Real Estate Investor Success Story

Ed Mathews

Greetings and salutations . Real Estate Undergrounders . It is Ed Mathews with the Real Estate Underground . Thank you so much for joining us today . So today we have Andrew Freed . He is with Freedom Management and actually we had his partner Zach on the show probably about six , eight months ago , and it was a great conversation . So , andrew , I've been really excited about meeting you as well and , as a fellow New Englander , I'm down here in Connecticut . Welcome to the show and thank you for your time today .

Andrew Freed

I am absolutely excited to be here . Thank you for having me .

Ed Mathews

Yes , of course . So for those of you who don't follow the beard on Instagram , although you should , why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself ?

Andrew Freed

Who are you and what you do ? So who am I and what I do ? So it all goes back to when I was a child . I was conditioned to believe that the path to the American dream was getting a good education , getting a master's at a good school , getting a nice swanky conduit in a nice city , working at a prestigious institution . And that's what I sought throughout my entire twenties . I always sought to get a better education . I always sought the next high paying job and I essentially achieved this at 30 . I had a six figure job . I worked at a prestigious institution , the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard , where I was a grant manager over there and had a nice swanky condo in Boston . I essentially made it .

Andrew Freed

But after reading Rich Dad , poor Dad during COVID , I came to the realization that I actually didn't make it at this particular rate . I'm going to have to retire 30 , 40 , 50 years at this savings rate . I and in Rick that port that they had all of these , they all these hints about real estate , and I was like , oh , what is this real estate thing ? And then at that point I looked at my net worth , which about a quarter of a million dollars 80% of my net worth derived from this one bedroom condo I bought five years ago . It literally took me 10 years to save $50,000 . And at that rate I knew financial freedom through the quote unquote American dream was absolutely unsustainable and not achievable and I really had to make a shift . So from that point on , during COVID , I HELOC my one bedroom condo for $200,000 in Boston and I decided to start house hacking .

Andrew Freed

My original goal was to house hack 10 multifamilies in 10 years , have 30 units ride off into the wind . That's not how it turned out , but that's what was my dream . So I HELOC'd , I had $200,000 HELOC'd and I decided I want to go all in the multifamily . And there were really two big markets in my area that had a lot of multifamily . There was Worcester , massachusetts , and Brockton , massachusetts . And to put it in perspective , brockton produces the highest level of champion boxers , right , so it's a little rough . Ray Mancini , yep , exactly .

Andrew Freed

So I actually decided to go out in Worcester where I literally uprooted my entire life . I knew nobody and I started house hacking properties in Worcester . So I house hacked about two properties there . I joined , I did some joint ventures on some commercial properties , split it 50 , 50 , a third with some investors or some partners , and then I made it up to around 30 units with my own money , through lines of credit , through borrowing , gets by 401k , through promissory notes , and I was straight out of cash . But I had all these amazing deals coming to me and at that point , that's when I discovered the power of OPM other people's money and from there I went from 30 units to 300 units in a matter of four years . So currently I'm a value-add investor . I own about 300 multifamily units around the Massachusetts , rhode Island and South Carolina markets Syndicator flipper , and I'm an investor focused agent . Yeah , that's more or less kind of my story in a nutshell .

Ed Mathews

Okay , so you're busy , I am busy , yeah , good , it's better to be busy than bored , right ? So you didn't want to have to box to acquire properties , manage properties and ultimately operate them . Huh , what was that ? Sorry , you didn't want to have to box your way through your real estate journey , so you went to Worcester instead of Brockton , or didn't Brockton ?

Andrew Freed

Oh , yes , absolutely yeah . And I went to Worcester because Worcester has so many great market fundamentals Like , first of all , like 30 to 40% of the housing stock is multifamily , like it's way easier to buy a deal if there's a lot of that deal in that particular market . Additionally , it had a really great population growth . From 2015 to now , the population increased by 50% and they actually have the Red Sox minor league team called the Woossox Stadium , built the second most expensive stadium in that city and they moved the team there . So it has a lot of great market fundamentals that I just personally didn't see that Brockton had .

