MFREE 113 Full Episode with Rod Khleif : What Separates Those Who Rebuild from Those Who Quit?

Mastering Wealth and Mindset: A Journey with Rod Khleif

In this episode of the Multifamily Real Estate Experiment podcast, hosts chat with Rod Khleif—a real estate investor, philanthropist, and high-performance coach. Rod shares his inspiring journey from Dutch immigrant to owning over 2000 properties, discussing the mindset and strategies that fueled his success. He emphasizes the power of goal setting, overcoming fears, and maintaining a burning desire. Rod also discusses his philanthropic efforts through the Tiny Hands Foundation and reflects on the importance of giving back. Listeners are encouraged to focus on actionable education and select operators wisely in their investment journeys.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Overview

01:56 Rod Khleif's Early Life and Real Estate Beginnings

05:47 Mindset and Overcoming Fear

08:01 Lessons from the 2008 Financial Crisis

12:53 Strategies for Building Confidence and Competence

14:34 Challenges and Opportunities in Real Estate

19:31 Diversifying into Senior Housing

19:51 The Silver Tsunami: Aging Population and Real Estate Opportunities

20:39 Multifamily Real Estate: Current Market Challenges and Opportunities

21:54 Educating Passive Investors: Importance of Understanding Investments

24:34 The Role of Operators in Real Estate Investments

26:49 Economic Outlook and Market Predictions

27:56 Philanthropy and Personal Growth: Rod's Journey

35:43 Focus Round: Fun, Opportunities, and Success

38:42 Final Thoughts and Contact Information

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Email me at:
hutch@hsquaredcapital.com

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Transcript

Hutch The Marine Investor: 0:00

Wah Gwan All you multifamily enthusiast. Welcome to another episode of the Multifamily Real Estate Experiment podcast where we decode what it truly takes to build wealth, resilience, and ownership in this great country we call America. Today guests, doesn't just teach success, he embodies it. And we're gonna dive into his story today, about where he came from, what he got, what he, what he has done, and what he has going on and in the future. Now, so Rod Khleif is a real estate investor, philanthropist and a high performance coach who he has owned over 2000 properties there and built multiple business. He's also the founder of Tiny Hands Foundation, which has helped over 130,000 children in needs, so I could go on and read this long bio about where he came from, but let's do this. Rod, I want to know this one specific thing before we go into your stories, brother. Do you have a favorite real estate quote or mantra that drives you?

Rod Khleif: 1:01

I have a favorite quote that drives me, but it's not a real estate related quote. It's a Tony Robbins quote, which is live with passion. You know, that's my favorite quote of all time is, live with absolute passion in your life, in every aspect of your life, your relationships, your health, your, extracurricular activities, your business, everything. you know that's a life. And so, yeah, that's my favorite quote, brother. Awesome. And thanks for having me on Hutch. Yeah, tha thanks for having me on. Let's have some fun today.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 1:27

Oh yeah. Thank you so much, man. Dude, I'm telling you, you are, we are one of those guys. Whenever you speak, you know, people listen, they're not listening just because you're talking about, you're just talking about real estate to making money and all the good stuff because fundamentally, you know, the money's like a. It is like a byproduct of the mindset that you have created systems, you've created relationship that you have had. Right. You know, so your conversations tend to go a lot deeper than just making money in real estate. I'm looking forward to de to decode that today, you know? So before we dive into the podcast episode, Rod, for those listeners who may not be familiar with your story and the value that you're gonna be bringing today, you, can you tell us a little bit, more about who you are?

