Episode 218: Learn Your Lane

Ready. Set. Real Estate. 

Darcy has dabbled in practically every aspect of real estate that there is but once he found his niche there was no turning back. 

Not only does he love new construction and land development but he enjoys passing this knowledge along to others because the opportunities are endless. 

However, the journey to finding what works best for you can be a unique one. There is so much that has changed from 2001, including the terminology. 

Turn in to episode 218 as Darcy takes us back to receiving his first real estate book, explains what assuming a property meant back in the day and much more! 

For more information:

Website: darcymarler.com

YouTube: Darcy Marler

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Now, would it really be the down the business podcast if we didn't find a way to make you some money? Darcy dropped all the gems, he gave all the information, I simply facilitated and I asked a few follow-up questions here and there. Now, while we touched on real estate, you know our favorite industry, there were a lot of gems, there were a lot of concepts that can really be applied to life. Life of a business owner, life of an entrepreneur, life of someone in the corporate world, it does not matter. Knowledge is truly power. But Darcy takes us through his entire real estate journey. How some terms when he was back in the game really didn't even exist to what we know them to be today. How he really navigated his own lane, went through every single aspect you can think of until he really figured out what it was that suited him best. So, I would love for you to find out what suits you best because I know I will, because I'm ready to make some money. So without further ado, enjoy episode 218. Learn your lane. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Down to Business Podcast here with Tamar Turner. Look, we have been touching on a particular industry very heavily and hardly lately. I feel like it's been teaching me a lot. I feel like it's almost been giving me a call to action and telling me that I need to get involved in this more than what I'm already doing. And I also want my audience and I also want the people tapping in and everybody kind of hearing this episode to obviously we want to educate, but we want people to make money. We want people to be able to invest, be able to feel good about their future and everything of the sort. So I feel like you know, who we're sitting down with today, Darcy, I feel like he'll be able to one, not only give us a lot of education, a lot of insight, but I think he'll be able to help too. And I also think with his help, with his education, his insight, he'll probably be able to make you some money. So if I don't have your attention by now, hopefully as we continue to move throughout this episode, I'll pique your fancy a little bit, I'll pique your interest. But before we get into all things, before I let Darcy just take the show away and do what he does, one, how are you doing today? How's everything on your end?

SPEAKER_00 1:54

I'm doing very, very well. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 1:56

I'm pretty good. I cannot complain. It was a little gloomy, rainy, muggy start to the day, but we are good now. We made it happen, we made it through. So I will not and tomorrow's Friday. So I will definitely not be talking about that. So I know we're gonna have some people tapping in from my side, I know we're gonna have some people tapping in from your side, but I also know that we're gonna have some newcomers. So people who probably know nothing about either one of us but want to support the podcast, want to support you, or just want to find out or maybe educate themselves or make some money. So to put everybody on the same page, to bring everybody up to speed and put them on an even playing field, just do two things for me. Can you one just tell me what brings you on the down the business podcast? Well, one, tell me a little bit about yourself, but two, in that, also tell me what brings you on the down the business podcast today.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Sounds good. So my name's Darcy Marlar, and I've been a real estate investor for 23 years now, and I've owned a bunch of stuff. So I've done everything in the residential space. So I've done long-term rentals, short-term flips, the Burr strategy, condo conversions, land development of various sizes. I've built 50 houses. I've had like a thousand tenants literally, and uh I sold everything. I've sold all my rentals. I never got a joy from being a landlord, so I'm right out of that. And now I like just to do with new, I like to build, so I'm right into new construction and land development, is what I focus on now. And I try to educate and teach people that yeah, you don't, not everything about real estate, it just has to be flips and rentals and wholesaling and Airbnb. There's other ways to make money too from uh from real estate.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

So I feel like we have talked about honestly, I may have to put the stamp that real estate is probably the most covered industry on this podcast. I love it, but I also love it because in everyone who we talk to, everybody has hit on something different. Everybody, whether it just be an interest of theirs, a strong suit of theirs, the business plan or the business model, or just what they like personally. So is it safe to say that what you're involved in, what you're doing currently from the construction and the development of everything, would that be your favorite side of real estate? Would that be your favorite thing that goes into the real estate industry, or is it just what has brought you, you know, a lot of success, maybe?

SPEAKER_00 3:58

No, it's by far my favorite. Like, you know, I think it's telling that a guy that's been doing it for 23 years has sold all his rentals. Like that should tell you something. Like being a landlord sucks. It does.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

I was about and I was about to say, you know, I have not in in previous episodes, if people have been tapping with the podcast, I said I said to this interviewee that you were probably the first person that told me that they actually didn't mind being a landlord. And actually caught me by surprise. I said, Well, I don't think I've ever had anybody like say that. You know, it's it's rough, it's a rough, you know. Sometimes being a tenant is hard, and especially when you don't have a landlord that may not be as communicative as just understanding and everything like that. So trust me, I you put your hands up, you let it go. I'm I'm I'm right there with you and I understand. So, all right, I want to rewind a little bit and then I want to kind of move up and then fast forward. So, to rewind, 23 years ago, let's take it back a little bit. 23 years ago, I was five years old, so wasn't really much going on on my end, wasn't really doing too much on on this side of things. But 23 years ago, how did your how did the interest come about with real estate? What was your introduction to it? What really made you kind of one? You saw it. It was something that you probably learned about, heard about, maybe talked with some people about, but you decided to get involved with it and then move forward with it. How did that come about?

