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You Can't Afford Me
Making the leap from employment to entrepreneurship can be a scary time. The biggest fear people have is the unknown. Here on the “You Can’t Afford Me Podast” we speak with hustlers and innovators on how to make the most of your journey. If you have questions we have answers.
You Can't Afford Me
You Don’t Need 20% Down To Start Buying Rentals
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Car repossessed. Fired from a job that was supposed to be the “made it” moment. Then a decision: stop dabbling and start building. Martine Richardson joins us to tell the real story of how she climbed out of a rough season and built a multi-million dollar rental portfolio, even when she didn’t have piles of cash sitting in the bank.
We get practical about real estate investing from the ground up, starting with wholesaling as a way to learn deals, build confidence, and generate cash. Then we zoom out to the bigger win: owning rental properties for long-term wealth, monthly cash flow, equity growth, and the kind of freedom you cannot get from one-time checks. Martine explains why the 20% down “rule” stops so many people, and how deal structure and buying at a discount can open doors you didn’t think were available.
We also dig into what makes rentals stay truly manageable. Martine shares how she sets tenant expectations, uses systems to create distance between her personal life and property issues, and screens residents beyond basic credit and background checks. Her favorite tool is landlord verification, especially talking to a prior landlord to spot patterns before they become expensive problems.
If you want to buy your first rental property and you’re trying to figure out how people finance deals with other people’s money, this conversation lays out the mindset, the mechanics, and the guardrails. Subscribe for more real-world money moves, share this with a friend who keeps saying “one day,” and leave a review if you want more guests who teach the full playbook.
www.themrpreneur.com
Real Estate As A Wealth Path
SPEAKER_03Thanks for joining us on another episode of the You Can't Afford Me podcast. So if you guys have listened to the show for a while, you know I fully believe that real estate investing is a big part of creating wealth. Every mentor I've ever had, they've always owned property. They've had investment properties, they've owned their own residential property. But I think a lot of people have a hard time getting their head around how they can get into this space. Everyday people that don't have $10 million in the bank are getting into this industry every day. So we got the expert free all today. All right. We got Martine here in the podcast room with us. How you doing today?
SPEAKER_00I'm doing well. How are you?
SPEAKER_03Fantastic. So I give everybody a quick rundown of who you are and what you do.
SPEAKER_00Sure. So I built a multi-million dollar rental portfolio using other people's capital. And now I show new investors how to do that. Even if they feel stuck, even if they feel like they don't know what they're doing. Um, a lot of people think they need to put 20% down. Even if you believe that, um, I help you get over that barrier so that you can start building that rental portfolio for yourself. Nice, nice.
SPEAKER_03All right. I always like to go to the people's origin story. Okay. Uh, first off, where'd you grow up at? Where are you from?
SPEAKER_00Richmond. Native. This is my this is my land.
SPEAKER_03I love I love this town. I'm originally from Lynchburg, but like I don't ever see myself living here. Richmond's just like the perfect size city for me. I think it's it's big enough for you don't feel like you got some old school country feel to it. Um, but it's not too big where the little guy doesn't have an opportunity. Right. Like anybody who wants to get it here in Richmond, I think you can get it here in Richmond. Right. Um, go to college, straight to workforce. What was that story?
SPEAKER_00So I'm originally from South Side of Richmond. Um I grew up, uh graduated from Huguenot High School. Um, and then I went to James Madison for college. Nice. And I got my degree in finance, and I had worked all throughout high school. I actually started working in middle school. Uh I worked at the Boys and Girls Club when I was 13. That was my first job.
SPEAKER_03That was one of my first jobs at college.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So um I worked there for a little bit, worked my way through high school, worked my way through college. And I always have had the mindset that, you know, I wasn't doing all of this in vain. Like I hated these jobs I worked at, but I just I knew that there was something better for me. Yeah. So I went to college. What I thought was gonna be something better was I went to college, I got my degree in finance, I got my first big girl job, and I'm like, okay, this is it. This is the job I'm gonna enjoy. What was that big girl job? Yeah, I worked at Fannie Mae, ironically enough. I didn't even know I was gonna get into real estate at the time. Yeah, but I worked at Fannie Mae, and I'm thinking this is it. And then I get there and I'm like, why do I even need a degree for this? Like, this is definitely gatekeeping. Because the job is so easy, anybody can do it. Like a high schooler could do the job. Um, but I think my lack of motivation sh really showed in my work. Well, not I think, I know. That my lack of motivation showed in my work because I ended up getting fired from that job. And I remember when I first started at that job, my first, you know, you this is the most money you've ever made. So you're living the lifestyle. I got the nice apartment. This is the DC area, cost more than here. I got the nice apartment. We talk big money up in DC. Yeah, I got the nice apartment. I got the nice car. And I just remember when I got fired, the first thing I thought about, because I didn't have, I have a daughter now, I didn't have kids at the time. I wasn't married, I'm married now. And so I didn't really have like real responsibilities, it's just me. But the first thing I thought about was how am I gonna pay for this car? Because, like, you know, this was my only source of income, and I'm gonna have this bill every month, and I just don't know
Martine’s Origin And Early Grind
SPEAKER_00how that's gonna work out for me. But I had gotten into finance because my senior year of high school, I worked at this insurance company. And the guy was young, doing really, really well in the insurance company, had a degree in finance. I said, I'm just gonna copy him and do that and go back to insurance. But I didn't, like, I told my my advisor about this, and she's like, insurance, like go get a real job. So, like, she she really prompted me to get something with a salary, and um, I looked at that as my opportunity when I got fired to go back to it, and I did, but I really just didn't enjoy it. So, but I noticed that I'm entrepreneur at heart. Like, I don't, I'm unemployable. Every time I get a job, I end up getting fired.
SPEAKER_01Right there with the system.
SPEAKER_00That's just it's just not for me, right? But um, I ended up getting into real estate because I was learning about it, but not really taking it seriously.
SPEAKER_03Well, after you got uh laid off, did you immediately move back to Richmond?
SPEAKER_00No, I stayed up there for a little bit. I stayed up for as long as I could.
SPEAKER_03Chocolate city with them rent prices.
