Ed Mathews: 0:05

So the big question is this how are real estate investors who don't have a ton of free time, don't have access to off-market deals and didn't start life on third base, how do we grow a real estate business conservatively to support our families, finally leave the corporate rat race and build a legacy? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. I'm Ed Matthews and this is Real Estate Underground. This is the Real Estate Underground Podcast Show number 82. Greetings and salutations, real Estate Undergrounders. It's Ed Matthews with the Real Estate Underground Podcast. Thank you so much for joining us today. Today is an interesting conversation. It's someone that I have been tracking on LinkedIn and a couple of other places for quite some time. I've learned quite a bit from them and I thought that our audience here, you folks, would get a lot out of this conversation. So with that, axel Merhofer from Ideal Wealth Grower, thank you so much for joining us today and I apologize. I think I stepped on your last name a little bit, so my apologies for that. Welcome to the show.

Axel Meierhoefer: 1:15

Yeah, thank you for having me, and it was very close, don't worry.

Ed Mathews: 1:19

Yeah, or Susan here in Grenades, right, yeah, exactly, and last names. So, axel, thank you so much for joining us and, like I said, I've been paying attention. I listen to your podcasts, as a matter of fact, which we'll talk about in a little while, but the thing that I wanted to have a conversation around is obviously, you are very accomplished in terms of your background and what you've done, and now you're paying it forward with your mentorship and coaching programs, and so one of the things that I wanted to do was, for those of us out there that don't know who you are, if you could just kind of tell us a little bit about your background and how you serve your community.

Axel Meierhoefer: 2:02

Yeah, absolutely. Well, not to go too far into the history and stuff like that, I served in the military, then retired here in the US, even though I originally came over with a military from Germany, and I immediately got offered a job in a software company in the Santa Barbara area and started thinking okay, well, what employment, the traditional way of employment, really the kind of thing that I would want to do, and I kind of tested it, I guess is the best way to point it and put it, and I kind of discovered that I'm you know, some people call it unemployable. It wasn't for me, let's put it that way, but that also, when I started my own business as a consulting company, it immediately brought up okay, so how am I actually going to make sure that I don't have to work into my 80s, 90s or however old I might make it in the end, what ways can I find that would allow me to have some sort of an end date for work? And that whole episode, that whole kind of situation, thought process, happened around 2001, 2002, 2003. And anybody who can remember that was basically the time when the so-called dot com bubble burst and the stock market really, really crashed. And so for me the point was okay, that is not the area, because a lot of people depended and wanted to get rich quick or had a lot of money in it and were kind of approaching retirement and were devastated. So I wanted to find something else I knew I had at the time, about probably 20 years ahead of me. What should it be? And I started searching around, and I tell the story quite a bit that when I was looking around I tried to find what do people who make a lot of money at that time do with it? And one of the people that popped into my head every so often around that time was Arnold Schwarzenegger, because of the movies and there was a little bit of a kinship. He came from Austria, he stayed in Germany for quite a few years before he ultimately made the jump over to the US, and so I was wondering what does he do with all the money from the movies? And I found out he's investing that money in real estate Two statements. And so then I dug a little deeper, tried to find out if that would be something for regular people to do courses and so forth, and the whole intention initially was purely to say, okay, I have my consulting company. I'm doing everything I can to make it successful and I will develop a portfolio for me, for my family, to protect us and to build generation of us. There was no real intention to make it into a business or a mentoring program or anything like that. I think it's pretty normal. I'm sure that happens to you too. When you make friends, you build a little bit of community and people, just when you meet them, they say, hey, what are you up to? What's going on in your life? Right? And I was the one who said, oh, I took this course about real estate. A little later I said, hey, I'm the kind of guy who is in the process of buying a property and it's far away from you and people are like, how is that going to work? Right, and so forth. So I was constantly my friends and compadres, so to speak. They were always hearing me talking about real estate and kind of got interested. And ultimately, some people dug a little deeper and saw that this was not just for fun, but this had an actual purpose and a long-term plan and so forth. And as they saw some success, which I find in hindsight understandable, people are, you know, I don't know if this is really something for me, everybody says it's only for rich people, blah, blah, blah, you know. So when they saw that stuff was actually happening and they started to inquire more and more, they were the ones to say hey, you know this, I'm interested, this is really cool. You should make it more official, you should help other people to do what you've been doing Well. And so, ultimately, kind of they what is it, how would you put it? Like they broke me down or they got me for the finish line, whatever. And so that's how the whole thing basically started, and I'm still literally I'm right now in the process of acquiring two more properties. So, even though you know I've reached what we determine as a time freedom point, but that doesn't mean that you have to stop investing if you have the means and you have the interest. You know and, interestingly enough, my consulting company is still around, is coming up on 20 years here pretty soon, and clients still want me, so I still make income that needs to be invested somewhere.