Rod Khleif: 2:07

Sure. So, I'm a Dutch immigrant, you know, think, wooden shoes and windmills. I immigrated this country when I was, six years old with my brother Albert, my mother's cia. And we ended up in Denver, Colorado. Didn't really have much. I remember, eating expired food. We shopped at an expired food store and we drank powdered milk with our cereal in the morning.'cause it was cheaper than real milk. We struggled and I worked close in the Goodwill in the Salvation Army all the way through junior high school'cause that's all my mom could afford. Until I finally got a job. I lied about my age. I when I was 14 and said I was 50. So I could get a job at Burger King, flipping burgers and yeah. Buy my own clothes and ultimately buy my own car. But, I know you've got listeners that have it harder than I did or even had it harder than I did. And, but I realized my mom had an incredible work ethic, so I realized I wanted more. So she babysat kids so we'd have enough money to eat. And with her babysitting money, she became a bit of an entrepreneur. So she actually invested in the stock market successfully, and also in real estate. Without any formal education. And, and so the first real estate acquisition was the house right across the street from us. She bought when I was about 14 for about 30 grand. When I was 17, she told me it was worth 50 that had gone up in value 20,000 in her sleep. And I, I was like, what you made, and this is when 20,000 was a lot of money. You made 20,000. You didn't do anything. Screw college, I'm getting into real estate. So I went out and got my real estate license. And, my first year in real, I was still living at home. My first year in real estate, I made about eight grand. My second year, maybe 10 grand, but my third year I made over a hundred thousand dollars, which back in 1980 was some pretty decent change. And so what happened between year two and year three that caused me to 10 x my income? Well, what what happened was I met a guy, I was actually dating his daughter and I was working for him. He was the broker for the real estate company I worked for, and, and he taught me about the importance of mindset and psychology. Wow. And how really 80 to 90% of your success in anything is your mindset and psychology only, you know, only 10 to 20 percent's the real estate stuff we talk about on our podcast, fast forward to today, like you said, I've owned over 2000 houses that I've rented long term, now I own thousands of apartment units. In 2006, my net worth went up. About$17 million while I slept. And you might say, wow. Yeah, you did. and I said, wow. and I got a head so big I could barely fit it through a door. You know? I thought I was a real estate God. And you know, when that happens, God of the universe will give you a nice little SmackDown. Yes. Well, that was 2008. In 2008 and 2009, conservative, I lost about$50 million. And so, you know, what I'm known for talking about on my podcast and at my events is really the mindset it took to have 50 million to lose in the first place, but probably more importantly, the mindset it took to recover from that to the success that I'm, you know, blessed to have today. And so happy to drill down on that or any other topic with you today, brother.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 4:47

Yeah. That's awesome, man. I like that, that you dive deeper into the mindset right away, man. Um, great stories, man. Myself, uh, I'm an I immigrant as well. Immigrated from Jamaica back in 1998, August 8th, 1998, and by September 28th, I was standing on the yellow footprint, getting ready to become a Marine, you know, so, and since then, you know, I've committed to a life of service to this great country because there's so much opportunity here, you know, and it's a country that, that definitely deserved to be served, However, well, let me

Rod Khleif: 5:14

publicly, let me publicly say thank you for that. I told you before we started recording, but I want everyone to know just how much I admire that and how much I admire anyone in the military. And then as we discussed before we started recording, I, I take that very seriously. I, I'm also an immigrant. As, as I mentioned, and I, I, we live in the greatest country on earth because of our incredible military. And thank God Trump got elected, but we, we don't have to go down that rabbit hole. But thank God, because it was headed, it was headed places that were concerning. But, uh, but anyway. Yeah,

Hutch The Marine Investor: 5:45

man, I appreciate that, man. So in a mindset, man mindset, philosophy, What's the biggest internal block that you see in investors or entrepreneurs? Good question. That keeps them stuck.

Rod Khleif: 5:58

Sure. Well, it's, it's fear, obviously. It's fear. Yeah. So what is fear? f everything and run. That's what a lot of people think it is. Yeah. I like to think it's false evidence appearing real. For sure.'cause it's really not the, you're not fearing what's actually gonna happen. You're fearing the emotion of. Fear. but, I like to think it's face everything and rise because, as achievers, we call it stress, right? and, but it's fear and, and everybody has it, but successful people push through in spite of it. So how do they do that? So one of the first things we do at one of my boot camps is. Is goal setting on steroids, because how do you get anything if you don't know what it is? You've gotta know what it is that you want so that you push through that fear. Okay. a lot of people also have limiting beliefs and you push through those limiting beliefs. And because you've gotta create what Napoleon Hill and his book Think and Grow Rich calls a burning desire. you gotta want it, you gotta have hunger. Okay. and that's. And it starts with goals. so you've gotta figure out what it is you want, why you want it. and, and that's the other important piece is why you want it. Because when, even if you've got an average ability, if you've got a burning desire, you want it bad, you're gonna take action. You're gonna make things happen and push through the blockage you just asked me about. And yeah. and so like I said, that's the first thing we do for an hour and a half at any one of my events. because that's, how do you get anything if you don't know what it is? Right. and I could continue down that path with you if, if you like. Yeah. Some, some of the other steps that, that you need to take. you tell me if you'd like me to go there.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 7:25

Yeah, I, I think those will come up. I wanna talk about this real quick because you talk about the fear and a lot of time. People, they have these, this imagination of what their life could be. And it can be overwhelming sometimes because the steps that take, that takes together. And they also, if they have massed some level of success, they also fear losing those. And a lot of times that's the worst thing that could happen to them. Right. So I want to help, I want to help the listeners. Overcome that, that level of fear of losing by understanding a little bit more about your journey and how you grew from that. You know? So you lost over$50 million in 2008? Yeah. you call it a seminar, right? Most people think the world have ended. You call it a seminar, right? And in most cases, we go to seminar to learn things. Most people also call it a nightmare, man. So let's talk about this. What specific decision Well, listen,

