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3 Rentals in His First Year & the Power of a Real-Life ‘Rich Dad’ Mentor with Derrick Ziglar Jr.

Real Estate Rookie Podcast
47 min read
3 Rentals in His First Year & the Power of a Real-Life ‘Rich Dad’ Mentor with Derrick Ziglar Jr.

From humble beginnings… to Division 1 football, military service, and now three rental properties in his 20s!

Derrick Ziglar Jr. is a man on a mission, and today he shares how he converted a wrong turn into a $30K duplex purchase that kick-started his journey toward generational wealth.

If you’re interested in securing your financial future, then don’t miss Derrick’s tips on how he finds deals, how he uses a personal line of credit, and the lessons he’s learned about managing contractors.

Plus, we go in-depth on how he built a life-changing relationship with a mentor/father figure and the importance of casting a long-term vision for your real estate business—no matter your goals.

Derrick is an impressive rookie investor, and he doesn’t hold back in this one… so hit play now. And if you enjoy this episode, please leave us a rating and review in Apple Podcasts!

Click here to listen on Apple Podcasts.

Listen to the Podcast Here

Read the Transcript Here

Ashley:
This is a Real Estate Rookie show, 17.

Derrick:
You have to make sure not only do you have similar goals and aspirations, but you also have to make sure that you guys are balancing each other out. There’s things that my mentor specialize in and that he knows that he has experience at that I don’t. And so I can leverage those things and learn from him in the process of me growing as a real estate investor.

Ashley:
I am Ashley Kehr, and I am also the age 17, the same as this show.

Derrick:
[inaudible 00:00:30].

Ashley:
And my cohost Felipe Mejia is what? 30, just turned 30, right?

Felipe:
I am. I just turned 30. But yes is Episode 17. And this is not Ashley’s age, and let’s not try to guess the-

Ashley:
My 17th birthday.

Felipe:
Oh, my God.

Ashley:
You can tell I still have excitement from today’s show because it was so great. I’m so hyped up about it.

Felipe:
Absolutely. It’s interesting the way Derrick talks because he speaks like an investor that’s been in the game for 20 years, and he’s only been in the game two.

Ashley:
Yeah. And everything that he said just it makes sense. And he had a lot of just great tips. His mindset, he’s disciplined, he’s focus. And I think everyone’s going to learn a lot about his relationship with his mentor, and how he talks about how he leverages relationships. And you not just for his benefit, but for a mutual benefit.

Felipe:
Absolutely. He talks about flying out to meet with his mentor when he has a specific question. If that doesn’t tell you the character of this kid I don’t know what will, so let’s bring him out.

Ashley:
Derrick, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us today.

Derrick:
Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Ashley:
Yeah. Why don’t you tell everyone a little bit about yourself and how you got into real estate investing.

Derrick:
So I am from Virginia. I grew up in a small town in Virginia called Martinsville, really small area, but that is home for sure. It’s where all of my family is. And so that’s the place I call home. And so I grew up there, I grew up in pretty much like a little bit of a rough neighborhood. The area I grew up in, we didn’t have much growing up, my mom was a single mother. And she worked two, three jobs that she had to make sure she made ends meet. And so through that I’ve seen a lot and experienced a lot. And so I had to grow up fast, getting a job at early age, learning to make sure that I was able to basically assume responsibility for myself at a early age in order to help my mom.
So through that, I started making mature decisions, started thinking about what I wanted to do with myself when I got older, how I could make more money, how I could help my mom out and my brother as well. And so it’s kind of led to me going to the Virginia Military Institute, which is one of the toughest schools in the nations. It is one of those schools where it has honor code in a system there where it’s very easy, if you do the wrong thing, you could get kicked out potentially and so we have what we call the Rat Line and Hell Week, and so very rigorous school. It’s pretty much like army basic training while in school.
And so I went there to play college football, get an educational degree in biology, and a minor in exercise science as well. And I ended up commissioning into the Army Reserves as well. So I’m a medical service officer. And I’ve been doing that now going on five years. So I absolutely love what I do there.
And so I would say about two years ago, in my unit, there was this guy actually call him my Rich Dad. His name is Dexter Craig. And so he introduced me to Rich Dad, Poor Dad, he told me about the book, told me it’s something I should read, he felt that I had the potential to be able to understand it, and then take and run with it. And so when he first introduced that to me, I started asking questions about real estate, and that’s when I found out he actually owned real estate. He had been doing it for 30 plus years. Very knowledgeable guy, he thinks about things very differently. And so as he would explain things to me, I would ask questions. And then I would go back to him with additional questions and he started to realize like, this guy’s really researching this, he’s really interested in it. He’s actually trying to learn things. And I think from there, that’s when our bond started.
And so he really started to get me to look at things a lot differently as far as what real estate can do for me and my family. And one thing he always told me is, at the end of the day, having a nice W2 job will help you take care of the deals, but how are you going to actually build generational wealth for yourself and for your family, if the only thing you can do is afford to take care of bills? So that’s where real estate comes in.
And so that’s something I wholeheartedly believed in. I got really serious about it in April of 2019, and right now, currently, I own three properties.

Felipe:
Wow. That’s an amazing story. Derrick, that’s, that’s really cool. Well, first and foremost, thank you for your service. We thank you for the sacrifice that you’re doing so that all of us are safe back home. So thank you for everything that you do. I want to ask you a little bit about your real estate. So you said you have three rentals. Is that correct? Right now?

Derrick:
Correct.

Felipe:
So tell us about how you got involved in real estate. So you read the book, you had a great mentor. What does it look like with that first property?

Derrick:
My actual first property was a personal residence that I bought. And so my favorite dog runner was a Rottweiler. So I have a Rottweiler. His name is Samson. He’s a big boy. He’s about 125 pounds and he’s not even two years old yet.

Ashley:
Oh, my God.

Derrick:
So he is-

Ashley:
He weighs more than me.

Felipe:
That’s a small bear, Derrick, that’s not a dog. You have a small bear at home.

Derrick:
Yeah. So originally I wanted [Raupolar 00:05:24] and of course every apartment complex is like no they’re on the dangerous dog breed list. Yes. So I actually was like, “You know what, screw this, I’m going to buy a house then.” And so I bought a personal residence.

Felipe:
Wait, wait hold on, one second. One second, Derrick. I’m not going to let you fly by this. Wait a minute. You bought a personal residence for your dog?

Derrick:
Basically, yes.

Felipe:
I love that. That’s got be a first.