Ed Mathews

Yeah , you took my talk at Red Sox . I missed them . And also Worcester's a pretty good college town too . There's probably what a dozen universities and colleges in the area .

Andrew Freed

So Worcester is normally on the Redfin top market list all the time and , to your point , there's a lot of schools , there's a lot of schools , there's a lot of hospitals . Right , there's actually biotech jobs . It's very similar to Boston , like Boston , just at a very smaller scale . Boston has about , you know , 800,000 citizens . Worcester has about 250,000 citizens , but it's very similar to Boston market . I would compare it to for sure .

Ed Mathews

Excellent , excellent , and so , although from an MSA perspective it doesn't necessarily follow Boston directly , there's enough geographical space there , right and so , like a two bedroom in Worcester is different than a two bedroom in Boston , You're exactly correct .

Andrew Freed

So , as Boston is definitely a low cap rate market , probably a three , four cap rate right . And the more West you go from Boston , the more the cap rate expands , right , the more the cap rate expands equals more cashflow . The , the when , when , the when a cap rate uh constricts that means that there's more appreciation . So it's on a spectrum right . And in Worcester the cap rate around there is around six and a half to 8% and rents to your point are significantly cheaper . But you can get the units way cheaper as well , right . For comparison , one bed's in Worcester $1,400 , $1,500 . One bed's in Boston , two grand right , 2,200 bucks , right . So that kind of gives you a good indication of the difference . But also with that comes cheaper units .

Ed Mathews

And so what was that aha moment when you realized it seemed like it was a sounded in your story . It was more of a process , but I'm just curious , what was that one moment where you're like I've got to get , I'm not going to get where I want to go working for someone else , I've got to branch out on my own and obviously , real estate is that vehicle , right .

Andrew Freed

So it all stemmed from regret , right . It all stemmed from the fact that I always thought I'd get this next paying job , I'd make more money , I'd get this next paying job , I'd make more money , I'd get six figures , I would get this feeling of fulfillment . It never happened . It never happened and at a certain point I just decided , rather than seek the life I want to live , let me just escape in the video games and create the life I wanted to live in this 3D box .

Andrew Freed

So that's exactly what I did , is I escaped very much in the video games and spent a lot of my twenties playing video games , and the aha moment was when I realized that , like , life is a video game . I put enough skill and effort into a certain task , like I can achieve anything I want . So taking that sort of discipline and mentality from a video game and putting it in my real life , and the thing I really poured myself into was real estate knowledge reading books , listening to podcasts , starting a real estate knowledge , reading books , listening to podcasts , starting a real estate meetup , becoming an investor focused agent , getting a mentor these are all steps that I took to enhance that skill . And now , today , my knowledge in regards to real estate is probably top 1% , because I put the time and effort into growing that skill , just like you do in a video game .

Ed Mathews

Yeah , and a lot of 10,000 hours . It doesn't have to be 10,000 hours , but the law of 10,000 hours is a real thing , right ? If you focus on one thing and learn everything you possibly can about that certain thing , you're going to become . You're going to suck at it at first , but over the course of months and years you're going to become an expert , right ?

Andrew Freed

Yeah so so .

Ed Mathews

So walk me through . You know your growth was really fast , right . Going from zero to 30 is a big jump , and then 30 to 300 is a gigantic jump . So I'm curious about how you did that from a systems perspective .

Andrew Freed

Really good question . It all came down to trust , right . When I first started building my real estate portfolio , it all came down to me being a one-man army . I did the bookkeeping , I did the leasing , I did literally everything from A to find somebody who was a superstar in some tasks I hated to do and I was a superstar in some tasks they hated to do , and we combined forces . And when I did that , the exponential growth was visible . It was very visible and I went from 10 to 30 units very quickly and then , at that point , after you learn how to use partnerships , that's when I really discovered the power of utilizing other people's money and that's when my path zoomed up . So that was the progression of how this exponential growth happened .

Andrew Freed

From a systems perspective , the way I really create systems , the way I really create teams , is I ask myself what takes the most energy from me every single day , right , and I slowly , systematically work down that list and either eliminate , create a system , create a process or hire to take that responsibility off of my plate .