Rod Khleif: 8:17

life is about. I'm sorry, I interrupted you. Please finish your question. Sorry about that. I, I, no, I have the largest real estate podcast in the world and I only have four and a half stars that I reviews'cause I interrupt my guests too much. So, you know, instead of five, instead of five, instead of five. So forgive me. But anyway, uh, I mean it's largest real estate podcast for commercial real estate. Um, but anyway, so finish your question please, brother. No. So

Hutch The Marine Investor: 8:40

here's the thing I try to do. I try to do the opposite. I try not to, not to interrupt my guess. Uh, I'm the worst. So now I'm curious. I want to hear the thought.

Rod Khleif: 8:49

Okay, so, uh, could you re, re redo the question?'cause I, I completely Seminar Brain is Nightmare. Oh, seminar. Well, listen, you know, uh, life is about meaning you de two people can have the same outwardly horrific experience happen to them, and. and they could ha one of'em could come out stronger. The other one could come out destroyed. In 2008 and oh nine, there were people that jumped off buildings just like in the Great Depression, you know, that lost everything. I, uh, just a couple weeks ago, there was that crypto investor that killed himself and his Lambo,'cause crypto did, did a dive for a while. I mean, it's back now, dummy. I, I mean, sorry, I shouldn't say that. Rest in peace. But, but, but, people, it, it's, it's about meaning. It's the meaning you place on it. You know, I spent a lot of time with Tony Robbins. He's one of my biggest mentors, and he would bring people on stage. Like, I remember he brought on a guy that was in a, in a Vietnamese prison camp for seven years, and he came back stronger than he was a veteran, obviously. And he came back stronger than, uh, I forgot his name, coffee, I think his name was coffee. But he came back stronger than when he went in. and of course some people committed suicide, some people died. So, so again, it's the meaning you place on it and it's the tools that you have to recover from it. so as I said, you know, and I talk about these tools, the first thing is you gotta know what it is you want and why you want it. Then you've gotta make a decision. and, and I don't mean dip your toe in the water. I don't mean one foot in, one foot out. I mean, you make a decision. It is fricking done. If you're gonna attack the island and battle you burn your ships because you're taking their damn ships home, that's a decision, okay? it's commitment. it's done. But you gotta make that decision. That's the next piece. And then once you make that decision, uh, and if, if you don't make that decision, you're not gonna be. Committed. You're not gonna, you know, uh, if it's only 99%, you're not gonna follow through. Okay? And once you make that commitment, then, then that equals success basically. And, and you've got a hundred percent clarity. You've got a hundred percent ownership. And, but it starts with that decision. And then you gotta make the first step. I mean, you can't just sit idle, you know, Dr. Martin Luther King said, you take that first step in faith, the next step will be revealed. But you gotta take that first step, and sometimes that first step is the hardest. You know? It could and, and so, yeah. But a lot of people get locked up with a fear of failure. And I'm gonna tell you, don't fear failure. Fear, regret. Yeah, fear being in the same place you are right now, a year from now, unless you love where you are right now. And so, you know, and a lot of analytical people have to see the entire road before they take that first step. And you know who you are and I love you and you're some of the most successful people in my business in the multifamily or commercial real estate space. But you gotta take that first step. You know, and the analogy I give these people so they don't get locked up is, you can drive all the way across the United States at night. With your headlight only seeing 50 feet in front of you and you know, you can make it, you know, other people have made it before you, you may have obstacles, but you know, it can be done. It's the same way with, you know, getting into the multifamily business or really any business for that matter, you know, and I, I see it, it's kind of funny. I see it with, uh, my students. You know, I, I'll brag for a second. I've got coaching students. They're called my Warriors, and they own somewhere around 280 to 290,000 units. That we know of under my tutelage. Right. Something I'm very proud of, but I see it with them. It's called the Law, the First Deal. Mm-hmm. That first one takes the longest, you know, it's the hardest, it's the most stressful. Sometimes it's six months in, even longer sometimes. And I'm kicking'em in the butt. Keep taking action, keep making it happen. And they get one. And next thing I know they have four. I'm like, what the hell just happened? You know? It's, it's that. It's because it's all in your mind. But anyway, I'll stop. I'll

Hutch The Marine Investor: 12:17

stop rambling. Oh no, that, that is awesome, man. So even though failure has adds a lot of value to our growth, right? Um, I'm a firm believer that, um, you know, confidence come from a memory of success. You know, so you talk about the law of the first deal, right? So now we start developing process. Now we start building relationship. Now we start feeling more competent, right? Because we've achieved some success, you know, so that's one of the things that I've seen over the years is that yes, failure brings, um, some experience to the table, you know, but confidence comes a lot from one, you didn't quit, you didn't die. But also the memory of some level of success as well.

