The BRRRR Investor Podcast
The BRRRR Investor Podcast is a dynamic resource for aspiring and seasoned real estate investors, focusing on the Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat strategy to build generational wealth. It offers expert insights, practical advice, and real-world examples to guide listeners through every step of successful real estate investing.
The BRRRR Investor Podcast
From House Hacking to Multifamily Syndication: Gursh’s Real Estate Investing Journey
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Curious about transitioning from single family to multifamily real estate? In this episode, Gursh shares his journey, the reality behind BRRRR deals, and practical lessons from investing wins—and setbacks.
Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:
- How Gursh got started in real estate by house hacking, even before he knew the term.
- Why community, networking, and mentorship are crucial for real estate success.
- Real-world breakdown of his first BRRRR property—including purchase, rehab, and the impact of COVID on refinancing.
- The pros, cons, and lessons learned from running Airbnbs and navigating HOA rules.
- Key insights on Section 8 rentals, avoiding costly mistakes, and advice for new investors ready to take action.
ABOUT GURSH:
Gurshan Bansal is a strategic sales leader and real estate investor with over a decade of experience driving growth in tech startups and helping others build wealth along the way. He is an accomplished executive with multi-industry expertise, recognized for consistently driving revenue growth and exceeding leadership expectations. Beyond his impressive career in tech sales, where he's known for building and developing top-tier teams at tech startups, fostering individual talent, and achieving remarkable revenue outcomes, Gurshan is also a passionate real estate investor. His journey began serendipitously in 2013 when he "house hacked" his first home in Memphis, Tennessee. This pivotal experience ignited a passion that truly flourished in 2020 with his first official BRRRR investment property. Since then, he's strategically evolved his approach from focusing on traditional cash flow to pursuing larger transactions like apartment syndications, and he's dedicated to making real estate investing accessible to friends and family. Gurshan's unique blend of sharp sales acumen and profound real estate savvy makes him an invaluable voice on building lasting wealth and achieving true financial freedom.
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📱 Phone: 901.337.691
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Alex Nahle
Welcome back to the BRRRR Investor podcast where our mission is to empower aspiring real estate investors in their journey towards building generational wealth. All right, excited once again to, to be here with you guys. Gursh, thank you so much for being on the podcast. I'm excited to, you know, for you to share your story. Gursh here IT by profession started off in BRRRR single family. Now he's doing multi family syndication and I'm sure there was a lot of things going on in between. So Gursh, welcome to the BRRRR Investor podcast. Thank you for being here, man.
Gursh
Yeah, likewise. Really excited to be here and talk about some of the wins and some of the losses too, along the way.
Alex Nahle
The losses are, are in my opinion, sometimes more important than the wins. Right?
Gursh
Yeah, you learn a lot. They kind of expand your horizon. So really thankful to be here. Thanks for having me, Alex.
Alex Nahle
Of course, of course. Yeah, I, you know, for me, a lot of the failures that I had just made me better and helped me help other people. So excited to hear about that. So let's start off share a little bit about yourself, your background, what is it that you do, where you're from and so forth. Just so the viewers and listeners can get to know you.
