Real Estate Investing Tips & Franchise Growth Strategies with Rhyan Finch (Ep. 38)

Welcome to the Ideas by Mike podcast, where your one-of-a-kind life meets a one-of-a-kind financial plan. Every episode, we provide insights into financial markets, discuss strategies for navigating Wall Street, and explore how to make informed decisions in a constantly evolving financial landscape. All with the goal of helping you. So sit back, relax. This is not your typical money show. We're going to be all in on helping you live a one-of-a-kind life. Welcome back to the Ideas by Mike podcast. This is Mike, your host. Uh, today we are— I am thrilled, right, to introduce you guys to Ryan Finch. He's the owner, CEO, and principal broker of First Class Real Estate. Now, when I say this man has built something extraordinary, I mean it. Ryan started as a single real estate agent back in 2005 and has grown his company to over 1,300 agents in so many states he can't even remember how many states there are. But this is what makes his story so compelling for our audience. He didn't just stumble into success. Like so many entrepreneurs we feature, he saw opportunity where others saw disaster. He also is very missionally driven, also having been quoted to say that their company is there to change lives and sell a few homes along the way. So I am so excited to introduce our guests or our people who listen to our podcast to Ryan Finch. Well, welcome to the show.

Thanks, man. Thanks for having me, Mike.

So, Ryan, what makes you one of a kind?

I don't know. That's, that's a tough question. Um, you know, I, I, you know, I think ultimately God gives everybody a, a purpose in their heart for whatever that purpose is, and then obviously gives them the gifts to be able to fulfill that. And so, you know, I, I guess, you know, it just depends on the world standard of whatever would make you one of a kind is based on whatever it is that, you know, you've accomplished.

Well, that's, that's a great answer, right? And, and people, people struggle with that, with that question a lot. when we get here, right? Because people don't want to brag about who they are. But then I always lead in with this question, like, tell me your journey. Tell me like how you got started in the real estate business and how you grew from just yourself to now a national franchise and more.

Yeah. So, I mean, you know, ultimately I think that everybody has all these decisions they have to make along the way and, you know, things that happen, right? It's not always what happens. You know, what happens to you, but you know, how you respond to it. And, you know, part of that was just, I, my aunt gave me a Rich Dad Poor Dad book when I was around, I think I was around 21 or so. And so, so anyway, that got me intrigued into real estate, but I was still in the plumbing industry. It wasn't until going through a divorce that I was really willing to make the move, you know? And I, so at some point, my, you know, I was dropping my daughter off to a daycare. You know, she's 3 years old, or I think, you know, roughly around 3 years old. And I just went, man, I'm— this isn't gonna be the life for me. You know, I don't want to drop her off, miss school plays, you know, or whatever. And so I, you know, I had to make a change and I happened to be playing softball with a guy named Lonnie and at the church softball team. And then I saw him drive up in this Cadillac Escalade and I was like, I want to do what you do. You know? And so he helped me transition to get into real estate.

Oh, wow. So, uh, first, first, uh, uh, when, when you first started in the business, right, it was right before the financial crash, right? The mortgage. How were those first 5 to 10 years in business for you?

Um, well, I mean, ultimately it wasn't— I think I maybe had a year, uh, at some point of it being decent. And, uh, you know, I, I was— I found success kind of early, you know, when I plugged into a team and leads and whatever. I wasn't afraid of work ethic, but I also had to work in a time constraint because it was still picking up and dropping off, you know, with my time constraint with my daughter. And I really never worked a Sunday. I mean, so, you know, I had those constraints. Maybe it was mentally, but I just always just kind of lived that way. But the, but, you know, it was decent. I mean, I, you know, I went from making a, like a $40,000 a year as a plumber to, you know, about $100,000 a year in that first year, you know, take home. You know, I still had to pay taxes and stuff like that. So, so I had a significant bump.

So when you, when you made that significant jump from $40,000 to $100,000, right, we, we, our audience speaks to both people who are, who are retired, but it also speaks to people who are trying to accumulate or trying to jump the hurdle, right, you know, and try to move on to the next hurdle in life. When you went from a $40,000 to $100,000 income, How much did your life really change then from a financial standpoint?