Ed Mathews: 6:45

Hey, if your phone rings, you might as well answer it. Right, Exactly, yeah.

Axel Meierhoefer: 6:49

So that's the story on how this all kind of came together.

Ed Mathews: 6:52

Yeah, so you're based in Southern California and you know I know quite a bit about that area. I have family there. My father and stepmother live in San Clemente, not too far from you, and you know one of the things that we've always talked about is me and my dad is. You know the how expensive real estate is. You know I've got a friend out in the LA area, andy Choi, who talks about, you know, really high-end flips, like you know, when we get on like a Zoom call, like this we're talking about you know the flips he's doing. And when I was flipping, I no longer flip. I'm focused on multifamily but the you know he always remarks about. You know, well, I've got a. You know I bought it for 1.4 million and we're going to put 500,000 into it and sell it for 2.8. And I said, well, that's fantastic, that is four houses for me, maybe five, right, and yeah, more and more, right, yeah, it depends on the city, right, or the town. So so, in terms of your focus, right, you know, I'm pretty sure I heard you say that you invest out outside of your geographic area, right, I assume it's because of property value or and returns, right, but I'd love to hear more about that. You're thinking in terms of you know not only how you do it, but where you focus, like you know what are you looking for in a potential market, so that you know that it's a, it's a good fit for your investment strategy.