Gursh
Yeah. All right, sounds good. So I grew up in Tennessee, in Memphis. I lived in Memphis for about 20 years. It's my hometown. And then I spent about 10 years in Atlanta after school and college. That's where I kind of began my career in tech. In the last couple of years I've been in LA. That's how we met. Through some of the great events that you host along the way. You know, I started working in tech. You know, your typical 9 to 5. You know, I generally like to work at startups where I could kind of apply some of the skills that I have. But about halfway through my career, which has been a 10 year career working in tech and at startups, I realized that, man, I'm helping a lot of these founders and a lot of these CEOs build their companies, but what am I really doing for myself, right? So by my fortune, one day I was at my job and I was on LinkedIn and I saw this ad for like a real estate investment seminar. I was in my same building and it was the same day. And at that point I just had one property, one that I actually, I lived in it. I didn't know at the time, but I house hacked it. When I did live in it, before I moved to Atlanta, it was a property that I had in Memphis. So I Was like, okay, it's downstairs, it's after work. Let me go check it out. And so I checked it out and it was about two hours long. And, you know, I got there and it was like a two hour sales pitch on, like, why you should invest in real estate. And I was eating it all up. Like, I loved it. I was sitting on the front row and at the end of the course, there was like this, you know, spend a thousand dollars and come to our three day seminar. And so I was like, you know, all right, like, I spent a thousand dollars on sillier things before. Like, why not? So I did it. And then immediately, once I did it, I kind of like instantly had buyer's regret because I was like, man, like, I don't know anything about real estate. I just have this, like one house that I own that I now my friends live in it and they're paying, like, me rent. Like, what am I doing? So between the seminar was like eight months away. Between me going to this event and that seminar, I just decided to lock in and learn as much as I could about real estate. That meant, like, getting on bigger pockets, listening to podcasts, networking, talking to as many people as I could. Long story short, I get to this seminar and I, like, wanted to be the smartest guy in the room. I didn't know anything they were talking about. Nothing, nothing I had learned was applicable to the type of real estate that they were working on. But nonetheless, that didn't really discourage me. It was a great experience, and that's kind of what fueled my introduction to real estate investing.
Alex Nahle
Wow, that's awesome, man. I hear, you know, a lot of people tend to go through a lot of similar steps, I went to a seminar as well. That's not necessarily how I got started. That was kind of, you know, throughout the career. I think it's important, you know, I think it's important to try things out. Obviously, you got to do your due diligence. You got to be cautious. There's a lot of things out there that are a scam. A lot of things are beneficial, maybe not for you, but for someone else. So some people may see it as a scam because it didn't work for them or they didn't even apply what they learned. So I think, you know, it's important to try things out, get with the right people. So that's very cool. Now, you mentioned house hack. Can you just touch a little bit about what house hack means for those, you know, the. If someone just has heard it for the first time.
Gursh
You know, it's funny that you bring that up, because I didn't even know I was doing it until I learned what the term meant years later.
Alex Nahle
Yep.
Gursh
So in 2014 in Memphis, I just graduated with out of grad school, and I thought I was going to be in Memphis for a long time. So I purchased a house. I needed some roommates. I was still like, in my early 20s. Roommates were still a thing back then. I had my roommates pay me rent and I paid the mortgage, and they covered a significant part of the mortgage. So my living expenses were not so high. They were pretty low. I almost lived for free. It was a couple hundred bucks a month. And I later came to find out that that is called house hacking, where you purchase a house, you live in it, and the majority of your costs are covered by people that are living there. So whether that's your situation. My situation, where you have roommates, or whether you can like Airbnb part of your house, there's several different ways to do it, but that was my experience of house hacking.
Alex Nahle
That's very cool. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. So what. What's interesting is, you know, it feels like I've known you for many years, but in reality, I think, you know, we've known each other for a little bit under two years. When we met, like you mentioned, you know, you came by to our event and, you know, appreciate your support. You're always there, you're consistently spreading the word and inviting guests. But, you know, when we met, I was just, you know, I had been in Memphis. I've been looking at that market. I was underwriting deals, making offers. And then you came, we met, and then it's like we had a great conversation. You helped me, you know, underwrite these, some of these deals that. Because you know the area very well. So I truly appreciate that. And, you know, I appreciate people like you that bring value to the community. So it's awesome to have you here and, you know, to hear about the journey that you went through. So let's get started with, you know, you mentioned you house hack, that was one of your first projects, you out of college and so forth. What was next for you and who had influence on you? Any mentorship, family, friends, things of that nature that you can share with us. Yeah, negative influence, right? Some people put you down, some people push you forward.