Andrew Freed

So first started with social media right . Bookkeeping , managing my email right . Then it expanded to hiring property managers to take tenant communications . It expanded to getting a project manager on our team to help with renovations . It expanded to get an operations manager to help us with all of our multiple systems like Appfolio , like Smartsheet for project management , like Google Drive for managing our documentation . So it was a cascading effect that all started with principles in a book I like to call Buy Back your Time that really shines a light on how to really systematize your time and more or less buy it back . That was my ultimate goal was buy back my time because , to your point , like growing that level of a portfolio all by myself was absolutely unsustainable and I would have completely burned out .

Ed Mathews

Yeah , and you require sleep right and a light .

Andrew Freed

Yes , I hope yeah .

Ed Mathews

So walk me through the Buy Back your Life . I'm not actually familiar with that book . Do you remember the author ?

Andrew Freed

Buy Back your Time . I think I have it right over here Buy Back .

Ed Mathews

Your .

Andrew Freed

Time , dan Martell .

Ed Mathews

Oh , I know , Dan Martell , I had not read that book . All right , well , that's on the list now .

Andrew Freed

Because he walks you through systematically . You first start with an admin assistant and then you work your way down through these different roles and then , when you go through all the roles , at the end of it you're very much probably going to be working two to three hours a day . So it's a really good roadmap on how to buy back your time . And , at the end of the day , why do we get into real estate ? People say all the time I want financial freedom . That's not why you get into real estate . You want your time , you want your time right , and this book creates a roadmap on how to give you that time back .

Ed Mathews

I love it . That is definitely on my list next . So , as you're building these systems , as you're hiring your team . So I heard you say admin assistant was one of the first people you hired .

Andrew Freed

So my team really looks like this . We got an operations manager on top . She helps manage all of our systems right Our app folio for rent collection content and management Smartsheet for project management . We very much use it as a dashboard for our company , for quick links for people to get their job done . We use Google Drive to manage the documentation . She helps with that process and she helps create new systems that we need . And then from her we have a bookkeeper that rolls down from her and then on the maintenance side , we have two property managers that help manage the portfolio , take tenant inquiries , get units listed . We have a listing agent , a leasing agent as well , and then we have two maintenance techs that help manage and stabilize our portfolio . And then , underneath that layer , that's where we have our virtual assistant . So we have our admin administrative assistant virtual assistant . We have our social media virtual assistant , which is absolutely needed . If you're trying to build real estate , you have to create a brand . It's number one priority , for sure . We have a bookkeeper virtual assistant and then we have a tenant communications virtual assistant . We also just hired a controller in Columbia , which is really cool . We hired this guy . Listen to this . We hired this guy , economics degree from Purdue , mba from Washington University , but virtual assistant . He actually moved back to Columbia so we got him through a virtual assistant agency and we're only paying him like $3,500 a month . Wow , and he's level person , right , right . And then we also have an administrative assistant .

Andrew Freed

But I think the common thread throughout building my team is keeping overhead low . So literally half of my team are virtual assistants . Right , my operations managers in Ireland . Right , my C-suite controllers in Columbia . All my VAs are in the Philippines . Right , my operations managers in Ireland . Right , my C-suite controllers in Colombia . All my VAs are in the Philippines . Right , and I told you about those maintenance techs . Right , all their time is billed back to the LLC when they do work at that particular property . So if you build a team , you build it smart and you figure out ways to keep your overhead low . That's really how you build a successful business , in my opinion .

Ed Mathews

I couldn't agree more .

Financial Management and KPI Tracking

Ed Mathews

So I'm interested in the controller piece , because where my company is , we're getting to that point as well , and so how did you decide that it was time ? Obviously , there's bookkeeping and making sure that the money's coming in , and you've got property managers to make sure that you're collecting everything that's owed , bookkeepers paying the bills , so that part I get right . A controller is a different entity , right ? Or a different role , and so let's talk to you about two things . One is what does that controller do for you and how did you decide you were ready for that person ?

