Most investors can't get capital today. So I took equity out of that very first property that I purchased, the one in 2002 for 67,000. I had a ton of equity in there at the time. I got a home equity line of credit against it. And then I went just south of that neighborhood where my mom sold that house when I was a kid. I went right back there and said, all right, I can't afford here, but if I go a little south. No, I can't afford there either. If I go just a little further south, there's a block in South Philly called Washington Avenue, which back in 2011, all of my coworkers and colleagues were like, no, don't go south of Washington. It's too rough south of Washington. And I'm like, you guys are idiots. Because there's no physical barrier that prevents people from coming south of Washington. I can't afford north of Washington. But eventually the flood of folks who can't afford to buy north of Washington, they're going to push south of Washington. And I was right. So I bought my next rental property south of Washington. I paid cash using the home equity line of credit that I had from that very first house I bought. I threw a little bit of cash and personal funds in to renovate it. I rented it and then I went to a bank and said, hey, I've got a free and clear property here in South Philly. Here's the lease. It's tenant occupied. Can you give me a loan against it? I did a cash out refinance and I took the cash that they gave me and I literally went directly around the corner and brought another one in that exact same neighborhood. And then I did the same thing and I said, can, can you give me another loan against this new property I had that's free and clear, that's tenant occupied? And they did. So I took that cash and then I went around the corner again and bought another property in south. So. And I was buying these in south Philly in 2011, paying 50, $60,000 for these houses where today, I mean, actually the very first one, I bought the house that shares a party wall. So most properties in Philly are real houses. They share a party wall. The first one I bought, the party wall next to me just sold for 450 about a year ago. So, I mean, it was, you know, it was no brainer.

This was all during. While you had a full time job so were you like doing this on the side? I mean, you must have been working around the clock and like even having a couple units and dealing with tenants and the lease. I mean, there's a lot that goes into it. So were you doing all this stuff on your own?

Yeah, nights and weekends. A lot of nights and weekends. But I'm a worker, you know, and that's, that's okay. I mean, real estate, you know, you've got to be, you got to be able and willing to commit some time to it. So I was, I was working full time as a, as a broker. And in that time, because I went from just a few doors to dozens of doors between 2011 and I bought my last rental in 2018. By 2018, I just felt like our market here in Philly was oversaturated and stopped buying. I bought a property in LA in February of 2019 that was my very last property. Just because I thought that the, I think the prices started getting too high. But yeah, I was working my, my full time job, so I would, my five to nines were dealing with real estate and tenants. My weekends were dealing with rehabs and all that good stuff. And then eventually, eventually in 2014, my firm is one of few firms that allows you to have. We've got two different tracks. You can either be an employee broker or you can be a franchise broker. So in 2014, I flipped the switch and went from the employee channel to becoming a franchise owner within my firm. We're no longer part of Amex. I mean, Amex spun us off many moons ago. But you know, that, that significantly increased my revenue. So one of the things that was important to me was because as I was buying these houses, as I mentioned, I kept taking on a lot of, a lot of loans. So I was, I had a lot of debt, a lot of mortgages, and that started to get a little scary to me. So when I, when I went franchise and my cash flow started increasing, I started focusing on paying off those mortgages. I mean, I was, I was, I was paying off those mortgages fairly aggressively, in fact. So today I think I, I think I own 4445 doors, which is like 31 buildings because some are single families, some are multifamily, but I only have, I believe, four mortgages. So I carry very little debt on them.

Awesome. So, okay, so you've got 44, 45 properties. Now you said you've taken a little bit of a break and I love the Warren Buffett, you know, reference. And I'll probably mess up the quote, but something about, you know, being greedy when, when, when people are fearful and be fearful when people are greedy so that you haven't bought anything since 2018. I mean, certainly the world has been turned upside on its head since this pandemic. So, you know, are you now thinking that, I mean, what would trigger you now to jump back in the market and start buying?