Gursh
Like, the whole real estate investing community as a whole, I think is really powerful, man. Like, people who have done it before, they want to pay it forward because someone has helped Them. That's part of the reason why I wanted to do this is because I've had so many helping hands that have allowed me to get here, like outside of my immediate family. Just being there to like continue to encourage me to kind of pursue this, even though I know nothing about this. When I started, like, this isn't something that I studied for or trained for and knew anything about. I just kind of did it. The real estate investing community was key. One of the biggest things I think for me as I got started was on bigger pockets. I actually made a goal to connect with two people every week. And what that means was just like send them a Starbucks gift card and ask them to like speak with me on the phone for 30 minutes. And I would ask them the same set of like five to seven questions, which was like, you know, what would you change if like you had just gotten started today? Like, what would you tell a newbie? Like, what would your strategy be in this cycle? Things like this. And I probably did that for two months. Spoke to close to, I don't know, like maybe 12 to 20 people over that time. And I've never spoken to them after those conversations. But like all those people were so willing to help and just share their advice and they were complete strangers. And I think that's the most unique thing about real estate investing because even in my personal career in tech, like I still don't get that kind of support as I'm trying to grow my career. So I think just like this channel of real estate investing is completely like dedicated to helping other people out. So there are a lot of people like property managers, wholesalers, realtors, the whole community, my immediate family who have been there from like a support standpoint. And so that brings me to my first property and the timing of this is actually really interesting. It was 2020, January. I had finally like, I went to that event in May of 2019, that three day seminar. And it took me six months after that event, after like continuing to educate myself, kind of being stuck a little bit in analysis paralysis. Like I didn't have a ton of money. I'd been working for 5, 6 years. I'd saved up about like 80, 90k cash from my tech career. I was fortunate enough to actually meet a wholesaler on bigger pockets from those, from those networking conversations. And he had this property in Memphis which in 2020, at the time it was a 57k cash, 57k. And it was a three bedroom, two bath and three a 128 Memphis. That was the area Code. And these houses still exist in Memphis. Maybe not 57k now, maybe they're like 60, 80, 90k, but they exist. And so I purchased it from him. All cash, 57k. And I poured about 15, 16k into the complete rehab cost. That took a couple of months. By first time, doing a rehab, working with a contractor, all that stuff. And at that point after that was over, I was kind of like, I didn't have any cash left. So I was like, okay, now I have this, this house. I fixed it up, I put it in there. I actually took the garage and converted it into a bedroom. So it was a four bedroom, two bath now. I just wanted to get the max value I could out of the appraisal. When that was over, he actually introduced me to a property manager that he knows. Her name is Zenobia Polk. She's amazing. She manages properties for me today and she actually helps me with Section 8 rentals as well. So she's been a key part of my strategy as I've scaled. But long story short is when I went to refinance the house, that's when Covid happened. And so the refi that was supposed to happen in March or April actually took nine months.
Alex Nahle
Wow.
Gursh
I had to know banks were like. Banks were trying to figure it out. They were like, we don't. The original bank that I had said, hey, we're no longer doing refinances. So like, they pulled out luckily. So I bought it, I rehabbed it. I got it rented at the time for 900 bucks a month, so my costs were covered. I didn't have a mortgage and their bills were being paid by the tenant. But I got it rented through Zenobia, who came through. I think we got it rented in like April or May. So for from January through, I think it was like October. It was just kind of sitting there. And then finally after things kind of settled down after the first six months of COVID we got it appraised at a hundred thousand and I was able to get like, I think, what was it, like 70, 70k ish. Out of that house. So all in, I was about like 75K. I had a couple months of red, I got 70K back. And today it's being rented by, through Section 8 housing in Memphis for 1300 bucks a month. So with time, like, initially that property wasn't a home run, but with time, it became a home run. And that's what I learned, man. Like, time is your best friend in real estate investing. Things just tend to like, go up when it comes to like rent and values. So that was the first taste that I had. It took nine months, a lot longer than I wanted to. But after that refi hit and that cash hit my bank account, I was like, when are we going to do this again? So that's kind of what started everything.