Axel Meierhoefer: 8:23

Okay, yeah, so that's a little bit of a list of questions. The first thing about expensive areas like up and down the coast in California or if you go like New York or any kind of big metropolitan area or stuff like that, I would say, if you are in the situation that you and you mentioned when we prepared for the show, that your audience is kind of like between like mid 30s to like mid 50s. So if you find yourself like early to mid 30s and you are still by yourself, or at least not married with kids, and you have a good job, there is a way to make it work locally, because you could either have had military service or you're eligible for a VA loan which is zero down payment, or you could go with some of the incentives that exist for first time home buyers. So just to put this aside really quick, and then I'm going to explain why I couldn't do it and most people can do it If you had that, you know either one of the two and like, if you go in the San Diego area and you say, okay, I'm looking for a triplex or a fourplex and I'm going to buy, and, like your friend says, 1.5 million, but if you say I can get that for 3%, down right, because you get first time home buyer support and stuff like that, that's basically like 30 and 15, so 45,000 dollars. There are probably people, especially when they have a good job and they have been somewhat frugal, that they could do 45,000 dollars and get that property and then you would basically move into one of the units and renovate the other ones, rent them out. When they all renovate it which typically probably takes you about a year and a half or two you've got to the two year point when you can actually get out of it, finally renovate the one that you're living in and get that rented out. So now you own a fourplex with probably each unit making 25,000 plus dollars a month rent. So that is a good deal. But for most people and this is what I mentioned when I said you know to answer the question why am I and how are we away from where we live? Is I in my military career, have moved around and bought a couple of houses in certain locations. So I had no eligibility for VA because I served officially in the German military, even though I was stationed in the US, and I couldn't get the first time home buyer thing anymore because I had already bought and scored a couple of homes. So now the situation, and it's okay, I still want to take advantage of real estate, but I can't do it Because these things don't work. And I want to give one quick caveat even in a high expensive area, what I'm always pushing on is you first want to evaluate the performance criteria of the property, regardless where it is Right. And so for us, for renovated properties, we still to this day try to get close to the 1% rule, meaning like the property costs like 150,000 dollars, we want to be able to get up to 1500 in rent Right and any other kind of equivalent to that. Now we're also investing into built to rent, basically brand new built properties. We're willing to go to about point eight on that, because you can do this due to the fact that you don't need the typical 15% reserves. Just for your audience, if they're not familiar, normally we say, I say and I do this also for myself From the rent, put 5% away for maintenance, put 5% away for vacancy and put 5% away for capital expenditure any kind of big things like new air conditioning, new roof that cuts. So that's 15%. But if you buy a brand new property literally like I'm buying one right now in Memphis that's going to finish in May there's no expectation that the roof is going to go away anytime soon, that any major system is going to fear that I'm going to have any significant maintenance because I have a builder's warranty and then I add another warranty insurance policy on top of it. So probably for the first five or six years there isn't really anything major should happen. So I can save myself that and only do the 5% for vacancy. So I'm literally saving 10%, or have 10% more cash flow if you want to. So theoretically, if I had that same house 150,000 and I'm only getting like 1350 rent, that would still be okay. I trust that the cash flow would be the same. So, built to rent brand new house point eight, ideally and renovated house 1%. If you can better, even better. Now, if you look at that in any kind of high price area, you will find out, even if you get your first time home buyer and all that good stuff. It might still not perform to those tier yet. But so that's the one thing. And then obviously the next thing and you ask me you know how do you do and how do you find the areas. The first thing that we're looking at is which fundamental metropolitan areas or communities have a good reputation as a rental community, because as investors we are obviously looking to rent our properties to tenants. So, like one of the probably most famous ones in the country is Memphis right, where you oftentimes have to ask yourself okay, you know like they have great rent headed for decades company that was, you probably know, used to be called Memphis Invest. Now they call that. There's RAI nation. I know Chris closure. He wrote, by the way, a really good book for your audience. If they ever want to get into turnkey investing, it's called turnkey revolution. So that's, for example, a market and similar markets like that. So you want to look first which markets are known for good, solid rent performance. Then what's the economic environment of that particular area? You know, is there a lot of outflow because business is leaving? Is there kind of a certain level of stability, or is there Inflow which is nice, you know, like Alabama, for example, right now is one of those areas. They have a lot of car manufacturers, military stuff, space command, all that stuff and the ratio is still reasonable. So that's kind of like how you fundamentally say, okay, where in the country can I actually find these, these locations? And then for us and this is maybe one of the little bit of the kind of special secret source is that we are saying, okay, we want to be passive investors, we want to reach a time freedom point, and I can explain a little bit how that works. But that also means we probably have some other occupation, whether it's me with my consulting company, other people that have a job Far away from these investment properties. So how do we handle that? And the thing that I have basically developed and it's not that I invented it, I just it became obvious to me what we want to do is we want to work especially for renovated properties with turnkey providers. For a lot of people, some of your listeners to, there might be a red flag. Nobody ever should buy from them. So here's how I look at it a turnkey provider that we would be willing to work with and anybody who becomes a client in our organization gets basic access to my whole network of all the relationships I've built in the last 15 years. The turnkey providers that we are selecting are the ones who find what I call the ugly duckling in a good neighborhood, in general areas. They buy it. Let's say they buy it for $80,000 and they say this thing needs $50,000 to renovate. They renovated with the intention to sell it to me or you or anybody who is listening but also knowing and this is super, super important Then they will be the ones who manage it for you and me and whoever the buyer is right. That has a Psychologically important impact on how do you do the renovation. If you know, in two months or three months from now, I'm going to be the part of the team that's gonna Maintain this thing, manage it, right, yeah, so with that In mind, we only buy from turnkey providers who find it renovated, sell it to us and then manage it and oh yeah, god forbid they are allowed to make a profit. So they sell it for to me for 150 instead of the 130 they put into it. Still America, well, but it's also, you know, I think it's it's fair that when somebody puts out an effort, that they, that they get paid for. That Absolutely Important thing for anybody who is considering this type of investing is that the same people who renovated it who now know the ins and outs of their property, also the ones who are managing it. That makes a lot of sense, and and so, and these organizations that I'm working with Some people might think, oh, is that? Maybe a little mom-and-pop shop, but like the main turnkey providers we use, all of them have now more than 300 doors, right, so it's. That also means they have scared. That means they can have a team of people you know that, have all the different trades and you don't pay necessarily 150 dollars Just for somebody to show up and look at the faucet instead of doing something. Right, that all that good stuff that Most stories you hear. So what ends up happening, and part of what I'm preaching for anybody who's joining idea where it grow is you want to adopt a Mindset that makes it very clear that you are in the business and own a business that has you as the head and that Hats title is investor, yes, and as an investor, you are basically the creator of your own future, which, if anybody's interested, you can download a mindset menu that I wrote for free. The others end of that same scale. If you're not the creator of your own future, you probably at some point of victimhood, because too many people, in my opinion, are seeing themselves life happening to them rather than actually creating you know. So that mindset. So I have a business which is in the business of investing in real estate and I'm the head of that business and my title is investor. So I'm hiring property management, I'm hiring an insurance agent, I'm hiring a bank or a lender, yep, those kind of things. So it's the same thing like when you run any other business. You have certain people that work for you to make that business successful. Right, it doesn't mean that the guy at the top, mr Investor, is doing all the work, which is kind of me a little bit on my soapbox when I hear all these in. Now they even have some commercials on YouTube again, you know you don't want to get the call in the middle of the night about the toilet, but shit, if I'm a business owner and I call myself, I'm the owner and investor, or you can call yourself the owner and founder of that Business. These people work for you, right, just like if you were to do any other business. You were the CEO and founder of any other business, right, they will think 12 times, if not more often, if they should call you in the middle of the night, right, and so that that is just one of the myths. But fundamentally, if you adopt that mindset, you build relationships with my help. Initially, if you come to us With all these different entities, then you can start saying, okay, now I have this and what I'm a big fan. And then you know I think I've probably answered the different layers of that question is that you want to establish clusters. Okay, and what I mean by that? Like, I have a cluster in what's called the Quad City area, which is a little bit west of Chicago, and I have another cluster In Ohio, and now I'm, like I mentioned, members area, tennessee. Why is that? Because if you buy Multiple properties from the same turnkey provider and in my case I'm also referring our clients to the same turnkey providers we gave as a group of investors we gain power. Right, because we can say, okay, mr Turnkey provider, nobody is perfect, no employees ever been perfect, and anybody you hire into your business is necessarily perfect. Yep, when they screw up with something, you say, okay, owner of the turnkey company. Talking to owner of the investing company what's going on here? It's important and helpful to say this person that I'm talking to is a member of the idea Westboro tribe and they have 20 houses with us Versus your, a single investor with one property that you're absolutely right about that.