Rod Khleif: 12:52

That's a great thing. You know what else it comes from? Is competence. Competence, yes. Competence. Yeah. So you have to learn it. Whatever you're gonna do, you've gotta learn. Okay? And, and once you learn it, then it builds that competence, and then that equates to confidence as well. Now another strategy there for confidence is. Is celebrating any progress that you made. Okay. you know, happiness doesn't come from a, from achieving a goal. I'll tell a story about that before we cut loose here today. Okay? But, but happiness comes from progress and growth, but you've gotta celebrate that progress and growth and that will also build your confidence. And one of the things that I do at my bootcamps, and also, and I'll mention this to you if you're not interested in, in, uh, what I do, I do have a goal setting workshop that I did. I'm gonna do it again the first of the year here, but it's on my link tree. It's rods links.com. It's at the bottom of that link tree. It's an hour workshop and there's a guide you can download. I'm not gonna try to sell you anything if you want to go do it. You know people spend more time planning a birthday party than they do designing their lives, right? That's designing your life. Have your spouse do it. Have your kid, if they're over 10 years old, do it. So it's at rods links.com. But the point is, Well, what was the point there? I lost my, I lost my train of thought with that. Anyway. Competence. Competence, anyway. Competence. Yeah. Yeah. and that's gonna, but you know, we're back to goals for a minute, but that's gonna, that's gonna, push you to learn whatever it is that you want to do. And it starts with competence. I love the fact that certainly if you, if you look back on any previous successes, you breathe the way you breathe, you focus on what you were focused on when you were successful. Right? You, what were you looking at? How did you. Feel, and you associate with that energy that helps build your confidence moving forward as well. So I completely agree with your, your thought process there.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 14:33

Absolutely, man. So check this out. back in, in 2008 when a, a lot of things went, went south, right? Before that you, you have developed right competence and confidence. However, let's talk about, to your memory and your, your assessment, right? Um, of what really happened, you know, what specific decision you think led to, led to those loss, internally, right? So we can, there's a lot of external factors that we could assess that said this happened and this happened and this happened. So let's talk about internally. sure. What I do wrong. Sure. What'd I do wrong? No, I, I, yeah,

Rod Khleif: 15:05

yeah, yeah. Yeah. I, I learned a lot of lessons, but, you know, in my defense, countries went bankrupt. Okay. I remember Iceland went bankrupt. Yeah. Yeah. but, but no, here's some of the things I did wrong. So I had 800 houses,

Hutch The Marine Investor: 15:15

right.

Rod Khleif: 15:15

Um, but they were two spread out. They were two hours south of me, two hours north of me, and everywhere in between, along the Gulf Coast of Florida here. Okay. So, logistically it was challenging to manage those houses, not, I'll give you an example of this. Well, first of all, Houses don't cash flow like multifamily, okay? Correct. Every house has its own insurance. Every house has its own taxes. If a house is empty, you're a hundred percent vacant, right? Every time a house turns over, you know you've gotta, you've gotta fix it up. You're gonna lose some rent and you could lose your cash flow for a year to two years, just from a turn, from a turnover, okay? Where if you've got a 10 unit, you could have a couple units turn every couple of months and you're still breaking even. You're okay. Where you can't, with a house, you can't do that, but. But I had 800 houses and I had several apartment complexes in 2006. And it was the houses that pulled me down. So if I had a maintenance issue, maintenance was one of the big killers.'cause these were C class houses, you know, there's A, B, C, and D a's the brand new stuff. D'S the hood, stay out of the hood. Ask me how I know. I, I sell these shirt. I don't sell. I actually give away these shirts at my bootcamps that say hashtag ask me how I know. Because I, I say, don't do that. I've made every mistake in the book. And I give examples of. mistakes. And I say, ask me how I know. But anyway, so it was the houses, because, you know, I had houses in wind and flood zones. Higher insurance impacts cash flow. Florida has no state income tax. So the, the property taxes have to help offset that. No state income tax. So property taxes are higher impacts cash flow. But what killed me was the maintenance. So C-Class houses, you know, if I sent a maintenance guy. It's one of my apartment complexes. We stockpile parts, you know, plumbing parts, electrical parts, appliance parts, you know, window locks, door locks, and they can, you know, maintenance guy could be in and out in an hour. Well, if I gotta send them to a house that's an hour away or further, they've gotta go see what's wrong. Then they gotta find a Home Depot or a Lowe's where we have an account. And I don't know about you Hutch, but when Rod tries to fix something, his happy essence ends up going to Lowe's or Home Depot more than once.'cause he forgets something, right? Same thing. Same thing with maintenance. And so. You know what? Took an hour at one of my apartment complexes to all day at one of my 800 houses. And so we never really cash flowed. Well, and by the way, I get hate for this all the time online. You're like, oh, you were over leveraged. No, I owed 30 cents on the dollar. I was at 30% loan to value and I still crashed and burned. That's how impactful the, it was on my cash flow. But maintenance is what, is what really killed it. but, and, and the last piece there was. I didn't really pay attention to tenant demographics. If they had a good job, they had good credit. I let'em rent and I even paid'em pull full month deposits. You know, they, they don't even do that that much anymore today. But I did that. But what I didn't realize was I had a lot of contractors in my houses. I had plumbers, electricians, drywallers painters, roofers, and they didn't have work that fell off a cliff. So that was like, it was like the perfect storm, but that, that's one of the biggest things. you know, those are some of the big factors and lessons that I learned in that$50 million seminar. Yeah,