Alex Nahle
It's addicting, huh? It gets that.
Gursh
Yeah, it only gets worse. But yeah, that's.
Alex Nahle
That's a cool BRRRR, man. That's a cool BRRRR. And again, look, look at the challenges that you went through, right? You weren't expecting. There's a lot of things you can expect. And you brought up a great point. You know, time in the market, like they say, not timing the market. So sometimes you just got to take action. And there's a lot of outside factors you cannot predict. Things could change. Just have the right exit strategy. So phenomenal job there, man. Phenomenal job. That's exciting. And I want to just touch on Section eight just very briefly. I know we have, you know, if you're listening to this on Amazon Music or Spotify, we do have the link to our YouTube channel in the comment section below. So check that out. We'd love for you to check out our YouTube channel. Subscribe, like share it with your friends and family. What I wanted to mention is we also have an episode about Section eight there. So check it out. Section eight, obviously the speaker that we have on that podcast episode is specifically for the LA area. But it's pretty, you know, there's a lot of commonalities with Section 8, so it's something very cool. And the area that you're working in, it sounds like, you know, Section 8 is a good, good approach. Right?
Gursh
Yeah, I'm a big fan of it. A couple of things that are really like, great about it is first of all, like, it forces you to have great properties because they have specific standards that need to be upheld and requirements that need to be met. So your properties are generally like in good shape. Which as an investor, like, you know, we're in the people business, right? We provide housing, we take care of housing for folks to live in and the same that we would expect for ourselves, we should be providing to others. So I have a lot of confidence and security knowing that the houses that I'm providing are like of great quality and in top notch shape. And also like, you know, Section 8 is a government program. So the residents that live there are also really taking care of the houses themselves. They want to maintain their Section 8 status. And I've had nothing but top Quality experiences with section 8. In fact, they're the best performing properties in my portfolio. It's a big part of my long term plan of going forward is section 8. And you know, I always want to think about backup plans. So like, you know, if anything were to happen to section 8, like I could still get the houses rented on my own. But like, as it stands today, it's something that like I really think is a big, you know, unlock when it comes to like achieving maximum returns. And you know, like at the end of the day like it's available, like it's more available than people think. And I'm not sure why I get such a bad rap.
Alex Nahle
Honestly, I don't know either. I, I mean everybody has their opinions on it. There's a lot of misconception. I feel like you mentioned, you know, based on my experience as well, I've noticed that, you know, the tenants tend to have a lot to lose. Right. You can get a good and bad tenant regardless. It doesn't matter on their income or, or anything like that. I've had, you know, I've seen some tenant situations with very expensive rental properties. 15,000 and above a month. Right. So it really doesn't, you know, matter as much. However, I feel they do have a lot to lose. They tend to take care of the property better. You do have those regular inspections that keep you as a landlord, you know, maintaining the property. And you know, I share this with a lot of investors that I work with. Like if you have to replace a toilet, if it's not completely broken, I mean it's, it's a good thing for you. At the end of the day you get return on investment, you get peace of mind, you get, you know, you save money from having to call the plumber out there. One call for a plumber is just as much as putting a brand new toilet in almost, you know. And another thing that I would want to share about this is, you know, when it comes to toilets and components like that get good quality stuff, again, it's just going to give you peace of mind. I would say, you know, spend that extra 25, 50, 100 bucks on a really good toilet and it'll make a lot of a difference.
