13 Units Despite Being Stationed 5,000 Miles Away with Naaman Taylor

Ashley:
This is Real Estate Rookie, show number 24.

Naaman:
I live 5,000 miles from Texas. People are a little skeptical because it’s like, “Dude, you’re buying stuff. I’ll just wait till I get there.” And I said, “Then you’re going to wait and you’re going to keep waiting and you’re going to just keep on…” I said, “Dude, just do it.” I said, “It’s not very hard to do.”

Ashley:
My name is Ashley Kehr and I am here today with Felipe Mejia who once again gets roasted.

Felipe:
I swear we should just make it a part of the show. “All right, time to roast Felipe and, go.”

Ashley:
I know, I bet they can already guess what you’re going to be roasted about and we don’t even have to tell them. But if you listen to that episode, you won’t want to miss it another roast of Felipe. But today we have a-

Felipe:
That’s right.

Ashley:
… Great guest on. We have Naaman Taylor, who has 13 doors and is currently stationed in Germany, but is still buying in the US and he has used VA loans to do his purchases. And he has a mix of single family and multifamily in his portfolio.

Felipe:
Yeah, I think it’s a great episode for all the newbie listeners out there because it takes away the fear of investing out of state because he invests out of the country. That’s amazing. He’s found a team, he’s found assistance, helpers, he’s found property managers and he goes into detail about all of this, how to find those teams, how he works them, how he interviews his property management team and invest out of the country, taking the fear out of just investing out of state. And he can’t go down to see them. And I love the explanation that he gives. I’m not going to say it, but he gives an explanation as to why he’s not scared to invest out of the country.

Ashley:
And he also gives an example of not using a property management company and how it went wrong. So I love the debate of, should you use a property manager? Should you not use a property manager? And I love to hear his take on it. So make sure you guys listen to that tip that he gives and what happened and why he had a bad experience.

Felipe:
All right. Let’s bring out Mr. Taylor.

Ashley:
Welcome Naaman Taylor to the show and we’re going to call your Taylor today, right? That’s what you like to go by?

Naaman:
Yeah, we’ll go with Taylor.

Ashley:
Thank you so much for coming on with us. Why don’t you start and tell us a little bit about yourself and what you’re doing and how you got started into real estate.

Naaman:
Yeah, so I’m actually active duty military. I’ve been in the army 11 years. I’ve been investing in real estate, probably about seven years using my VA loan different strategies. I got real heavy into the BRRRR method, maybe in the last four to six months. I’m going to be 20 years in the military and retire, but I realized that wasn’t going to be enough. So I was thinking, okay, I get another W-2 job. I can find another place to work doing some sort of entrepreneurship stuff or… I, then I started watching BiggerPockets and stuff and realized, I think I want to be a real estate investor. Yep.

Felipe:
No, I love that because we actually get a lot of questions regarding VA loans because it’s kind of like out of the box for a lot of people, because unless you’re in the military, correct me, if I’m wrong, that’s not something you can typically use. So there’s a lot of misconceptions or questions about VA loans. Can you only use it once? Can you use it more than once? How many times can you use it? What does that look like structurally? Can you give us a little bit information on VA loans and how they work?

Naaman:
And believe it or not just the civilian people don’t know, the army people don’t know either. So I do a local real estate meetup group. We’re going to have another one this Saturday. I’ve only did it once, but it went really well. And just same common misconception that you can only use your VA loan once was brought up in our group. And you can use it more than once. It’s just each state has a cap that you can put on it. So I use my VA loan two times already, and I’m going to actually use it in a third time today to use, to close on a multifamily house my wife’s going to live in.

Ashley:
That’s awesome. Congratulations on that.

Naaman:
Thank you.

Ashley:
What is the cap that you were talking about? Is that like a dollar amount?

Naaman:
Yeah, so I think in Texas is 531,000. So you can purchase easily. That’s about two properties. Because VA’s not going to let you purchase something that costs like 50 grand or whatever. So then you got to buy like a B minus property at the worst. That kind of property is what the VA is going to approve. So usually you can get two of those before you kind of get close to the cap. And then one of the strategies I tell people is to refinance out of those deals. So I’m not like a banker or anything like that, but I advise the guys to use it in high appreciation area so it’s easier to refinance out after a couple of years.

Felipe:
Very interesting. So what does your portfolio as a whole 30,000-foot view look like right now? How many numbers, how many doors you got [inaudible 00:04:40]?

Naaman:
13 doors. Today we closed on the fourplex using VA strategy. I bought a triplex cash in my next place that I’m going to go live there in Oklahoma. We’re going to renovate that one. I’m going to house hack. I’m the [inaudible 00:04:52] house hack [inaudible 00:04:53]. And we’ll talk about here in a minute, but I’ve been in house hacking for years and not even knowing what it was. And then I have two duplexes and I had to get out of my own way about single family. Because my first deal was a duplex and I got stuck in the thinking like multi-family is the only way to do it. But I started analyzing a lot of deals in the last four to six months and utilizing the BRRRR strategy, I found two great single family houses in a good appreciation area with good jobs and people getting their rents paid in Fort Worth. It’s one of my places I’d like to get into.

