Cody breaks down three priorities before buying real estate: clarify your passive income target, do the math on how much property you need (e.g., $2 million in assets for $10,000/month at 6% return), and build relationships with experienced investors. He bought a 12-plex at 19 and stresses taking action over waiting.
Chapters
Hey, this is Cody, and in today's video I'm going to be going over the 3 things that I would want to prioritize if I didn't have the real estate I had today. Now, when I was 18 years old, I set a goal. I'm going to have a duplex by 21 years old. Now, luckily for me, I passed that goal. I was 19 years old, I bought my first 12-plex. But if that didn't happen, I would not have been able to buy my second 12-plex, my 6-plex, or the 38-plex, or the various buildings I'm under contract on today.. And most people that are in my age bracket, they do not have the type of real estate that I've acquired. And so I'm creating this YouTube to help you out. These are the 3 things I would prioritize if I hadn't gotten my first building. Number 1, I would clarify my goals. And what does that look like? How much money do you need to make on a monthly basis to live the lifestyle you want to live? When you're building out your goal, this could be for your future self. It doesn't need to be based on today. For myself, when I was 18 years old, I was like, if I can make $5,000 to $10,000 a month in passive income, I'm set. So what does that mean for you though? You get to your goal, then what? What does your life look like after you achieve that target? Once you realize, oh, that's attainable, what do you do next? Build that out, write that out, and clarify what your life looks like once you get there and what it requires to get there. Next, and this is really important, you got to do the math. Now, a lot of people don't like to do the math. I understand. Math sucks. Math is not very fun, but it is a tool that allows you to map out realistically what it takes to get to where you want to go. If you want to make $10,000 a month net when your properties are all paid off, let's say you're making a 6% return. Granted, you can do much better than 6%, but the math on that is you need $2 million of real estate. Paying 6%, that's $120,000 a year, $10,000 a month. Boom, you did the math. Now, how do you go get it? How do you go get that property? If you do 5% down seller financing, you trade $100,000 for $2 million. And if it never goes up in value, if rents never go up, and all you do is let your tenants, who are really nice people, pay it off over time, and you make sure you're providing a great place for them to live, you give that enough time, eventually you'll own it outright. And you'll be making $10,000 a month. So clarify your goals, do the math, and that'll establish how long it actually will take you to hit your timeline. And then step 3, start taking action. That doesn't just mean, oh, I'm gonna go buy a piece of real estate tomorrow, 'cause that's a little bit difficult, but build out your connections. Everything that you want, everything that you want to own, everything you want to know, everything you wanna see, someone else has or has done. So you need to build up your connections. This is the most important thing. A lot of people focus on, oh, I need to just go save, save, save. I would make the argument that you take your money and you trade it for some connections. Take the money and trade it for time with other people who have done what you're looking to do. Even if it's a lot of money, it is worth investing into yourself, especially if you're a younger investor. And remember, how are you not worth it? How are you not worth that connection? How are you not worth the investment in yourself? You can't lose that. And maybe you could lose it. I mean, if you get hit by a bus, then it doesn't matter anyway, right? So make sure that you're working on yourself and trading that money. Yeah, you got to save some for investments, but trade it for your connections. Trade it for time with other people who have done what you want to do. So clarify your goals, do the math, and then get connected with folks. Take action. Start making sure you're going out and trying to buy real estate. That means you got to go walk real estate. That means you got to go connect with people that own real estate. And remember, the people that own real estate probably have friends who own real estate. So once you get connected with them, you have an opportunity to go connect with more people. So keep working on yourself every day. Try these 3 things out. Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions, and I'll see you guys next time.