Well, it changed a lot because you'd have thought I went from $40,000 to a million the way I changed my lifestyle. But essentially, I went to the Super Bowl that year. The Bears win 2006 Super Bowl. So I went to that, but then quickly I said, oh, okay, now I'll get a bigger house and a nicer car because I thought this'll last forever. It's almost like that pride creeps in. And so, You start making those decisions on leverage and I did that, but obviously I quickly found out it was like touching the stove. It's hot and you almost never want to do that again. So I ended up having to pay off a lot of debt and navigate and figure it out from there.

So that was, I mean, that's an amazing context that you just put, right? That you went from 40 to 100, but you felt like it was a million because of your life.

Yeah.

But like, I mean, that, that, that right there is like what happens to so many people, right? They, they, they just, they, they don't get into it from a financial standpoint. And when their income jumps, they don't save. They don't start thinking about the future. They start thinking about now and like, how can I enjoy my life now? We want people to like be one of a kind and live where they are now. But you also got to think about your future self a little bit too. And so when you build out When you build out your, your franchise, right? When you build out First Class, was that really when you started thinking about the future? Like how you could perpetuate yourself and your business far beyond what you guys were already doing just in Virginia Beach?

Um, yeah, I mean, and, and just to circle back on the, the first part of this is, you know, at some point I had $50 in my bank account, you know, so I had overleveraged and I had to, to go dig back, you know, and, and ultimately I, you know, I realized the part of this I realized was, What's not attractive is trying to make money, pay taxes, and put money aside to get that money making money. I didn't— that just seems like the slow boat to China, right? And so all of that is, I had to do that, but now on top of it, I had to pay back debt. And you fast forward into, there was a long series of time of reading and learning and developing that took place between $50 in the bank account to when the franchise opens up. And We ended up going into REO, which helped me kind of catapult by bringing in more money, which is bank-owned properties. So I ended up selling a bunch of properties nationwide, and then obviously that shifted. And so the important factor I think that I took away is there's always a shift coming and going, right? And so what I learned of that was to get ahead of that shift instead of being behind, instead of being reactive to what was going on, trying to be proactive, like, hey, where are we going? And Ultimately, I think that's where a lot of people find a lot of success is in less reactive and more getting lucky, if you will, or they're taking the time, whether it's through prayer or focus or watching past things instead of wallowing in, all right, I could live in that. I had $50 in my bank account and I was overleveraged to, or going to the side of, okay, well, if that happened, then what's going to happen next? Okay, if that happened, then what's going to happen next? And now you start focusing on the future. And that's kind of what happened for us is that I focused on the future of saying, all right, this market may be compressed. I need to figure out a way to be skinny in this industry and also to create something that couldn't be taken away. Because when I was doing the REO for Fannie Mae, they could take that away because it was their business. And so the market could take it away. And going into it is adding in the part where I said the slow boat to China is You have to take that money and apply it somewhere. I had to double down the money I had now finally gotten to stability again, paid back all the debt, got some money squirreled away, and now I had to double down. I was losing $50,000 a month to get to the level we're talking about. And that's a lot of pain, you know? And ultimately, I think a lot of people have to get to a place to get to a better financial situation is all based on how much pain you can endure.

So, I mean, uh, you would be— from the outside, people would look at you and say, Ryan, man, you're a very successful entrepreneur. They would look at— they would look and just say, you know, look where you are now versus where you were 20 years ago. Because, I mean, when you became an agent, that was 2005. It was 20 years ago. The, uh, you mentioned there were some books that you read along the way, and you've already mentioned Rich Dad Poor Dad, right? What are some of the other 2, 3, 4 books, uh, and, you know, Bible is probably one of the ones right at the top of yours, but like, what, what other books, maybe even context from the Bible or otherwise, have really, uh, helped you, uh, when it comes to like taking risk and being, uh, you know, an amazing entrepreneur?