SPEAKER_00And then I moved back home to Richmond. I was, I mean, to be honest, I was pretty down in the dumps. Like I went to college, I did all everything right, and look at what my life is looking like right now. I'm feeling like a failure. I get fired from my jobs, and what really pushed the needle for me to make me start like taking real estate seriously is that that car I had, it ended up getting repossessed. And when it got repossessed the next day, I started taking real estate seriously. Because at that point, I was at the bottom, I was on the floor. Like it was nowhere to fall, you know? So when that happened, I just I said, well, I didn't do all of this for my life to look like this. Yeah. Like I have to, I have to make a change, and I didn't care what that looked like. I didn't care if I looked dumb doing stuff. I needed to make it happen for myself. And it didn't happen overnight. It took a while. I've been doing this for 12 years. It took a while for things to get going. I didn't get my first deal two years after I started. So it took forever, right? But I just was resilient. I just kept going at it. I kept listening, I kept learning. I kept, I didn't take no for an answer. I said, I'm gonna make it happen for myself. So that's what I did.
SPEAKER_03So let's let's break that down because I heard Ice Cube, I think it was Ice Cube said this one time in an interview. He's like, if you if you start something you're not willing to get paid for the first three years, don't even bother starting. And a lot of people hear that, and I I want people to understand what that means because a lot of people are like, Well, how in the world can anybody go two, three years without any income? So break down what that looked like. You were you were trying and also define when you say make real estate work, what was it exactly? Was it the investment of real estate? Like, what were you trying to do in that space? But how did you get by for two years without any solid income?
SPEAKER_00So I did have income just not from real estate. I had to end up getting a job again. Um, but no, so I've always been in the investment space. So are you familiar with wholesaling?
SPEAKER_01Have you heard that before?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I started with wholesaling. So basically, when I was working my corporate job, someone had given me a book. It was called How to Quit Your Job in 19 Weeks, very specific.
SPEAKER_02I think I've read that book.
SPEAKER_00And it talked about wholesaling, right? And I had never heard of this concept before. So I'm reading the book. I'm like, wow, this sounds great. It's telling you exactly what to do. And I'm thinking, like, wow, that's great, but just that's great, like no action, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And um when that car got repossessed, the action started to take place. And I was like, well, he already told me what to do. Now I need to make that happen for myself. But for the two years that I didn't get anything, like I was staying with my aunt. So yeah, she wanted me to pay her something to pay some bills and things like that. But I I didn't really have to have a lot of money. It's just that I needed, I didn't what I I considered myself, if I couldn't provide or bring any money in, that I was being like less than, like I was being a bum. Like I just, I don't got time for that. So um I ended up getting a job. I remember my best friend and I, we were both going through this around the same time. She had just gotten her master's degree. Um, I was trying to make real estate work and I wasn't making any money. And we are listening to the radio, and this is when they were used to blast those Amazon commercials all the time, right? Like, you could work at the warehouse. I don't even know if those come on anymore, but like they they used to be on all the time. You can work at the warehouse. And I was like, you know, we kind of down bad. Like we need to go get us a job. Like, we didn't get all of this education, go through all of this, not to have anything. And she was like, all right, come on, let's go do it. So she felt that job, she ended up feeling like that job was beneath her because she didn't go through with it. But I went there and I started working. I just did real estate in the evening.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I just did it on the weekend. I did it when I could do it, and I would just listen to podcasts like this, I would go to meetups like this, and I would just learn so that I could make it happen for myself. And then eventually I just kept hearing story after story after story of people making it happen for them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I'm thinking, like, it's no way all these people are lying. Like this guy saying it you can buy houses at a discount. This person is saying it, they're saying they made millions of dollars in real estate. I just don't think everyone is just being untruthful here. So it wasn't until I locked in and I decided that I was gonna make it happen for myself, that's when it really started happening. Because that first two years, it was more so like I would try something and it didn't seem like it worked, and I'd be like, oh man, this doesn't work. And then I would like pick it back up. And then I would try something else, and I'd be like, oh man, this doesn't work. And then like it wasn't until I'm like, I'm gonna be consistent, I'm gonna keep doing this until it starts working for me that it started working for me.
SPEAKER_03Well, let's pause at that moment with when you talked about being at your lowest, because it wasn't Amazon for me. I was in Lynchburg at the time, and I was working at this factory. I can't even remember the name of the company now. Uh, because I'd chat them out if I could. Uh but it was this factory, and we basically made like the lotions and uh fragrances for like uh Bath and Body Works, American Eagle, like stuff like that. Like these huge, massive tanks for your making product. And I was working in the warehouse, I ended up bumping my way up to a supervisor. I was like, I'm I'm gonna hustle no matter where I'm at. Um I'll never forget this this day. The first book that a mentor put in my hand was Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. So in between filling up these massive gallon tanks, like you're literally just sitting there twiddling your thumb. So I'm like, all right, well, I'm just gonna start reading this book like and doing this in between. So one of the supervisors was like walking around, she came and checked something, and like I'm doing my work, like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And she comes over, she sees me reading that book, she's like, Hey, what are you reading? And I flip the cover over, it says rich dad, poor dad, and she gives me this little smirk, like okay, and then she walks off. I'm like, this she thinks she thinks I'm gonna be here for the rest of my life. Like, no. And not five minutes later, my direct supervisor comes over to me and he's like, Hey man, you can't be reading on the job. I'm like, dude, I'm literally doing my job. Like, I'm supervising these guys and handling these. He's like, I get it, man. He's like, I know, but like I got bosses to report to too. And it was at that moment I knew, like, oh yeah, I'm not staying here. Like, I can't work for somebody else. But the point I wanted to get to was this to me is probably the most difficult thing being an entrepreneur when you're at those low points that a lot of people just will never get. In your mind, you already saw yourself 10 years down the road. And it's like, I know I'm meant for better than this. I know I'll put in the work. I know I'm smart enough. I know I'm talented enough. But here's my situation right now. I'm still eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and splitting up a little Caesar's pizza to last me a whole day so I can have a meal. I'm still looking in the floorboard of my car to get some spare change to put some gas in the tank. But in your head, I'm like, man, I'm already a multimillionaire.
