Stuck in Hawaii to Commercial Property in Just 8 Months

Hey, C.J. kalio here. If you don't know who I am, I was a UPS driver and I built a portfolio up to 90 doors in less than five years. Now I teach working professionals to do the same. I'm here with one of my students in Kansas City, Lehua. We're going to talk a little bit more about your journey.

Okay.

Can you tell me a little bit about what you were doing before you got into real estate?

Absolutely. So I'm a local girl from Hawaii that had purchased three rental properties and just over the course of the last 10 years realizing that that was not going to cash flow the way we wanted to. So we had the homes but we didn't have the income. So my dream of quitting my job and just being a full time real estate investor was going to take an additional push to get me there.

So you started 10 years ago when you bought property in Hawaii. What was the play at the time?

So it was just to get good quality properties that we could rent for over the mortgage amount and put some money in our pockets and thinking over time that we were going to be able to increase and one day retirement. With that cash flow, what made you.

Shift to an out of state rental market?

So the price in the out of state market was a lot more reasonable to be able to cash flow. Because that's the point. The point is to be able to make money on your purchase and to use that money to cover your own expenses, to purchase other properties, to invest in other items. And in Hawaii, the cost for the homes and, you know, newer homes, desirable neighborhoods, things that people that are looking for, that you can ask for high rent on just required a lot more money towards it. So what that did is it took a lot of our savings and we're putting the money into the property, but we're not getting a lot of it out. So seeing that out of state you were able to buy, you know, a million dollar property that's going to cash flow a lot more than buying a million dollar property in Hawaii that's not going to cash flow. That was the biggest thing.

So let's break that down then. So in Hawaii just use one of your properties. What's the value of that?

So one of the properties that we had, it was a townhouse in Portalina and we're making $3,000 in rental income. But with the HOA increasing every year, that amount that we were putting in our pocket was just decreasing every month. So taking that $800,000 property that we were making $50 at the end of three years, we ended up purchasing a $1.425 million property in Kansas. And it's going to cash flow at 7, $8,000.

Wonderful. That's a huge shift in your.

Incredible. Yes.

So what made you want to be a part of our community?

So the mentorship, that's definitely important because when you're trying to get into something new and just for myself, trying to manage my own properties, I understood what it took to have the right people there, to have the realtor, to have the property manager that was going to be responsive and that would be able to take care of your property because you're not there in person and to have someone who's got the experience and who knows what they're doing. They've made all the mistakes. It's not to say mistakes will still be made, but they can help guide you and they can point you in the right direction. But the best part is having that team, like having that solid group of individuals that when it came time to find lenders, it's like property insurance. Here's a list. General contractors, here's a list. You know, these are people that they trust and they've worked with for years. So it's a lot easier than to go out shopping to find, you know, find your own team.

So what would be something you would recommend to start? Say, somebody that's on the fence about joining our community. What would be one tip of advice that you give them?

Trust in their experience. You know, that's the number one thing. These are individuals that have a lot of credibility. You've taken a lot of action, you have the proof of concept and you really have to trust in the process and know that what you're paying for is that experience you're investing in yourself so that you can take that and you can implement it and be as successful as they are.

What's your timeline now? When you first started, that was 10 years ago. You were looking to create cash flow. What does it look like now for your timeline to exit the W2?

Oh, my goodness. I had a initial goal of five years and I was being pretty generous with myself. Like five years. I think I can do it in two years. And just this initial transition, I started with WNN in April 2024 and I'm closing on my first commercial property at the end of October. And it would have been faster, but I got in my own way. It definitely would have been faster, but just having that feeling of, you know, in a six month time frame, I'm about to Cash flow way more than I ever imagined on this one property. And I'm here in Kansas, you know, just submitting another loi for another property. And it's like, if I can just do this, you know, it's just everything's just going at an incredible speed.

So have you been a part of other mentorship programs before in the past?

Yes. So I'm involved in three different programs and I think the WN program is definitely much more intimate and there's a lot more one on one time. So for me, I'm not concerned about being scared or bringing up my fears because it's always a positive response and it's always a positive like, nope, we can push forward through that. You know, here's your options. Think about it in this way. So I never feel like I'm being looked at as if I should know more or I should be doing more. It's really a, you know, we got you, let's take care of you, let's get through this and here's some recommendations. And I always walk away feeling a lot more prepared and positive and just kind of ready to take on the challenges.

If you were to frame how we operate in the community to somebody who's not a part of it, how would you set up expectations for them prior to coming to a community?

Be open minded, that's the biggest thing. And don't be afraid to ask a question. Don't think that, oh, that's stupid or I should know more or I should be better prepared. Definitely be prepared. Do your homework. Everything they ask you to do, do it. Do the work, put in the work, show them that you're taking all the steps. And from there they're able to be more focused and push you in that direction and, and give you the guidance that you need. Versus I don't know what to do first. You know, even that they're like, start here, you know, watch these videos, write down all your questions and show up with those questions. But I feel very comfortable in the community sharing my concerns. And you know, it's a good feeling to have that intimate one on one and small environment that you get the attention that you need and you feel like they really are taking care of you. You're not just a number, you're a person. And their involvement in those projects, it really helped kind of catapult me from that. Not making the income to suddenly being like, oh my God, I can do this.

How can being in a high appreciation market like Hawaii be a benefit for you when you go out of state into a cash flow market.

So when you have that property that you bought 10 years ago and you don't realize how much it's valued over the last 10 years, you've got money in your pocket. So when you think, well, I'm going to need money to be able to purchase something else and I don't have the money, I don't have the savings, you have it, it's in your home and you take that and you're able to transition out of it into something that's going to cash flow a lot more. And that's exactly what I did.

So, Neho, let's break down the deal that you're incurring. You originally bought in Hawaii and we talked about different strategies on how to place you in a cash flow market to get those numbers you want so you can achieve the results that you've been looking for. Let's start with what were you looking for when you came to Kansas City?

I was looking for high cash flow because that's what's going to be that validating step of I made the right decision, I sold this property in Hawaii and now I'm making, you know, the dollars that I was intending to in the very beginning and for me to be able to quit my job, I need to have that high cash flow property.

So what was some of the strategies you discussed that could benefit you with the sale to Hawaii and moving it over to Kansas City?

So using the sale of the property and having that the cash from the sale to be able to use towards a down payment or to purchase part of the property was the biggest thing. So that allowed me to identify what my buy box was. So I knew on the low end what I wanted and how much I could afford on the high end from the sale of that.

So essentially you didn't have to come up with anything out of pocket. It just required you to replace the Hawaii property with a different asset to generate positive cash flow. Could you walk them through what the process looked like from the sale to where you're at today?

So I sold the Ko' Olina townhouse and I used the proceeds from that sale sale as the down payment towards the purchase in Kansas and I was able to secure seller financing as well. So the seller is lending me the balance of the mortgage at 4% and I was able to lock it in and not have to go through a typical mortgage lender.

So you were able to not only leverage the equity in the Hawaii property, but you're able to leverage the seller. He'd be the bank for you now.

At a great interest rate. Unheard of at this time.

Do you believe that's something you would have achieved outside the community?

No, not for a second. Cool.

Well, that's the behind the scenes with Mei Hua, a real life active mentee who's taking massive action and creating massive results. If you want something similar, click the link below and talk to our mentee members.