Felipe:
How are you funding all this with military and you said you’re married and just all this going on? How are you funding your deals? And then are you managing yourself or how does that work out?

Naaman:
Yeah, so I saved a lot of money. I started out my YouTube University is what I call it. I started out YouTube University listened to like Dave Ramsey. So I got no debt. I saved a bunch of money. And then I realized I’m not going to make any money doing this either. So I started trying to find ways to invest. Then I started with, like I said, Dave Ramsey. And then I moved into, I had already been doing stocks for seven, eight years. And then I stumbled upon BiggerPockets and I just got really lucky and just YouTube University that and put 100 hours into it, probably. Fund the deals though. VA strategy. A lot of them were owner occupied VA. I use hard money to close and I’ve done some cash deals and I partner on some stuff too, I’m a big believer in that. Everybody that knows me selfless, let’s just work together and we’ll figure it out.

Ashley:
Let’s go into the partnership a little bit because Felipe and I get that question a lot. How are you structuring your partnership?

Naaman:
So some joint venture things, just simple contracts 50/50. I just try to keep it really simple because a lot of people you hear real estate investor or let me borrow some money or let’s do something everybody’s like real skeptical. So I just keep the numbers really simple. 50/50 everything, simple contracts.

Ashley:
Yeah. 50/50 money, 50/50 on, are you managing your own properties then or do you-

Naaman:
No.

Ashley:
… Have property management? Yeah.

Naaman:
Yeah, it’s really funny. I try to wear as least amount of hats as possible because I have a full time job and it requires a lot of time for me. So my first deal that I did, I found was a new build and wasn’t even built yet when I purchased it. I used the VA loan. I brought a friend of mine to live there with me, to help me cover the 100 bucks that the other side, the rent wasn’t going to cover. So I hired the best property management company in the area. So it was super easy for me, my first deal. And I kind of learned how to learn the ropes. And of course you cut into your bottom line a little bit, but you learn so much just by allowing all these people to get involved in your deal.

Ashley:
And the time too, that you’re saving, not having to manage it yourself too.

Naaman:
Yeah. My first VA deal I bought when I was 23, seven years ago. And I haven’t been to that property in four or five years and haven’t missed a payment. So the same lady lives there now when I lived there.

Ashley:
A lot of people have that as their goal is to not have to go to their property or have to do anything for it. That’s awesome.

Naaman:
Yeah. Truly passive. What a lot of people don’t realize is so you think you’re creating passive income, but what you’re doing is creating four more jobs for yourself doing real estate.

Ashley:
And even the acquisitions part, is that mostly what you are doing now is you’re looking for the deals and doing the acquisitions and then you hand it over to your property management company?

Naaman:
Yeah. I found the thing that I’m good at is finding the deal. So I don’t like to manage properties. I tried to do that. I tried to have a friend helped me with that. Didn’t go well. So I just hired, I look at reviews and hire the best property management company. In the long run it’ll pay off. But I found out for me, I can run the numbers and figure out what the good deal is first.

Felipe:
Kind of explain to our listeners what the process was like to finding a good property management company. I know you said you looked at reviews, but if you’ll hint on that a little bit more, because I know that a lot of people are going to have that question.

Naaman:
Yeah. It’s actually really funny, especially based off the region. So I was trying to find someone, even the one I’m going to go owner occupy, someone’s going to manage that for me still. I’m just not interested in doing it. And even the first duplex I bought, wasn’t interested in doing it, still not. I don’t think I’m ever going to want to do that sort of work dealing with tenants and stuff like that, fixing stuff. This is not something that I’m good at or interested in. And so I call after I read the reviews to find out who’s answering the phone, what do they sound like? And I found out I called some places in Oklahoma and then they answer the phone. “Hello.” Say, “I’m looking for a place, probably a property management company. Can you tell me a little bit about your company?” “We charge 10%.” Then that was like, that was the end of that. And then, so I say, “Anything else you can tell me about your company or anything like that?”
And they’re like, “Well, do you want to know?” So I’m going to have to pull teeth to get information from some places. I’m like, I know this isn’t going to be the place I want to hire. I ask for a website, no website. And that’s another, no go for me because I want my tenants to be able to pay their rent really easy, whether it be on the property management company’s website or however they handle it. And I want, whoever’s answering the phone to be user friendly. I don’t have to ask all the questions. They know what to tell you already. So some of the places I’ve called in Fort Worth, they’re all, they’re superstars out there. They got the websites and the people know all the answers and they email you back immediately, so.

Felipe:
So it sounds like you almost went through an interview process for your property managing company to kind of make sure that it’s going to fit who you are and what your goals are. And if they didn’t align with that, you just said, “No, go.”