So what I was doing in the interim, I bought a lot of properties. I mean, things were still really cheap between like 2011 and 2018. Things were really, really cheap. So I was in Philly at the time, buying more than I could afford to renovate at the time. I mean, I was down at the Philly sheriff sale auction buying properties for 7,500 bucks, 8,000, 10,000. I mean, I was buying them super cheap. So when I spent that time between 2020-2000, and basically right up until this year, I was going back and renovating a lot of the inventory that I had that hadn't. That needed to be. That needed to be renovated. This year, when the market started dropping end of February into March, I was buying stocks. So keep in mind, I always do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. Folks were like panicking. The sky was falling in the stock market earlier this year. So when folks were selling, I was picking up. I mean, I think I bought Tesla at 500 bucks or something, split, adjusted. So, you know, it's. It went. And then it went over 2,000. I mean, like within a matter of months. I mean, I was like, this is, this is just silliness. It dropped from 900 down to 4 something. And I'm like, as an uptick up to 500. I was like, yeah, that seems like probably a pretty good bet. So what would trigger, I mean, the housing market. Oddly enough, given everything that's happening in the economy, the housing market hasn't seen a massive hit in most markets. I can't speak for New York because from what I hear, a lot of folks are leaving New York because of, you know, you know, obviously, you know, a variety of things and how bad Covid was there. I would not bet against New York ever. In fact, if I'm kind of hoping people do start selling there, because I would love to pick up something there, you know, but obviously because there's very little inventory and interest rates are at historically low levels. I mean, in most markets, the house housing prices have actually continued to rise. At least here in Philly. Philly they have. You know, I think, I think, quite frankly, James, in any Market, you can find a deal. You know, I think that it just comes down to like, I never get into bidding wars, speeding, frenzies, you know, like, if you want my best and final, I already gave it to you. Like, I'm not going to play this dance with you. You know, my, my mindset is always on acquiring at the right price. So most of the deals that I purchase are very, are off market. My very best deals are off market deals. Either it be through wholesalers, through an auction, through word of mouth, through referral, like, whatever. I wouldn't be opposed to buying a property today. It just probably wouldn't be off of the MLS because are you canvasing as well?

Are you actually calling owners directly and.

Saying, hey, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah, I ain't got that kind of time. Yeah, I've got a whole job and I'm a licensed gc, so I GC my own, my own projects and I bought a place in LA that I'm renovating for myself personally. So I'm out there, I'll be out there for a month. So I don't have time. And I feel totally fine with paying wholesalers for the work that they do. I'm going to give them my number. I don't care what their price is. I'm going to tell them, here's what I'm willing to pay for this deal. So I think that James, regardless of what's happening, you can always find, find a deal in 2018. I looked around the market and things prices had escalated so much and so quickly. I had other ways to deploy my capital, which is why I decided to do that. But if I, if I wanted to buy like, you know, I would. And my, my, my next deal, when I'm done, my place in la, which will hopefully be done by Thanksgiving, I will. I'm going to determine what market I want to go to and I'll probably go larger apartment and we'll just see where I, where I do that. I like cheap markets. I like, I like Philly kind of markets where rents are relatively high relative to the price. So I can find that in like a Philly, maybe a, maybe a Baltimore. I mean, I'll look around and see where I can, where I can get good cash flow. I don't, I'm one of those real estate investors that if I get appreciation, great. If I don't, I wasn't, I wasn't banking on it anyway. The only thing I bank on is cash flow.

So what kind of return do you try to Solve for when you, when you buy one of these, what return or.

The last deal I bought, the reason I stopped buying is because I used to have a requirement that I have to make all of my money back in five years or less. I mean I was, I was getting 20, 20%. Like disgusting, right? So when I talk to my guys out in LA in New York and they're like, I'll make my Money back in 20 years, I'm like, are you, you effing nuts? Like, who does that? But you know, I get it, you know, the appreciation, I get it. But in the last property I bought, I only got like in 2018, I only got like a 13% return on it and I was fairly pissed. So that's only. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow.

But yeah, I think the finding the off market opportunity, something that's widely marketed, you might not find that. So I want to go back to what you were saying about finding the right neighborhood because how do you know if a neighborhood is really going to turn? I mean, you mentioned keep going south in Philly and you're in Washington, your friends thought you were crazy. But like, you know, I don't know what's the next sub market in la? Where and what are the attributes and how do you know it's going to be, you know, it's going to pop? Because just to counter that, you could say, well, you know, in a market where, you know, there's a correction, people are going to return, there's going to be a flight back to kind of quality, people are, you know, going to, you know, whether it's New York City, people might look to jump back into Manhattan. So, you know, how do you think about all that?