Um, well, I don't know that I'm an amazing entrepreneur, but the, um, But the flip side of it is that the answer to your question, uh, that, that really predicates everything is that, uh, we're managers, right? And so the, the management style of everything inside of the Bible then says that because I'm a manager, I need to be educated in what I'm doing. I need to know what I'm doing. I need to use the right— like, you, you have all these, uh, outside interferences. Like, I even think of this all the time. My competition is with the world, which means they can lie, they can deceive, they can do all these other things. So I'm up against that. And it's hard if 2 consumers are looking at a product that they can be deceived because they're not, they don't have the same guidelines I have. So I'm like, I almost feel like I'm behind. At the same time, I know that that gives me a divine advantage as well. So, but the other side of it is, yeah, that management style is that I just want to be a good manager of what's in front of me. And so whether that's the monetary, the relationships, And different things like that. So then it forces me to get up and read. It forces me to pick up the books or do the podcasts or do the things that I have to do to drive and grow to getting further along to be a better manager. And I think ultimately, it also comes down to our identity and we're going to look at ourselves as a 1, 3, or 5 talent person. And so when you start looking at it that way, if you're a 5 talent person, then you need to be managing your house. You need to be managing your personal finances. You need to be helping other people. You need to be Um, you know, doing the things that you have to do to keep developing. Otherwise, you're not really a 5 talent person.

So, so you, um, um, you were living in Virginia Beach, right? Um, uh, you and your wife made the decision with— you're not retired. You, you made the decision to move to Florida, uh, what some would say is at the height of like your operations. here. Um, that, that's often not done, right? Or, or at least it's not done by people who are really running successful businesses to just move down to another— why, why did you do that? Why'd you move to Florida?

You know, uh, uh, I'm trying to figure out which version of this I want to explain to you. All right. So, uh, because it's, you know, it's more of an elaborate story and same time people will get stuck in the weeds, but the long and short of it, I think really is we— I got to a place where I just didn't want more. More isn't satisfying. And once you realize you don't want more, like there's—

Yeah.

It's not one more sale. It's not one more office. It's not one more agent. It's not one more and one more and one more. You're at a place where the harder you work, you're not making or losing any more money. That is just monetization is kind of at a standstill, if you will. It doesn't mean you can't double down, but you're not going to risk what you have to go for the next level of it. At the same time, you're stuck because you're in essentially a job. So you're either going to exit or whatever. And then even if you exit, you got to pay taxes to move on. to something else. And so, you know, we wanted something as a quality of life. We felt that God was leading us to make this transition and move. And, you know, we did it. We took the steps that were there, and then those pieces kind of came together to allowing us to do it, which, you know, helped us believe, you know, kind of following the steps of what we believed we were supposed to do.

How's the move been for you? How was Florida now?

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I love Florida. I absolutely love it. It's really been good for my mental energy, you know, and things like that. The, I've always wanted to have blue water nearby and things like that. I thrive in better weather. So I feel like I can contribute more. Flip side is you're starting from scratch. You don't know anybody. Everybody else, if I needed this done, I could call somebody and I already had that relationship because I've been there for 45 years. It's tougher. We had to do construction on a house here. We had to move stuff here. So a lot of those things, we had to move our son and get him into school. It's coming along. Someone told me it'd take about a year to get situated. I said, yeah, right. I'll plug in really quick and easy. And it just hasn't necessarily been that easy. We had 3 hurricanes. You start looking at it like, is this us going to Nineveh? Like, are we supposed to be turning and going back? So you have those things going through your mind. It was funny. I told my family even before this year, I said, listen, we're not going to have any hurricanes this year. So I said, watch, it's not going to be. I was like, I That was all just kind of a testing and a process you got to go through. And, you know, I, that was just my feeling about it.

That's great. Let's get in the weeds a little bit of what people like are just wondering is happening in the real estate market today, right? So here we are, we're in the middle of September 2025, just for context in case people are listening to this. outside of that timeframe. Um, so to, to, uh, real estate has, uh, you know, rates have started coming down and on the, on, on the residential side. Um, we, we tell people all the time that their wealth, most people's wealth's created one of 3 ways. They either own a business, they're putting money in a 401, or it's their real estate.

Okay.

Uh, yet so many people are, are, um, are hesitant to jump in when rates are at this level, right? Even though they're down a little bit from their highs, they're hesitant to jump in. I mean, I remember buying my first house at an 8% mortgage rate, and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. But like, where— when you're talking to— let's, let's do this in a couple ways. Let's talk about like the people in their 20s and 30s with real estate. What, what advice would you give to somebody who's maybe renting and needs to kind of get into the game when it comes to real estate?