Naaman:
Yeah. And when I call them trying to will and deal with them I’m not trying to just pay 12%, 500 or lease or whatever. So I’m calling and figuring out what the deals are structured like, what they’re interested in. If I can get a discount, if I use them for one or two properties, that sort of deal. So I’m looking to get them down to 8% and 200 at least or something. And if I can get a good company to do that, I’m super interested in them.

Ashley:
How many property management companies do you have right now? Because we didn’t even talk about what markets are you in.

Naaman:
Yep. So I have one property management company that I’m going to use in Fort Worth. I try not to use that many, as long as they’re in the same area, I try to use the same company. So I also invest in Killeen area, which is close to Fort Hood base. So I use the same property management company for all my stuff over there as well. And then in Oklahoma, I haven’t found anybody yet. So if you’re listening and you know anybody in Oklahoma who can manage some properties, let me know. Because it seems like it’s going to be a little bit more difficult because it’s a small place so it’s a little bit harder to find, figure that out.

Ashley:
Yeah. Well, let’s start about, did you bring a deal for us today that you want to kind of dive into and tell us how you acquired it and to what it’s doing now? Do you have a deal picked out for that?

Naaman:
I mean, I got a couple that I can think of. One of my favorites is the single family I’d actually just sold this place, but it was too good to pass up, but it’s got a lot of history and stories on it. So I’ll go and start with that

Ashley:
Yeah, let’s start with that one. So how did you find it, first of all?

Naaman:
I used a realtor just in the area driving around. I was looking for a big house because another common misconception with using your VA loan is you have to buy something bigger. So there’s plenty of reasons why you can use it twice. But when I was, I think I was 24 years old, 25, maybe almost 25. And I thought I had to buy something bigger than my duplex. So I had bought a duplex with my first VA loan in house hacks. And then I was like, “Okay, let me buy a big house now so I can use it again.” So I used it again using buying this big single family house after I kind of drove around with the realtor, looked at a handful of them and I finally found one big 2,400 square feet, two living rooms, huge master, four bedroom, two and a half bath, big yard.
I was single at this time, only single dude living on the street because this is a family neighborhood. So I purchased this place and then I immediately didn’t know house hacking, just had two of my buddies move in and pay me rent to live there. So I didn’t charge them very much money, 350 bucks a room or something like that. And my mortgage was like 1100 bucks. So I was paying just a couple 100 bucks to stay there and we split everything. So it was really worth it. And then I PCS’d out of there. I deployed, came back and PCS’d and I rented that house to somebody with the friend that we just did a lease of, no property management. I said, “Let me try it.” This dude tore my house to pieces.

Ashley:
Oh no.

Naaman:
He had like 14 kids and nine dogs. And so they-

Felipe:
Wow.

Naaman:
So they tore it all up and he didn’t pay me like the last two months rent. It was just a real, a friend of a friend.

Felipe:
Learning experience.

Ashley:
How long did they stay there for?

Naaman:
I think 15 months. Signed a new lease to stay. And I wasn’t checking on this place I was like, he’s paying me. So I was like, “Cool. That’s all right. All right.” He’s paying me, wasn’t checking on this place. And then he started having some trouble paying me. And I was like, “Okay, I’ll work with him, work with him.” And then he just stopped. And then he just moved. He just left a bunch of stuff there. And I found out these dogs and tore up my yard. These kids then tore up my house. So trying to go a little cheap route now this property management end up costing me about seven or $8,000 to get my house back to the top of the market because I knew I wanted to sell it. There was a VA loan. I didn’t want to refinance this one.
Again, I was trying to get out of single family. I had a sour taste in my mouth. There was only a single-family house that I had. So I was like, “I got to get rid of this thing.” But it had appreciated over five years quite a bit. And I was able to sell it and make pretty good money. And I funded two of my bills currently with the money I sold from the house.

Ashley:
Wow. That’s great. Do you mind sharing the numbers with us, how that worked out?

Naaman:
So I bought this house in 2016 for about 145 and I sold it for 1859, I guess, four years later. Got my escrow money about $30,000. And I mean, I bought at VA, no money down, made 30k four years later, just that buy and hold, don’t be in a rush with real estate.

Ashley:
How much did you have to do to fix it back up after they destroyed it? Did you have to put some money into it then?

Naaman:
Yeah, I’ll put about 7,000 into it, but I had collected quite a bit of rent cashflow.

Ashley:
Yeah. They paid down your mortgage for 13 months.

Naaman:
Yeah. And someone else had lived there for a little while too. So I had paid that mortgage down to about, I think about 125 or something like that.

Ashley:
Yeah. And you had your other roommates too who contributed to your mortgage. Yeah. That’s awesome. That’s a great deal.

Felipe:
What are some of the lessons, key lessons that you would say that you learned from this deal? Because a lot of people are just going to think about the negative part of this, but I feel like there’s probably a lot more positive than just the rehab that you had to do. So dig into some of the lessons learned out of this deal.