Andrew Freed

So I think it goes back to that book . I told you about buy back your time , right ? Yeah , I pretty much eliminated most of my day-to-day , most of the responsibilities that require day-to-day input , like tenant management , tenant communications , things like that . The things that I'm working on now are getting deals under contract , writing offers , putting loan request packages together for a bank so we can get multiple term fees , putting loan request packages together for banks so we can get multiple term fees . Putting appraisal packages together , putting investor packages together .

Andrew Freed

Speaking , it's like things that I'm working on are very much tasks that this person , that we want this person to focus on right .

Andrew Freed

So we want this person to help create materials for investors , for lenders , for appraisers , to ensure the business plan moves according to plan . We also want this person to track our global debt service coverage ratio across our portfolio , because a lot of these are commercial loans and we're required to have , at least for most of them , a 1.2 debt service coverage ratio right . Manage our reconciliation right , like we self-manage . But 175 doors . So there's a lot of billbacks associated with that PM billbacks , maintenance tax billbacks people get bonuses for getting units listed right . There's a lot of sort of billbacks that we have to ensure are done correctly , as well as just looking at keeping a close eye on our profit and loss statements and our balance sheets across our portfolio , because we are upwards of 25 , 30 LLCs with multiple properties under them . It's a large demand and we need multiple eyes on that to really make sure that everything's going in accordance with how we want our portfolio to be managed . Okay .

Ed Mathews

All right , wow , that's really impressive . And was it you do something similar ? You alluded to it earlier that we do here , and that is , I call it , what's stressing it out ? The things that either I don't like doing , I'm not good at , or stuff that is just stressing somebody on the team out . First thing we do is look at it and say , okay , can we automate it , can we outsource it , can we delegate it to someone else , meaning that we do need to hire somebody and we go through that process on a quarterly basis . And we go through that process on a quarterly basis and , slowly but surely , a we get to document all of our systems , create and document our systems . But also it's one of the guiding forces behind okay , at what point does it make sense to invest in technology ? At what point does it make sense to bring somebody else on ? And we're a heavy user of virtual assistants as well . In fact , we have an agency here for other real estate investors as well .

Ed Mathews

But it's interesting that the process you go through time and time again . As I interview executives like yourself , it's interesting how many of them understand that this is a team game and you can use technology as a force multiplier , but you still need human beings to keep the trains running on time , and being very clear and deliberate about their roles is a path to success . And , honestly , man , I couldn't agree more with the premise of your initial premise , which , around W2 , life is a good life , right , if not everybody is made out to be an entrepreneur , it doesn't make you less or more , it just is right . And being an entrepreneur is hard and having people working for you is difficult as well . Right , it's a lot of stress .

Ed Mathews

You got payroll to make a lot of moving parts that , yeah , you don't own them but day to day , but you control them , you manage them , and the fact that you've taken such a thoughtful approach to your business is really impressive . So I'm curious about a controller like a controller , in my mind , one of the things that they own are operational and financial key performance indicators , kpis , and so I'm curious about the KPIs that you pay attention to in your business . For instance , I heard you say that you track very closely your debt service coverage ratio , which is really smart , but I'm also curious about the health of your portfolio itself . What are some of the things that you pay attention to from an operating perspective that tell you , yep , this building's going the right way , or hey , we've got to make some changes because it's going sideways on us , right ?

Andrew Freed

Yeah , all really good questions , and that's another that's going to be . Another role of this controller is to keep track of the KPIs . That have a ready dashboard right . But when it comes to tracking KPIs , it all comes down to watching the revenue Is it doing , Is it increasing , Is it decreasing ? Watching your expenses Is it increasing , Is it decreasing ? How much money is coming into your business ? How much money are you pushing out of your business ? It all comes down to those , right .

Andrew Freed

So , to your point , what are some things that we would like to keep track of , Like your global debt service coverage ratio or the trending debt service coverage ratio , right . So if a property is trending upwards , it's trending stable and it's above 1.2 , that's not concerning to me . But if I see a property's debt service coverage ratio trending downward , that's concerning to me . Or cash is king , right . So we like to have all of our projects have at least six month pity in the operating account , right . That's another indicator that would be concerning to me if we had low balances across our portfolio . Right .