SPEAKER_00 5:11

So, well, I'm 57, so 23 years ago, I was 34. Uh, actually, when I was 15, I got my first real estate book given to me, and that just opened my eyes. I wanted to do this, but I never did until later. I was a computer guy, you know. I I don't know what it is about IT, but lots of IT guys end up being in in real estate eventually. But so I was actually down in South America for five years in the late 90s, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil. Met my wife down there. My kids were born in Venezuela, so I just love it. But I got burnt out, didn't want to see a computer again. They they work you pretty hard. You make good money, but they work you hard. So I said, okay, now's my chance. I'm gonna move back home and I'm gonna get into real estate. And so that was 2001. And I I started doing flips, and then you know, I couldn't sell a couple, so now all of a sudden I'm uh plan B is always I guess I'm a landlord now, and you turn those into rentals, and then it just kind of just went from there. 23 years later, I've done all this other stuff.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Okay, wow. So wow. So to hear the 15 years old, the book was given, but to then hear almost 20 years later, that's when you kind of really corralled into it and went into it. So 2001, 23 years ago, wow. What was to paint the picture for some of us? Because 2001, like we can't really recall. Can't I can give you some things from 01, but I can't really give you a real estate perspective or what the market was looking like and everything like that. So to take and I and I could imagine that a good portion of my audience probably shares that same sentiment or somewhere within that. But I know a good portion of them also could tell me what 2001 looked like. So thinking back to that, thinking about real estate, thinking about the market, thinking about what was out there as far as resources and what people could do. What did that really look like from a real estate perspective?

SPEAKER_00 6:51

Well, um the internet was there, but there was no there was no podcast, there was no YouTube, there was no courses. So everything was still books and and tapes. Um, you know, cassette tapes or CD courses was was all the way to learn. And everything was just flips and rentals, right? There was no nobody we called it bird, you know, wholesaling we called it bird dogging back then. We were just kind of looking for stuff. So wholesaling as a term didn't exist. The bird strategy buy uh renovate, uh re-rent, repeat or uh refinance and repeat. We just called instead of fix and flip, that was fix and hold. So it didn't have a fancy word either. So all these things are about fancy words now. Um, you know, interest rates were still, you know, six percent, seven percent. But the cool thing back then was that you could actually assume a property without uh reapplying to the bank, right? So if something was in trouble, if somebody was in trouble, you could just literally go into the bank and saying, Yeah, I've done a deal with this person and you'll be getting your payments from me now. And um looking back, I didn't really fully appreciate how awesome that was. If I if I did, I probably would have bought a lot more properties that way, but uh, because it went away pretty quick. But back in the day, you could do some some crazy things like that.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

I was about to say my eyes almost got a little wide hearing that I feel like that sounds like such a foreign and extinct concept nowadays. Like, wow, you could just it's it was that easy, like we could just do it. That yeah, wow, that's that's very interesting to hear. But it's also from an education perspective, I love that you shared that because it just goes to show what element just was not there and how people still had to work and still had to do everything. I even had one of my guys who's in um he does the Airbnb, he does a lot with the arbitrage and helping um and just automation. He said, I wish I could do that now. I feel like that would be yeah, I would be buying properties myself if that was the case. But to you know, hear that there was an element missing in a sense. There was a certain part of, like you said, the podcast, there was internet and everything like that, but it wasn't the podcast, it wasn't these people, everybody selling a course and everybody involved in some capacity. So it was a lot of these books, it was a lot of this word of mouth, it was a lot of getting that real hands-on experience, which is it's kind of it sounds really kind of cool because it's just like now where I feel like not necessarily that we're slighted or that it's not there, you know. I feel like it's made it easier nowadays. Like you said, things have become a bit more fancier, names are different, things have spruced up. I feel like back then, really getting your hands dirty in a sense really showed you the ins and outs of everything that went into it, and it more so gave you a better frame of mind for how things go. You know, one of my biggest caveats that I speak to is the fact that I love being able to connect with real life officers of companies, CMOs, COOs, CFOs, CEOs, you know, because oftentimes when we work for different companies or shop with these companies or interact with these companies, we never see these officers. We more so see the employees, we see the managers, the people who are right then and there. But it's always good to be able to put names to faces and not have to LinkedIn you or look at the company about page or read a bio or anything, but it's good to be able to see people face to face. So now we move forward a little bit now. As you started to get involved with things, as you started to realize the landscape and get more comfortable, at what point did you at what point did this really become like a business venture? At what point did this really become a thing where you wanted to kind of hone in ranch on things? Because you know, I I hear about the part where it got to a point where you, like you said, it was just too much, it was overwhelming, country to country, it was just kind of a lot going on, and you didn't want really your hands in that part. But at what point did you realize, hey, I'm ready to go all in? I'm ready to kind of invest in myself and what I'm doing here. I feel like you know, I'm at a great point of expertise, and I really want to brand myself in this regard.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

Well, even before that, I've been self-employed for 31 years now. So even as a computer guy, I was self-employed, not built to be a corporate guy, I'll tell you that. Anyway, so I came back uh when I came back home after South America, I was all in. Like I'm I had a little bit of money saved up and I said, Yeah, I'm gonna do this real estate thing. And and because otherwise the only thing I knew was computers. Okay, well, otherwise I'm gonna have to go back to computers and I didn't want to do that. So, you know, sometimes you're forced to do things you with uh without. Yes, you got a young family. You know, my kids were like two, three, and four at the time, and now all of a sudden, wow, okay, now I got some I gotta make this work. So you figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Got you. So a lot of times too, we we start to notice that our surroundings, our responsibilities, what we really have to do, it'll kind of shape how we move and what we do in that regard. So moving from South America in a sense, moving from different, you know, because I've I've even been to a place that I visited recently that I was so like shocked, but not really shocked, but more so impressed by the cost of living and the value of land, had to be the Dominican Republic. When I went out there and I was really just seeing one, just how much was available, what was out there, but what they wanted for, you know, when I convert, when I finally did the convert, because you know, the pesos, you see all the commas and the zeros, you're like, wow, that's a lot of money. But when you really convert it and you see how much that is, you're like, wow, I could actually like what's stopping me from getting that lot right now and building and putting some on there. So were there any big like realizations or like things that you you noticed moving from international to domestic?