Naaman:
Yeah. I picked this one because it kind of encompasses more than just bad, it encompasses good, bad, some ugly, a little bit of everything with this single family. The good stuff was, I mean, I had to pay almost no money to live there with my friends. It was a great house hack opportunity. A lot of people don’t know how to house hack with single family or they just don’t want to. So you got to find the house that fits you to house hack in, if you want to use the house hack strategy with a single-family home. Some of the other good was the appreciation that I got from it. I mean, it was awesome. I couldn’t believe that it was worth that much money because for me, I was like $140,000 house two years ago and all I did was I had to repaint and then fix the yard and a few… When someone buying stuff at the top of the market, they really start to get in the nitty gritty on, “This thing needs to get fixed and that thing.”
Because I think they offered about 3000 more than asking. So I was like, “Okay, I’ll fix everything.” Because it actually went under contract before and the lady was giving me a really hard time about stuff. And I was like, “Hey, I’ll give you a $2,000 allowance to fix whatever you like.” Because she’d offered me 2000 less than asking. And I said, “Well, if you offered me the full price, I will fix everything, but I’ll give you an allowance still, if you want to close.” And we ended up not closing with her. And I was like, “Oh man.” And then one day later I got a great offer over asking. And I was like, “Well, this is great.”
So, I mean, don’t be in a rush, really. Some of the lessons I learned from this one and don’t be scared to rent your house and to think that you can’t rent your house because you can.

Felipe:
Did you take any depreciation on your property over those couple of years that you had it?

Naaman:
Yeah. So when I filed my taxes yet, I know you can depreciate 27.5 over 27.5 years or something like that. So I kind of got the benefits of fixing the house and I’ll get that, some of that money back when I file this year because I fixed that one up and sold it this year.

Felipe:
I think a lot of people forget about that as well. It’s not just a cashflow play when it comes to real estate. We also have tax depreciation where you can depreciate a property over 27 and a half years. So let’s say that you bought that property for 250,000 and you depreciate that for 27 half years, you can add that to your bottom line as well on top of cashflow and all these other things. And then you sold, you got that money and now you’ve invested in two more properties. So I mean, you’re just doubling up. What [inaudible 00:17:51] would… You’re just stacking. So I think that’s great. What would you say was the biggest lesson learned from this deal specifically that you’ve tooken on going forward?

Naaman:
I would say there’s two parts. One was the two fifths rule because I had lived there for two years out of the last five. So I don’t have to pay any capital gains taxes on that money. Because if you’re single and you live there two out of four or five years to get up to 250 tax-free and if your marriage, you get up to 500, if you live in those places for two out of the last five years. So I learned that and I was like, “Sweet, I’m going to try and live in these things for two years at a time.” Instead of I think it’s one year, 366 days you pay, you don’t have to pay long-term capital gains, but if you live in their two years, you don’t have to pay any. So it’s pretty lucrative if you can stay in these places for one year, it’s even better if you can stand there for two. So that was a big one for me that I like to take away from that deal.

Felipe:
Good for you.

Ashley:
I just wanted to mention too that BiggerPockets actually has a house hacking book. You kind of mentioned how a lot of people don’t know how to house hack single family properties and the book, The House Hacking Strategy actually does touch on that a lot. So if anyone wants to learn any more about doing that, you can go to biggerpockets.com/househackingbook and read more about that. So is there anything else you wanted to add to that deal for us? And did you want to talk about another deal? I’m very intrigued about these VA loans and how you’ve been able to use this.

Naaman:
Oh yeah, I can do my first deal. Yeah. My first deal was another great deal VA loan. I try to tell people to use this, but what soldiers do, what I see a lot of is they all just want to live in this nice house and they can get it with the VA loan. So they all just move into the house with their wife and the kid, and then they just pay the mortgage, which is going to be about what they get for housing in most cases. And then they move and then they do it again. But they don’t really know how to run a property or they buy in a low appreciation area where they end up negative cash flow on one of these things. And that’s why in military towns, you see a lot of foreclosures because they just stopped paying those things. And then the VA’s a little bit forgiven with it, but it’s still a foreclosure on your credit. So you’re not very bankable at that point.
My first deal to go back to the VA loans. My first deal was a duplex. The new build that I told you about, they had built the same thing next door. So I walked in next door and they’re like, “Yeah, the one that’s going to go up next to this is going to be just like this one.” So I say, “Okay, great. I’ll take it.” I walked in. I loved it. It was like stained cement floors and nicest place I was ever going to live. I had just made the rank of staff sergeant. So I was now allowed to live off the base. So I had to find a place to live. And I had rented a room. I’ve never actually paid full rent since I’ve been able to live in a house ever. I just been lucky that way I guess.
Because I rented a room from a friend, the same friend that I moved into the duplex with. And I bought this thing at 185 before it was built. And brought it up, I moved into one side, the mortgage was about 1300 and I could charge $1000 for the rent next door.

Felipe:
Nice.

Naaman:
So, yeah, so then, and my roommate we just split the $300 and split the water, electricity and all that stuff. And then that same property is worth about 210 now from appreciation in the area. And I have a great property management company. The turnover it’s like negative turnover. They can’t list it fast enough when the person moves out. Because one side the ladies lived in it the whole time. And the other side, it’s a little like new person every year or two, but I’ve only paid that 300 bucks, I think two other times in the seven years that I owned it.