Getting Fired And Hitting Bottom
SPEAKER_03I know where I'm gonna go. I'm gonna be doing this, I'm gonna be running a team, da-da-da-da-da. And I think for the the entrepreneurs, the true entrepreneurs, once you have that vision in your head, whatever you're going through in that time, that's not even relevant because we know we're not gonna be here forever.
SPEAKER_00Tell me about it. I actually had a very uh similar moment that you're talking about. Like, I remember I'm walking because my car got repossessed, right? I'm walking to the store, I'm talking to somebody on the phone, I'm telling them about how my real estate portfolio is gonna look. And they're like, girl, you're crazy. Like, you don't have anything. I'm like, okay, I'll show you. I'll show you. And then like I started working because like I was at Amazon for a little bit, and um, I just got to a point where I'm like, why do I work here? Like, I have a degree in finance. Why am I out here picking? It wasn't like I was at a higher up level. I was in the warehouse at Amazon, and I got to a point where I just got sick and tired. So I ended up getting a job with my degree. I became a financial analyst at a private equity firm, and that sounds great. But I remember I had a lot of downtime and I would be working on my real estate business. I would never ask like for more stuff to do. Like, I would do what you told me to do. Don't let me get my paycheck. And I would start working on my real estate stuff. And then, like, I remember my boss, she's like, You can't do that real estate stuff here. Like, you can't be working on that while you're here. And I remember I love. And this is how I knew I was so passionate about it because I just wanted to build something for myself. Like, I called my brother, and I was like, just oozing with passion. I was like very emotional. Like, how can she tell me I can't change my life to make it better? What type of job is this? Like, that's what I hear when you say that, oh, you can't be reading that. Yeah, they want you to stay an employee, they don't want you to outthink your way out of this job. So, like, I just knew at that moment that I needed to make it happen for myself. I was just so every time I've ever been faced with a hurdle with this, and like someone says, Oh, you should quit. Oh, you should stop doing that. The passion I have to like talk about that is like, no, I'm gonna make this happen. This is gonna change the trajectory of my family's life. I didn't have a husband and a child when I first started this. Yeah, but now our life looks a lot better than it would have looked if I would not have done this.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely, absolutely. So, how did you you you got you started getting the knowledge in terms of investing in real estate? Um first off, I want you to explain to anybody overall why real estate investing is such a good place. Because I I don't believe that every mentor I've had, they've had multiple streams of income. It's never just one. And also, it took me a long time to understand this. You can have multiple streams of income within the same business. Like here we do, we have a wedding division, we have a podcast division, we have video production, we have social media main. So you can stretch even within an organization. But why is real estate something that everybody should be considering?
SPEAKER_00I think everybody should consider it because one, we all need a place to live. Like that's I mean, let's just look at that conservative side. Everybody needs a place to live. We aren't really like, oh, let's go camp out in the tent. Like, you know, let's let's go live outside. No, no, no. We don't really do that.
SPEAKER_03I can't, I I don't even go glamping. I may glamp every once every five years, but you ain't gonna catch me out in the tent bears and stuff around.
SPEAKER_00And I know me, I'm not even interested in that. Like, give me a house. But we going away in a cabin. Yeah. So one that's first thing. So the demand's gonna be there. So that's the first thing. And then also, real estate tends to appreciate in value. So, like, even if because like I've tried to dabble in the stock market, that's really my husband's thing, not my thing. Um, I'm a little too slow for the stock market, I've noticed. But if I'm slow in real estate, yeah, it's okay because usually the the house appreciates. I actually get paid for being a little bit slower. So just like on a very basic level, just knowing that you're putting your money into something that is gonna allow it to grow, appreciate. That's this is a hedge against the dollar for real. Because the dollar's value is diminishing.
SPEAKER_03Oh, so you need to put it in something. This is not a political statement, but I think since Trump has been in office this term, the American dollar is going down 11%.
SPEAKER_00Oh man.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And it's still going.
SPEAKER_00So just hoarding away the cash isn't the answer.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, new.
SPEAKER_00So just having it in something that appreciates, right? And then, like, if you're on, you want to do this and you're thinking to yourself, well, man, I don't have 20% down to buy real estate anyway. How am I gonna do that? That's when it comes to knowing being knowing how to structure deals, knowing what a good deal looks like, so that you can use other people's money, give them a great return on their money, and you can build your portfolio because that's exactly how I did it.
SPEAKER_03All right, now let's pause right here. Explain this to us like we are six-year-olds. Okay. All right. Give me like step, and there may be more steps, but let's try to get in like step one through five.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_03How does someone wholesale deals without using their own money?
SPEAKER_00Okay, so I started with wholesaling and I pivoted to rentals, just to let you know. So whole, and I I think you asked me like what is wholesaling? So people would know, and I don't know if I've really explained that, what I think about it. But wholesaling is you get a property under contract, and then you take that contract, and let's say, Sam, you want to buy uh this house, I will say get this house under contract for 50K and I'll sell it to you for 60K, and I make the spread in between. It's the middleman. You get the 10%, the $10,000 in between, or however much we decide that that is gonna be. I switched over to rental
Wholesaling As The First Step
SPEAKER_00properties because it makes more sense to hold the asset. Now, I'm not gonna knock wholesalers. If that's what you want to do, that's fine. Wholesale to me, please. But you really are missing out on other ways to get paid from the property. When you keep the property, you know how to structure the deals. That allows the asset to continue to pay you for as long as you own the asset. If I wholesale only make money one time, I have to go find another deal.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_00I actually what really opened my mind to this is because I've always wanted to have um time freedom and financial freedom, which I've been able to get now. And owning and keeping the assets is what got that for me, not wholesaling the assets. I had to keep working. Like when the money was gone, it's like, oh man, I gotta go wholesale another house. But when you're not a structure the deals, then you're able to continuously get paid every month. You allow the asset to appreciate, so it's making you more wealthy. And it's, I mean, your tenants paying off your debt. So like you're that's making you more wealthy too, and then just the tax advantages, right? So like it's just so many different ways. But just on a basic level, what it looks like for owning rental properties and using someone else's capital to do so. But on the basic level, you're gonna get a house at a discount. So typically it's not necessarily something that's gonna be on the market. Yeah, so you're not gonna get like, you know, oh, my neighbor just listed their house, it's at market price. That's not what you're really looking for, right? You wanna get a property that you can get at a discount, right? Because what you want to do is when you get the capital from somebody else, you're gonna put that capital on an asset that's worth more than the actual money, right? That's why banks want you to put 20% down. Yeah, because if they fund it 100%, they're in a way riskier position if you don't pay. Oh, yeah. That's why they add mortgage insurance and all that stuff, because they wanna make sure if you don't pay, I'm covered. And that's why the biggest buildings are banks. Yeah, because they make sure they're covered, they're in a safe position. So you do the same when you use somebody's capital. So you use someone's money, you'll put it on the property that you bought. The house is worth more than that. Um, you will a lot of the times these houses need work, not all the time, but a lot of the times they do. You'll fix it up to a place where you can put a renter in there, put a tenant in there, and you vet that tenant.