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Yeah, so I didn't do any real estate down there, so I didn't have any exposure to the real estate down there, so that didn't get me. But what got to me was like I said, there was there was um no real training other than books, right? So you know it was a lot slower. You had to figure stuff out yourself, and when you made mistakes, you know, it was your own money that you're playing with, right? And so I you know, I go down to I was in Dominican last year too, and all these resort places, Costa Rica, all these places, the I noticed the development is just around the ocean, right? Main highway, uh the resorts, then the ocean, but this side of the main highway is still bush, right? So, you know, I'm always kind of thinking, well, what could I do on the bush side of the highway that I don't need an ocean for, but I can still make money. So I haven't you see some commercial and stuff. So I I think there's a lot of opportunity if you can kind of crack that code to see what's going on there. But I'm always even when I'm on holidays, I'm kind of always thinking about real estate and uh and what I could do. But yeah, um, but coming back, I you know, it was just kind of learning by doing and getting dirty. And oh what I always kind of say was so I was doing flips originally, right? And I had this, I bought my house for cash, and then I got a line of credit. So that was kind of the source of of how I funded my first things. And so, okay, you I had enough to buy maybe two or three um, you know, single-family homes or duplexes to renovate and flip. And then, you know, so my money would be gone. So I always say, well, I'd be buying these things and money's going out the door, money's going out the door, money's going out the door. Finally, I'd sell one, I'd have a little bit of money back, and I'd say, okay, anybody need clothes? Anybody need braces? You know, it's only January, but let's uh let's buy the uh let's buy the the the holiday uh vacation at Christmas time. Okay, we're all good. Okay, then I'll go buy something else, right? So it's a real, you know, being self-employed in that world is a real up and down, right? And oh crap, this is taking too long to sell. Oh crap, you know, Jesus, you know, so now now all my lines of credits are tapped. And you know, various times I was kind of you know asset rich and cash poor, as they said, you know, I was a millionaire on paper, but I, you know, the visa was getting close to where I couldn't buy groceries kind of thing, right? So a lot of a lot of uh the tight experiences there at uh a few times over the years.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

I could imagine, you know, that that uh leap of faith, as they call it, from that entrepreneur from the nine to five the corporate world to the entrepreneurial to business ownership, it's it's faith for sure. And it's as you said, to be doing that now 31 years. So to go through a fluctuation of just what different what it looked like back then, you know, 31 years ago. Well, I can't even speak to that, I wasn't here, but 31 years ago, you know, it probably looked totally different, as you said, even from a resource perspective, from a technology perspective, from a AI perspective, from everything. So to now have to go through all of that, but constantly, you know, because I would make the safe assumption, and I'm pretty sure for everybody who I've talked to, they would agree as well. If we were to stay the same throughout that 31, you probably will wouldn't still be here to tell that story. You know, you have to adjust, you have to adapt, you have to keep up with the times and figure out what's what and what's going on. So when you got back domestic, when you were here as you started to target real estate more and everything, was there a particular area of the country, was there a particular place that you were familiar with that you really wanted to just work with? Did you seem, did you feel as though starting here or doing this on this part was more lucrative than another? The reason why I asked that too is because a lot of the times the people who I've spoken to and even who I speak with word of mouth, they're not necessarily investing, flipping, selling, buying where they're located, sometimes not even on the same coast or in the same, you know, I would say demographic or even in that same area. So for you, for coming back, for really wanting to dive in a little bit deeper, wanting to make that money, as you said, wanting to continue this self-employment. Were there certain places or spaces that you wanted to start in just because of what you knew or what you had heard?

SPEAKER_00 15:47

Yeah, actually, I well I'm Canadian, actually. So I came back to Canada and I'm in the province of Alberta, which is very oil and gas dependent, right? And so it's it's like Texas light. We got oil and gas, we got cowboys, we got uh actually we got more guns here than anywhere else in Canada. So we're like Texas light. Anyway, so I came back here. So most of my activities are, but then you know, we're up and down with the price of oil, right? So again, some more booms and massive busts. And it took me a while to kind of, yeah, I'm tired of this, right? So now one of the things I always, you know, I've got some Darcyisms, and one of them is you know, in and out quick. I don't want to be. So that's kind of what turned me off of the the rental world, too, is I don't want to be in this thing for eight or ten years, and you know, because you know, you've got an exit plan and then all of a sudden interest rates spike and whatever, right? So that's part of the construction thing too, is it let's let's in and out in 10 months. So now since then you kind of got to get over a little bit of fear, well, you know, this is comfortable. Like I understand where I'm at. So now I'm investing, you know, like in Texas and Florida, like you know, you kind of get over the right. And and so, but once you do that, if you're not gonna invest locally, well, then everything becomes available to you, right? So now you can really open your eyes. So a lot of people, my fellow Canadians would sit there and say, Well, okay, if I'm not in Alberta, well, then obviously I have to go to Ontario where Toronto is, or Vancouver. For me, the entire all of North America is is available now. So now I can look at a California, yeah. Taxes are too high, you know, much too long to get permits and stuff. Let's let's stick to the South, the the Georgias, the Floridas, the Tennessees, the Carolinas, the Texases that that you know, in and out quick. You've got uh the land is much cheaper, you've got the cheaper labor. So now you can kind of take a global look, but you do have to get over that initial fear of of the known, right? Like we all kind of want to our first instinct is to invest in you know locally, what we know. And sometimes either you're at the wrong place of the economy, or basically that strategy, whether it's flips or rentals or construction, may not be working great at that area at that time. So, but once you've once you've got over that fear, then you know basically the whole world's you're always always, you know, if you want to invest in Costa Rica, now you can. So, I mean, so once it's that it's that initial boom, once you get over the hump that gets you going.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