Felipe:
So are you refinancing these properties, getting your money out, buying another one and so forth and so on? Is that kind of how you’re funding as you’re building your portfolio?

Naaman:
Yeah. So the plan with these VA properties is to get to pay into them, obviously with the two people that live there, they’ll pay the mortgage every month. And then the cashflow I get from that I just reinvested into the loan. So anyway, I can get that 75% loan to value from the lenders. And then I can just refinance it to a lower rate because obviously the rate that I got when I was 23, ain’t going to be the same rate I get when I’m 30. So I once I get the 25% into the VA deals, then I refinance them.

Ashley:
Let’s talk about some of the criteria for a VA loan. Are there any kind of certain stipulations that you need to meet? Do you need to have a certain credit score that you know of? Do they check what your income is? I mean, how close is it to getting a conventional loan?

Naaman:
It’s fairly similar. There’s not too much to it. Like I said, it’s the credit score. They know what you’re making because you’re in the army, you know what I mean? So there’s a straight up pay chart they can just look at. And then again, if you have that foreclosure on your credit or anything like that, you probably won’t get approved. Some of these people use them when they get out too. So I know I talked to all my buddies, they get out. Once I learn the BRRRR strategy, because there’s a 203(k) VA loan as well that you can do, you just have to find a bank that will lend to it.

Ashley:
Can you explain what that is for everyone?

Naaman:
Yeah. So for people listening a 203(k) is when you get a loan from the bank for the property and the rehab, and then you end up financing that whole deal. It’s a good way to build equity in a house without having to put a lot of money into it. The bank refinances your loan at the money you borrow to fix the place to rehab it and for the home purchase. So, and you can do that through the VA if you find the right bank, which is [inaudible 00:23:22] money down and you can immediately build equity in a place. I just haven’t found one yet.

Felipe:
Yeah. That was my next question going to be, how do you approach the banks when you’re trying to refinance a VA loan or so forth and so on just to kind of get your money out and then restructure that, how does that conversation go?

Naaman:
Yeah. I’ll just call and tell them what it’s worth. They send out an appraiser, they determine if it’s accurate what I think is worth. Sometimes I’ll put together little thing to say, this is what some of the things I was looking at to think what it was work. It didn’t work this last time for me, there’s this a lot of new builds and old properties. So when I bought mine in 2016, they weren’t building a lot of stuff there. So mine were like the newest, hottest thing on the block. And then everything else is from the ’90s. And then they didn’t build anything for five more years. And now everything else is getting new built. So my comps from my property they’re like things from the ’90s or a new build. And I’m like, “How are you guys coming up with these numbers?” So I was thinking I was going to get a $230,000 value, but it came back at 210. And I was like, I got to see these comps because it’s a beautiful place, a three, two side by side four-year-old duplex.
So I’m like how these numbers work. But I mean, the VA appraisers, they’re a special breed. So I mean, they’ll get it right sometimes I imagine, but they didn’t get it right this last time.

Ashley:
Have you tried to dispute that at all?

Naaman:
No, I didn’t. I thought about trying a different VA appraiser, but yeah, because you have to use their people. That’s the problem. So I was like, if it’s one person that’s like that, that’s probably have a criteria where I can’t just pull a person from a different place that thinks this is worth more, so.

Felipe:
That’s good. And before we get to the section of our MVP section of the show, I did want to ask you one last question. What is your goal? What’s your end goal when you get out of the military regarding doors?

Naaman:
So right now I’m just trying to partner with all my friends and people that reach out to me and my family because my thing is I want all these military… We don’t make enough money to be getting shot at, you know what I mean? So I got to find ways to help these guys live for free. And some of my guys that I work with here, they inbox me all the time. I help them look for deals in the places that they’re PCS’d into and stuff like that. Because I really think that they should be able to live for free and make a little bit more money than we do. So one of my end goals is to help troops live for free.

Ashley:
That’s awesome.

Felipe:
I love that.

Ashley:
That’s great. And you’re going to be bombarded with messages after this now. Lot’s of people to help. Yeah.

Naaman:
Yeah. It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay. I mean, I talk about it all the time. Everybody knows, everybody knows. I’d be like, “Hey, come talk to me.” And a lot of people don’t believe me.

Ashley:
There’s so much value in that too. It’s like telling people what you want to do because you’re going to learn stuff from them and down the road, there’s going to be opportunity for you too, with them. I mean, I’m a big believer in what you give it comes around and you’ll get something back in the end too.

Naaman:
Yeah. I work with a like-minded guy here. So one thing I found I’m not very good at is being super meticulous. And so I found a guy here, my buddy Shack has smart money approach. He’s like one of the guys, I was getting all the numbers and he asked me all the questions that I don’t want to ask myself. And it’s great because I know I need that. So he brings value that way. And then, and I’ve been doing this a little while so I can help him show him what’s going on and how to look at these deals and stuff like that.