Derrick:
I wanted a savior for dog. And so I ended up … I bought my first house and at this time, Dexter, Greg, he was definitely like, still there kind of talking me through the experience of buying my first house. But that was just a personal residence for me. But when I decided to get serious about real estate, and started actually seeking out a first rental property, what ended up happening is at this time, him and I had been, in conversation for about a year now. We had one long discussion as far as evaluating properties and what I wanted to ultimately do with those properties that we were looking at. And he legit looked at me and said, “Hey, he said, I’m going to send you $30,000.” He said, “You have two months to go and find a property and actually make it happen.” And so, I went back-

Ashley:
That’s kind of exciting.

Derrick:
It is.

Felipe:
Yeah, wow. Okay.

Derrick:
So, I went back, I started looking at properties. In this time, it was serious, because I knew I had to hurry up and make a deal happen. And so, after multiple times of us getting together, actually walking through the properties, what they would be worth and money that we need to invest in them, all those different things. I ultimately decided on the small duplex that was in Martinsville, Virginia in my hometown actually. And at that time, I was living in Stanton, Virginia, which is about two and a half hours north. And so I actually stumbled into that duplex. So I was driving around and I seen this apartment building that is about five units. And it looked rundown. And so I’m like, man, I want to take a look at that and see exactly what that’s about. I missed the turn. And so I go to the next street, and I make a couple turns to get back that way, and then I see this nice little duplex that has for sale by owner on it.
So I took the lady’s number down, gave them a call, and she’s like, “Hey, yeah, I want to sell it, but I want to sell it for 49,000.” And so I took some pictures and stuff like that and got some information from her. And I quickly realized, I was not about to pay $49,000 for that property. It just didn’t make sense. So I legit would call Dexter and I’m like, “Hey, she wants 49,000, it’s not worth that. Here’s what I’m thinking about doing.” He’s like, “Nope, tell 30,000 cash.” Because cash is more important to people than you saying, “Hey, I’ll buy for 49,000 and go to the bank.”
And so I called him back. I told him I had 30,000 cash and I could set a deposit we could do promissory note, get everything done set up, and I could close within a month. And they immediately said yes.

Ashley:
Wow.

Felipe:
Wow, Derrick, that’s a crazy story for a wrong turn, but that’s amazing. And I want to dig into that. But before we do that, I know that some of our listeners might be asking themselves well, “Derrick’s really lucky he had a mentor, walk him through all of this.” Give us a little background on how you, not just met the mentor, but how you guys got a little bit more connected than someone just saying, “Here, let’s go find a property together.” How did that relationship build into this?

Derrick:
So I always tell people, like everything is about the process. And if you are focused on preparing yourself, when opportunity knocks, you’re always going to be ready for it. And so-

Felipe:
Let’s go.

Derrick:
One of the bigger things for myself was continually being prepared. So as he explained real estate to me for the first time, and he literally just overheard me talking to someone about wanting to make more money, and trying to figure out how I could become a six figure earner at that time, and I’m 24 years old and like I want to become a six figure earner. And he’s like, “Hey real estate is a good way to do that. But it takes a little bit of work.” But he’s seen the research that I was doing the consistently asking questions coming to him with knowledge that he knew I didn’t have previous to us ever talking about it. And I think through that we started to form a bond where he realized, hey, here’s this young guy, I’m on the back end of my real estate investing career, I can pour this knowledge into him, because he’s actually serious about it. He has the energy, he has the drive, and he’s doing the right things.
And so through that bond, we kind of developed even closer relationship where even to this day, he’s like a father figure to me at this point. most of my life, I grew up without my dad being present. So having a male figure that is positive is giving me words of encouragement as a man as well and grown as a man but also challenging me and aspect of like, “Hey, you could be the person that could change your family’s generational wealth, educate your family and help other people if you do these things. And so as he’s seen me continually put in the work, consistently show that dedication to that, and understand the process, he become closer to me and wanting to invest more and more into me.
And so, one of the greatest things he ever told me was, I was talking to him and I thanked him and was very appreciative of what he had done for me. And he said, “You don’t realize how big of an investment this was for me.” He said, “This was also the cheapest investment I ever made. He said, “I gave you $30,000 to first invest in your property.” He said, “But in return, I have this friendship and I have your energy, I have your determination on what we can build together now.”
So for him, he looked at it as hey, here’s a potential investment for myself, as well as a longtime friend. And so it’s been really good, but it also took myself studying, doing my own personal research in order for him to actually buy into that.

Ashley:
And I think a lot of times real estate investors, they love to talk about real estate with other people. And some real estate investors just don’t have anyone to do that with, and those might be the type of people to kind of seek out. Because yes, helping someone mentor someone trying to find their first deal is fun, it’s great. But once that other person becomes an investor, like I’m sure your bond has grown, twice as much since you bought that first property, because now you both have that real estate bug and are excited about it, and have that much more of a connection now that you’ve got that first deal under your belt. So have you guys partnered on the rest of your deals together then?

Derrick:
So, no. So all of my houses and properties I have right now are my own. However, we did recently start up our own company. And what we are focused on right now is tax liens. So of course with Coronavirus and just some of the ways that the economy has changed, unfortunately, that does mean more people want to have issues paying taxes and things like that. And as a real estate investor, you have to be very strategic and you have to be flexible with the times. And so right now we don’t believe it’s best for us to be focusing on buying properties and fixing them up at this current moment. We’re focused on the tax liens. And so we know that those type of things are going to become available to us, we can get them at a discounted price. And at the end of the day, you either make your 18% in the Maryland DC area where we’re investing, we can make our 18% back or potentially end up with a property that’s worth $300,000, $400,000. And we’ve only put down 10,000 20,000 for it.

Ashley:
I want to dig into how you’re finding what properties have a tax lien, but I want to mention also is that you can really tell how appreciative you are of your mentor. And I think that makes a big difference to that. You’ve continued your relationship and I love listening to you talk about him, and you can tell that you’re really appreciative. So I think that adds a lot of value as to why he has stayed with you mentoring you. But let’s talk about the tax lien. So how do you even find what properties have a tax lien on them?

Derrick:
So one thing that I’ve been really good at so far, and especially with my mentor is leveraging relationships, and so I would say he is an expert at that. So he knows a buddy of his that he’s known for years. And this guy actually specializes in tax liens. And so he has a couple properties as well. But for himself, he’s been studying tax liens actually looking into that, he’s actually registered, he understands the process. And so when we start thinking about that’s the route we wanted to go, we decided, “Hey, let’s bring him in. Let’s talk to him, see what he has going on, and then we could all put our money together, and then start this thing up and get rolling.” And so we brought in somebody that knew exactly what they were doing. We all put in our money. And now we have us a nice little group of people that the money is available, it’s ready to go. We got somebody to specialize in it. They’ve been doing it for a little while, they understand the process.
And it just makes things a lot easier, especially for myself when I’m new and I’m still learning as I go.