SPEAKER_03Um, that's also established right there. This does not mean you're putting granite marble in every corner of the house. Like when you go in as an investor and this is gonna be a rental property. Not to say everything's a cheap finish. You want it to be nice and marketable, right? But you're not you're not living there. I think a lot of investors when they first get started, they're looking at this property like they're gonna live there. No, you ain't living here.
SPEAKER_00Right. Well, I will tell you this. I tend to put granite in my stuff, and I'm gonna talk about it.
SPEAKER_03I'm not saying there's anything wrong with granite. I'm just saying people are going crazy.
SPEAKER_00So I feel like I don't go like all out, like, let me, you know, put these accent walls or do all that. I don't do all of that. I let you you have the imagination to make your house look the way you want to look. But um, I tend to make my finishes a little nicer.
SPEAKER_02Because you can charge more.
SPEAKER_00Yes, I can attract a better quality tenant. But I want in in addition to that, I want someone that's gonna want to stay a long time. I want you to feel like, and I've heard this several times from people that have looked at some of my properties, they'll say, Wow, this is for rent. This is so nice. Like, this looks like a house that somebody would sell. And I do that because I want you to like have some ownership in it. This is your house. Yeah, I want you to take care of your house, and I want you to stay here for as long as you can. The only reason I want someone to leave one of my places is because maybe they've outgrown the place and maybe I have a bigger place for you. Or you're gonna go buy a house.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because turnover costs too much. I want to keep you in this property as long as possible. So, but back to the I guess the overall big picture view here. We get a tenant to come in there, and it's three things that I look for in a tenant. I look for somebody that's gonna pay on time. That's gonna take care of the place and bother me minimally. Because otherwise it becomes a job. I want it to be passive, right?
SPEAKER_03So you're doing background checks on people. Is there another company that does this? Do you personally do this?
SPEAKER_00Yes. So we manage our own properties. And I say we because like I have a team under me that helps me. But we manage our own properties and we have an outside third-party source that does the background and the credit checks. But I feel like everybody does that. The background credit check, and they still get somebody that's bad, right? So what we found has been the secret sauce is really the landlord verification form. And basically, this is me seeing your past behaviors. So I like if you cursed out your landlord because they wanted to come uh do an inspection, you're probably gonna curse me out too. Maybe I don't want to deal with that. Sometimes I don't see that you've paid your rent late 10 times because it never made it to eviction court. But if I do a landlord verification check, I can ask the landlord, hey, did uh how many times were they late and they will tell you the truth. And one thing I want to mention, like that's like um, I don't know if it's necessarily a secret sauce, but the people that they that they're living with currently, they may tell you anything, right? Because if they suck, they want to get rid of them. They might sound like they're great, but the person before that, they have nothing to lose. They're gonna tell you the truth.
SPEAKER_02Very good point.
SPEAKER_00They are gonna say, they're gonna say, oh my god, they paid late all the time. I couldn't do inspections, they tore up the place. And I'm like, oh.
SPEAKER_03That's a really good way of looking at it. Because even from like a romantic relationship, if you date, if you talk to a girl's last ex versus the ex before the last ex, you're probably getting a more real answer from the one before.
SPEAKER_00Right, right. They got nothing to lose.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So we use that to get people into the properties, and then um to get investors their capital back, we um put mortgages on the properties, and that allows them to get their capital plus interest. So that's what it is in a nutshell. You can ask me to break it down further if you need to.
SPEAKER_03Why here's the part for me, because I and this is what I love about entrepreneurship, real estate, all together, is that you get to decide the type of business owner that you want to be. So when I hear that you're you and your team are managing the properties, that is the last thing I ever want to do. Because I've heard some dumb stories of people calling at 2 a.m. Hey, the front port light isn't isn't working. Did you put a new bulb in it? Like, did you spend the 50 cents to see if it's the bulb or if it's the lake? Oh, yeah, you're right. I was like, I don't ever want to have to deal with any of that stuff. So I will happily pay another company 10% to go do X, Y, and Z. Why did you choose to go the route of managing the properties yourself versus outsourcing that?
SPEAKER_00Well, I like to manage it myself because a lot of people think that if I outsource it, that's my answer, right? Like that I'm good, I'm not gonna have to worry about it. And a lot of the times people find that they are still just as involved as they would have been if they hadn't gotten a property manager because they didn't vet the property management.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00One reason I manage my own things is because we have a system set up where tenants don't really bother us. We set expectations. So if your bulb is out, you go change it, don't call me. And then we also have like a property
Why Rentals Beat One-Time Checks
SPEAKER_00management system. So it's like it's removed from me. So it's not like a tenant could just call me on my phone. Yeah, like that would be a nuisance, just to be honest. We have numbers you can call that aren't mine, but we have a lot of um expectations that we like give the tenant one when they first move in and stuff like that, and it really does crack down on people bothering us a lot, right? So, like they they have a sense of pride, a sense of ownership, they wanna care for the place as if it were theirs.