And as someone now who has been in been the DR, been the Cancun, I noticed exactly what you said, how a lot of what they do is cater to the resorts, catered near that ocean. But there were there were the times where we were doing the excursions and you'd be traveling for miles on the highway and you wouldn't see anything, and it would just be land and it would just be for sale or buy this or for release or for so it's very interesting how that setup is. But no, for that that fear, as you said, and I feel like it's so universal with any industry wherever you are, especially with coming back somewhere that you may not have been as familiar with, switching industries, wanting to kind of be on your own. It's that unknown, it's that wanting to just stick with what you know or what has proven to be your bread and butter. But scared money doesn't make any money, as they say. You know, it also takes those investments and those risks to be able to, you know, okay, maybe I have to go back to the drawing board, maybe I learned a lesson from this, or maybe this actually worked out, and maybe hey, now we can add a little bit more risk to it, but be smarter about it or be knowledgeable. Because we don't want to just keep throwing just risk all willy-nilly. We also want to know kind of what's the what's the game plan here? Hey, if this doesn't go according to plan, what's my you know, what's my negative, what's the worst case scenario? But if this does, what can we do with this? What can we learn from this? How can we propel this and keep that momentum going? So, all right, so and you even spoke to investing in Florida. I'm based in Tampa right now, so it's really opening my eyes up to all of the all all of the opportunity out here. And when I even when I used to deliver, so for Amazon, when I first moved out here four years ago, it was crazy just to see some of these properties and what people are living in and where they're at and what's for sale and what they need and just the opportunity. And then as I started to talk to more people within the real estate industry, I said, Wow, so this doesn't just have because you know, me growing up as someone who never really I wouldn't say I never really had an interest in it, but it wasn't really something that was presented to me per se. So it wasn't really something I looked into that I researched on. You know, I just saw at certain points people were offering these courses or people were making a lot of money, or I was coming across these ads that people were just, you know, how they do the ads and the coin, they just make it seem like, you know, hey, if you if you comment in one word, I'll send you everything you need to know about how to do this, this, this, this, this, and this, and you won't even need much. Well, it's a lot more than what meets the eye here. So, you know, moving out here and seeing the real estate perspective, especially I came from up north, Philadelphia to be exact. It felt like a night and day difference almost as far as like like I yes, I felt like the opportunity was still there, but I felt like from a Florida perspective, it was so much land, it was so much that you could do out here, and the demand was totally different. So now, as you think about what you're doing, as you think about the track that you're on, what you've been able to do, the experiences that you've been able to have, and even stepping into this field and really, you know, one recognizing what you were doing, recognizing what you didn't want to do, and recognizing what you kind of just wanted to clean your hands with, in a sense, what have been some realizations for you? What have been some things that you know, maybe before you stepped into this industry, as you said, when you were international, more so working in the computers and tech, it was one thing. But when you came back and when you were specifically starting in Canada, what were some things that you know opened your eyes to this industry? What were some things that you may not have known before, maybe even some misconceptions that as you stepped into this, it kind of completely transformed your perspective?

SPEAKER_00 21:10

So, no, that's a good question. So, like I said, I got my first book given to me when I was 15. So that was the early early 80s. So I've been watching the real estate education industry for 40 years now. The message is almost always the same: 95% of it is flips or rentals. Lately we've had Airbnb few at rent to own, but you know, so for the most part, the bread and butter has been flips and rentals. So I think we've made a mistake as an industry when people come in. You know, if your first weekend seminar you go to is about rentals, well, you're gonna get into rentals. If it's about flips, you're gonna get into flips. So my advice to people is do some investigation of all the strategies first and then match that to your personality. What do you like, not like, what are your strengths and weaknesses, what are you good at? What are you not good at? You know, because there's pros and cons. You know, unlike the TV shows where it's just you make money and it's all easy. Every time, right? Like that doesn't actually happen. So, you know, the bad side about rentals is dealing with tenants and property management companies sucks. You're going to end up doing more of that than you think. Flips is you're always on the hunt. Like you've got to keep your two your trades busy. So, you know, it's a lot of pressure to find that next one. And it's getting harder and harder with the price of houses going up, right? So, you know, Airbnb, do you want to be in the hotel business? Because that's that's what you're gonna be. Oh, now I'm gonna get a management company. Well, they charge 25%. So there goes your profits, right? So everything's got its pros and its cons. And so take some time before you dive right in, investigate all the strategies, and then say, you know, I think I think that makes more sense to me. Uh, in my case, I just have tried everything and and I just I like new, right? Like I got tired of dealing with nasty, you know, these 1930s and 1940s buildings that are ready to fall over. You know, why do we keep fixing those up? Well, because that's all we're taught, right? We're taught the value is in the building. More and more with these older uh buildings, you know, they're ready to tear them down, don't fix them up, right? The value is in the land now. How do we increase the value of land? Well, nobody teaches that, right? So, you know, I was on a podcast uh last month with another gentleman from Philadelphia, and he was sitting there saying, you know, I've got this 1880 thing that I'm trying to renovate and it's kicking my butt. And I said, Well, yeah, tear it down. And he said, Yeah, next time I would I won't, you know, it's too late in the game now, but next time I will, right? And so, yeah, so what, you know, you got to enjoy this too, right? It's not just about the money. And for far too long, I was just about the money. I didn't like the rentals, I didn't like the flips, suck it up, buttercup, you know, it's the only way to make money. So you got a family, you're not going back to computers, so shut up and you know, get going with it. No, like figure it out, and and then you'll have a lot. You know, there's no reason why you can't have fun while you're making money too.