Felipe:
Derrick, I want to add you seem way wiser than your age. How old are you?

Derrick:
27.

Felipe:
Yeah, I could tell, you still have like the baby face. I bet you get that a lot.

Derrick:
Yeah.

Felipe:
But man, the way you speak it sounds like you’ve been in real estate for 30 years. You’re networking, you know the importance of having other people in your circle, you’re willing to leverage it sounds like you know that if other people are better than you at something you’re willing to bring them in. What happened? Where is this maturity coming from? It’s great. It’s amazing. And it’s something that I think a lot of young entrepreneurs, especially in real estate need to acquire, what’s your secret?

Derrick:
I think I have to give a lot of credit one to my mom. As I mentioned, as a teenager, I’ve seen a lot and experienced a lot. And I had to grow up fast. And what I will say is that wasn’t forced on me. It was me understanding the situation we were in, conversations that I had with my mom. And I think that helped me mature a lot faster at that point in time. And then my environment that I grew up in taught me what dedication and hard work is about. And so then I decided to completely change my environment and go to a school like VMI in Virginia, which is very different than the environment that I grew up in.
So I had to learn to navigate that I had to learn to leverage relationships, I had to learn how to talk to people that were very different than me, very different background. And then I think through that I started to polish those things. And so since I’ve been out of college, and since I’ve been on my own professional career, I’ve been an operations’ manager at a huge retailers’ distribution center. I’ve done HR as well as a HR business partner. And so I think those experiences have helped me understand how to one, leverage people, how to navigate tough conversations and situations. As well as my own experiences in life has also taught me that, hey, you learn things, you apply them and you’d be prepared that when opportunity comes, you’re always ready to accept that.

Felipe:
Man, that’s blowing my mind. Because you’re definitely a multi millionaire in the making. Kudos to what you’re doing, man. Honestly, you’re going to end up crushing it.

Ashley:
100% agree.

Derrick:
Thank you.

Felipe:
I’m going to try to stay in your circle, bro because I’m trying to get some of that, dude.

Derrick:
Let’s do it.

Felipe:
Let’s go. Derrick, that’s awesome. Let me ask you about how you structure your deals and your partnerships, because that’s going to be a question that the rookies are going to be asking. How do I as a rookie get a great partnership? And what if I don’t have the money, but I just have the drive like Derrick does? So can you give us an explanation a bit of how you structure the partnerships, and how you’re leveraging other people.

Derrick:
And so my partnership with my mentor has been 100% 50, 50. And so in our deal, what we did is with my first property is he invested at 30,000. I invested the money for the rehab. And so he knew I didn’t have the money to purchase it and rehab it. So he came in with that, I put in all the legwork for that property. And then right now we’re in the middle of refinancing it and once we refinance it, pull that cash out and the equity that we now have, I’ll pay him back his money. I’ll make a little bit of money back. I still have a little bit left in the deal, as I’ve learned some lessons during that deal, for sure. But that was kind of our biggest thing there. As far as our partnership now and what we’ve been forming together. We have a great small group of guys that we all know each other, we trust each other. And so we don’t set it up with a promissory note, you always want to protect your money. That’s a key thing. But I think the most essential part of it is when you’re looking for a partner or when you’re looking to go into business with somebody, you have to make sure not only do you have similar goals and aspirations, but you also have to make sure that you guys are balancing each other out.
So there’s things that my mentor specialize in, and that he knows and he has experience at that I don’t. And so I can leverage those things and learn from him in the process and me growing as a real estate investor. There’s things that our other guy John, who we brought in for the tax liens that he knows, and he understands, obviously, and so we’re both leveraging him. And his things that he needs from us, and he leverages us for that. And so we’ve done a really, really good job of partnering with each other leveraging with each other, and leveraging each other for what we absolutely need in order to help push this business forward.
And so I take those experiences with that group and I apply it to my own personal real estate investing, as I’m continuing to push and grow that as well.

Ashley:
Do you guys do alignment meetings at all? Or do you guys talk about the future even a year from now, five years from now, what you guys want like, what is your end goal? Or do you guys have an exit strategy? Like when we build a portfolio of a million dollars of real estate, we’re going to sell it off, or we’re just going to stop. Do you have any kind of long term plan in place for your partnership?

Derrick:
Yes. So the first step of what we’re doing because the economy has changed so drastically when we first started talking about our partnership, we’re going to invest in tax liens. And so what’s actually going to give us that ability to do is buy houses for pennies on the dollar. And so we’ll take that cash and that money that we’ll make off of those, and we’re basically going to just wholesale them, we don’t care to hold the properties, because our long term strategy is land development. So planning on building small communities, 100 doors, we’re already working with the architect and master builder that already has a plan in place where they’re building condominiums and townhomes that we can build for about $125,000 total. We have the footprint, we have everything that we need from there, and we understand it in that market. We can sell them for about 350,000 per door.
And so we’re looking at being able to double our money per door that we build. And so the tax lien is the beginning, and our exit strategy eventually is to build these communities, and then sell those homes individually. And then we’ll take that money and take that plan, and we’re just going to replicate it.

Ashley:
That’s awesome. Sounds like a great plan.

Felipe:
It is. That’s an amazing plan. You have a plan for the money that you’re going to make to reinvest to make you more money. And you know what, my mentor told me the same thing. Felipe when your money makes you more money, that’s when you’ve reached a level of wealth that many aspire to get to. A lot of people want financial independence through real estate as some cash flow. And that is a great goal to have. But when your cashflow creates you more cash flow, infinite return, and it sounds like that’s what you’re doing, Derrick, is that about what I’m listening?

Derrick:
Man, that is absolutely perfect. Like that is the exact goal that we’re chasing after right now. Because like you said, If you really want to have that financial independence, if you really want to create generational wealth, like wealth that you can actually pass on, you have to be able to create additional money and additional cash flow from your money that you have that’s free. So you can’t let your money not work harder than what you are working. And so I believe wholeheartedly-

Felipe:
I like that.

Derrick:
… that whatever free money that you have, if it’s not working, then you need to be figuring out a way to make that money work for you. So all free cash flowing money gets reinvested. And it starts working for us in order to make sure that we can continue to build upon that.

Ashley:
So let’s go back to that deal you were talking about, I kind of want to break that down. So it was listed for 49,000, you bought it for 30,000, and then what happened next? What were the rehab costs? How did you finance the rehab costs?