Hutch The Marine Investor: 18:07

man, that, that is a good seminar. So nobody can, we, we can teach it right. To help. It's,

Rod Khleif: 18:11

it's the, it's the biggest one I've ever had, thank God. But you know, we've all, I've got ton, I've got tons of them, but you know, everybody, you know, it's one of the things when I do my bootcamps, we have panels come on stage and one of the questions I try to ask every time is, tell me about a seminar. Tell me time. You got your. Kicked or your nose bloodied because you learn so much from that stuff, you know? Yeah. Everybody can talk about how great things are. But let's talk about the challenges you have so you can learn anyway, so you can learn from that.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 18:34

No. So, um, you know, there's a couple folks like, like Jock will, that talks about, you know, good like when something really bad happened, like good, right? That, that is the combination. That's right, that's right. That I made. So it's good. Good. I love that. Hear that you, you turn it, um, into, into seminars where you actually, now you now measure backwards and you learn from those situations. Instead of thinking about, oh, poor me. You know, so Rod, you have gone through multiple cycles, right? And you've seen some of the similarities. You know, you have been through the seminars, you have learned the things, and you have developed competence and confidence. How should investors, especially passive uh, passive investors, position themselves to protect themselves from. but protect and grow their wealth in, in, in, well, it's seconds. Well, it's a great question

Rod Khleif: 19:17

Because there, there's a lot of, there's a lot of upset in the market right now. We're, we're going through a multifamily meltdown. There's a ton of assets in distress. There's gonna be incredible opportunity. There's incredible opportunity coming in the multifamily space. But I've actually shifted a little bit. I'm not just doing multifamily. Yes. I'm looking for multifamily assets and I have thousands of units in seven states, but I'm, I'm getting into se senior housing as well. Hutch, I, I'm, I, we bought our first assisted living facility about six weeks ago. And, uh, we we're targeted. the, the plan is to buy 12 in the next 18 months. We've got eight that we're reviewing right now. let, let me just speak to that for a moment. I know it's off topic a little bit, for your show, but, uh, you know, there's 10,000 people a day turning 65 in this country. I'm one of'em. I turned 65 in January. I'm, I'm like a, the tip edge of this baby boomer, uh, you know, uh, cycle. And it's the biggest demographic, surge in people we've ever had in this country. I mean, affected suburbs. Diapers and all the way through history, they, you know, they've affected things, in our economy and right. We're, we're, we're having a silver, what they call tsunami. It's like a tidal wave of, of age. And so, you know that, that asset class has big legs because there's a huge shortage of facilities, okay? Huge shortage of beds. And it costs, you know, the cost per bed to build is extraordinary. And so there's a real opportunity to snap up these, uh, existing. Facilities and the returns are fantastic. And so I'm shifting gears a little bit. Yes, I'm waiting. Until multifamily deals, pencil better. I mean, I'm seeing deals like, I'll give you an example and the shift, I'm shifting gears a little bit. I'm going back to multifamily for a second. Gotcha. So I've got a, I've got a 200 unit asset in San Antonio. Okay. The one right next door, it's on a lake. Beautiful asset. The one right next door. Sold in 22 for I think 43 million. Okay. They are down. The lender now owns it. They're down to 28 million. It still doesn't pencil. Okay. Wow. So we may look at it. If it gets down to 24, it's right next door to the one we have. We'd love to have it, but you know, lenders. You know, the, the catchphrase in the lending community for commercial real estate is extend and pretend.'cause that's really what they've been doing. They've been doing loan modifications, deferrals, and, but they're starting to foreclose and Yeah. You know, so the proverbial shit is hitting the fan here and there's gonna be incredible opportunity there, but it's not. Quite there yet. Occasionally we'll see one that looks good. A lot of deals are being sold for debt plus fees. They're trying to be sold for what's owed, plus real estate commissions and stuff, and they still don't pencil. So, you know, there's gonna be some carnage there. But again, with crisis comes opportunity, you know, uh, so there's gonna be incredible opportunity in the multifamily space, but to be careful. If you're a passive investor, I, I'm circling back to your question. I would say educate yourself, number one, get your butt to one of my bootcamps. I mean, I've got a, I've got a live one coming up in LA in January. It's the only one I do each year, you know, spend a couple of days. understanding the business well enough so that you don't put your hard-earned money into something you don't fully understand would be, you know, whether it's multifamily or whether it's, another type of business. Educate yourself so that you've got an understanding because people can make things look fantastic. They can massage numbers to make a deal look incredible. And if you don't understand what you're looking at. You know, you're gonna be like a lot of investors right now that are losing, there are a lot of investors that are losing money right now, uh, in multifamily. Right? And it's, prudent that you don't go and work your job and raise all this money and then you just give it to somebody without having an understanding of what you're investing in. I mean, obviously you've started that process listening to Hutch's show here, but, uh, you know, if you really want to dig deep, you might want to consider either my bootcamp or somebody else's just to learn this thing. Yeah.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 22:56