SPEAKER_01 23:45

Anyone who's been following me know that I preach that so much that you know there will never be an interview done, or there will never be an episode published or content curated where I'm not enjoying it, where I'm not having fun. The minute that this podcast begins to feel like a job, I gotta throw my hands up. I can't I can't be clocking in everywhere, multiple places. But no, I laugh so much about that Philly thing because man, the buildings and properties there are so old. And like you said, I feel like they just keep trying to renew, refresh, restore. Let's tear down, let's start from scratch, let's really build this up. You know, I drive past so many different things now that some of it looks like gentrification, some of it looks like the redlining, some of it just looks like, wow, why is this? Why do I have a house full of just the why do I have a block full of just the road homes? And in the middle of the block, I have this nice studio looking, super new. Like it's just it's so funny, just how the the infrastructure and the landscape is out there. So that's why when you said that, wow, I was like, wow, I really can I know for a fact uh multiple blocks, multiple areas of the city where it's exactly like where these buildings are just so old, 1700s, 1800s, and they don't want to, you know, they don't want to refine that tradition or or just figure out what can work. But I love how you scope and frame the answer of that question because you you you basically didn't say that there is a right or a wrong, but you said that there is a due diligence that needs to be done within the industry that you feel like is not being done. That oftentimes people will get the popularity of the flips, the Airbnbs, the the rent, the quick and rent, the rent and sell, the buy and flip, you know, but they don't really know everything that goes into it. As you said, you know, if that's all you got introduced to, then that's what your kind of vision is going to be focused on. That's kind of what you're gonna emphasize. But hey, if you learned a little bit of this, if you learned a little bit of this, this, this, and that, your interest maybe peaked different places. And as you start to learn more and get involved into them more, you could open your eyes to something that you didn't even realize. One existed, but two, hey, I man, if I would have asked myself that three years ago, I'd never be in this industry. I can't tell you how many people I've talked to like that. And I feel like that what you gave that advice of just doing the research within your industry is universal. I feel like so many times that we kind of just go with maybe the first thing that meets the eye, or maybe what we think is making that money at the time, or maybe it's not really where our true passion lies, and that's when things become exhausted, or that's when things really become like that chore or that drag because you're not having fun with it, but you like those checks. But what did you have to do to really get that check? And it's just like you know, oftentimes are you having fun and making that money, or are you really working, working, working to make that money? So I love that, I love that perspective because it it lets people know that hey, while this may interest you, well, this may be something that has brought you success, money, everything of the sort. Have you have you even just heard about this, or have you learned about this, or have you opened your mind to that? Because it could, as you said, it could, it could totally change you. And it could be the reason why now, 31 years later, 40 years of education, you're you're independent, you're doing what you want to do, you're living life on your own terms. And I absolutely love that. So, okay, so we've kind of we we've backtracked a little bit, we've moved forward a little bit, and we've also kind of even spoke a little bit about kind of what's going on current day and what you're looking at now. So, with thinking about the Floridas, Texas, the even the Canada's, the East Coast, the West Coast, the Midwest, everything like that. With the current, I guess, time and landscape that we're in right now, how do you feel about what it is you're doing within the real estate industry? Are you, you know, because I I come across so many posts recently about artificial intelligence and about people about certain jobs that were here that may not be here by 2025, let alone 2030? I hear about so many people just wanting to move to remote or hybrid or pick up different certifications or skill sets because they feel like you know what they're doing is being tapped out in a sense. Is there any fear or apprehension or just second guessing when it comes to real estate and what you're doing now based off of everything that's going on in the world? Or are you pretty confident as we move forward into this industry and just diving into different things?