Andrew Freed

Vacancy right . How quickly do we get units rented ? Like , on average , we get eight to 10 vacancies a month , right . If we're not renting eight units every month . What happens ? Those vacancies build up until we're going to get an insurmountable amount of vacancies and our business is going to be in trouble . Build up until we're going to get an insurmountable amount of vacancies and our business is going to be in trouble , right . So filling those vacancies quickly with good tenants is very important to keep the business moving forward , right . So those are some indicators that we like to keep track of with our business .

Ed Mathews

So six months , pity . So pity is principal interest taxes and insurance . Yes , correct , okay . So for those of us out there keeping track of acronyms , that's what Andrew meant . And so six months , that's really interesting . So have you always carried six months , or is that a new revelation ? Like we didn't , you know ? And the reason I ask is we used to carry three and then COVID happened and we did the exact same thing that you do now , which is we extended everything to six months .

Andrew Freed

Yeah , to your point . That's the goal right . When you're doing value add royalty , that might not be there initially , the goal is to pay them , but you want to leave six months . Pity , because it's like what if it'd be unitary ? And what if you're needing unitary ? If you have three months , you're going to have to fill the account up . We've investors in these deals . We can't be asking them for money . We got to make sure that these properties self-sustain themselves and even at times me and my partner will throw in money in the operating account just in the short term , just to keep it moving forward , to make the business bank come to fruition . So I think six months is imperative , especially when you're buying kind of B , c class properties , which we're buying , that are on the older side . Maybe you're talking new construction , maybe it's a different equation that you've utilized .

Ed Mathews

Yeah , no , In all candor , there were times where we were putting in money as well just to keep it moving , and I got tired of doing that . And then COVID came along and we thought you know what we're going to , as we're , because we flip houses as well as we flip houses , we're not going to take that capital , we're going to put that back into the business and use that to create a better reserve , a six month reserve . So that's what we did , but but yeah , it's , it's really interesting . I want to talk with you about other people's money and then I want to get into the final five . So , other people's money how do you raise money these days ? How did you share it and how do you raise today ?

Andrew Freed

So the way I started was I thankfully got on the bigger pockets podcast . The way I started was I thankfully got on the BiggerPockets podcast the Rookie podcast a couple of years ago . Right , yeah , and thankfully my podcast was pretty successful . So right after that podcast happened , somebody who I was at a mastermind with a local real estate mastermind brought me a 69-unit portfolio in New Bedford Massachusetts . It was a great deal . We were getting up to about $80,000 a door when doors in New Bedford Massachusetts trade between 100 and 120,000 . It made sense all day . The only problem was this guy didn't have the money to close it , but he saw me in the bigger pockets podcast .

Andrew Freed

I was building a reputation as a , a known multifamily investor , and when he thought of who can raise the capital for that deal , he thought of me . So that's when he contacted me to raise money for the deal me and my partner Zach . And that was what was that ? That was 2021 . No , that was yeah . So August 2022 is when we closed . So it was about March . May 2022 is when we started raising capital from investors . So that was our first capital raise . We had to raise about $1.8 million . We went about that in very manual way .

Andrew Freed

The manual way we did it was I just made a list of 300 people that I thought might consider investing , and every single day I reached out to three people for a month , for a couple months , and that's how I went about doing it , and we raised about $1.1 million . We came a little bit short so at that point that's why it's really important to have mentors in your life , because my mentor is a syndicator . My mentor owns 500 units , so at that point we're running into issues . What did I do ? I simply called my mentor and he raised the remainder right .

Andrew Freed

Obviously , we had to give equity away for that , but I'd rather have something of something than 100% of nothing , and that's absolutely . But that deal allowed the floodgates for us to start raising money for more deals . So at that point we just started getting deals under contract . We got the formula down , created a CRM , did a monthly newsletter we provide value to people , went to , started speaking at meetups , started just trying to provide value , not trying to sell anybody anything , just simply trying to provide value . And then , when good deals happen , we simply send it out to our network and our CRM and things pretty kind of were funded pretty easily .