No, that is great advice because listen, a lot of, passive investors would listen to, you know, listen to a podcast, uh, or they are just talking to their, their deal sponsor. However, when you understand how the underwriting works, specifically, if you, understand a specific business model where you can extrapolate the information that are important from what a sponsor is sending you, and you can plug that into a underwriting model that you understand and you'll been to the own North America seminar or one of Rod's seminar. And you understand the second and third order effect of numbers in in a, underwriting model, then that helps you to make a better decision. and there's

Rod Khleif: 23:35

just a few key factors. Sorry to interrupt again. See, I'm notorious for that. It's just a few key factors that if you look at them, you'll know if. If people are being too aggressive with their underwriting, Correct. How much is, how much are they calculating the rent to go up? What's the exit cap rate that they're anticipating? You know, things of that nature. are the expenses going up each year? How much, because, if you understand some basics there, that'll really help, in just being safer when you're investing with someone.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 24:03

Yeah. Yeah. 100%. And, you know, to, to the point as well too, man, because. A lot of it's a little bit more challenging to raise capital in today's climate. Right. and, and some invest. Oh, it's a lot more challenging. It's, it's a lot more challenging. Yeah. Some operators will just take any money from people. However, one of the things that we have realized over the years is that, it's a huge responsibility, of accepting 50 grand from a person who take, who took the last seven years to save that, maybe even longer. Right. It's a huge responsibility and you as a passive investor have to really think about. Where you going to place that money? You know? So Rod can you, for a passive investor who may have$50,000 to invest right now, what would you say? Would be some of the areas they need to focus on. Because a lot of folks focus on a deal initially. What do you think they need to start once they learn? Well, certainly,

Rod Khleif: 24:49

certainly the operator. Okay. Certainly the operator. Perfect. That's the question. That's the answer you were looking for, I'm sure. Uh, I mean, you start with the operator. You know, how many deals have they taken Full cycle, bought it and sold it? What were the returns that they gave to their investors when that happened? Right. You know, uh, do your homework on that. On that operator. And so it starts with them because you can have a great deal with a bad operator and it's gonna go down the tubes. You can have a marginal deal with a great operator that will be okay. So it, the, the number one factor is the operator and their skillset, their experience. you know, their, their integrity is a big piece. I've got a partner right now that, that screwed, basically fraudulent guy that I'm dealing with and I teach this stuff and I got bamboozled by this guy. you know, so be very careful on, on, on that selection. And then have a basic understanding of deals. Not to like massively plug my bootcamp, but I, we give away a deal evaluator software if you come and so you can plug deals in, I'm sure you do the same thing. Yeah. But, but bottom line is you know, have a mechanism where you can throw numbers on a spreadsheet. Look at a deal. Just do a little bit of, due diligence. Don't, just because somebody's got a nice website or they talk a good game, blindly give them your money. I think the best advice we could give today. Hutch, I hope you agree.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 26:03