SPEAKER_00 27:51

So I I think you know, going back to you just what you just said, you know, tools in the toolbox, the more you know, the better you are, right? So right now, most investors, I know how to tear, you know, I know how to fix it up and rent it, I know how to fix it up and sell it, maybe wholesaling, maybe Airbnb. You got three or four tools in your toolbox. In this world of development and new construction, first of all, most people don't think it's possible. Most people kind of just sink there and say, okay, well, that's just for the big guys on the outskirts of town that are buying hundreds of acres and throwing up a thousand tract homes. Oh, I can never do that. Well, what if you take it down to a single lot, a vacant lot, a scattered lot, or you know, that 1920s thing instead of fixing up, you know, knock it down. Well, I don't know what to do. Most people don't know what to do with with old, right? Well, if you knock it down, you got a vacant lot. So really the trick is just to learn what to do with vacant lot. And so there's all what I call my micro strategies. So, you know, the first is there's kind of three parts to development. There's the permitting, the entitlement, getting the permits, then there's the pipe in the ground, horizontal we call it, getting the land ready, and then there's the physical building. What's great about this world is you don't have to do the whole thing. You know, with a flip or a rental, I have to finish. I can't half finish a flip and expect to make any money. I can't half finish a rental and expect the tenant to live there. So you're used to finishing. Here I can just maybe find some land, uh, change the zoning or density or the usage, increase the value, and then sell it to the next person down the road. Maybe that's my little niche. Or maybe I like to, you know, get land that's already entitled and I, you know, I put the pipe in the ground. Like that can be larger parts of parcels, but can also be, you know, my very first project was um I had one uh house that was in the 50s or whatever, and I was I was it was 1950s, I was going to renovate it, didn't flip it. Person next to me passed away, so I bought that too. I said, yeah, it's a great time to try try uh building. I've never done that before, right? So I moved those two houses off. I split those two lots into four. Two of the lots already had utilities, so I had to put utilities in the other ones. I could have sold four service lots if I wanted to. I went ahead and built four new homes, but that's my point is that whatever part of this, there's lots of entry points and lots of exit points, and that adds to tools in the toolbox. So now, you know, I have literally 20 tools in my toolbox where this specific property in this specific state or city, I can do whatever. So let's say, you know, for for years the bread and butter of the industry was taking a house, fixing it up enough to a single family home enough to sell it or to keep it as a rental. After about you know, five, six years ago, that's starting not to work because the prices went up so so much, and we're taught that 1% rule that in order to cash flow, rents have to be 1% of the purchase price. Well, you know, I can still go to an Ohio or an Indiana and find a house for 150 and you know, rent for $1,200, and that's gonna cash flow perfect. But the fact that I can still buy it for $120 in 2024 tells me there's no appreciation. So in this world, in the rental world, you're either getting only appreciation. You know, I've I've seen um I've seen uh business plans where we're gonna buy this apartment building, we're gonna lose money on it for the next five years, we're gonna lose a lot of money over the next five years, but in five years it's gonna appreciate so much, you know. The bigger cities, it's it's gonna be worth it. Well, that's like going to Vegas and putting your money on red, right? Like so I don't necessarily get that. So it depends what you want to do. You've geography is a really big thing. So getting back to the Texas and the Florida, and actually, I was just in Tampa in the Fort Myers, Lehigh, Cape Coral area two weeks ago, just when it was uh tropical storm Debbie, it hadn't turned into uh to a hurricane Debbie yet. Um, you know, so I can buy a lot for 30,000 in that area. I can build a house, a really nice house, all in 300,000, sells for 425, 400. So, you know, my costs are like I said, 300. Maybe I do a deal with the builder. I'm doing, I'm actually doing one. I'm I'm I'm I'm building a house down there, cost plus 25,000. So now let's say my costs all in are 325. The uh the value is sell on the resell. Let's say 400,000. So there's 75 grand. 25% down on that 300 is 75 grand. So literally, no, you know, no exaggeration. 75,000 cash in should get me 75,000 cash out in 10 months. So compare that to an eight, 10-year hold on a rental, dealing with tenants and toilets, dealing with property management, dealing with rent controls, dealing with this and that. So, what do you want to do? I don't want to fight with tenants and toilets and project matters anymore. Let's let's this this makes a lot more sense to old guy Darcy. So uh, but it's again geography. Geography is a really, really big deal. In certain places, what I teach, you know, it's harder because you know, it it could take me two months to get a zoning change in this place, and over here it takes two years before you can get your permits, right? Well, we're investors, we want to make money quick. Let's stay in the two-month place, not the the two-year place or everything in between, right? So, again, it's uh where you do, you've got all these tools. So now what makes sense in this area where I'm at, or if I want to go somewhere else, you know, sometimes in order to do what I want, I have to go somewhere else. Like it doesn't make sense in a in a Philadelphia, let's say, or Toronto or Vancouver or or uh San Francisco to try to do larger projects because yeah, you're in it for two or three years before you even get your permit. So, you know, so geography is really big.

SPEAKER_01 33:27

And that's something I have noticed too in speaking with other people. Sometimes it's not necessarily that they want to work in one area over another, but it's about what'll yield the greatest reward or result in a sense. As you said, there are some places, and I remember even speaking to my guy Dan Habercost, and he was just talking about a lot of just the zoning and just certain things that you have to know about wanting to put property out here versus elsewhere, or versus like what type of land. He was using so many different terms with me that even as someone not versed in real estate, it was just like, well, I wouldn't have even known to look at that, or I wouldn't have even known to ask about that, or to he would just say, you know, some deals close just because you don't follow the necessary ramifications or everything that's involved with it. And a lot of times they they try to take you, you know, through the ringer and just up and down everything, and it's too much. And as you said, by the time you really yield that benefit or yield those results, it's years in. And it's after you put in so much legwork, so much money, so much time that could have been elsewhere, and it could have been a quick bamboom, and you could have been done. Anyone hearing the word tenants and toys, I think, will will navigate away from that. So I love the way that you put that because I would definitely stay away myself. So I'm curious to know, and you've probably had this inquiry before. So you spoke about getting your first book at age 15. You spoke about just the education that you've gotten over the years and just how you yourself did a lot of due diligence, but there was also a lot of experience that came with that. For someone coming to you who say, Hey, Darcy, I'm not 15 anymore. I did not receive a book at said age. I'm very curious about real estate. I feel like there's so much information out there, but I also feel like there's a lot of misinformation out there. Where do I start? Where do I go? How do I really feel how do I really fill out one my interest and my navigation through real estate to figure out what will work best for me? How do you respond to that?