Derrick:
Okay, so what I ended up doing is my mentor told me about personal lines of credit. And so I had a small amount of cash already set aside, but he said, “Hey, I believe you can actually get this done using personal lines of credit. You can keep your cash sitting aside for in case anything else happens.” And so I actually ended up getting personal lines of credit worth $20,000. I then walked through the building with my contractor, we talked through the rehab cost and what all I needed. I made notes and thought I was doing absolutely everything perfect. I’m like, “Hey, so what do you think is going to cost? And he’s like around 7,000, 8,000.” Me being a real estate investor. I’m like, “Okay, cool. That’s perfect.” And didn’t say anything else didn’t write down anything, we just made that deal and started.

Ashley:
How did you find this contractor?

Derrick:
So just people that I knew.

Ashley:
Yeah, referrals.

Derrick:
Yeah. And so since in my own hometown, I know a lot of people, I’m very well connected. And so I started leveraging just my relationships again, honestly, and got this referral of a contractor that had done some work. I’ve seen a couple properties he worked on, I’m like, you know what, I think this guy can make it work and we can be cost effective on top of that as well. And so we started that partnership from there literally just calling him, we talked about it, he worked with me to see the property. He called up things that I didn’t notice, I called out some things and we wrote it all down. And then we had a couple phone calls because actually he didn’t live in Martinsville. So I had to make sure that I was staying on top of things with him as well. And we got started on construction.

Ashley:
Cool, cool. So with that personal line of credit, was that unsecured then, so you didn’t have to put any collateral that was just a note that the bank gave?

Derrick:
Unsecured. And so something I learned a while back that I’m so thankful that I learned was credit is everything. And so when you make great financial decisions, when you make sure your bills are paid on time, and you have a good credit score, it will unlock doors for you where you don’t have to put money down or actually leverage assets or what the bank would consider an asset because it’s very different from an actual asset. But I think it’s very critical that if you have good credit, you have the ability to do things like that. So being able to get those personal lines of credit kept Derrick’s cash in Derrick’s bank account. And I was able to leverage the bank’s money to be able to fund my rehab portion of it.
And at the end of the day, I am able to pay the personal line of credit off with the refinance and everything. And I only have a little bit of money that I’ve actually put toward the house. So the personal line of credit was critical.

Felipe:
So Derrick, you’re talking about your … you mentioned a little bit about your rehab there, what you use the line of credit and things like that for. Were you the one managing the contractors? Were you the one managing the rehab? Did you pass that on? Did you get a manager for that? How did that look like?

Derrick:
I think that’s where I learned my lesson. So for me, everything that I’ve done so far, in real estate, I have 100% owned and managed, when it comes to my properties. And I feel like that’s critical because I know where I want to be five years from now, 10 years from now, and I want to make sure that I understand the process. And so it kind of goes back to making sure that you understand the process. So I walked the property with my contractor, I made sure that I was on calls with them, I would drop down to Barnes, Virginia and actually look at the property walk through things with them, I would talk to the tenants as well.
I did all those things, I managed sending the funds over. I was double checking with Lowe’s making sure that the things being bought were supposed to be being bought, like all those things, in order to ensure that I’m understanding what is happening when you’re doing construction and actually learning how to manage contractors. Which is super critical, because I did a lot of things wrong, for sure, and I learned a lot of lessons out of that. And I think those are things that when I move forward, I lose less money, one. But two, I’ll be able to run it more effectively, which is the key part of that. That’s how you continue to build more success on it.

Felipe:
What are some of the things that you learned about managing contractors that you would tell another rookie who’s about to start? You just a couple years ago, it’s like, “Hey, Derrick, I’m about to do this rehab man, but I have to manage the contractors.” What are some key things that you would indicate to them that they have to do to be successful in managing some contractors?

Derrick:
So I think one talking through labor cost is critical and payment schedules. I would say the biggest headache I had during that timeframe was me being at work and getting a call and multiple text messages and they’re like, “Hey, we need a little bit of money, we got to go do this and got to go do that.” I think the second part of it was not effectively calculating things that could go wrong. And so, a 7,000 to $8,000 rehab, which was a horrible estimate that we did not write down on paper and actually verify, ended up being close to $17,000. And so, exactly, that’s a huge difference. And that changed the landscape of the entire investment. And it ends up being a great investment. It absolutely is. But it changed everything that 10 grand made a big difference. So I think one is making sure that whatever you’re going to be fixing that you write that stuff down, you verify costs, you talk to the contractor around what his labor cost looks like, and what does that payment schedule going to look like?
I think the second part of that is at the end of the day, sign something. That way you’re holding them accountable. That way you’re holding yourself accountable to the things that you have agreed upon, which is critical. I think that keeps a relationship a lot easier and it makes things a lot smoother when it comes down to what is happening, especially when things go wrong. And then I would say another critical part is always plan for something going wrong. You pull back a flow board, it’s all rotten, it’s going to be something. And so I think, creating a little bit of cushion in there, probably estimating at least five to 10% of additional funds going to something that’s just going to pop up that you’re not prepared for.

Ashley:
I think this is a great example of when people say, I’m doing a no money down deal. That doesn’t mean that you don’t have reserves set aside or you don’t have a line of credit available. Because think about the greater impact that 10k difference would have had if you didn’t have that $20,000 line of credit and you only had exactly $7,000 and then all of a sudden you had to come up with 10,000. I mean, that would have made a much larger difference. Some would have not been a lot harder to come up with those that 10k in probably major project go longer trying to scramble to get that money.

Derrick:
Yes, it definitely would have had an impact on it because the money I had set aside, at that point in time, still learning what investing is about and how you actually set money aside for it, that was mixed with my personal savings and everything. So that 10k would have been critical to me, because that would have pretty much cleared out my personal savings and left me little to no money in which at the end of the day, I would have been 110% fine with, because I knew what I was building towards, right?

Ashley:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Derrick:
But having a personal line of credit, like you said, was a huge lifesaver, because I didn’t have to worry about that. I just knew that the terms of my deal just changed a lot, right?

Ashley:
Yeah.

Derrick:
And I had to understand that piece of it. And then that’s when I started recalculating things and going, Hey, here’s exactly what that’s going to look like. Now, when you do your cash-out refi, here’s what you need to be prepared for. And immediately I started making payments on a personal line of credit, knowing that I was going to have a little bit of money left in that thing. And then now as we’re getting ready to finish up and close on this deal, I’ll get my money back. I’ll be able to pay back my mentor, and I’ll pay off the rest of their personal line of credit very easily and have a little bit of money left over. And so it all worked itself out in the end.

Ashley:
That’s a great feeling having a successful deal, isn’t it?

Derrick:
Yeah.