There's a lot of different variables that are going on at the same time, right? So one is the cost of living is going up, which is compressing. So I know that psychologically holding people that are renting back, that they're like squeezed because the interest rates are high and the sales prices are high and they don't want to buy high when they have this inflationary thing going on that the cost of milk and eggs, if it's going up, is that then I eventually can't afford my house, right? So they've, They have those. And I think it's just important in that context to really understand that a lot of this is tied to the Fed's balance sheet. So as much money is made is also tied to how much cost of goods and things are going to inflate. And so ultimately having something, if you think that inflation's going to continue, then you'd want to have as many things as you can against that, whether that's houses and real estate or whatever that is for you. And so if you think that it's not, and we're going to have a market where they're going to remove that money from the balance sheet, and I think this is what we don't know, nobody's going to know until it happens. And so, you know, so they've got the squeeze, you've got the inflationary side, then you can add in kind of the interest rates and the tax laws, right? And so essentially Trump's passed these new laws that allow you for this bonus depreciation that you can do on real estate. So that can double up. And I think everything in the lever is, You've got inflation, you've also got the money that would have to go out, and then you've got interest rates, and then you've got tax savings, right? And so, you know, it just depends on where you're at in that equation to what you're trying to do. If you're trying to save on taxes, real estate is now a decent way to do that, even bearing the interest rates. So it's just the cost of business. And if you can get in with the low tax savings and then refinance later, great. If rates go up, you'll be glad you did it. At the same time, if housing If housing prices come down, then, you know, so there's not really an easy answer, right? In any of this, it's just going to be different for everybody, but at least know the levers, interest rate, you know, the tax savings, and then inflationary things. You know, those are your kind of your decisions and levers to decide on.

And so, you know, we talked about like people in their 20s and 30s about getting in, and then you just started talking about like different tax codes, right? And that's mainly for the investors. Like Trump now allows bonus depreciation on like real estate. So like, where are some of the best places for people to invest in real estate now? And I mean, like, is Florida a great place? Is where, where, where, where's the, where, where do you see opportunity for people?

I want to answer that, but I want to say one thing real quick. So you talked about the 20s. I was, I think, 19 when I bought my first house. And I think I was 23 when I bought the second house. And so, Whatever their mindset is at that point in time, it was the height as well because that was in, you know, that too before 2000, it was a good time to buy. And then after, we're very much in a cyclical thing. So 1920 to 1929, and then you had 1999 to 2008, right? Like, so you have these same 8, 9-year cycles. We seem to be in a mid one of those as well because again, it's about money coming in and the inflationary and then how they handle it. But that's a whole other Copying. My point is really the identity of the right time, whether you're 20, you have more opportunity for risk. So, which means you would want to buy it, especially if you knew you had 20 or 30 years. If you're older, it gets a little more scary to buy real estate because if it goes down, you may be at a down cycle when you need it the most. And I, that's the emotion that goes on in any investment. I think so. Going into where's the right place to buy, People, I think, look at real estate that way. And I think there's a global side of, if you're following hedge funds or where they were going to go in and buy. And so they may go into multifamily, they may go outta residential and into more multifamily. And that would be because interest rates on multifamily, they have a cycle of when they have to refinance. And so if they were at a 3% rate, now 5 years has gone by, they now are at 8, and that changes the cap rate. So it's an opportunity for cash to come in and buy. I don't think the people watching this are really going to be in that spot, but it doesn't mean that there's not an opportunity for that as well. But going back to it is, it's not that way. There's an opportunity in every market. And for most, I think that it's not buying outside of where we feel comfortable. It's more so buying where we can go touch it and feel it. And we know, you know, there's a railroad track there versus if I just showed you a picture of a house in a state, 3 states away, you don't know what the backyard looks like. You don't know if it backs up to a graveyard, right? Like, so looks like a good deal, but all of a sudden proximity matters. And so I would pay attention to that. And then before you go, the other thing is if there's 2,000 houses on the market now and there used to be 1,000, well, there was 1,000 selling then and there's 1,000 selling now, which means houses are still moving. It just means when there's 2,000 houses on the market and only 1,000 are moving, there's more opportunity to buy at a discount because somebody has a need to sell and you're buying it, is solving their problem. And where we're at today, potentially they're still in a profit.

So there's so many ways to invest in real estate now, right? I mean, so obviously buying your personal home, but then there's also, you can invest to be like a long-term renter or to have long-term renters. You could, You could buy real estate to have like set up an Airbnb business, right? But there's other ways to invest in real estate now just beyond kind of those mainstream ways. Like private placements have come out now where you can actually invest in either a private or a public fund that then will lend money out to people.