Ashley:
Yeah. That’s awesome. So he’s kind of just double checking you and asking you the questions you already know you should be answering, but sometimes it’s a lot better coming from someone else.

Naaman:
If I’m like take over this deal, I know it’s going to work. I’m like, “Hey man.” I won’t even look at my paychecks like paychecks. I’m like if I got to put a couple 100 bucks for my paycheck and whatever, it’s no problem. But to answer your question about doors, I don’t want to get too crazy in the one to four residential stuff. I don’t want to be like this, have this crazy spiderweb of 42 partners and stuff like that. So my portfolio, eventually I want to scale into commercial real estate. And I don’t think it would take me that long. Especially if I partner with a lot of people, I’ll still have a lot of residential stuff, but the stuff I do on my own, I’m going to scale that pretty quick and try to get into the commercial real estate side of it.

Felipe:
I think we’ll have Taylor back here in a couple years or a couple maybe in just a couple of months and he’ll be telling us how now he’s got 50 units of commercial property or he might just be on the OG show. He’s going to outgrow us, Ashley.

Ashley:
Yeah.

Naaman:
No, no, I’ll be back. There’s no worries.

Felipe:
All right there. For sure. Well onto the next segment of the show, it’s time for this part where we figure out who your MVP is. This could be a lender, an agent, a handyman, a friend, me, whatever you want. So someone who’s-

Naaman:
Who’s the MVP today? I was motivated to working out today.

Felipe:
Okay. Hold on. Hold on. Where are you at big dog?

Naaman:
[inaudible 00:27:58] now?

Ashley:
Taylor before you got on the call with us today, Felipe tricked me into flexing and took a picture.

Felipe:
Go to my Instagram Taylor, and you’ll see where I got Ashley to flex. And she’s like, boom, so.

Ashley:
Then this will air more than 24 hours he’ll be gone by the time [crosstalk 00:28:17].

Naaman:
My wife got caught flexing earlier. I was talking to her, we were on the phone and I don’t know how she ended up flexing. She was like working out real hard and stuff. And her coworker walks by like, “What are you doing?” She’s like, [crosstalk 00:28:29].

Felipe:
That’s hilarious. Well, this part of the show we actually call the MVP.

Ashley:
MVP.

Felipe:
So who is your MVP so far, man?

Naaman:
I got a kind of a team that I have in Fort Worth that just really get it done for me. My contractor, my wholesaler, I have my wife’s cousin. She drives for dollars for me a little bit looking for some deals, realtors out there, the property management company I’m going to hire that I know they’re going to be great after I interviewed them. So the whole Fort Worth team. And then honestly I live in Germany and I’m seven hours ahead of Texas where I invest. So midnight for me is close the business over there and I can’t sign anything wet signature. So my wife has to do all the closing.
So she’s like, she’s the real MVP for actually closing these deals because I tell them my buddy, I says, ABC always be closing baby. We always got to be closing. So I couldn’t do any of this stuff without her get a mobile notary. Like you know the stuff that goes into some of this over these investing, but she gets it all done, schedules it and signs everything. It’s not just signing her name too, if she has to like sign in attorney fact of so it’s not just like a real quick. She’s the MVP too.

Ashley:
So you’re buying property from Germany. So if you can do this from Germany, someone like me can invest out of state because that’s what I’m trying to do this year. And I do have a little fear and I am nervous about it, but I mean, here, you’re a great example. You’re doing it from overseas, buying out of the country and I’m trying to buy just out of state.

Naaman:
I live 5,000 miles from Texas. I tell everybody they’re all like… I love people who are a little skeptical because it’s like, “Dude, you’re buying stuff. I’ll just wait till I get there.” And I said, “Then you’re going to wait and you’re going to keep waiting and you’re going to just keep on…” I said, “Dude, just do it.” I said, “It’s not very hard to do.” I said, “Do you know how to fix anything?” I ask guys this all the time because we shoot guns and stuff like that. So, “Do you know how to fix anything?” They’re like, “No.” I said, “So what are you going to go look at anyway?”

Ashley:
Great. Yeah. That’s a good point.

Naaman:
You have no idea what you’re looking at. You’re going to walk in the house and be like, “Yeah, that sucks. That’s broken.”

Felipe:
I think that’s probably my kryptonite is that I do know how to fix things. So [crosstalk 00:30:47]. I do. I know how to fix those things and I end up fixing them where I could hire it out, but that positively affects my bottom line. But then I think about it, like I could be using my time doing something else. So it’s always kind of like a wish wash for me.

Naaman:
Yeah. I’m not fixing nothing, dude. I just learned, I’ve been in the army so I learned some tools and stuff like that, but I just grew up in the city playing sports and hanging out doing stuff like that. We didn’t do any turning wrenches or anything like that. And then my wife’s side of the family they’re Mexicans so they know how to fix everything. And I’m like, I just show up I’m like, “Hey call uncle Victor, man. We need some stuff done. I can’t do anything.”