You know, I can't speak for LA because the only thing I've bought in LA is my own personal residence. Would I invest there? No, I wouldn't buy a long term rental in Los Angeles. The returns are too bad. Maybe I'd do a flip in la, but I wouldn't buy a long term rental. I don't buy long term rentals in pricey markets where returns are low. So for example, in a market like Philly, you know, I just, I know my neighborhoods, I know what's going on, I know what businesses are there. I know I typically look at what, what public transportation is relatively close. Like how quickly can I get into the city from here, what businesses are here, how quickly can I get off of the freeway to this particular pocket? You know, and when I looked in South Philly, for example, and I eventually got Priced out of South Philly. It just became too expensive. Even south of Washington got too expensive. You know, I looked at neighborhoods or areas that were already developing, and this didn't take rocket science, James. I was like, all right, well, this area is really expensive. So I literally just went block by block further and further south and said, you know what? Chances are like, it will move this way. I mean, that doesn't take a whole lot of like, you know, formulas or calculations to figure out, like, all right, if it's happening here, eventually folks are going to get priced out of this particular pocket or this particular neighborhood. And if I go just a few blocks south or a few blocks west or a few blocks north, I can probably pick up something that'll where this wave of development will come. You know, I tried to, and I actually even called this wrong. When I started looking in South Philly. I was trying to stay relatively close to the main street that runs through Philadelphia is Broad Street. And I was like, all right, I got to stay close to Broad street because the public transportation line that the subway runs like right down Broad Street. So I was like, all right, if I stay close to that in South Philly, I should be good. Hell, I could have been. I could have been 12 blocks off abroad. And it came like it flooded the development and increases in values flooded that whole market. I didn't even have to stay close to Broad Street.

Awesome. So tell me a little bit about your social media presence. I mean, you post some really cool stuff and again, if you go to your website, you can sign up for your E Blast where you say, go from cash low to cash flow. Love it. So talk about you're a thought leader, you're an influencer. What kind of advice are you giving people right now? Talk a little bit about that.

You know, I focus on a few things. I kind of believe in this idea of like just a trifecta or a three legged stool. So there's three things I primarily talk about and promote in terms of ownership. One is stocks. I try to be very careful and generic about my stock advice because as a securities broker, I can't be construed as giving advice via social media. So you'll never see me on Instagram or Twitter where I am mostly you'll never see me on there saying you should, you know, go buy Apple. But what I will talk about is I'll talk about my very first investment in Apple. My very first investment in Apple. I bought it in March of 2007. I was 27 or 28 years. I was 27 years old. I had 8,600 bucks. And I was like, how about, you know, I hear they're consolidating this thing. My, you know, this, this. My ipod and my cell phone into this thing called an iPhone. And I think that that sounds like a neat concept. So I threw my 8,600 bucks in there, and a couple days actually yesterday, that 8,600 bucks that I never touched was worth 430,000. So I'll tweet. I'll tweet that. Just the power of holding this stock for 13 years. And the interesting thing is, and I've tweeted about that initial purchase, and I bought Apple subsequently numerous times over the years. But I've tweeted that, and people say things like, oh, it was easy to hold Apple over the last 13 years. Sure, anybody could have held Apple over 13 years. Last 13 years. And I'm like, yeah, but you guys conveniently forget the iconic leader who ran Apple got really sick. And people were saying, yeah, Steve Jobs is what's making Apple. Like, if something happens to him, you guys should probably slave stock. And then he subsequently passed in 2011, and people were like, apple is dead. Like, he. You guys should sell your stock. With the increased competition from Droid, I mean. I mean, Apple has had a number of issues over the last 13 years, and a lot of investors, a lot of folks who owned it for a variety of different reasons, and a lot of different. A lot of different issues have subsequently sold. Sold the stock for whatever reason. So those are the things that I talk about in terms of equities, like, you know, just. Just buy good companies and hold them a really, really, really, really, really long time. As it pertains to the next piece that I talk about, real estate, I'll typically show. I mean, I do massive projects. Philly. Philly has extreme poverty. So some of the buildings that I was purchasing back in 2012 or 13 or 14 from the Philadelphia tax lien auction, I mean, these are people who lost their homes not having paid $187 annual tax bills. So they lost their house because they didn't pay the taxes on the property that were $187 a year. Now, if you. Yeah, if you didn't pay your house, if you didn't pay your taxes at 187 bucks a year, you certainly didn't. Didn't get your roof fixed. You didn't fix the plumbing. So the. The. The type of conditions these homes that I buy are, I mean, it's like it hasn't had a roof in 20 years. So I post some of the before and after shots of just how I'm restoring a lot of these neighborhoods. And that actually means a heck of a lot to me because I even posted one video of a neighbor who was like, this house has been an eyesore on our block for decades. That makes me extremely happy to know that I'm putting a positive spin on community. I mean, they don't deserve to have an abandoned house on their block for decades. So I talk about that as it pertains to real estate. I talk about some of the numbers. I talk about the benefits of owning real estate. Owning real estate. And I also talk about why there is a significant need for owning businesses, particularly in a black community. I mean, if you look at some of the numbers, I mean, black people are like, the last to get hired. The first to get hired. Well, I mean. Sorry. The last to get hired and the first to get fired. So if we have more owners who look like us, I mean, I. You know, my assistant in my office, she looks like me. I pay her very well. So I talk about the need for more black people, more people of color owning businesses. If we've got problems with what percentage of CEOs of S&P 500 companies are black or people of color, then what are we doing about it? Like, let's go start some businesses then and hire people who look like us or promote people who look like us. So those are the things that I primarily talk about on my social media page.