Mm-hmm.

I guess the best thing to do is, and you know, we don't have access to those every day, but like, Well, what are, uh, so, so first of all, explain like what a, a private placement real estate lending fund is and what people should be looking out for when they see those in the, in the marketplace.

Yeah, so any of those funds, any fund is going to be regulated, right? So then they're, you're, you know, you're, you're safer in that. It's when you go to any private side, you need to be able to pay some attention to whatever's going on in a fund. There shouldn't be a private side fund, if you will. Like, so Okay. It should always be a regulated type fund. And then that's when people obviously are coming together to go into a common purpose of whatever that is real estate-wise, if they're going in to purchase something. Now, I will give you a trade-off that usually is set up for us to be able to put a smaller amount. So like I went into one of those, I put $100 grand in, and then they went and bought an apartment. Now, I know that you have LP and GP investors on that, which means I know I'm on one side of that versus the other. They're not doing— they're borrowing my money to give me a return to leverage to be able to borrow money. And so it has a variable risk, but it also means they're going to get the higher upside. But I have more of a passive approach, right? And so if I invest in that, then I have more of a passive approach versus if I'm on the other side and I'm raising capital, I have to do the more active side, which is why I want the upside. So just so people understand that, it's like, it's not going to be a get-rich thing where you're going to go in and get an 8% rate, you know, and then potential upside on that, on that investment of a fund. And usually it'll be something bigger, right? You've got $50, $100 million properties where they're going in and you're putting in an incremental amount. You can't expect to have but so much return. At the same time, it's invested, it's safe by real estate, and you are hoping and betting a little bit on that management team.

Well, the interesting part is what a lot of people just don't realize is that by being in like a fund, that is regulated, uh, and you earning a 7% or an 8% return on that. Um, when you put money in a bank, right, money goes into a bank. Well, bank just then uses your deposits to lend. That's real estate, right? The difference between like being in a private regulated fund and being in a bank is that is the spread is not going to the bank. The spread is going to the investor.

Yeah, that's right.

And so it's like the interesting part about this is like, you know, you're trading off like a bank on real estate, you know, they're picking the real estate versus you going into a fund with trusted partners that you can actually manage with. The difference there is just like one's backed by the FDIC, right? And so is double the rate worth the insurance? Or is it, if you're still, if you're working with really good partners, is it, is it worth it to get the enhanced rate to keep pace with inflation and do other things? And so like, so, so you explained it very well. A couple things you mentioned in there was LPs and GPs, limited partners, general partners, just for people to catch the terminology there. So, so now you mentioned private, that's really more like hard money lending.

Yeah.

Non-regulated thing. That's when you're talking about private, you're talking about like hard money loans, right?

Yeah. Yeah. When I say that is some people may go into an LLC and you may set up something where if I said me and you are going to go into a property on our own where we are funding it together, right? And so there's regulations when it hits, when you have too many investors into that, it becomes a larger piece. I did want to go back on something you said earlier. You said the For the apartment side, if the people are going in, the upside and the downside. Well, you have places where you can park money and get a higher rate of return against a yield right now and borrow back against it. I mean, I know you know that, but then people will have that where they can add a lever in. And then the other side, if they're putting that money in, the advantage that comes in different from a bank than it does from putting into a fund would be is if they pick up that asset, like we talked about, they become an investor. And then those tax laws allow them to take maybe even a negative K-1, which means that investment can give them back a negative tax write-off. Obviously they need to seek their CPA and look at each fund accordingly, but if they're doing that, they can have that. So again, it always comes down to these purposes. If I can actively take my money and go make it more money, then I would want to, then I could do that. At the same time, I'll run out of time to how much active income I can use with my money. to how much passive. And I think that's where all of these setups really come into deciding the length and term. And I think you probably guide most people on that, right? Like you're helping them decide at their date, their age, how much time they have, how much liquidity they have. And all of those pieces, there's not an easy answer to this, right? Like everybody's going to be a little different.

Well, the thing that I find interesting about the, I mean, the advent is like, These real estate funds that are coming onto the market now that are regulated, they're just coming fast and furious. Like they are, people are trying to raise capital different than the way capital was raised in the past. Right.