SPEAKER_00 35:11

So again, it's it's kind of do an overview of of all the different strategies. And and just by chance, I wrote a book that talks about I I I talked about each one of the strategies, rentals, flips, burrs, all this stuff, and I give you the actual pros and cons. So I'm not I'm not here to sell the book, but I I do have one. And and that was the benefit of that, is because I was seeing on the TV shows, you know, the the the pretty couple uh that would go up, you know, and we're gonna flip this house. And they walk in, and there's a lazy boy that's just you know half half on its side, and there's a two by four in the corner. Oh my god, what a disaster this place is. No, let me show you some disasters, honey. This is this is nothing. And then they go through it and oh, yeah, we're gonna make 600,000 on this one. And no, you're not, like it's not that easy. So, you know, so get the truth about the pros and the cons, the good and the bad about everything. And then, like I said, I you know, maybe you know, uh rentals does make sense. You know, if you're in Ohio or Indiana, rentals make sense all day still, but they don't so much in in some of the larger centers, right? Expect and you know, politics, I don't like to get into politics, but typically, you know, the blue states and the red states, you know, the blue states tend to have higher taxes, you know, the the paperwork to get anything done is a lot more. Um, they've got the rent controls, they've got the the potential, you know, like it maybe takes, like a Washington, DC, you know, it not only takes a year to get a tenant kicked out if if they don't pay, but there's also a rate of first refusal where um the tenant has, if you're going to sell the building, you have to kind of throw it by the tenant first. And there's lawyers, kind of shyster lawyers, that'll go around buying those rights, and they'll just be a thorn in your side as you're as you're uh trying to sell. So, you know, that's what one of my students told me. You know, I don't have you know firsthand experience in Washington, DC, but that's kind of an example of yeah, like adding that on to the rest of the the troubles with uh, you know, a rental kind of portfolio. That's yeah, just yeah, I don't want any of that. So in and out quick, you know, let me go down to a you know a Fort Myers or or Dallas and build something quick and get in and out. And you know, and again, you got to watch the in in the old style of flips and rentals, you've got one unit before and you're renovating, and there's one unit after. You know, maybe you put a suite in a basement for for the most part, it's one to one. Even in the old days, when we to we tore down a house and built a new one, we would just build one, one to one. In this world of development and new construction, I'm taking acres and I'm adding creating new lots, so one to many, or I'm taking, you know, I'm knocking down one old house and building an eight-plex. So again, one to many. So it has to make sense business-wise that that area needs units. There's a housing crisis in that area, people are moving to that area, the local community needs and wants this, the local municipality and government wants you there. You know, other places, yeah, we don't want you there. Like, you know, it's going to take you, like I said, two and a half years to get your permit. I've, you know, I've got a student in one of the larger cities that they took five acres of land, they wanted to break it up into five one-acre chunks, it backs on to a ravine in a really nice risky part of town, and they wanted to build five really nice, really nice houses and make a lot of money. They're 28 months in, and they still haven't got their approval to even subdivide the land yet, right? And so because the city just doesn't want that, and they're fighting them on every turn, right? So, again, kind of, you know, I I know our natural uh instinct as a as an investor is I just want to go to MLS and buy something. Let me buy something, right? And and and and so whether no matter what the strategy, the downside, yeah, I said there's pros and cons to everything, but the downside of maybe this development world is we need to spend a little time and educate ourselves, you know, what is zoning, what is density, what is highest and best use, how do I increase the value of land? Where am I going to invest? You know, because I always say, like, let's say you're you're dead set on building a you know a 20 20-unit apartment building, I have to be flexible on where. I either have to go to where that's already allowed, or I have a reasonable expectation to get the approval uh for that change in a reasonable time. If I'm dead set on investing in this place in this neighborhood, in this city, well, then I have to be flexible on what I'm gonna invest and what I'm gonna build, because only certain things are gonna be allowed. So there's some flexibility there. And if you come into any of these strategies without a lot of money, well, now I have to be flexible on time because it's gonna take me some time to find the situation where maybe I can partner with the seller, you know. So a lot of things have to come together if you don't have any money. So you're uh, you know, so again, you've got to be flexible somewhere in every strategy, and so that that kind of goes into your your education as well.

SPEAKER_01 39:47

Whoo! That's a that's a gem right there. And I I um again, I I love the fact that while we hit on so many different industries and the insight remains universal, you know, a lot of what you said today, even for someone not in real estate, you can apply this to your life, to entrepreneurship, to business ownership. But I love the perspective that you have too, because it goes from a world where there was not much at your disposal, there was a lot of having to seek and do your due diligence and all that, to now it's about having a lot at your disposal, but having that discernment to recognize what's beneficial to you, what's valuable to you, what you could really use, knowing everything that you know. So, in a sense, it's like almost too like the the older generations have a bit of an advantage now that are, and it's now the light bulb is starting to come off because it's just like a lot of what we probably go through that to y'all is nonsense or to y'all is just extra noise. Y'all can eliminate and extraditate very quickly. Whereas to us, we're probably just a deer in the headlights or just gazing over certain things, like wow, this might be the next best thing. When for Darcy and the gang, it's just like, yeah, I've been there, done that. It's not really, you know, I'm I'm where I'm at right now because of the education, everything. But it's also very interesting, too, because then you bring a different perspective to, as you said, different students, different people who reach out, the insight that's given and everything, which is why I love getting the words of wisdom from people who have been in it for years, for years, even longer than I've been alive, because it's just like I can speak to things that I necessarily haven't had the chance to experience or to go through. So now, before we let people know where they can tap in with you, where they can find you, where they can learn all things, and to y'all, he and then y'all not gonna lie, he kept a little modest. He only talked about one book. He's actually a published author of four books. Uh, just so just to let y'all know, I just had to throw that shameless plug in there. We'll be sure to make sure we drop all that in the episode. But for but before we close things out, before we let people know where they can find you, tap in with you, and just follow along this journey too. Do you feel like there's anything that we haven't touched on today that you want to leave the people with, whether it be business owners, entrepreneurs, people working in the corporate world, people looking to get into real estate, people already getting into real estate. Is there anything that you have for?