SPEAKER_03What do you think about so I have a friend of mine, I'm not gonna put his all his business out there, but this is a good example. Um, he has several rental properties, and uh Actually, I'm not gonna say it next part because that might give away who he is. I will say this He's had tenants before that were just such great tenants, like they stayed in the house for five years, um, never heard a peep from them, like they never destroyed the property, always took care of things. Uh, after five years, he wouldn't raise the rent on them. They're paying the exact same rent they were the day they signed a lease with them. Um and I'm judging by your facial expressions that you probably wouldn't do the same thing. But I get his understanding of like, look, man, I got a favorable person who's taking care of my property, they're paying on time, they ain't messing anything up. I'd rather just keep them there at the same price versus slowly upping the price point and then potentially having them leave me, and I gotta go through the whole process again. So talk to us about that balance of you know, wanting to keep great people there, but I operate different than him. I'm like, yo, this is how it says in the book, this is how we're gonna do it. I don't care how great you are, this is how it runs.
SPEAKER_00Right. Well, I'll say starting off when someone moves in, we're probably gonna be at market rate rent anyway, right? Yeah. And every time it's time to renew, we'll double check, see what it's looking like. But I think that we offer really good service because, like, for instance, when I finish a rental property, I my goal is that it's maintenance free for the first five years. So like if I see that the water heater is about to go, like it's maybe a year or two left, I'm gonna go ahead and change it right now, right? And then like anything that we want to keep people happy, so we try to, you know, keep the properties up. So I think for that service, that comes with the fee, right? So usually like when we're doing rental increases, we'll probably just do like 25 bucks a month for the the first year or whatever. But we're always checking the market rents to make to make sure that we're staying within market. Yeah. Right? I've had properties because I'm okay with buying properties with people in it. So I've had a property where that would be my preference.
SPEAKER_03Is that somebody's already living there? You don't have to do anything to the house, and you got a tenant already there.
SPEAKER_00But a lot of people they sell those ones because the tenant isn't paying on time, right? Like the tenant's getting on their nerves or they're not profiting enough. Like that's they they sell it because of a problem. They, unless that's like your business, you sell turnkey runoffs. If you do that, you're charging a premium for that, right? So a lot of like one tenant, for instance, I remember she was paying about $1,400 um a month when we first got to was it $1,400? It might have been actually I think it was like $11. She was paying eleven hundred dollars a month, right? But she had a lot of um maintenance concerns that she didn't really say anything because she felt that they was to keep, you know, cutting her a break. So she just kind of dealt with it, right? So when we first uh bought the property, we did up the rent, but we fixed so many things. Like we gave her a new kitchen because she half her cabinets were burnt down, and she was just in there, right? Just dealing with it. Her toilet was running all the time, she was just dealing with it, right? So we gave some upgrades to kind of justify the rent going up. And to be honest with you, I thought she was gonna move. Yeah, like because we went from I think she's paying like 11 to now she she still lives there. She pays $16.50. I thought I thought she was going to move because that's like $500 more dollars a month. I was like, oh I was like, this lady's out of here, like she's not about to do this. She stayed. She stayed, she is happy, she pays her rent on time mainly. Sometimes she's a little late. I will give her that. But she pays her late fee, no problem. Um, but sometimes you do have to recognize that if you get a property like that and you raise the rent that much, somebody might leave. Like that's a lot. But I small increments people usually won't. That's a minor inconvenience. People aren't gonna move because you up the rent $25. Yeah. Now you up the rent $500, they might consider moving.
SPEAKER_03For sure. My I'll never forget this. And I think I've shared this story before. Um, when I started in Zoom Media Firm, it was actually Anderson Consulting.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_03Um, because I didn't know how to do any of this stuff. Like I just found people that did it. I was like, I'll I was wholesaling the deals. I was like, I'll get the contracts, y'all do the work. Um, so I'll never forget the first client that paid me. It was a check for $400. And I remember sitting there and just staring at that check to this day. I don't know why I didn't keep that check and frame it. Like I should have did something. Um but I'll never forget the feeling of when I looked at that check. The first thought in my head was I didn't need another organization to help me make this money. I didn't need a boss to tell me how to do the deal. I didn't need anything. I went out and made this money. So if I can do this one deal and make 400 bucks, what can I really do? So I want you to describe to us because you painted the picture beautifully of like the struggle that you were going through when you first uh got into the real estate field. Talk about that first real check you got and what were the first thoughts going through your head?
SPEAKER_00Well, I'd say the first real check I got, because I got like a series of checks all at one time. So I I'll talk to you a little bit about that. So when I had finally made the decision that I was gonna stick with this until it started working with me, meaning being consistent, consistently marketing to people um to help them with their properties. Um I got five houses under contract right around the same time, like within a month's time frame. Yeah, this is wholesaling. These were these were like my first deals, really. I got them all under contract at the same time. Um, and I remember one of those wholesale fees were 10 was 10K. Some of them were like 5K, 2K, stuff like that. But one was 10K. And I don't think, aside from getting a student refund check, I had ever seen 10K before in my life. So I remember when I got it, I was like, oh my God, this is real. Like, cause all right before then, it was like, I think it's real, and I see other people doing it, but I don't know for myself yet. And I got that 10K, I got, it was just a 10K assignment fee at the time. I hadn't even closed yet, but I saw I was gonna get 10K from this deal.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_00I remember I was still working a job when that happened. I'm like, they better not say nothing wrong with immediate because I'm I'm laying it out today. Today you gonna have it.
SPEAKER_01You're gonna have it.
SPEAKER_00But like I think that was really helpful for me and my journey.
Deals With Other People’s Capital
SPEAKER_00But I feel like what really opened my eyes is when I got my first rental property. So like I used to go in everybody's house and like I I would talk to sellers, I would go to the house, talk to them, and see if can we have an agreement? This is not over the phone closing, I mean your face closing. So um I would always ask everyone, do you want a cash offer? Or we take payments. And everybody said they wanted a cash offer, right? Like you you would think in your head, who would take payments? Why would they do that? Wouldn't they just want their money so they can go?
SPEAKER_03Capital gains.
SPEAKER_00I got one guy that he was a struggling landlord. He had bought a rental property, and I think a lot of people think that rentals are easy. Like, oh, I'll just buy a property and put a person in and it'll be great, and I'll make passive income.
SPEAKER_03If you don't do it right, sewer, there's so many different things that can be.