Ed Mathews: 20:45

You know, in terms of community it does bring. It's just like. You know it's supply and demand right. If you have buying power, you know you're gonna get better terms. If you have a community that's investing in a, in a company, then they're going to Certainly pay attention when, when they hear that you're on the other, a member of your community is on the other other line right.

Axel Meierhoefer: 21:06

Yeah, exactly why, and it's a you know, no turnkey provider would want to lose 20 or 30 properties all at once. Right, and you know so. And I mean, we never had it with them on their price and we never had it with them on their property management fee. We only, if at all, had it with them on performance. Right, and I think that's fair. Anybody who runs a business and that's why it's so important to say you are the founder and owner and name yourself investor of your business, your investing business, and, as such, if the people that you hire to work for you don't perform, you have to have a conversation at the least.

Ed Mathews: 21:41

Yeah, so let's talk about that, because obviously it sounds like I'm also a recovering consultant no longer a recovering consultant, but I did do it for a long time and one of the things that we were always focused on was the things that get measured, improve, and so, in terms of your systems and how you measure the performance of a property manager, for instance, what is your process in terms of that? Because obviously you're not the one knocking on doors and fixing the 2am toilet and painting and making ready a property before someone else moves in. So how do you do it?

Axel Meierhoefer: 22:25

Well, fundamentally, there's something called a proforma. So when you basically go and say, okay, what are properties that the provider is offering provider could be a turnkey provider, could also be a flipper or could be other people who have worked on properties. Because some turnkey providers are willing to accept the property that you bought just off the market from wherever and include it into their portfolio. It's just with a little caveat that if they didn't renovate it, they will always have an excuse when something breaks Right. So it's not that when something breaks directly from the turnkey provider, they say, oh yeah, that wasn't our fault. I said, well, who fixed it Right? Who put it in there? You put it in. If it breaks after a year or two, I mean there's a reasonable period, right? Like if they put in a faucet, and after 12 years you can't bring that same argument anymore, right?

Ed Mathews: 23:15

But six months down the road you certainly can Exactly, Exactly.

Axel Meierhoefer: 23:19

So that's the thing. But back to the proforma. So what typically happens is that anybody who wants to say something and the same is true for turnkey providers they create a proforma and they say okay, we expect that you can get this rent, we are confident in the quality of our renovation. So, even though you put your 5% maintenance fee in there, we believe in the proforma that 2% is enough. Yeah. So you basically study all these things and that's basically the list of criteria that we hold them accountable for. Right. If, for example, maintenance was protected by them 2% to 3%, even though I tell myself and my clients, let's put away 5%, and it is 5% or even more percent Then we have to have a conversation, right? So that would be one of the things. The other thing is, most of these organizations, knowing their areas really well, can venture to give you projections on what is the level of appreciation you can expect, both for the value of the property and for the rent. And all those are criteria to say, okay, I don't expect you to necessarily be better than you promised, but at least please keep your promise.