SPEAKER_00 41:58

I always say don't skip leg day. Uh, that was my people ask me about real estate. So I you know, I make a joke, but basically it's it's like, yeah, like you've you've got to be uh kind of well-rounded and learn, like I said, put more tools in your toolbox. You know, try the there's a lot of people selling a lot of stuff, you know, and I'm a guru too, I got a course, but you know, make sure they got gray hair, make sure they just haven't been investing for two or three years. You know, have you seen a few ups and downs? You know, my first house I bought personally when I was 20 years old in uh 1987, and the interest rate was 12.5%. And I thought I I got a deal because in the early 80s it was 14, 16, 18. I thought I was rocking. I thought this was awesome. You know, funny sorry, I saw the you know, and I went variable. I didn't want to lock it in fixed, and and so for me, 10% was the the the baseline. I'm variable, but once once it gets below 10%, I'm gonna lock that in because that's that's magic there. A few years ago, I'm walking, I'm in a Starbucks, and there's two, you know, young couple and they're talking and they're arguing between themselves whether they should go fixed or or variable, and it was like 1.5% versus you know 2.1%. And I just want to slap them outside the head and I say, no, it's free, it's free money at this rate, it's free. So just so again, a little perspective, and now it's up, you know, to five and now it's back to four and a half. Oh my god, what have we? Well, you know, that's normal. You know, for most of the 80s was nuts, fine, but for the 60s and 70s, the 90s, the early 2000s, that six, seven percent was kind of normal, and you know, we kind of got through it. And so the 1.5, the 1.9%, that's that's the unicorn. That was the really weird one. So, you know, again, perspective and and age and gray hair kind of gets you into that. But uh, yeah, just try to learn as much as you can about different things and then go with your with your heart and say, you know, I I think I'm gonna like this part of investing. And if it's flip, if it's flips and rentals, perfect. I don't see it, but it whatever. And And uh, but if it's new construction, land development, like I said, you know, I was in Texas, I was the end of last month, beginning this one. I was in Texas and Florida for 10 days, and I just met developers and builders, you know, like you know, in Texas, for example, met a guy that he his his bread and butter was he found like 40 acres, subdivided them into you know, three or four sub sub lots of whatever 10 acres each, and just sold that, you know, $200,000 profit in three months, literally, right? Just in and out quick, right? Didn't have to do with all this stuff. I gave you the story about the the housing in in Florida, you know, almost double your money in two, you know. I found I I just did an uh I have a YouTube channel, I just did a video where I gave 33 examples from my tour of different ways that people are profiting from uh construction and and development. And it was, you know, um 12 out of the 33 you could get in for less than 100,000. All of them were in in and out in less than 20 months. Most for the vast majority was in and out in a year. Double your money, you know, potentially double your money in in two years or less, you know, earn 50 to 100,000 a year for the rest of your life, kind of thing. So there's lots of opportunities here that maybe don't exist in the traditional flipping rental and wholesaling and Airbnb. So anyway, that's what happened.

SPEAKER_01 45:22

You see what happens when y'all don't skip leg day, you have some skin in the game, you're able to talk about some things like that. So, no, Darcy, you know, just to hear one, the the journey that you've had. One, it's it's motivating, it's inspiring, but it's also one that goes to show that you really put in the groundwork and you put in the foundation and you can speak to the multitude of success and then some because you know, I know that this is only scratching the surface, as we call it. You know, looks can be deceiving, age is just a number. You have a lot more things coming for you for sure. And I'm very excited to be able to see that and also have the people tapping into this episode be able to follow along that journey just the same. So before we officially close things out, arguably the most important part, you know, you've said a lot today, you've you've you've even gave some call to actions, but I think this is really the biggest one because this really separates those who are just listeners versus the doers and versus the action takers. So for the people out there that are just looking to tap into the course, tap into what you were doing, connect with you in any way possible from social media to websites or everything, what are the best places to reach you? Give us everything you got.

SPEAKER_00 46:24

So you can just go to the Darcy Marler.com. That'll that'll get me to as well. And then the other place, if if you haven't thought about this at all, like construction, that's one of the things I get all the time is Darcy. I didn't I didn't even know all this was you know possible. I just been taught flips and rentals all my life. I've got a YouTube channel, so just go, you know, Darcy Marlar YouTube and and you'll find me. And I've got like 140 videos out there of just just this, like nothing about uh rentals and all that. So if you want to dive down the rabbit hole of of that, go ahead. And and and yeah, I I've I find that the other thing too is people are drawn to gurus um based on personality and based on, you know, I'm tired of flips and rentals too. And I'm tired of, you know, I want to get in and out. So certain people are going to be drawn to a Grant Cordon with the the jet set, and you know, I've got a mansion on Star Island and all that. Other people, you know, they're working hard on the circuit. You know, I'm gonna be in Dayton next week and follow me in Akron the week after. A lot of people are attracted to me just because of the gray hair and the calmness, and yeah, like we could we'll figure this out. And I'm here for you. And so uh I love it, man.

SPEAKER_01 47:33

I'm I love it. I'm so grateful, like I said, for you. One, just wanted to be on the show just for the enthusiasm. But today, really just for the insight, for the education, and just for the even the perspective that you gave today. As I said, you know, as I spoke to, I don't really feel like you gave a right or wrong today. You just allow people to tell, you just allow the facts really to speak for themselves and allowed your experience, what you've gone through. You're you're you have skin in the game. You've done leg day time and time again. You've been doing this for a multitude of years. As I said before, I was even a thought to be on this earth. So the fact that you were able to just impart that knowledge on myself and my audience, I'm very grateful for that. I'm appreciative, but I'm also just wanting my audience to, you know, take advantage of this. As I say time and time again, we are connecting with real life experts. We are connecting with people who have that skin in the game, who haven't skipped leg day, who have done what they needed to do to be able to speak to what they are. But you know, they're not done. They're also letting you know that while you're seeing kind of what I'm doing in real time, you're seeing what I've done. Oh, there's so much more on the back, and there's so many things coming because as long as the world is changing and adjusting and adapting around us, we have to be able to do the same. So a big shout out to Darcy, a big thank you just for everything that you did today. And I'm very excited to just continue following along this journey. And then to everyone who tapped in with us, whether you joined us live here for the session, whether you're catching up to this episode at some point or in some form or fashion, I thank you. I love y'all. This has been another episode of the Down to Business Podcast here with Tamar Turner.