Felipe:
That’s hilarious.

Ashley:
Well hopefully we do. Our next segment is the rookie request line. So hopefully they’re not going to ask a maintenance or repair question here for you, but let’s hear today-

Naaman:
My property management company handles it. That’s the answer.

Ashley:
So anyone can call in on 18885 Rookie and leave us a voicemail and we will have our guests answer the question for you. So here’s today’s question.

Daniel:
Hello. My name is Daniel. Orange County, California. Quick question. How would I vet a mentor or an investor that I’m willing to work with starting off new? I see a lot of questions of how can I find a mentor but a question I didn’t see so often is how do I make sure this mentor is qualified to guide me through the jungles of real estate? Thanks. Bye-bye.

Naaman:
Love that question. I actually have a mentor that I use. He’s a BiggerPockets member and I just, I reached out to him and say, “Hey, are you interested in any sort of mentorship program? Do you offer anything like that?” And he said, “Yeah.” And I was like, “Great.” So then he helped me with one market in particular and we talk on a week to week basis. And it’s great. I get a lot of feedback from him. A lot of it I mean, you just got to kind of reach out, ask questions, figure out who fits with you. So I find mine on BiggerPockets. I just I watched his interview and I was like, “I think I get along with this guy. I like how he talks. I’m interested in talking to this person.” And then I tried to same thing in a different market and it didn’t work out so well, some people that do real estate, they charge a lot of money to help you learn real estate. So I was like, “Man, I got a regular W-2 job not interested in that five figure helping, so.” You just got to be careful.

Ashley:
Right. And it shows that you don’t have to charge or you don’t have to pay that amount of money because you were able to find someone else in a similar market asking for the same kind of advice and mentorship.

Naaman:
Just go to YouTube University, baby. I mean, that’s the one. That’s the one.

Ashley:
Yeah. BiggerPockets. I mean, that is all free education, their books, the forums, the YouTube channel, the podcast. Yeah.

Naaman:
There’s some other stuff I do like Rod Khleif, I listen to his stuff. Actually I like one of those action calls with him the other day. I just try to spread it out and listen to everybody because what I don’t want is for the next two or three years, I’m moving towards commercial property trying to make that transition. But all I’ve been doing is buying one to four and not actually understanding what it is that I need to be doing to move into commercial real estate.

Ashley:
Well, our next segment is actually random questions. And the question I want to ask you are what are some YouTube channels or videos that you could recommend to someone who is trying to educate themselves more on being a real estate investor?

Naaman:
Yeah. So I look at finances like the alphabet and I would say, start with somebody like Dave Ramsey’s. He’ll teach you ABCs, don’t have debt, invest your 401(k), save some money up, get those reserves right, stuff like that. And then I say something like BiggerPockets will teach you the next three letters of the alphabet DEF and keep listening to those over and over. I mean, those are the kind of things you just got to get the reps. I know a lot about this stuff and I still watch every episode I get a chance to put some time in. Because one thing I always tell people, especially some of the guys just getting started. I said, never doubt your information and knowledge in real estate because there’s a lot of specialists in this game.
So some people are just really good at syndication or some people are really good at multifamily or single family or wholesaling, whatever it is, but they have no idea about 1031 exchange or two-fifths rule or whatever these little nuances of real estate are. And you could know all this stuff and you can bring a lot of value to a lot of people that just buy single family homes and don’t know about some of these other opportunities and rules, how to advance their portfolio.

Ashley:
I think that’s a really good point because you want to have a strong foundation and structure because real estate is a business and you want to make sure that your personal finances are strong and that foundation is secure so that your business can be secure. And just how you keep refreshing those basics and building that foundation, I think is great. And that is something people should really take away from this episode is that even though you have 13 doors, you are still taking that time to continue to learn and grow and to continue to be that successful investor. Felipe, do you want to take the next question?

Felipe:
Yeah, I got the next question. What is one piece of technology that you still use regarding real estate? I know that you said you have property managers do a lot of stuff, but what is that one piece of technology you say that has helped you the most?

Naaman:
So I bought a really nice TV not that long ago, a 55 inch flat screen curve, 4K.

Felipe:
Like every service guy does.

Naaman:
Yeah. Everybody’s got like a small [inaudible 00:36:28] room with a 60 inch TV in it, that’s the lifestyle, and then a nice car out front.

Felipe:
That’s hilarious.

Naaman:
Can I talk about that too?

Felipe:
Sure.

Naaman:
People, stop buying brand new cars. Your debt to income ratio is going to be terrible and no one’s going to give you a loan. So buy a used car, try not to-

Ashley:
Paid in cash if you can.

Naaman:
Yeah. Buy it in cash. I mean, it’s your car now. And then you can the same way you scale with real estate where you buy a single family then do duplex. Scale with your car. Your car is going to be worth the same amount of money you bought it for if you bought it used for five grand, probably in a year. Save some money, buy something that costs 10. It’s the same thing. A lot of principals from Dave Ramsey. I mean a it’s a lot of just being sound with finance.