Ed Mathews: 24:28

But you've got to meet your. You've got to meet the expectations that you're saying Right, right, okay. So you know, in terms of, you know how you operate and you know the principles on which you operate. I'm curious you know what are the kind of key metrics that you are paying attention to. Is it simply appreciation and profitability of the rent, return on investment, or are there other criteria that you're looking at?

Axel Meierhoefer: 24:56

Well, the criteria I mentioned some of them already. You know the one that role, and the point eight for new properties and so forth. But the starting point is somewhere else. The starting point is if we were to pretend, okay, ed is interested and we have a strategy, called you, signed up through the website, scheduled to call, and so now we're talking about it, what we would do either in this first strategy call or maybe if you decide after that initial call, hey, I really want to work with Axel and at least try it for six months, which is, you know, we have two options. You can say I want to have really all in, join the tribe, or you want to try it for six months. Okay, let's say you were to say I tried for six months. One of the very first things that I would basically work through with you or anybody else is what is your current financial situation and what is what we call your time freedom number. Yeah, and the time freedom number is defined as the number or meaning, like the amount of money per month that you would have to get through other means other than trading time for money. Meaning like having a job or running a business Right To cover all your life expenses, like your car, your food, your vacation, your house, whatever it might be. What after this? What is that number per month? So I'm just making an example. Let's say you would have said 4200. Sure, if I had 4200 coming in, then I had the freedom which is why we call it the time freedom. Right, you would have the freedom to say do I want to do my job half time? Do I want to do it full time? Do I not want to do it at all? You have that freedom, right? And then we say, okay, what is a realistic number in cash flow that we can assume to accomplish for our investment properties? Right? And so if we were to say, okay, I want to make $400 cash flow on an investment property, on a single family, then we can say, okay, with $400 and $4200, if I'm not mistaken, we need 12, right? Yeah, that's right. So now we know from where we are. Today, you and I at an Excel would start working on how do we acquire 12 properties. Now, the one thing I would tell you at the end of that first conversation, just a little secret ad it's really not going to be 12. Right, and you would probably say why is it not 12? And I would say, I know that you are a really, really nice guy, but even you would not let the rent be the same for the first 8 to 10 years, right, right? So if you can make $400 and this is just a mathematical example right now on the investment properties across the board, and that's obviously an average that's okay. You have your first property year one $400. If you're generous, you say if you're also $400, then at the latest you would say, okay, I increased the rent by 50 bucks, right. So the vast majority, since you're mortgage and most of that other stuff doesn't really increase, give a little bit more to property management. But let's say, 40 of those $50 come in your pocket. So now at 440, then two years later if you do it every two years you add 490 and so forth. Right, so as you accumulate properties, it's not just straight out 400 on each one, it will overall be more, so that in the end, at 4200, you probably need, just from today's money and today's purchasing power, probably about 10. Yeah, right, instead of the tools that math would say just because you're increasing the rent and then the number would be higher. Now, in reality, inflation also dictates that even if 4,200 is good enough today, by the time you reach there you probably need 6,000. Right, so that's understood too. But as far as having a plan, it's not so much exclusively what is the criteria on the individual property level, but what kind of a plan are we pursuing? Which is also when we go a little bit into where are we right now in this particular economy in 2023? Yeah, why? I said at the very beginning that we're trending a little more towards built-to-rent or brand-newly built properties. Yeah, because if you get to keep 10% more of the rent income, then that is much easier to get to your $400 a month or 350 or whatever your number is. Then you basically have to put that aside and, yes, the money is in your account but you're keeping it for a reason and one of the things and I've finished that point since you asked about criteria there is in this whole journey to your time freedom point. There is a pivot point and I have found for myself and for most clients that pivot point is around four or five properties. It has a little bit to do how quickly you can actually acquire them. But if you think about I buy a house every year just for the sake of argument if you get to the fifth house, and for five years, if you bought good houses with good criteria and good turnkey provider, the vast majority of these reserves have probably accumulated across these houses. So now you're probably sitting somewhere on $18,000, $20,000, $25,000. The pivot point means when you have that kind of money sitting there for your five properties, it makes no sense to increase that number anymore because not all five roofs will fly away and five air conditioning systems will need to be replaced and stuff. Yes, they might have a little stuff here and there, but especially with new built properties, it's not very likely that they have massive, massive stuff happening. So when you reach a certain number, and I always teach and mentor our clients. You say you have to find a number that you're comfortable with. For most people, myself included, somewhere between 20 and 25,000. If you know that's sitting somewhere, nowadays you can even put it in a high yield savings account and make 5% interest, or buy a T-Bit or something like that and make even more interest. So it's sitting there. You know, even if there's something really really major happens, I can just go to the bank or go to the thing and pay for it, no problem. So then you don't have to keep those 15% aside anymore. So those are all a few criteria. So the pivot point is what people sometimes forget, but that's the journey. I tried to mentor and help people to realize this journey is available to them. Number one, number two identify and work through what is your time freedom number, and from then on, now we know the number, now we know the number of properties, now we can actually work on finding the first one, the second one and so forth, and most of the time, after the third or fourth one, most people can then pretty much go on their own, and I'm more the person in the background, if something unusual happens, to say, hey, I want to have another mentoring session because I have something that I've never seen before.