SPEAKER_00If you don't have systems in place, like I think a lot of people struggle around the tenant piece of it because they think, oh, it's so easy. Like, oh, I'll just get somebody up in here and it'll be great. And then this person is like bothering you all the time, they're never paying. You're like, this isn't passive at all, this is a headache. So that's what that guy was going through. He was all he would always get people trying to dodge him for the rent. Like he wanted to be a passive landlord, and it just was not working out for him. And he said, I want the payments. And in my head, I'm like, Oh, you want the payments? Like, I don't even know how to structure that. So I figured out how to do that, and um, we ended up getting that property under contract, and I was making payments on it. And I got a tenant that moved in, and he would pay me, and my spread was he paid me, the tenant that moved in paid me 700 bucks. This I paid the guy uh $400, I believe. So I was making a $300 spread, right? So it wasn't a ton of money, but it opened my eyes. It opened my eyes. I'm like, wait a second. Like I could hustle and get the 10K check, which is cool, right? I mean, I still did some of those, but this is the freedom. Yeah. If I could get, you know, 10, 15, 20, 25 of these, then I could just have checks coming in every month. I just gotta figure out how to keep them, right? And because I started with wholesaling, I was really good at finding good deals. So I was good at finding stuff at a discount. I just didn't know how to keep it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then I kind of uh I explored the world of how and how to keep it using other people's money. I had to network and meet new people because the people that I was around, they didn't have any money to lend me for a deal. I had to get around different people. So that's I feel like that was like my aha. It was like, wow, this is what I really wanted to do when I said I wanted to get into this, because just to put a frame of reference around that, that house, I bought the house for $35,000. I didn't do any work to that house, right? That's and it's in Richmond. So they it's hard.
SPEAKER_0335K, let me get that about it.
SPEAKER_00It's hard to find a deal like that now. But um that house today is worth $240,000. That's one house. That's the power of keeping.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_00Just let the asset do the work for you.
SPEAKER_03Basically, made $200,000 just holding on to something.
SPEAKER_00Just let it sit there. And for that one, it yes, it has a renter in there, so I'm making rental income as well.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But it's just like it's a better way to do things. Yeah. You can keep working hard for money. I'm not a like um, I wouldn't say that I'm not an advocate for working hard. I work hard, right? I love to work when I want to work, right? I I don't want to have to do it. I want to do it. I want to be in that position. And that's what position you put yourself in when you start building these assets up around you.
SPEAKER_031,000%. That number one, I think any level of entrepreneurship, everybody thinks it looks easy on the outside. Like one of my favorite Jordan quotes was Um, he said, I think I did the game of basketball a huge disservice, and that I made the game look so easy.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_03People didn't see him at practice at 4 a.m. before everybody else got there. They didn't see him in the weight room training. They didn't see honestly, he's probably the greatest basketball player of all time. Maybe one of the worst dads. Because he's going around for kids. But I don't I also don't think you can be the greatest in the world at what you do and also be the world's greatest husband and the world's greatest dad. Like something's gotta give there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um I'm gonna say prime example, because I'm a basketball fan too. Like LeBron, amazing. Bronny, okay. Yeah, not that great.
SPEAKER_03Not even close. But he got the network in your circle, got got his son some some opportunities that he wouldn't have seen before. Um, and that's when you talk about the longevity of holding something. I'm gonna speak particularly to our people. This is where I think we miss out. Is that because it it still drives me crazy
Tenant Screening And Secret Sauce
SPEAKER_03to this day? BET is no longer owned by a person of color. Like, we know how to build things up, we don't know how to keep it. Right. And I'm just like, I want I don't want to look rich, I want to be rich. And some of the wealthiest people I know, you would have no idea crossing them on the street. They got the beat up old little four truck, right? You know, they got a decent house, but it's not like some insane mansion or something like that. Like most people, as soon as they see the bread coming, they up the lifestyle and like every possible component versus like let's maintain it this low. And now if your averages keep going up and keep going up and keep going up year after year after year, right? All right, maybe it is time for us to move out of this $600,000 home and we can now afford the $1.2 million house, but we're gonna afford it comfortably. But they're also looking at how can I have my assets pay for these things versus it just coming directly out of my pocket. But I think that's a big piece that people miss is just holding for the long term. Like it ain't about running out to get the Gucci belt and get the new Mercedes and all this stuff. Like, I I've gotten this way with cars for for sure because my last car cost me, and I'm not out flaunting to do anything big. My last car was uh I bought a brand new 2022 uh Volkswagen Tiguan. And the only reason I bought a brand new because that was during the COVID bubble of cars, and it was cheaper to get a brand new car than it was a used car. So let me do this. That car out the door cost me 42k. Um, and I'm the type I am the type of guy I know myself. About every four or five years, I need a different whip. Like I I'm not one of those just driving into the ground.
SPEAKER_00Need a new car all the time.
SPEAKER_03Well, I'm just like, I'm going all over the place. The last thing I want to worry about is ending up on the side of the road. I ain't got time for that. So let's just flip the car every four or five years. Um, this round I ended up getting a Tesla, but this Tesla cost me, I think I ended up paying $29,000 out the door. I got a used Tesla 2023. And I felt like it was such a massive upgrade. But at the end of the day, I'm just like, if I can put this extra money back, I can invest it, I can do this, I can do X, Y, and Z. Who cares about what it looks like on the outside? I know financially what I'm doing because most of the people that we're trying to chase, some of these people are in debt up to their eyeballs, and they're not living the type of life that you think they're living.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_03Like you're trying to keep up with the Joneses, and the Joneses aren't even happy with their lifestyle and where they're at.
unknownRight, right.
SPEAKER_03Um so when the in the real estate side, I thought that was very important that you talk about just holding. Because like, how long did you have that product, the one that you bought for 35k? How long have you had it?
SPEAKER_00I've had it, I think it's only been like uh nine years.
SPEAKER_03So nine years you made two hundred thousand dollars in equity, not counting the money that you made in the rental payments.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_03Like to me it's a no-brainer.
SPEAKER_00Right. And then like, I mean, just in addition to that, like let's say you needed it to do another business venture, or you wanted to you had like repairs at a property and you needed to tap into something, that's money you can tap into to use it for that. Right? So I think I think what we do is a huge disservice by not owning. Because, like, for instance, um I was talking, I think probably to my husband about it, and we're like looking at different people's net worth that are like famous, right? And we're like, oh my god, how is she only worth that? She's done so much, and it's because she didn't own anything.