We actually have, did you know we have a CF fund?

I think I did know that. And so explain to people what that is.

So we have a CF fund, it's a crowdfund, and you can do up to $5 million with a crowdfund. And then with ours, we have a pref, a preferred rate, 8%, which means they get paid 8% 8% before we take anything. And then from there we split it 50/50 after that, right? And so that's the, you know, going into, we were talking about going into a fund. You can go into a fund that's regulated. And so that's all covered, has all the disclosures and everything.

So then, and there's, are those for accredited investors or people who are not accredited?

Good question. So because it's a CF, you can be accredited and not accredited, but with non-accredited, It kind of has a regulation. Everything's set up to protect you so you don't go in and put all your money into a fund and then it'd be mismanaged by somebody. So that way they have an educated risk. Obviously accredited, we kind of look at things, we have a different tolerance for risk like I was talking about earlier.

And so people who operate CF funds like you guys do, when somebody puts money there, how do you guys then invest the money? to be able to make sure the 8% return is given? Like, what's the backside look like from like, how is capital deployed?

Yeah. So when we do that, we end up taking kind of a couple different strategies because the ideal goal is to get that money making the most amount of money with also mitigating and managing risk. Right. And so, and at the same time, it's work to find the right strategies and the right things that are there. And so, you know, the ultimately, I think most people, They, what I found is they don't end up doing it. They don't do a crowdfund. They don't do something like this because 8% doesn't sound attractive and they don't, they're not necessarily as clear on the other side. And the same as what you're talking about with raising money for apartments is it, you know, they can run in that rate and you just have to know that they're using that money to make money. And then it just has to, you have to understand it and make sure it's the right fit for you. And so ultimately when we go into that, we'll look at a couple different things. And going back to what we were talking about with the real estate is there's opportunities with real estate to buy it at a discount. And so for us having access to that, we then know that we can go in and borrow against it knowing that it's secured by an asset and that ultimately we have a borrower or wherever, however we're lending it against the asset is we can get the payments coming in on a cash flow and on top of it secured by real estate. And then it should be at a discount kind of a model for what we feel safe is to be able to put the money in once we're doing it, which everything has a risk, but you're looking for the best return for the best way to invest it.

The interesting part is you said like 8% doesn't sound that interesting, right? But you gotta remember, like our listeners, right? The Federal Reserve just cut rates by a quarter percent. They said they're going to do it 2 more times in 2025. Right. And again, at least one more time in 2026. So people, money that's in like high-yield savings accounts are now going to become low-yield savings accounts. Right.

Right.

Because, because, you know, what was once over 5%—

Yes.

Yeah. We're going to, we're going to go down to half of that amount. And the interesting part about these, and I, you know, I, I, what most people don't realize is, you know, you, I'll talk to people and they say, I got a high-yield savings account earning 5%. And I'm like, have you checked the rate lately? Because like a group like Ally or Marcus or any of those people, they don't have to tell you when they lower the rates. They just, they just do it in the back, in the background. And then all of a sudden, if you don't pay attention, right, your rate's all of a sudden at 3.5% and then it's all of a sudden at 2.5%. And, and it's a, it's just an interesting thing. So like I would tell you, if you have a high yield savings account, go actually look and see what the rate is. Because the rate, that initial intro or teaser rate is probably not the same thing you've got now.

Well, and so, and so these, these add in the, what you're saying adds in a layer of things. So when you have that line of credit, when you have that money there, you can actually add a line of credit secured against that cash. So you can get, uh, you know, 4.5 or whatever it is, and it's tied to a line of credit, which is usually a, you know, a prime plus or, you know, whatever. Mm-hmm. And then, then it, when one moves, the other moves. So I do like that concept that, that is set up there as a vehicle. And then you can use that money as arbitrage to go. Now the payment's paying it, right? So if you borrow 75% of 100%, And the rate has that different variance, then technically the interest you're making is paying the interest. So now you're free money using your money to go, if you can do active. Now again, I don't like the idea of double levering, but I just wanted to throw that concept out as one of them. There's something else I was going to say, but I forgot what it was now.