Gursh
Yeah, the way, the way I like to think, you know, and this is like something that I definitely struggle with early on in my investing career. If something costed $5, I would, I would try to find the $2 version of it. And then I ended up paying $10 down the road for it. And like again, you know, like, obviously we're in investing to make like long term financial gains and to build wealth for ourselves. But it's really important to remember that like, we are in fact as investors in the people business, like we are working with people to provide housing. And if you don't take that seriously upfront, then you'll always try to find a way to cut costs. If you just look at it at numbers and like, that's not how you build wealth long term is by looking at short term numbers. You know, it's something that I've made. It took me years to get over the hump of like, this dishwasher is $300, this one is $500. Like, should I go with the cheaper one or should I go with the one that's going to last me longer and look nicer and actually come with a better warranty? Even now, today, if I, you know, go make repairs on my property, I'm like, wait, this one's much cheaper. But luckily I've been through enough losses in that area to know that like, get the better quality stuff, it'll definitely pay dividends in the long run.
Alex Nahle
And that's a phenomenal tip. I mean, it's a price you paid, I paid. We've paid for these little mistakes and you know, they're, they're great. I embrace them again, they made us better. But then what's more important is for us to come on here and in the communities that we connect with, the networking that we do and share it with others, right? Share our mistakes, share our, you know, shortfalls and obviously talk about the successes. But this way we can help each other out and try to save, say, give somebody else a shortcut. Right? That's, that's truly what this is all about, in my opinion. So I wanted to get back to the BRRRR just a little bit. So you mentioned, you know, it's a fascinating BRRRR, right? You, you bought it wholesaler, cash, about 50,000. How much did you spend?
Gursh
You mentioned put in about 15.
Alex Nahle
15. All things all together, you were all in about 75k. You cashed out 70,000. You're all in 5,000 out of pocket, right? You're getting rental. That 5,000 has already been offset. So technically no money out of pocket. You own the property. It's, it's, you know, it's rented out. Section 8, streamlined. What else can you ask for? Right?
Gursh
Yeah, it was a pretty good deal.
Alex Nahle
Yeah. Well, that's awesome. That's awesome. So, so that was, you know, house hack. We got a BRRRR. What is next I know you had, you know, you did some Airbnbs and so forth. Can you share a little bit about that and what was your experience there and whether you're still doing it, you don't want to do it? What. What can you share about that?
Gursh
Yeah, I mean, that kind of set me off on, like, you know, when I did that deal, I was actually living in Atlanta, and so I used the money that I got back from the BRRRR to purchase a single family home for myself.
Alex Nahle
Okay.
Gursh
And so at that time, I was trying to scale because I was in a point where, like, okay, I get how this works. Like, let me continue to do it. So I bought a new construction condo in Atlanta, and I used the money. It was like 450,000, like, nearby downtown Atlanta. So I put, you know, 10% down from the money that I got from the BRRRR. So all in, I was like, 55, 56K after, like, closing costs and all that stuff. And I lived in it for a year, and I put 10% down because 10 down was enough to make the mortgage at an amount where I knew if I Airbnb it after a year because it was new construction in a desirable location that, like, I could actually make some serious cash. So I lived in it for a year, and that entire year, I was just basically staging it for an Airbnb. And so along that time when I was living in it, the property that I had purchased in 2014, the house hack, I actually refinanced that property. So I bought it in 2014 for, like, 125k. In 2020, that property was worth about 260. So I got, like 90k in cash back from that. So that helped with some of the cost of staging this property, and I turned it into an Airbnb after a year. Kind of went nomadic for a while. I kind of started, like, staying in other Airbnb and kind of started traveling a lot more just to, like, kind of live my life, because I wanted to experience that at that time in my life. But the Airbnb, man, was a lot of ups and downs. When I first started, I was. I was super excited. So I got everything set up. It was beautiful. Brand new construction. I had done everything by myself. I did not ask for any help. I was like, I'm gonna get this done. I actually put it on Airbnb, and I had, like, four or five friends stay there first so they could leave me some really great reviews. So I kind of set it up in a way that I didn't charge them. I was like, just come stay. Like, please come stay. And they gave me tips along the way too. Like, they actually gave me helpful feedback, like, hey, you probably want to do