Ashley:
I loved how you talked about too, one thing you learned was you got to write it down. Like with the contractor, you got to have a plan in place. I have a friend he actually just sent it to me so I can kind of create my own as he does a scope of work for each of his contractors. It is so detailed, it goes down to like every little … almost every single nail that has to go into the pizza [trib 00:28:35]. But he also does a video. So he starts in the front of the house and he goes through the whole house doing a video and he works off of the scope of work and says okay, this wall is this paint color. These cabinets are staying but the knobs are changing. So that way anytime a contractor has a question, he just says oh, well refer to the video. And then if something was done that wasn’t supposed to be he can say well look at I told you in that video exactly what to do. And I pointed specifically to that. So I think that’s a great thing. If anyone else wants to use that tool, that’s pretty easy to do is to create a video and just send it to your contractor. So let’s-

Derrick:
Yeah, I actually love that.

Ashley:
Yeah. I loved it too. But can you reverse engineer this for us? What are some key steps you think that other rookies could take so that they could do a very similar deal to yours, besides just taking a wrong turn?

Derrick:
I think the critical piece of it was the research I’d done beforehand. And I know one of the biggest things that I hear on all the BiggerPocket podcasts is you don’t want to get analysis paralysis, right?

Ashley:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Derrick:
And I think that is so critical. And I would say that had it not been for my mentor continued to push me in the way that he did, I probably would have got stuck in that rut for a little while as well. But I think doing the research in your market area so you can figure out okay, is this the actual area that I want to invest in, and then getting out there. I was constantly on Zillow, Redfin, Anything that I could to basically figure out what properties were on the market, I was talking to realtors in that market as well, I had my own family members actually going out. And when they seen properties, they would text me and say, “Hey, I’ve seen this.” And I would just research it in the county website. That way I could understand exactly what the county is sending, its worth, what the taxes look like, who owned it, that information as well. And so I was doing this daily. And I’m talking three, four or five hours a day doing these things. And so that piece right there got me prepared to be able to invest in the market.
I think the second part of it was, once I realized it was time to actually buy a property. It’s just making sure that it happens. So consistently talking to the owner who had it, going and visiting her, things getting pushed off here and there, but consistently following up and just staying steady and staying consistent, led to me eventually getting her down to 30,000 and then being able to close on the property. And so when you start being consistent, whether it is researching and learning, whether it is consistently networking with people or partnering with other people, that’s when you’re going to start to see things happen, and it’s going to start occurring quickly then. So then you just got to be prepared.
But I would say those were the two critical pieces of this deal. And then I would say the last piece of it was writing down what your ultimate goal is. And so I believe firmly in affirmations and writing down what your goal is, and then figuring out how do I achieve that goal. So what are the steps I need to take right now to make that happen? And so that’s exactly what I did. I had a huge whiteboard, I got two in my office, I wrote down close on the property. And then I started looking at what do I need to do now. And I created this long line of items that I needed to absolutely do. And every day, I made sure that I knocked off one or two things from that list. And so super minute, you want to be as detailed as possible, even as small as making sure you get on the website to look at the county assessment, making sure the property taxes are up to date.
All those little things that you really want to make sure that you’ve dotted your I’s on and cross your T’s with to make sure the property is ready for you to buy. Because as you guys know, real estate is a lot of little things that can slow down or stop a deal. So the more you actually do the research, the more you actually plan for those things, the smoother the transaction will go.

Felipe:
Derrick, I love that you’re speaking all this wisdom and knowledge because as rookies, sometimes we get caught up in just the numbers, right?

Derrick:
Hmm.

Felipe:
Because what’s the return on investment? Or what’s the cash on cash? Okay, that makes sense. Let’s do it. But you tend to forget, all these other very important critical key things that affect the deal either positively or negatively. And that’s going to depend on how much research you did. So I love how prepared you are, and it speaks volumes. And it reminded me here, you’ve been in real estate, not 20, two years, right?

Derrick:
Yes. Two years-

Felipe:
[crosstalk 00:32:45] two years.

Derrick:
… and I bought my first property.

Felipe:
Yeah, that’s amazing. Can you give some of our listeners two or three resources that you’ve used to gain this knowledge, this wisdom, to advance yourself in real estate.

Derrick:
So one, I would say 100% BiggerPockets. I had a cousin of mine when I told her that I wanted to invest in real estate, she mentioned Bigger Pockets to me, I’d never heard of it. And then once I heard of it, I was on the website, I started listening to the podcasts that they have. And so I learned a lot through that. The other resource was Audible. So I have a ton of books through Audible, I started researching different books, making sure that I was downloading them, and I listen to books on the way to work. And so I now live in Dallas, Texas. And so my commute to work is always 40 minutes there and back. So it gives me plenty of time to listen to books and making sure that I’m continuing to soak in that knowledge. But books and researching online have been critical for me.
And then I would say the last part of that is relationships. And so, I do have a phenomenal mentor, but I also know about 20 to 30 other people that right now I can text or call and they’ll pick it up and they’ll answer any question that I have about real estate. Not only because of the fact that they know that I’m serious about this, but also the fact that I have consistently followed up with them that if anytime I knew about a property that I didn’t want or didn’t fit what I needed, I would send it to a buddy of mine say, “Hey, man, you might want to take a look at this.” Or just being there to answer questions or help them out with different situations that may arise.
And so I’ve built great relationships with people that are mutually beneficially for both of us. And those are the things that I think has helped me get to where I am now.

Ashley:
It’s like, what goes around comes around. Obviously, you’ve seen that your mentor benefited from helping you and now you’re just returning the favor to others. I think that’s great. So let’s move on to one of my favorite segments. It is going to be … I want to hear who is someone that has made a huge impact in your real estate life and has really helped you grow your business. I think I already know the answer. We call this segment the-.

Felipe:
Okay, dude, you got to do it with me. The MVP. MVP, MVP. Let’s go. Derrick who’s your MVP, man?

Derrick:
Obviously, as I’ve talked about my mentor throughout this segment, I got to give all love and respect to Dexter Craig. I met him about five years ago. And since day one, I think he has always kind of looked after me, made sure that I understood the ropes of the military as a young military officer. And so our relationship has completely changed now and to it is one where he references me as his rich son, and I call him my Rich Dad. And all of our conversations are about, what are we doing to be better as men, and how are we going to continue to grow our business.
And so he has been a phenomenal person in my life because he is not only the person that has turned me on to real estate and really taught me a lot, but also challenging me an aspect of growing as a man and as a person, an individual. And I’ll never forget one of the first things he ever told me before we started this serious relationship of us just kind of him mentoring me was, “The information I’m going to give you isn’t shared a lot. And if I’m going to give you this session, You got to turn around and give it to two and three people. And so you can’t keep this for yourself, you have to share it, you have to share this knowledge and help someone else become a millionaire. Because that’s what I want to make sure you become.” And so I think those type of words, that type of instruction and leadership from someone when you’re open and available and willing to learn from them, whether that’s good criticism at times, sometimes it’s bad criticism, sometimes you need to hear these words.
But I think he’s just been a great resource for me, ultimately. And at this point, kind of like a father figure, honestly,

Felipe:
Man, that’s a great answer. I feel the same way about my mentor. And I’m going to ask you two questions, Derrick, that I know that our listeners are going to want to know. At first, how do you manage, how do you communicate with your mentor? I’m sure you’re not down his throat texting him every five minutes about everything that you can. For me, I have to go out and try to find the answer first and show my mentor that look, I’ve googled, I’ve searched, I can’t find it. Like, can you help me with this part? I’ve done the work. I can’t figure it out. So that’s one question, dude. How do you like to communicate with your mentor? And then do you pay him?