Ed Mathews

Excellent . Yeah , it's amazing how , when create those relationships and you're smart enough to nurture them and you and I agree on on how to do it as well I think that if you help enough , you educate enough people . If you help them understand how you got to where you got , some of them will take that information and go okay , I'm going to go do this myself . Awesome , that's great . But a lot of them will say you know what that sounds like a lot and I want to play , I want to participate , but I want to work with somebody who knows how to do this inside and out , rather than do it on my own . And that's where someone like you or another investor who's raising money that's that is a valuable resource in their world , right , so that's fantastic .

Ed Mathews

Okay , so let's get to the final five and we're going to start to land this plane , so to speak . So I'm always curious about motivation and what gets you out of bed on Monday morning . So finish the sentence . For me , my purpose is to provide value to the world Very simple and very profound . I

Mentorship, Mistakes, and Achieving Success

Ed Mathews

love that , and obviously you've been doing this for a while and you've been doing it very profound . I love that , and obviously you've been doing this for a while and you've been doing very successfully . We've all had mentors and I'm curious about the folks who have affected you and given you advice . What's the best advice you ever got and who gave ?

Andrew Freed

it to you . I think this just goes back to providing value In this world . The more value you provide , the more the world will provide back . And it's really important when providing value , expect nothing in return , because if you have that expectation , that makes it very much a transactional type of situation when you want a relationship right . Going back to that point , that was the best advice I've absolutely heard and it's completely served me time and time again . I'll just give you a quick example Me , when I found my mentor was hosting meetups all over Massachusetts , but he wanted to open up a meetup in Worcester , one of the second largest city in mass .

Andrew Freed

He had a virtual meetup . He was asking does anybody have any ideas for venues ? There were literally 50 people on the call . That weekend I literally went to five different places , got pricing , got videos , got the manager information . I put in a nice sexy Google drive , sent it right over to him and he's like wow , I've been asking for this for eight months . Nobody did this . Do you want to be my first guest speaker ? I was like , absolutely , I'd love to . And then from there I actually ended up hosting a meetup under his brand .

Andrew Freed

I brought him value in the form of bringing up his brand and then I became an investor-focused agent , brought him value in the form of commissions . Right yeah , started partnering with deals . I partnered with him on a couple of deals . I just went out of my way to provide this guy value , expecting nothing in return . But at a certain point , when you're bringing somebody tens , hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions like this , guy's obviously got to pick up my phone call if I have questions , wouldn't you ? If I brought you $100,000 , wouldn't you be picking up my call all the time ? I would . So it's just a simple concept of reciprocity that I think a lot of people don't really take into account when it comes to finding a mentor or just seeking help in general .

Ed Mathews

It's a really important point you just made in that people like you and people like your mentor are really busy . And would you , would me , would I , would your mentor like to help everybody ? Yeah , that's , we would , but there's a finite amount of time and we have a business to run and we have families and lives and we do carve out time to help people , but it can't be that , can't be the job , and so one of the ways that really successful people figure out okay , who am I going to help are the ones who are law of reciprocity , as you said . It's a real thing , right , and the folks that are bringing me value are the first phone calls I return , either in the morning or at the end of the day .

Ed Mathews

Right , it's an easy pecking order and I'm going to try and get to everybody , but most days I don't . But I start with the folks that bring me value every day , right , worth , yeah , absolutely Okay . So I'm also curious about I think I personally think that mistakes are a good thing and that you learn your most important lessons from mistakes , not from successes . So I'm curious about a mistake you made , what was one of the bigger mistakes you've ever made , and how did you recover ?

Andrew Freed

The biggest mistake I've made , I would say , is I'm not acting on my dreams sooner . Like I always wanted to be an entrepreneur , I always wanted to go after my dreams . At the end of the day , I was simply scared . I was simply scared of the repercussions and was scared of taking the leap and and the thing that really my biggest mistake was waiting 10 years , when I'm in the workforce , to actually go after my dreams . So I guess my to your point , what was my biggest mistake ? Waiting and not taking action .