this. Hey, you probably want to do this. Hey, we noticed this. And so I try to like mitigate as many risks as possible from the get go. And then for like six months, it just absolutely crushed it. It was completely booked, it was in a great location. But one thing that I made a huge mistake on, and I'm kicking myself for this, is when I purchased this property, it was in a condo, it was a townhome. And the HOA had rules around short term rentals. And I totally looked over it. I didn't even look. So I was just so bent on getting this Airbnb up and running because at the time in 2020, that's like what everybody was talking about in the real estate community. So I was like, I want to get my hands in on this. And so I messed up. It wasn't that they were like, hey, you have six months to figure this out. Like, it can no longer be an Airbnb. And I tried to fight them on it. I tried to throw everything at the book on them on it. I gave them a ton of like information around. Like, hey, having an Airbnb and condos, like actually raises the property value. And that's what HOAs are really designated for, is they want to maintain the property values and maintain the style of living. That's what they are like legislated to do. They weren't having any of it. And so they gave me six months to figure it out. So for the next six months, I kept Airbnb it as much as I could. It continued to crush it, but I then had to like, make some moves and figure out the next step. So eventually I got it long term rented. I have a great Realtor in Atlanta, her name is Alex Pruitt, and she was able to find some tenants. They're medical students at Emory. They signed a two year lease. It covers the mortgages, it's making cash flow. Not as much as the Airbnb, but, you know, still, you know, it's a good property. I bought a brand new construction and it's appreciated pretty significantly from the initial purchase. So Airbnb, like, you know, initially I fell in love with it and then my townhome association kind of ruined it. But, you know, I think I've learned a lot through that experience. And I think the biggest takeaway is always have a backup plan. Like if you can't Airbnb it, like how. Make sure it can rent long term so that way you're not stuck with the costs at the end.
Alex Nahle
Absolutely. Having the right exit strategies even before you go in is, is crucial. So that's cool. I'm glad you were able to overcome that. So you still own that property, right?
Gursh
That's right.
Alex Nahle
Yeah. Sweet. Okay, let's go into. Tell us about failure and a success that you, you want to share with us.
Gursh
Okay.
Alex Nahle
That you feel that something, you know, sticks with you and you, you, you, you really want to share it.
Gursh
You know, it's actually very similar to what I just shared. But, you know, after, you know, from 2020 to, like 2023, I picked up six single family homes, a small five unit multifamily with a partner in Cleveland. And so I was moving pretty quick and I was doing a lot of transactions, like, in between those were some refinances also to help me pull cash back, a couple that I've mentioned. But after this most recent property close to downtown Atlanta that I purchased, once I put it on Airbnb, I need another place to live. And that's right, this was a, this was a, an interesting time in, like, the U.S. economy where, like, houses were really highly priced but mortgage rates were still kind of low. And, you know, I was feeling a lot of pressure, like on my own, let's put it on my own to like, go find another house. And so I bought a house in the suburbs, maybe 15, 20 minutes away from downtown Atlanta, with the intention again, of making it an Airbnb. I had such a great experience of my first time. Although the outcome wasn't exactly what I expected, I knew that if I had an exit strategy, I would be fine. So I purchased the house in, I think it was 2022 or 2023 in the suburbs. And a lot, half of it was furnished, which was interesting to me because I didn't have to, like, spend a lot of money. And I knew that if I was going to make an Airbnb, I would have to, like, furnish it. And for anybody who's doing furnishing, Amazon and Wayfair are like my best bets. You can finance things for 24 months without interest, so you can spend, you know, five grand and literally pay 400, 412 bucks a month over 24 months to furnish it and bake it into your cost as you're putting up an Airbnb. So I purchased this Property. It was 480,000 at the time. Like, I probably paid a little bit too much for it, it was a very competitive market. But when I got it, you know, the mortgage was around like 24, 2500, just above a 3% interest rate. I can cover those costs for Airbnb, so same thing, you know, 10% down. That's the numbers that make sense for me. I lived in it for a year, got it, got the rest of it furnished. It was a four bedroom, two and a half bath. So none of the bedrooms were furnished. Some of the living room items were. So like getting all the bedrooms furnished and getting all the material in there kind of took me some time. As again, like I didn't really ask anybody for help. I just kind