Ed Mathews: 31:44

Yeah, so you mentioned mentor, and one of the things that I am a huge believer in is this is, without a doubt, a team sport. Whether you're starting this in the beginning or you're a grizzled veteran, there is always a handful of people who have kind of helped throw an arm around you per se and to help you. And so I'm curious, as you've kind of grown into this business, what was the best advice you ever got, and, I'm curious, who gave it to you?

Axel Meierhoefer: 32:22

Well, a couple of things. It's not just one single thing, but I can point to a few things, like the quadrant theory from Kiyosaki. he never spoke to me directly but this whole realization to say are you on the left side, right, or are you on the right side? Absolutely, you know that whole concept and I would combine it. There's a really nice book that I like to recommend to people. It's called the Wealthy Gardener by John Sophorek. I've heard that we wrote that for his son, but it has a lot of principles in it that basically describe how do I go from somebody who feels probably a little bit like the rabbit in front of the cobra or the snake, somebody with confidence, with a certain level of experience, and I would say, if people ask me, what is the majority of the stuff that you do in your mentoring? It's not so much this mechanical thing and the calculations yes, we do that too and we initially especially we go through evaluating properties and all that stuff. But what my majority of my work is, I want to help people to adopt the self-confident mindset of a successful business owner, and that is not just I believe it, but I can also communicate it when I'm in front or on a Zoom call or whatever it might be on a phone call with property management. They recognize me as an experienced person who knows what he or she wants, who can articulate what their rules are, what they're standing for, what their principles are, and they are eye level. That's one of the things that I always use as a kind of metaphor. You want to be on eye level with these people and as soon as that's established, you get treated totally different. So true, and not being run over by a bus in a sense, you know, because everybody thinks you're kind of like newbie and you have no idea and stuff. Changing that attitude, that mindset, that approach, that communication, I would say that's probably 70, 75% of the mentoring. The other part is then okay, here we have a property, here are the things, let's review it, let's learn how to do that, and that's why I'm saying Thank you After the third or latest, the fourth property. People have the mechanics, as I call that down, but they're oftentimes still working depending on personality and heritage and stuff like that on really fully living into. I'm a business owner and I have every right, as the person who runs this business, to be treated accordingly.

Ed Mathews: 35:02

Yeah, and the fact is is that when you are as a real estate investor, I agree that status and where you are, level with the folks that are working for you or even your partners, is very important. And the thing that I think, the gap that I think you and your program fill, your mentoring program fill, is I'm trying to remember it was Louis Pasteur who said fortune favors the prepared mind and so the fact is is that as you learn, as you become proficient, you go from unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence in the three levels between it. Your stature changes, your confidence level changes and, frankly, your language changes. You can speak that a broker or a banker or someone else in the industry is talking and you understand at that level Right.