Derrick:
No, I’ve never had to pay him for anything. And our communication is we text, we call, but ultimately when it comes down to it, whenever I have a big decision to make, or we have a decision to make that involves money, I always fly out to DC and I visit him. And so I stay at his house, we get on the whiteboard, he has a huge whiteboard in his house, we get on a whiteboard, and we start putting down numbers and we talk it out. We talked through our difference of opinions. I show him my research, he showed me his research, and we just go about it that way. And so-

Felipe:
So let me bud in right there because that’s a very crucial point. I want everyone to listen to that. You fly out to your mentors house and ask him and you stay with him and you work this out, right? You’re not like, “Hey, can we talk at 3 PM? Because I need to talk to you about this.” Or, it’s not like you don’t put any … It sounds like you put in a whole lot of effort to have this communication with this mentor because you value him that much that you’re willing to fly out to him to get a question answered. That’s amazing.

Derrick:
Yeah, and I think that’s been the critical piece. If you’re somebody that has the experience, you have the funds, and you’re looking to invest into the next generation and help somebody else get to where you are, when you see that energy and that absolute consistent determination to be there, and they put forth effort, I think that right there convinces you that this is a person that you want to be partnered with. Now, I think that’s been a critical part of my success so far. And I think that’s been a critical component of our actual like relationship now.

Ashley:
I think this is great advice for anyone who is looking for their own mentor or even to mentor someone. So thank you for sharing everything with us today. So, that is today’s MVP. And we’ll put some more information. We’ll kind of highlight how you recommend finding a mentor and we’ll put that in the show notes at biggerpockets.com/rookie17.
So let’s move on to the rookie request line. And you guys we need some more voicemails, we’ve used them all so please call and you can reach us at 1885 Rookie and just leave us a voicemail about any question you have for real estate and we will pin it on the guests to answer and we’ll put them right on the spot. So today’s voicemail.

Speaker 4:
Hi, my name is Jesus [inaudible 00:39:17] and I am as a rookie as rookie can get. So which direction, what should I be looking at? What should I be thinking? I’m in California, so, it’s very expensive, really easy to make a dumb mistake, an expensive mistake, I should say. So, take it from there. All right. Thank you guys.

Derrick:
So I would say one, find another market that you can invest in that decreases your risk. So when I first bought my property in Martinsville, I lived in Stanton at that time, which the market was more expensive. Now that I’m in Dallas, Texas, the market is more expensive and there’s a lot more competitors as well. The competition is very hot here. I found that out as soon as I came out here to buy a property. So I invest in a market that it is cheaper, I’m able to buy a duplex for $30,000 and make over $1,000 in monthly income from it, I’m able to buy a house for $50,000 and make $900 a month off of it. So I would definitely say find another market that will minus your risk. I think that’s a critical piece of it. Make sure you understand the market well, build a team there, get connections, leverage relationships, and then go for it. If you need to, fly out there, spend some time out there, that way you can actually get a real feel for it and start investing.

Felipe:
That’s really solid advice, Derrick, one of the things that I would tell him as well is BiggerPockets has some great references, how to look at what markets. And there’s great data on there that’s all free that you can look at your certain market and see what the rents are, see what the average job is paying and things like that. As well as the BiggerPockets magazine actually has a ton of great knowledge and wisdom if you subscribe to that magazine is fantastic.
But aside from just the reading and listening, Derrick, what are some actionable steps that hey, Jesus can take when starting out in real estate? What would you say are like, the first one or two steps that you would say, “Jesus do this just to get started”?

Derrick:
I would say understand the language of real estate. And so-

Felipe:
Let’s go.

Derrick:
… start researching real estate terms. That way you understand the language of real estate, I think that is such a critical piece, to being able to do deals, to being able to have conversations with people that are experienced. I think the first thing that could have you dismissed when you’re amongst like experienced investors, is not knowing what you’re talking about, because you don’t understand the definition of simple terms.
So I think understand the basics of real estate in terms of what does certain words mean, when I’m looking at NOI, what does that mean. ROI, what does that mean? Those basic things, I would say the second step is learn how to evaluate properties, which is a key component of it, because if the numbers don’t make sense, then the property is a no go. At the end of the day we’re investing to create cash flow to then be able to create more wealth for ourselves. So I think those are the two things I would start with. Understanding the basics of real estate and the definitions and terms. And then actually understanding how do I effectively evaluate properties.
And so both of those things come from research and studying. And then evaluating the properties. The critical part of that is just practice. I would legit get on Zillow, look at every property that I’ve seen, and run the numbers, and I would make mistakes. And then I would go back and make sure I fix my mistakes. And so continuing to do that has helped me get to a point where now I feel confident that if I start to put numbers on the board, and it doesn’t make sense within the first like, couple 30 seconds, 40 seconds of me actually writing down the numbers. I know the deal doesn’t make sense. So I’d say those are kind of the two top things that I would focus on.

Ashley:
That’s a really great advice there. The only thing I can think of to add to that is, once you’ve analyzed a couple markets, find realtors in those areas. They can send you the emails every single morning of what’s been listed. But we had a lease on our show a couple episodes ago, and she found a property manager/realtor in Tennessee that does everything for her and takes care of her at least … she lives in California too. She never even has to fly out there. And I think if you start looking for those people, those realtors, those property managers that will care for your properties like your own, that makes going out of state a lot easier, but you have to put in that work to try and find those people. So go to meetups, go online with there’s tons of virtual meetups online now.
And then even on Instagram, connect with people and see where other people are investing and ask for a recommendation for a realtor and just use that as a starting point too.

Derrick:
Yeah, I love that.

Ashley:
So we’re going to go on to some fun questions now. They really don’t have anything to do with real estate. But we just like to know a little bit more about you. So the first one I have to ask which I … sometimes I pick this one just because I already think these people have it but, do you have like a miracle morning? Do you have a morning routine that you do every day?