No, I 100% agree man. Um, because we have worked with multiple operators and what that does, yes, we get to build some, a lot of experience early in the game and throughout the years we have come to understand what a solid operator looks like or what does the best in class operators look like. We've been fortunate not, not to lose any of our investors' capital, however, there are operators, these operators who have performed significantly better than others, right? Where some folks are exceeding expectation while some folks only meet the preferred return and no other returns, right? So, we've been fortunate. So people, those people they've had really great character. They had good system. Um, however, our timing, in the market was not, oh, that's a huge piece. Anybody that

Rod Khleif: 26:49

bought in 2222, late 2122, and even into 23 o unfortunately overpaid, because the, the values are coming way back down and will likely stay down.'Cause I don't see, I don't see 3% interest rates coming back. I just don't think it'll get to that. I mean, I'd love it if it did, but. I don't know. Who knows, maybe when Powell's gone, Trump will get it down there. But, but we'll see. Uh, yeah, we'll see. This country's in a very precarious place. I'll see, I'll speak to that for a moment. When we're recording this, the Supreme Court hasn't made a decision on the tariffs that appellate court, you know, took away from Trump. And I think if we lose that. If he loses that ability, I think we're headed for some real pain in this country. Um, so we'll see. I think those tariffs are candidly one of the, one of the biggest things that can save us economically, the, our national debt. and, we've seen a huge surge, into gold and Bitcoin lately. I mean, I can't believe what gold has done, which is great'cause I've got a quite a bit of gold, but Yeah. But, uh, but yeah, it's interesting times we're in right now, Hutch, and, it's really gonna, we'll see. What this current administration is able to pull off and hopefully right. The ship as it were. Yeah. we shall see.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 27:56

Now let's shift here a little bit, rod. Let's talk about some philanthropy, man. tiny hands. Okay. Well, let, let