Fantastic. And so needed, especially at this time. So you have an incredible story. This has been a really, really incredible, inspiring story again for our listeners. We only have a couple minutes left. So what advice would you give to someone and maybe to the college student who's out there right now? And, you know, when you were telling your story about buying something for the first time with 108% financing, and I forgot to ask you at the time, so I'll ask you now in closing, but, like, do those deals even exist today? So if someone doesn't have the money to put down right now, you know, how would you advise them to jump in and get in the game?

You know, I'm a little sorry about that. Can you hear me okay? I'm a little. I'm a little old school in the sense that even though I didn't have to finance my deal with cash, I had the cash. So when people. People ask me that a lot, like, you know, how do I. Because you'll Hear these gurus out there. Like I've heard, I can buy a property with no credit and no money down, you know, so how can I do that? My response to that is don't like go save some, go save some capital and fix your credit first, you know, because I think that there are, there are a ton of issues that we can come up against as real estate investors. And I think that having first the discipline to be able to accumulate enough money to acquire real estate will take you a long way in being an owner and being a landlord and in being an investor. Some really good advice that I'd have for somebody who's in college right now is there's a, I recently wrote a book that is specifically for new investors. I mean, it's the book that every like 15 to 22 year olds should read. It's like the book I wish I had when I was a kid. It's called Mud to Millions and it's the number two. It's on Amazon either through paperback or Kindle. I would go read that book. It's the stuff that is first about mindset. I say all the time that mindset is the genesis of wealth creation and it talks a lot about like all the things that you need to think about to be a successful investor. It tells a little bit of my story and it's a super quick book. Like self help books are extremely boring for me. They're usually too long. I'm like, what the hell is this guy talking about? So it's a super quick read. It's a fun read, it's a fast read. It's my story. Some of the things I've shared on our talk here are documented in the book. A little bit more at length. That's some great advice and there's a ton of jewels in there that I think would benefit folks.

Awesome. Well, this has been fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us today. And last question, where do our listeners find you? I plugged your website. Definitely they should check out your book, but what are your social media handles? Where else can they find you?

Yeah, so I'm on, typically on Instagram and Twitter. I have a Facebook page page, but I very rarely check it. Instagram and Twitter, you can find me at my name at Aisha Selvin. No spaces, no underscores or anything like that. I'm always on there. I'm on socials, particularly Twitter every day.

Perfect. Well, I'm sure our listeners will check you out and follow you with all your successes. So thank you again for Joining this is James Nelson, your host of Real Estate Investing Live from New York.

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A Different Approach to Putting Our Clients First Avis and Young's Tri State Investment Sales Group sells multifamily office, retail, development and specialty sales throughout the New York metro area. As experienced thought leaders in their industry, our 35 member group is available to help you make informed investment decisions by advising you on your current holdings or identifying new opportunities in the marketplace. Our one unified team is built on an industry unique platform which promotes unparalleled collaboration and teamwork. We share core values of hard work, integrity and expertise. We put our clients first, providing tailor made strategies to achieve superior results. Please Visit us at aytristateinvestmentsales.com and follow us on Twitter LinkedIn and Instagram amesnelsonnyc to learn more. Thank you for tuning in this week to Real Estate Investing Live from New York. Please join your host James Nelson for another program next Tuesday at 7pm in New York, 4pm Pacific Time on the Voice America Business Channel. All shows are rebroadcast Wednesday mornings at 7:00am Eastern Time, 4:00pm Pacific Time, as well as always on demand. We'll talk again next week.