So you guys obviously do a lot in the real estate world, right? From selling property, buying property, flipping property, You know, you have a fund that, you know, is there. You also, guys, also partner people together for hard money loans. And so, like, if people wanted to, to be educated more on this, like, how do they, you know, how do they reach out to you? How do they reach out to your team to learn more?

So we have a company called IFC. So you can, you can go and go to the IFC page. We have a Facebook and Instagram as well as, you know, you can go online. They can reach out to me. My Instagram in real estate is Real Estate Ryan. Ryan is R-H-Y-A-N. So Real estate, right? They can reach out to me and then I can put them through. And yeah, we've set up a unique thing. We set it up kind of for ourselves and it just, it moved into something else. It's just, it's a unique format that ultimately, because it's commercial lending, when you have flipping houses, this is not for personal use. This is for flipping houses or buy it and then you do what's called a DSCR. So now you can refinance it into a rental rate and you can build a portfolio. So because, remember I was telling you earlier, is I started learning where the market's going, right? And so you mentioned that rate. I said the CF fund is at 8% and that's not real attractive. It wasn't real attractive at the other number, but it becomes more attractive as rates go down. I think that's what you were alluding to, especially if it has a 50% upside of if we win, we're splitting that as well. Then the other side is the hard money lending is, we have this unique situation where we can lend people money. And so we have our own money in this, we lend it out and then people can borrow it to buy properties, rehab them, and then again refinance. And then we have it as a place where people that say, hey, I want to secure my money there. Now, again, this is not a fund because they're doing it one property, one deal, right? Like, so you have the first position on that property, And ideally at 70%, then they can review that property. If that property makes sense, it's the right place, the right numbers, the right investor, and they want to do it, then we present that offer to them and then they can invest in it. And then they would get paid monthly interest, usually at 12% on that rate. Wow.

That's good. Well, when we talk to people around the country in our firm, right? One of the conversations people always want to talk more about is real estate. Because it is hot, right? You know, 25 years ago, the only real estate people wanted to talk about was their personal residence, right? And then they wanted to talk about mutual funds and ETFs. Now, now it's flipped, right? People love talking about real estate because they see people getting wealthy through doing things in real estate.

Yeah.

And so, Ryan, I appreciate your time today. I mean, our listeners are going to absolutely love that. So if you guys want to connect with Ryan, Instagram, it's Real Estate Ryan, R-H-Y-A-N. You can look for— you can find IFC on Facebook and Instagram, and he'll put you in contact with folks there. So Ryan, thanks for joining us today.

Yeah, thanks for having me on. Thanks for having me on. Appreciate it.

Thank you for joining us today on the Ideas by Mike podcast. This has been Mike Milligan, your host, where I look to bring Real-world conversations with you of people changing the game in the financial planning, investment, and retirement income space. If you want to reach out to our firm to learn more, you can go to oneoakfinancial.com. That's the number one oak financial.com. One Oak Financial is a nationwide firm here to help you build a one-of-a-kind financial plan for your one-of-a-kind life. CFP Board owns the marks CFP®, Certified Financial Planner, and CFP® in the United States. As a reminder, Mike Milligan, Certified Financial Planner, is an investment advisor representative of Advisory Alpha LLC, an SEC-registered investment advisory firm. All opinions expressed by me or our guests are solely our own opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Advisory Alpha. This recording is for informational purposes only. It should not be relied on for investment, tax, or legal decisions, and it's in no way intended to communicate or guarantee specific performance or suitability of any security instrument or product as we may have discussed. Investment advisory and financial planning services offered through Advisory Alpha LLC, a registered investment advisor. Insurance is offered through Ideas by Mike, a Virginia-based LLC. Here to serve you in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Ideas by Mike is a separate and unaffiliated entity of Advisory Alpha LLC. While tax and legal issues may be discussed in the general course of financial and investment planning, Advisory Alpha does not provide tax or legal services. Please consult with your tax or legal professional prior to making a decision relative to those decisions. Any and all statements of purported or observed general practices of non-affiliated firms and advisors or conditions of the broad financial services industry are solely the opinions of Mike and are not intended to be offered as factual. The validity of these statements has not been verified, and as such, no representation of their validity are made. An annuity is a long-term financial product designed largely for asset accumulation and retirement needs. All guarantees are backed by the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. This podcast is produced in conjunction with Mike Milligan. LLC. Thank you again for joining us today. We'll see you on the next podcast.

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