SPEAKER_03Don't own your masters.
SPEAKER_00You look at somebody like Master P, for instance. You might you may love his music, you may hate it. Who cares? His net worth is 200 million because he owned everything.
SPEAKER_03Owned materials, owned chips, own masters, owned the the merch at his tour, owned everything.
SPEAKER_00Right. And like look at Oprah. How does she get to where she is? She owns Tyler Perry. It's just you have to own, you have to have some ownership in things.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_00And yeah, that comes with a bigger risk, but that also comes with a bigger reward.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah, 1000%. And did I hear you say that you also now part of your business, you help people get into this space? I do. So talk to us about that. Because this can be quite honestly, I think it's easier to go into a service-based business than it is real estate in terms of like the fear. Like, because if I start, if I start a media service, like I mean, initially it's just me and the camera. Like if it goes belly up, okay, I lost $2,000. But real estate, you're dealing with mortgage lenders, you're dealing with other people, you're dealing with HOAs, like all this other stuff. Um, so walk us through out, like, say someone's like, you know, I know this is a viable option and something I should really consider. How do you make someone? It's not your job to make them feel comfortable, either they're gonna do it or not, they see the value in it or they don't. How do you get people comfortable at that level to be able to stomach this game?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I think that's a great question. So I have a student, I'm actually going live with him in my group on Thursday. I don't know when this comes out, but um, his name is James, and James, he's uh he works in middle management. Um, he has a background of being in the military. Uh he recently had, he's married, he recently had two uh two twins. Well, that's what twins are, two kids. Um a boy and a girl. And he bought his first rental property the same year those twins were born. And I remember when I first started talking to James about this, and I'm like, well, what's got you interested in doing rental properties? And he was like, Well, you know, he went to UVA, he's so smart guy. He's like, it's all these people around me, and they're like buying rental properties. And I'm thinking, like, do they all just come from wealthy families? How are they buying all of this? Like, this is something I would be interested in doing, but how in the world would I even do that? And um, so I started inviting him to my free trainings. I used to do these case studies, and I mean I kind of do them sometimes now, but I used to these case studies to show you what was possible, and these were deals I had actually done. And I would show you how to structure the money, how we got the deal, like just all the the pit the uh pieces of the puzzle. And he would watch it and he was like, Wow, that's amazing. And like James knew me for a long time, so he knew I wasn't BSing. He knew I was telling the truth about what I was doing. And he, I remember one time we we spoke, and he was like, I really want to do this, but to be honest
Managing Rentals And Raising Rent
SPEAKER_00with you, I don't know what to do. He has like he's a perfectionist. He wants everything to be perfect before he even takes the first step. Um, he had a fear that he would lose a lot of money. Like, what if I what if this happens, you know, doomsday scenarios, right? And I think one thing that he really learned by being in the fam, that's my coaching community, is that how to leverage other people's knowledge. You don't have to know everything, right? There are a lot of people that have done this journey before you. I'm a big advocate of mentorship and coaching, and that's why I do it now. But like I became successful because I followed someone that already did it. Right? And like I'm really like, it's either black or white. So, like, for instance, people would try to give me advice and they didn't do it. I'm like, I'm not listening to you. I'm not listening to you. You're not gonna be able to do that.
SPEAKER_03My favorite thing is somebody who's been divorced five times and giving a girl marriage advice.
SPEAKER_00Like, no, no, no, no. So um, I remember, you know, we I really emphasize instruction. You do not need to know everything. It's a lot of people that are green. You learn so much by doing. That's one thing I really just love about um entrepreneurship, is that you learn so much by doing, and you actually get paid while you're learning. Like, this is amazing. Like, we we should have talked about this in high school. But um, so he trusted that I knew what I was doing. Like he saw me do it. He saw when I was in college, broke college student now to have what we have now. Um, so he pretty much by hearing the different stories, by seeing how it was done, and then him, his family growing, he's like, I want to build a legacy for my family. I want to build wealth for my family, I want to do what I see everybody else doing, but I don't know how because I don't come from a wealthy family. And he took that step to join the fam, and um, it didn't take him that long. And he ended up, like I told you, buying his first rental property. He didn't use any of his own money to buy that property. Uh he learned how to structure deals so that he could use other people's money to buy the property. And he's doing this with a full-time job. Like he has a full and he has two babies at home. They're like five or six months, something like that.
SPEAKER_03So here's a big piece that I think people don't get. And it took me a minute to get my head around it. Is let's say I need 150 grand for a property. Why would someone give me 150 grand when they can just go out and do it themselves? Then I started to think through this and start talking to some other people. Well, number one, they don't want to take the time, and the people that have that kind of cash on hand, they've gotten to that point because they know how to delegate. I don't, like you said, you don't need to be the expert at everything. You just need you just need to know enough about certain different areas. So I was like, why would somebody give me their money when they can just go out and do them? Well, they don't want to bother with it. The same reason why I pay a guy to cut my grass. I I can go out there and cut my grass, I don't feel like doing it. I'd rather spend my time doing something else. And once that switch connected, we're like, okay, because I ended up doing at one point we were here at Enzo, we were uh closing our biggest client like ever, like monthly client. Like this was life-changing money that was coming our way. Um but in order for me to get this deal finalized, there was some new gear I had to, and it was just like a two-week window where I was like, I just need some extra cash for the two weeks. So I put some up on Facebook. I was like, anybody willing to invest 10k with me right now, I will flip it and pay you twelve hundred dollars within the next 14 days. And I couldn't believe how many people hit me up, like, yo, you gonna flip, you're gonna make the next check? Boom, like who do I write the check to? I'm like, for real? People? Yeah, you sit back, literally do nothing except write a check, right? And then you make money off your money. Right. Like that's where people gotta get.
SPEAKER_00How often have you heard people say they want their money to make money? Like people want to get to that level, right? Yeah. So why wouldn't they do it against something that's worth more than the money? Right? So I think you bring up a good point. People want their money to work, and then like on a second thing, uh, a lot of the capital, like the funds that we're using, they're in retirement accounts.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So people want to grow their retirement account in a fast way. And maybe they don't know everything about real estate, but maybe they trust you and they know that you do.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_00So they will make it so that they can get a good return on their money while you're building your portfolio.