Axel Meierhoefer: 36:12

Yeah, exactly, and one of the things you touched on, mentoring. For me, from a definition perspective, mentoring is basically helping somebody to accomplish their goals by providing the experience of those things that work as well as avoiding those things that don't work, and update it to the current time, right? So when somebody joins us, if you're going back to this thing and we had our call and you decided I try for six months, then instantaneously you have access to every relationship that I have built and that is a huge acceleration. Then, say, go on Google and find out which turnkey providers exist and find some lenders and find some property managers and find some insurance companies and stuff. So that's one of the things I always say coming to that commercial from Mastercard, that's the priceless part Right In the relationship. I mean the evolution as a person. That's, for me, the fun part, but the access to all these existing relationships and having a totally different standing day one when you say I'm interested in this property from this provider, knowing that there are 20 or 30 or 40 other properties that the tribe already present them on board. So that part is very important to consider.

Ed Mathews: 37:32

Absolutely. Yeah, I tell people I'm a cheap date. If we meet for coffee, I'll tell you everything I know in the time that we're sharing that coffee and in most cases I'll buy the coffee. But the thing is is that the whole idea here is that you are not only are you teaching them the language so they can speak it, how to execute, but, like me with my coffee dates and you with your mentoring program, our network becomes their network as they join the community, whatever level that is. Yeah, absolutely.

Axel Meierhoefer: 38:14

I mean they're formally newers, yeah, and I like the analogy, like, if we look at like I'm, for example, ever since I have a mobile phone and it's always been an iPhone, and I'm thinking, you know, if Apple can have them pretty much all of their equipment made six or 7000 miles away, then we can for sure run a business where the providers for our business are still in the same country Without it, you know. So that's just something to realize when people say, well, you know, when I'm that far away, how is that ever going to work? It works better than Apple getting their iPhones made in China.

Ed Mathews: 38:54

Well, it's you know. Again, going back to my history, you know Marshall McLuhan, right in the global village. It's a lot smaller today than it was in 2007, before Steve Jobs got on that stage and introduced the iPhone in 08, right.

Axel Meierhoefer: 39:09

Yeah, absolutely. I'm just using that a little bit as a metaphor. Right, we can theoretically say, okay, yeah, it's too far to drive or sometimes even too uncomfortable to fly, but as long as it's still within the same boundaries and it's still the same laws and the same rules and stuff like that. That's why it works, if you learn how to run it as a business and not run it as somebody who is somehow graciously allowed to buy something.

Ed Mathews: 39:34

Yeah, or you're winging it right. You know, and that's where business systems and you know, the curriculum that you provide is so important. So, axel, I'm grateful for all the wisdom and experience you've provided today. I am curious, though you know in terms of how you spend your non-real estate and non-consulting time. You know what do you like to do for fun.

Axel Meierhoefer: 39:55

Yeah, you could have actually maybe caught on when I mentioned John Forex book. I really love gardening. Yeah, I'm going to do something that I normally never do, but I put this up here in the back A fledgling, yeah. So my wife and I bought a few litchis and I just couldn't throw the seeds away. So I have the upcoming little litchi tree. It's only like six inches tall right now, you know, but then things like that, I mean that brings me a lot of joy, but it's also my wife always says what actually are you doing other than the gardening itself? And I always have an audiobook on, you know, almost always. And education and learning never ends and it's absolutely necessary. And you know, I love to see how nature makes something grow and have fruit, and I can go out in the garden and enjoy it and kind of at the same time learn.

Ed Mathews: 40:50

Yeah, absolutely so, Axel. If someone wants to get ahold of you or learn more about your mentoring program or your podcast or anything else, what's the best way to get ahold of you?

Axel Meierhoefer: 41:01

Well, as we see here in the background, ideawestgroacom is basically the easy way our IT guys made it. So if you just hang for like 20 seconds, it pops up and says, do you want to talk to us? And a little longer, and you get an invite to the newsletter in another 10 seconds or so and you can get the free mindset manual and so forth. So, yeah, that's the best way ideawestgroacom and go there and ultimately, if somebody says I really want to kind of check something out or so just do axel at ideawestgroacom and you have my email.

Ed Mathews: 41:32

Okay, fantastic. Well, axel Meyerhofer, thank you so much for your time today. It's great to finally meet you, I guess in virtual person, and thank you for all that you do for the communities that you serve. So thank you.

Axel Meierhoefer: 41:48

Yeah, absolutely, it was a great pleasure. Yeah, mine too.

Ed Mathews: 41:57

This has been the Real Estate Underground Podcast, a Clark Street Capital presentation. Thanks for joining us. If you're enjoying the show, please remember to subscribe and share it with your friends. If you'd like to learn more about Clark Street Capital and our upcoming projects, please join our investor club at clarkstcom. Until next time, happy investing.