Ed Mathews

Yeah , and it's a common refrain , right , it's so . Many people come at this , myself included . I read Rich Dad , poor Dad in 2008 . It fundamentally changed my worldview and it took me three years to pull the trigger on my first deal , and it had everything to do with fear . And so it's interesting and it's a very common issue with . We're human right . We crave certainty , and the unknown scares the living crap out of most of us .

Andrew Freed

Yeah , it's funny because the more successful people I run across , the more I realize how many inner , how much inner demons they conquered before they sought their success . Right , because when you go in the unknown , you really have to look in the mirror and be comfortable with yourself as well as your past . Right , I see so many people living their past self and that's holding their future self back 100% .

Ed Mathews

Okay , so readers almost universally tend to be or leaders tend to be readers , right , and so I'm curious about how you take in information , whether that's through books , either physical or virtual , or conferences or podcasts . How do you take in information ? And also , who are you paying attention to ? These days ? We're already talking about Dan Martell , but who else ?

Andrew Freed

How do I take in information ? All the above ? I'm part of Masterminds . I'm part of GoBundance , which is a mastermind . I host local real estate meetups . I go to meetups , I learn , I make connections through those . Listen to podcasts nonstop . I love Mark Zuber One Renter at a Time , really good economics insight . I love Ken McElroy . Listen to Ken McElroy , obviously . Brandon Turner is the only theater in my heart Helped me get started in this game . Those are some sources that I listen to . And then books . I'm a voracious reader , for sure . I like to buy back your time , but I'm very much in a lot of personal development as well . So it could be Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey Really good book , even things that are not business related , like the Untethered Soul by Michael Singer . It's the deep look inside yourself or Think Like a Monk . I think that's Jay Shetty which kind of it makes you think how am I taking information and how am I reacting to the world ? Right , yeah , those are some sources that kind of drive me forward .

Ed Mathews

Excellent . Final question , then , is about success . Finish this sentence . For me , success means what to you ?

Andrew Freed

Success means that more people like me and want to work with me . At the end of the day , your success is directly correlated to how many people like you and want to work with you . Say , for example , if Elon Musk wanted to work with me , there's a good reason I'd be a multimillionaire , if not a billionaire . So it's really important to cultivate those relationships , but also have a very high level of integrity and ethics where somebody does want to work with you day in and day out , even during the ups but also the downs , and know that you will do your best to push this ball forward and to get it right Right on .

Ed Mathews

Awesome . All right , andrew . Hey , I've really enjoyed this conversation . You have built a really impressive business and it has everything to do with your hard work and your character Congratulations . So , when you're not talking about real estate or buying properties , what do you like to do for fun ?

Andrew Freed

Oh man . So for the first three years of my endeavor I was a and I still am workaholic . That resulted in never traveling , just head by head down grinding . But now I really enjoy traveling . So this year alone I've been to Miami , I've been to Italy , I've been to Portland . Where else did I go ? I went to Mexico , Cancun . So I love , absolutely love traveling , being out in nature I think you're getting the goods in the woods , going hiking . I love that . I do enjoy some yoga . I absolutely just love , like personal development , trying to be the best version of myself every single day , and that might be me doing the miracle morning , that could be me reading , that could be me going to conferences , that can be me participating in masterminds . But I absolutely love just growing into a new version of myself every single day , excellent , excellent , and so , as an observer , you're killing it .

Ed Mathews

So congratulations . So , idriff , if somebody wants to learn more about you or your business , what is the best way to get ahold of you ?

Andrew Freed

They can simply follow me on social , at Investor Freed

Building a Successful Real Estate Business

Andrew Freed

on Instagram or Andrew Freed on LinkedIn and Facebook , and I am very active . I put out free educational content . I think I have over 150 tips on how to invest , so definitely check me out . I always try to provide as much value as possible Awesome .

Ed Mathews

Andrew Freed . Thank you so much for joining us today . It's really good to see you and continue good fortune . Thanks , Ed , I appreciate you having me .