Derrick:
I would say consistently, my routine resolves around … I get up early. I can’t sleep. I think I just got it from college, honestly. And so I’ve run off about four and a half hours of sleep. And I’m perfectly fine, anything more than that, it kind of makes me lazy. So I normally get up earlier in the morning. And first thing I do is I go workout. So that’s critical, it helps your body feel good mentally, kind of refreshes you for the day. It keeps you kind of going.
And so after working out at that point, I’m always looking through emails and trying to see exactly what do I need to get done. I have two whiteboards in my office. And so I make sure that I write down critical things that I need to do, whether it’s tasks, people that I need to reach out to those type of things. And then from there, it’s figuring out what part of my day am I going to get that done. Because I do have a job or work four days a week, the critical part for me is how do I make sure that the things that are top priorities get done the soonest and the things that I can put off, I either put it off wait and get it done after I’ve done other things. And so that’s kind of how I prioritize everything for myself.
My weekends, if I have a lot of things to do, I’m not doing anything else. And so I prioritize my business. I prioritize myself development over fun and going out and things like that as well.

Ashley:
Do you think having a morning routine and kind of having that discipline is something that a lot of successful people have? And do you think that’s what’s helped with your success?

Derrick:
Absolutely. So discipline helps with everything. Money management, it helps with you getting in shape, if you want to get in shape. If you want to be a great investor, having discipline and then looking at your markets and researching homes and actually running the numbers. Those are the things that are going to help you be successful.
And so when you look at your Bill Gates of the world, and your Elon Musk, all of them have a certain amount of discipline that they have toward their craft. Bill Gates did computer software development for years consistently. That was his addiction. And now he’s one of the richest men in the world.
Discipline and consistency has been proven to show us that you’re going to build good habits. And out of those habits become muscle memory. And once something becomes muscle memory, your potential at that point is pretty much limitless as much as you continue to do it.

Ashley:
I saw a quote today on Instagram of something like there’s not always going to be motivation, and that’s why you need to have discipline. But I thought that was awesome.

Derrick:
And that is critical.

Ashley:
Yeah.

Derrick:
Yes. That’s a really good one, too. I’d like to share that one.

Felipe:
Derrick, I was wondering, and because I was raised by a single mother as well, what does your family and more specific your mom now think of what you’re doing with real estate and the potential growth that you have?

Derrick:
I would say they 100% support me, my mom and I have a very, very close relationship. We talk consistently, she’s my world. If she needs anything, she gets it. It’s just how it is when it comes to my mom. But she has been very, very supportive and everything that I’ve done. And I think part of her thing has been to have as she’s been growing in her own personal career, and kind of doing her own thing is her watching me grow. And I think eventually she wants to get into it too. So he’s talked about it a little bit here and there and mentioned it as well, of helping me like manage my properties and things like that. And so I think it’s also kind of curious that she has about, okay, he’s very passionate about this, I’m seeing the changes that’s happening. I’m seeing how it’s changing his life and how he’s been able to help others with it. What does that look like later on for him? And how can I be a part of that? And so that love and that support has been huge for me, it helps continue to push that drive, and just change the narrative for my family financially, for sure.

Felipe:
That’s awesome. And I’m so glad that you’re doing that. Because the future generations of your family are going to look back and thank for what you’re doing, man. You’re building an empire for your name and that’s crucial and your mom is going to be very, very proud of you. I love your answer. Same here, man. Anything for my mom, doesn’t matter. It is what it is no questions asked.

Derrick:
Yeah, they deserve to be spoiled.

Felipe:
Let’s go.

Ashley:
Okay, so the thing I want to know is what is something you know, that is true, but a lot of people disagree with you on.

Derrick:
Oh, that our house is a liability. A lot of people feel that houses are assets, because people tell them that, whether it’s other investors, the bank, whatever. And I think one of the things that it takes-

Felipe:
You mean your personal residence or are you speaking of investment?

Derrick:
I would say personal residences. And the reason why I say that is because I know a lot of people they have a house that they’ve bought, they’ve been living in, and they feel like that’s like, the greatest asset in the world. And houses are great assets, but you have to be making money off of it. And so if you’re not making money off of it, and it’s taking money out of your pocket, it’s a liability at that point. And one of the greatest examples that I’ve been giving people, especially as of recently is tax liens is the perfect scenario as to why a house is a liability. Even if your house is paid off, and you don’t pay your taxes, somebody else has the ability to take your house from you, just based off of them having the ability to pay your taxes off.
Like those are the things where people don’t understand that because our culture and society has taught us, that houses are the greatest assets. If you’re investing in real estate, it is one of the greatest assets you could ever have. Because you’re getting money from it, it’s actually putting money into your pocket. But whenever you have something that is taking money out of your pocket, it is an expense. It’s a liability at that point.
And so it’s hard convincing people of that because they don’t see it that way. But I think the numbers when you start really having people write down, okay, what are your assets? What are your liabilities and then start making them write down your expenses and what’s bringing income in, a lot of times you can kind of get them to start thinking of it a little differently.

Ashley:
I’ve seen a lot of people like on the BiggerPockets forums, Instagram, Facebook posts, like they run the numbers of owning a house for 10 years and they put in what the expected maintenances, the taxes, the insurance, and then what your rent would be. And people come up with different answers. But I have seen in the examples where you don’t win on your primary house. So yeah, I do love watching the debates about it. When there is something that needs to be done at my house, I have a lot harder time giving out the money to pay for that because that is money out of my pocket, where for my rental properties the tenants are paying for that repair, I’m not paying for it. So I do see where you’re coming from with that.

Derrick:
Yeah, it’s a big difference when it’s just hitting your pockets and you’re the one who’s going to pay for it.

Ashley:
Yeah. Felipe, do you want to take the last question?

Felipe:
Yeah, and I’ll add a little bit to that I try to make my personal residence as much as an asset as I can. I have a home office I have everything … my WiFi is based off my … I mean everything out of my home, aside from the three bedrooms is being used for something. If I can write off my toilet, I’ll figure that out later as well.

Derrick:
Just take a couple of calls from your toilet, man, you’d be good.

Felipe:
Lord, look Derrick don’t try me so, I might do that. I’m going to take my next call from my toilet-

Derrick:
Yeah, just taking calls from the toilet.

Felipe:
… and I’m going to just write it off.

Ashley:
I will no longer answer any of your phone calls.

Felipe:
That’s probably the funniest thing I’ve heard.

Derrick:
Just put a couple of pictures in the back and you’d be good to go.

Felipe:
Do background thing on Zoom you know how you can do like the background?

Derrick:
Exactly.

Felipe:
That’s hilarious.