Felipe:
That’s great. No, I love that. And what’s interesting is everyone now knows that my goal is to buy a Tesla and I’m trying to figure out what’s the best way to do that educationally. Because I know everything that I know. I’m woke to real estate. And one of the strategies that someone brought to my attention was when I refinanced one of my properties, it’s only raising my rent about $100 and it gives me all the cash to buy the Tesla cash. And that’s only costing me an extra $100 a month. So I was like, that’s a really good idea. That makes sense because my refi is only costing me refi a month. When you were talking about the car, that’s kind of what I was thinking.
I was like, “I get what he’s saying and that’s great advice. Don’t buy the new car.” But at some point you’re going to want a toy, whether that’s a car or a boat or I don’t know whatever it is, but just make sure that your asset is paying for that. Not as a liability, make sure that you have an asset that’s covering that charge. So that, like you said, your DTI isn’t really affected, your bank sees that you have positive cash flow that’s doing that for you.

Naaman:
I got something for you. Something I learned on YouTube University the other day. You got something called a 179 [inaudible 00:38:10], where you can buy this car as part of your business and if you use it for driving for dollars or wherever you want to go. Say you just did 50, 50. You can claim something out of your taxes and get some of that Tesla money back in your pocket, baby, so.

Felipe:
Let’s go. We’re getting matching ones with Ashley. I’m going to slap Ashley’s face on the side of my Tesla and it’s business expense.

Naaman:
No, no you put Ashley’s body on the car door in your right window.

Felipe:
And I’m driving.

Naaman:
[crosstalk 00:38:33] head on… And then she does the same thing. That’s really, Felipe’s small arms on the side.

Felipe:
That’s hilarious. All right. We’re going to end this interview now. Bye Naaman Taylor. Thanks for coming. That was great.

Ashley:
Oh my God. The Tesla and the flexing-

Felipe:
Let’s go.

Ashley:
… Has really become a thing for you Felipe.

Felipe:
It’s been great. I appreciate that too.

Naaman:
I made the point to make sure I kept it going. I made a point.

Felipe:
I wonder why Ashley, thank you.

Ashley:
There’s this private Facebook group where-

Felipe:
No, there’s not. Moving on.

Ashley:
… Any oncoming guest tends to bring up Felipe’s-

Naaman:
He said, “Moving on.”

Ashley:
… Flexing and Tesla.

Felipe:
Moving on.

Ashley:
Okay. So the question I have for you is actually a question that Felipe had said, I think before we even recorded our first podcast and somehow it never got added to our list of random questions, but I’m very interested to hear your answer for this. Who is someone that you would like to have a beer with alive or dead that you could talk real estate or business with?

Naaman:
Oh, it’s LeBron James. I’m from Cleveland, Ohio. Everybody knows I’m the biggest LeBron fan that there is with. So I’d love… Not beer. We’re going to drink some high-end wine. You know what I mean? So that’s what we’re doing. Yeah.

Ashley:
And what would you talk to him about? What are some of the things you would like to ask him?

Naaman:
How’d you get that billion-dollar deal from Nike? Let’s talk. I mean, he’s got so many businesses and he’s in Hollywood now too just keeping it rolling like let’s go. Got the house in Brentwood, let me buy the one next to it.

Felipe:
No, that’s great. That’s really exciting. So just as we’re wrapping up, is there any questions that you have for us?

Naaman:
I didn’t prepare any questions at all, actually. So I don’t really have any questions.

Felipe:
Is there anything else that you would like to add to the listeners?

Ashley:
He wants to know what your workout routine is to get those biceps?

Naaman:
I DM Felipe, not that long ago, I told him he’s got to do some pushups and pull ups.

Felipe:
You don’t want the smoke there. It’s okay.

Naaman:
I mean, I’ve been doing this workout thing for a while before it was cool.

Felipe:
That’s hilarious.

Ashley:
Oh gosh. Okay. Well, can you tell us where people can get in touch with you if they want to find out more about VA loans and to keep following your journey?

Naaman:
Yeah. My Instagram handle is uncommon_denominator1. I thought that was kind of cool. Because the way I see these partnerships too, the one person that’s just underneath all these other people. That uncommon denominator I thought was really cool. And then-

Ashley:
Yeah, that is unique. I like that.

Naaman:
Yeah, my wife hates my Instagram handle, but whatever. And then Naaman Taylor on Facebook, I’m on Facebook and Instagram and I don’t really do too much other stuff.

Ashley:
And you’re in the BiggerPockets forums, you had said before.

Naaman:
Yeah. Yeah. So I’m in those groups too as well.

Ashley:
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show with us today and it was great to hear your journey and it seems like you’re going to keep growing and do awesome stuff. And I’m excited to see how investing in commercial property goes for you.

Naaman:
Thank you. Thank you.

Ashley:
Yeah. I’m Ashley Kehr at Wealth From Rentals and he’s Felipe Mejia @felipemejiarei. Make sure you check out our Facebook group search Real Estate Rookie.