SPEAKER_03Love it. What's the goal for you? What what does life look like? What does your business look like in the next five years?
SPEAKER_00That's a great question. Um right now we have um less than a hundred students. I would like to be more than a hundred um in the thousands by five years. Uh I just I feel like and I wouldn't say that this is like Jesus or anything like that, but it's like when you if you're a spiritual person and you first heard about the good news of Jesus, right? It was like you couldn't keep it to yourself. You had to share. You wanna, you know, that's kind of how I feel about real estate. It's like this changed my life. This changed my family's life. My daughter is three years old. When I was three years old, my life didn't look like hers. We go on vacation once a quarter. I I probably went on vacation the first time in high school. So, like, this is a very different life. Why would I want
Coaching Students Past Fear
SPEAKER_00to keep that to myself? So I want to invite as many people as I can to learn about this, to build this for themselves, build it for yourself, but not by yourself. And just the I just know that the more people we get into this, that we'll be doing deals together. Some people will be lending, some people will be sending the deals, some people, you know, with oh, I have a tenant on my wait list, they're looking for a place. Like we're just sharing, and it's gonna allow the whole community to grow. So for me, um, I have a really strong emphasis on growing this uh because it's just gonna change so many people's lives.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, 1000%. This is the the final question I ask everyone that comes on the show. Describe to us your lowest moment as an entrepreneur and how you were able to overcome that.
SPEAKER_00That's a great question. Um, it probably was within that slump. That slump before I decided I was gonna go get a job. Um I remember like feeling like I was doing all the things, like just kind of running in circles, really, and nothing was happening. Like I I wasn't making any money from doing stuff, but I felt like I was working all the time, and I'm like, what's going on? Why is nothing happening? Um, I mean, I even considered working for other real estate people so that I could like learn and make some money. Um, I think what it kind of boils down to, especially when you're going through the rough periods, is how bad do you want it? If you if you give up, how is your life gonna look two years from now, five years from now, ten years from now? Because like right now, I've been doing this for 12 years. The two years that was rough is kind of like insignificant now, right? Because it's like, oh well, I made it through, I I did the things. Um, so I would say, how bad do you want it and adjust your life to get it? If like I had to go get a job a couple of times because I needed some money. Go do it.
SPEAKER_03People gotta get you gotta be willing to be humble enough. That's not a bad look. Like, having a job is not the worst thing in the world. Majority of people are gonna have a job. And I always tell people I don't want to portray with what we do with the show or anything else with my content that I'm looking down on anyone who's not an entrepreneur. If that ain't you, honestly, I wish I was an entrepreneur. I wish I didn't have this drive in my gut like that. Because it is much easier to go work for a bigger company, right? Clock out at five o'clock, and take no problems home versus doing what we do where this is 24-7, it's just always on your mind. Right. Um, there's nothing wrong with starting a business and having to go back. I Ubered for the longest time when I was building my businesses.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_03But at the at the end of the day, like when you're breaking it down, looking at those numbers, five years from now, what is five years? Like, think back five years in your life. It seemed like it was just yesterday.
SPEAKER_00I remember, so just to give you just a little short story, we were the house that I live in now, we got a really good deal on a house on water. It was burnt down when we first bought it. But I I'd fixed up burnt down houses before, so it was not that big of a deal. Well, this happened during COVID, and during COVID, material shortage was real. Like, and like they wouldn't, right? The prices would go up, but then also the lag time, how long it took to get stuff. It took forever. So I remember um we're fixing up the place, and like, oh, we need windows to move to the next phase. Like, they wouldn't let us, the building inspectors would not let us continue the project without windows, right? And I'm thinking to myself, like, oh my god, this is taking forever. Like, why like I'm trying to hurry up and finish this? So we got we got creative. We just put anything there so we could pass and then just put the new what we were gonna really put. It took maybe a year, year and a half to do this house. And while we're doing it, I'm like, this sucks. Now I'm in it. That time doesn't matter. Like it's insignificant right now, right? It's like you remember when we used to be struggling, like going through fixing this up, and we kept having all of these setbacks and stuff like that. It's just that you have to know that this is my goal, this is where I want to go. Now the path may look different than you think it's gonna look, but just remember this is your goal. So even if you gotta go this way to get to the goal, you gotta go under, this way, above, whatever you need to do, hit the goal. Yep. Like keep it front and center.
SPEAKER_03Beautifully said. I I can't say anything better myself. Um, this has been an awesome conversation. If people want to get more information, they want to learn from you, they want to uh get involved in your program, where can they go to find you?
SPEAKER_00Okay, so if you want to learn, you want to go to free training, some different resources, connect with people. Um, I have a free Facebook group. It's called the Freedom Inc. Um, we ask you to answer four questions. Just
Lowest Moments And How To Start
SPEAKER_00say you came from Sam's podcast, and um, we'll let you in there. And for the people that are serious, like, you know what, I've decided that I want to buy my first rental property this year. I don't really know how I'm gonna do that, but I know that I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get there. I want to invite you to apply for a strategy session. So the strategy sessions basically we map out what that looks like for you so that you can own your first rental this year. And if you want to apply for a strategy session, if you go to strategy.thefreedominc.com, that's inc.com, then you can apply and um we'll hit you up from there.
SPEAKER_03Beautiful. Love it, love it. And your Instagram, people want to follow you, your Facebook?
SPEAKER_00Sure. Um on Facebook, I'm Martin Richardson, Instagram, the Queen Teen. Um, what else do I have? I have a LinkedIn. Could follow me there.
SPEAKER_03You on TikTok?
SPEAKER_00I'm not, but I need to be on TikTok.
SPEAKER_03We're gonna talk as soon as the camera cut up.
SPEAKER_00You need to be on TikTok. My I have uh like a brand, a girl that works with me that works on the brand. And she's like, We got we got all these videos. You need to be on TikTok. And I heard you on a podcast saying that that's how people discover you, and then you create the relationship on Facebook.
SPEAKER_03You get it.
SPEAKER_00You get it.
SPEAKER_03Well, greatly appreciate you being here today. This was an awesome episode.
unknownThank you.
SPEAKER_03We'll see you guys on the next episode.