Ashley:
You know what’s really funny about that is when I went to Nashville to visit Felipe, we had to record an intro or something, I think. And he was in his podcast room there and I was actually … his bathroom is outside of that door and I sat in his tub and did it from there. Because if we’re in the same room we would have got like bad audio, so I just did it right outside the tab of the shower.

Derrick:
See, you should raise that out, Felipe.

Felipe:
That’s hilarious, Derrick coming in with the wisdom nuggets. I love that.
All right, man, last question for me and then we’re going to get onto some rookie hazing. What is the number one best habit you have formed?

Derrick:
I would say that’s a tough one right there. I would say the number one best habit that I have formed so far would be my ability to leverage relationships.

Felipe:
Let’s go.

Derrick:
100%.

Felipe:
That’s awesome.

Ashley:
It’s a good answer.

Derrick:
And I say that because through leveraging relationships, if I even take real estate out of it, by being able to leverage relationships, it has created so many additional opportunities for me. Outside of real estate, outside of my W2, being able to leverage relationships has made things easier for me when I am looking for information or trying to get things accomplished. And so I think that has been the critical thing there.
And other piece of that too, is when you’re leveraging relationships, that goes both ways. And so me being able to pour knowledge into someone who is looking to do the same thing that I’m doing someone who looks up to me, because they know my environment where I came from, and where I am today, that’s critical. And so passing that knowledge along and investing into the next generation is 100% what this whole thing is about.

Felipe:
I don’t know who the top real estate investors are in the world right now, but all I got to say is watch out, you got somebody coming at you full steam. I would hate to be in front of you, that’s all I got to say to that. I was going to look up some names and the Robert Kiyosakis are the … I don’t know-

Derrick:
Great canons.

Felipe:
… other big wings in real estate. Great canon. I’ll just watch out man. You got someone coming for you. All right Ashley take us to the hazing.

Ashley:
Okay, so for our rookie hazing, I want to know what is your favorite guilty pleasure song? And can you sing a little bit of it for us?

Derrick:
Yes. So, let’s give you the background as to why this is my favorite song.

Felipe:
So you have to give us an excuse as to why this is … look, you like you work out, if you’re not watching this on YouTube. I have the song right in front of me. You look like you work out, you’re a big dude, you went to the military. Go ahead.

Derrick:
So here’s the thing though, the song is going to be changed a little bit because I have fell in love with the song again recently after watching the movie again.

Felipe:
Oh, God.

Derrick:
So one of my favorite movies growing up was Remember the Titans. And this scene when the entire team was singing, used to be my favorite part, and I fell in love with singing. Even the woman’s part of this song is just amazing when they’re singing back and forth. And so Ain’t No Mountain High is one of my favorite songs that I can sing anywhere, anytime I don’t care who’s around, I’m going to sing the song if it comes on-

Felipe:
Let’s go. You got to sing. Yeah.

Ashley:
That’s still in the movie of Stepmom too.

Derrick:
Yes, see, it’s a great movie. And so that’s one of my favorite songs of all time. And it’s one of the things where I just watched a movie recently. And so when I watched it, instantly, it was just like, in my head the whole day. I’ve been listening to it here and there. And it’s just one of those songs that every time I’m going to sing it. So one, I sound horrible, so I’m going to preface it with that. I’m not a singer. Anybody that knows me will tell you that. But I’ll definitely be able to give you guys a line or two. All right?

Ashley:
Okay.

Felipe:
Go for it.

Derrick:
I’m nervous now. All right. Ain’t no mountain high, ain’t no valley low-

Ashley:
Valley low.

Derrick:
… ain’t no river-

Ashley:
Wide enough, baby.

Derrick:
… wide enough baby when you need me call me no matter where you are, no matter how far, don’t worry, baby. So, that’s-

Felipe:
Watch out American Idol.

Derrick:
It’s a nice song.

Ashley:
Get down.

Felipe:
Watch out. Let’s go.

Ashley:
You like sing the longest out of[crosstalk 00:55:18]. All right.

Felipe:
A man of many talents. A man of many talents, real estate not a-

Derrick:
I’d be [inaudible 00:55:26] the first around.

Felipe:
Simon will say something like, “Stick to real estate, son.”

Derrick:
It’s like, “This is not your profession.”

Felipe:
That’s hilarious.

Derrick:
That was awesome there.

Ashley:
Derrick, can you tell us where people can find out more about you.

Derrick:
So I am on Instagram, Empirical Zig is my name on Instagram, and then on Facebook, Derrick Ziglar Jr. So you’re more than welcome to reach out to me on those two avenues. I’m actually getting ready to start up with Twitter. I’m like behind. I guess I’m like old soul.

Ashley:
I don’t have a twitter either, but I think I have one-

Derrick:
[crosstalk 00:55:59] yeah.

Ashley:
… from a long time ago but I don’t use it at all.

Derrick:
So everybody talks about that, they’re like, “You don’t have a Twitter?” So I don’t. But I’m about to get started there just because I got a couple of things going on that I really want to create a little bit more of a social media presence but Empirical Zig on Instagram and Derrick Ziglar Jr. On Facebook.

Felipe:
Well, thank you so much for coming on the show today. We had a lot of fun.

Derrick:
Yeah, I enjoyed this. You guys are Awesome.

Felipe:
Yeah. Thanks, Derrick. I appreciate it.

Ashley:
I’m Ashley @wealthfrontrentals. He’s Felipe @felipemejiarei. And don’t forget to join our Facebook group. Derrick, are you a member of our Facebook group?

Derrick:
I am.

Ashley:
Okay. So anyone who has questions about this show, leave a message on there for Derrick and he will respond with an answer for you. So we will see you guys next Wednesday.

Watch the Podcast Here

In This Episode We Cover:

  • How Derrick found and partnered with his real-life “Rich Dad”
  • How his upbringing forced him to grow up fast
  • How his mentor helped him pull the trigger on deal #1
  • How a missed turn led to Derrick’s first For Sale by Owner deal
  • Using an unsecured personal line of credit to fund renovation work
  • Learning lessons (the hard way) about the importance of detailed scopes of work
  • His long-term plan to buy properties with tax liens and put the cash into housing development projects
  • What Derrick believes to be the most important tool for investors: leveraging relationships
  • And SO much more!

Links from the Show

Rookie Deal 

  • Duplex: FSBO bought for $49,000
  • Private money for purchase
  • Personal line of credit + Lowe’s credit card for rehab
  • Rehab cost: Almost $16,500
  • All-in cost: $46,500 with no personal capital in the deal
  • Current value estimate: $65,000, in the process of cash-out refinance

Derrick’s MVPs

  • His mentor: Dexter Craig

Books Mentioned in this Show:

Connect with Derrick:

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.