of did it on my own while working full time and trying to like live my life. So it did take the entire year to do it and you know, same, same game plan, get some friends to come in there, stay for the first couple of of weeks and give me feedback, get it up and running. And you know, from day one it just never cash flowed the way that I thought it was going to go. From day one there were some successes. Like I had a couple of long term tenants that are Airbnb folks that stayed there. I had two like over 90 day stays and those were really successful. But outside of that, I think over the two years that it was on Airbnb, I was probably in the hole like 25 30k. So it cost me. On the flip side of that, like it was really convenient because at that time in my life I was traveling a lot back and forth to LA and Atlanta also just like random parts of like just doing a lot of experiencing on my own. So it was my primary residence. But when I would go travel, somebody would stay there and like help me pay the cost of the mortgage. So when I say I was in the whole 20, 30K, I that sounds scary, but also like I would have paid that anyways had I been living there. I probably would have paid more. In actuality, having lived there this year, I realized that like, if I want to continue to scale, I can't continue to have this kind of like negative cash flow on my pockets. Especially now that like my primary is in LA. I had to make some choices. And so earlier this year I went back and I sold all, all the furniture that I had spent seven months putting in there. I did it all on Facebook Marketplace. If you're selling furniture, I highly recommend Facebook Marketplace. It's amazing. I sold I think like 80 items of furniture on everything from toasters to couches to bed frames to plates to pots and pans. You can do it all. So I sold everything, got it completely empty, and now it's rented out long term for $3500 a month, which was a big win. Again, shout out to, like, my Realtor, and she helps me manage the property to Alex. She found the tenants, they just moved in there a couple of months ago. But another. Another thing along the way that I learned about this is when I purchased the house during, like, this time of the economy, I didn't take into account how the assessment taxes would increase. And so what I thought was a $2,400 mortgage when I purchased it actually changed to, like, a 27, $2800 mortgage a year later. Because of the increase. Yeah. And, like, I didn't think about that when I didn't even know, man, until I saw the bill. And I tried to fight it, but, like, that's just the way it is. That also, like, really hurt with the cash flow from the Airbnb standpoint, luckily, from, like, a renting standpoint, like, I make enough rent to be able to cover that. But now something that I've put into, like, my analysis when I buy is, like, how are the taxes going to increase when I purchase this house over the next couple of years? So that house was full of lessons, like, just from the beginning, just overlooking things and probably from the start, like, paying too much for it, not thinking about the taxes, not understanding that, like, maybe 15 minutes away from the city and being as big as it was is not, like, a great Airbnb option. So lots of, like, lots of servings of humble pie once I purchased that house.
Alex Nahle
Exciting story. But what's most exciting is how you turned it into something positive. Right? It didn't stop you, did it?
Gursh
No, absolutely not. Like, I think that's the thing with, like, real estate is, like, even when you lose, there's still a lot of, like, flexibility. That. Yeah, yeah.
Alex Nahle
And it's just really how you look at things. Right. Glass half full, half empty, just really how your outlook is. So just have a abundance mentality and. And embrace, you know, the. The challenging situations and just turn them around. That's. That's the best way to do it. So this is exciting. I. I'm really enjoying the conversation. I hate that it's coming to an end, but I want. If you can share with us. I know you mentioned, you know, you. You did a lot of networking. You reached out to a lot of investors or experts in the industry via bigger pockets and other channels, and you asked them questions. One of the question you mentioned is how did you get started? Right? You mentioned how did you get started? How did you, you know, what things would you do different? So with that said, and being that, you know, the, the, our podcast, it's for everybody, anybody and everybody, right? It's really focused on those that really want to get started. That aspiring investor, that investor that really did a deal, got burnt and and is afraid to do it again, or that investor that wants to do it but is listening to mom, dad, cousin, uncle. Some people that may not have experience in real estate or real estate investing are hesitant to get started because they're going to get judged and so forth. So this is truly what it's about and helping them take that first step. So with that said, what is that one advice you would give someone that is trying to get started in real estate?
Gursh
The one advice that I would give someone, man, there's so many pieces of advice. What's always served me the most is lean on the community that real estate investing has and can provide to you. None of this would have happened had I not started connecting with other investors. It doesn't matter where you are or like where you are in your investing career. Like, when I moved out to LA, one of the first things I did was starting started to look up like real estate meetups. That's where I found your meetups and where I started going to meet people. And although now I consider myself like an experienced investor, I've met a completely different set of investors that participate in LA. I've learned more about building ADUs, which wasn't even in my like, game plan until I started visiting your networking events. I learned more about creative financing from those events. I've learned more about how to like, use HELOCs to potentially purchase properties. All that through the people that I meet at events. And like when you start meeting people and start talking, that's when ideas start kind of get floating around and that, that's like exciting. Like, ideas are the basis and foundation for motivation to start taking action. So when you're getting started, like, you don't have to do it alone. There's a full, full community that ready to pay it forward. In my experience, most people who start in real estate investing have had the support of other investors behind them. So like, you don't have to do it alone. Certainly you can educate yourself through the literature and like, things that are out there. But start getting out there, start meeting people, start talking to people and set goals to start talking to people. Like, be intentional about it and it will come back like full circle for sure.
Alex Nahle
So that's awesome. Sounds like you got a lot of value from the networking events. You found a lot of resources, potential partnerships and it sounds like you're recommending people to stop by our events, right?
Gursh
Yeah, I would say so. It's been a big game changer for me.
Alex Nahle
I appreciate that. And that's truly what these events are for that we put together. We started these about three years ago. It's just to be an added resource, added support, a family again. In my opinion, real estate is a lonely business. Like you said, don't do it alone. You don't have to do it alone. So that's crucial. So to know more about our events, we do have the links in the comment section below. Whether you're listening to it on Amazon or Amazon or Spotify or on YouTube, the links are there. We do have online versions of these events as well. So if you're not in the LA area, please join us. We are going to have more information about Gursh in the comment section below as well and ways to reach him. So please, so please, you know, connect with him, share this podcast and check out other episodes as well that we have subscribe to the channel. Gursh. I truly appreciate you coming by man. Thank you so much and I look forward to having you back in LA and then reconnecting.
Gursh
Thanks Alex. Yeah, I would love to connect with anybody whether it's Section 8 housing. Now I'm doing a lot of multifamily as well for apartment syndications and raising capital which has been came out of complete nowhere and a lot of it is just based on like where the market is today. I think you mentioned earlier like not timing the market but just time in market. That was a really interesting thing that you said because like although I never thought about it that way, like that is what investing is, is just time is going to keep happening and how you decide to play the game. And in real estate there's so many different ways to play it. So love to connect with anybody out there who wants to discuss those things.
Alex Nahle
Beautiful man, beautiful. Let's take action. Have an awesome day and until next time.
Gursh
Thank you Alex.
Alex Nahle
Thank you all for joining us on the BRRRR Investor podcast. If you found today's episode helpful, please hit like and subscribe to our channel for more real estate insights. We love hearing from you, so please leave your thoughts, questions or topics you'd like us to cover in the comments section below. Be sure to check out our website website thebrrrrinvestor.com and follow us on social media. The BRRRR Investor. Keep learning and investing and we'll see you in the next episode. I'm your host, Alex Nahle. Stay invested.