Rod Khleif: 28:01

me tell a story. Yeah, let, tell a story about that if I may. Yeah. Let me share one other thing that's kind of. Funny, just'cause I've got the props sitting here in my lap. So if you're watching this, this is funny. So we talked, we talked about fear. Let's also talk about limiting beliefs. That's another thing that holds people back. Like when I immigrated, I didn't speak English and I got thrown into school and I found out what bullies were for the first time. And then my mom, proud Dutch woman that she has sent me to school in these wooden shoes. Oh wow. And these. And these leather shorts that Germans wear for October Fest. So I got my ass kicked again. That was like crack cocaine for the bullies. And then, you know, the bullies would chase me home and she'd chase'em off with a fly swatter. So the next day I got an ass beaten and I just, I came up with the belief system that I wasn't good enough. I used to ask myself, man, how can I show them I'm good enough? And a lot of people have these limiting beliefs such. You know, I'm not good enough. I'm not smart enough. I don't have enough money. I don't have enough time. The thing to remember is if you're consciously aware of one of these, sometimes you're not aware. But if you are consciously aware that you have one of these limiting belief systems, recognize the acronym for Belief Systems is BS. Because 99% of them are bs. Okay? But we believe they're real. So if you have one like that, pull it out of the daylight, look at it through your adult rational mind and recognize that it's bs. You know, I used to be afraid to raise my hand in front of. 10 people, and now I speak in front of thousands of people a year in flip flops. I'm free, I'm becoming free from the opinion of others. and, but, so if you've got one, bring it out in the daylight and really look at it. Now you mentioned, the philanthropy. So, I, when I immigrated, I, I ended up in Denver, Colorado, but I knew I always wanted to live on the beach. There's a little story around this, if you'll humor me and let me share it.'cause I think it, it, it adds a lot of value. So I knew I wanted to live on the beach and there's no beach in Denver, right? So, but I would visualize the palm trees and the sand and the surf. And 20 years later I built this, what's now about an eight to$10 million mansion on the beach. I own the beach on one side. I had my boats on the backside. and I mean this place was spectacular. Giant waterfall from the second floor balcony into the pool. You had to walk through the waterfall to get to the pool. Pool was in magazines, big spiral staircase, up through the middle elevator wine cellar on the second floor. I had aquariums built around the spiral staircase that cost me almost 200 grand. So that gives you an idea of the place. It was spectacular. Two months after I moved in. I'm floating in the pool at night and I'm looking up at this testament to my ego, which is really what it was. It was to prove to the freaking world I was good enough. I mean, if that didn't prove it, forget it, you know? Yeah. So it was to prove the world. I was good enough and, and I'd worked for this for 20 years. So two months after I moved in, I look up at this thing and I got depressed, and I don't mean a little depressed. I mean, I got really depressed. I'm like, what the hell? I've just achieved success, like times 10,000. How can I be depressed? And I discovered a few things buddy. Number one is you should never achieve a big goal without having other goals lined up behind it. Right? You know, like the good book says, without a vision that people perish, I didn't have a vision for my future. So that was a big one. Second thing is it's never about the goals happiest days of a boat owner's life, or the day they buy the boat and the day they sell the boat, right? You need the goals to create that burning desire and hunger to push through fear, but it's never about the goals. Happiness, like I said earlier, comes from progress and growth. And I was, and so I do a weekly planning process, by the way. And at the end of that, I do on my goal setting session on my Rod's links, and I teach this at my bootcamps, I do this weekly planning process. it takes a, it takes 15 minutes a week, but one of the pieces is acknowledging anything you got done the previous week. Because you're gonna have setbacks. You're gonna have delays. But if you're acknowledging your progress and growth. You'll be happy because that creates happiness. So that was the second piece. But the third piece that I discovered when I looked back on why I was depressed was I'd been totally focused on me. You know, show the world I'm at or blah, blah, blah, rod rod rod. And that's the year I met Tony. This is 25 years ago. Oh wow. And I discovered that he fed families for the holidays. And I'm like, you know what a concept, do something for someone else. I'm embarrassed to say I had to be 40 to get that memo, but I called my brother after this to First Tony event. I went to, I said, bro, let's feed five families. And he was in Denver and I was flying to Denver for Thanksgiving. So he called his church and found five families that really needed help. And we bought food and frozen turkeys. And if they had, we knew they had kids. We bought toys for their kids and it was a lot of fun. But the third family changed my life. Hutch. We go up to this shack. This woman lived in this one bed. It wasn't even a one bedroom, it was a crappy one bedroom.'cause you had to walk through the bedroom to get to the kitchen, which had the bathroom off of it. And she was in there. Hispanic woman with five kids. She comes out on the porch, she sees all the stuff we bought. She starts crying. Her kids come out too. The older ones start crying. I start crying and I'm hooked. And guys, don't leave me on this because this is probably the most important thing I'm gonna share in this whole episode. Okay? It's gonna sound like I'm bragging, but I'm not. There's a message here is my point. so in the last. 25 years, I fed over 150,000. It's 150,000 children, not 130. My bio's dated, but 150,000 children I fed over the holidays at Risk Kids. I've provided tens of thousands of backpacks filled with school supplies to local kids. We did 2000 just a month and a half ago or a couple months ago. School, we live in the greatest country on earth and kids don't have school supplies. Don't get me started on that one. But, but, you know, and I provided tens of thousands of backpacks to the local police, I'm sorry, uh, teddy bears, tens of thousands of teddy bears to local police departments for their officers to keep in their vehicles. If they encounter a child that's, you know, been in a traumatic situation, they can comfort the child. And the reason I bring this up, it's not to brag about it. We've been taught to achieve, to be happy. Like we shouldn't be happy until we've achieved. And, this is a play on words, but if you give back, and I know it's a play on words, you're happily achieving, and Tony Robbins calls it the science of achievement versus the art of fulfillment, achievements of science. If you wanna learn multifamily, get your ass to my bootcamp or hutches event and learn it. Okay? That's a science. I'll give you the blueprint. You just gotta do it. But fulfillment. Fulfillment is an art. Okay? You gotta find out what juices you. For me, it's children. It's also the elderly. Like I say, I wouldn't get into senior housing if I wasn't the elderly for me. Find out what juices you. It's children for me and, and the elderly. Maybe it's animals for you, maybe it's the environment. Whatever it is, give back right now. Don't say, well, you had money, that's why you gave back. You want the money, give back. That's how you get it faster. That's the way God works. That's the way the universe works. you know, I know that was a long diatribe around

Hutch The Marine Investor: 34:13

man, that was so good because look, thank you, that, that was so good because when you start thinking about the people listening to this podcast, right, a lot of my friends who listen to this podcast very frequently, you know, a lot of them of, or are transitioning from the military or they are, they have already transitioned from the military. And one of the things. That we do over the, you know, 20 years of service is that the Marine Corps is very selfish with the marine corps's time, right? So we usually locked in to, to be in a marine. However, when you start transition. You know, some folks, they lose the sense of belonging and purpose. And you notice this'cause you work with a lot of veterans, right? They lose a sense of belonging and purpose and focus and mission oriented. and I think what you're talking about is a way they can really find a lot more. Fulfillment into continue serving their community. you know what I

Rod Khleif: 34:58

mean? What a great parallel that you just gave. And guys, if you are about to muster out, if you can figure out a way to give back to a cause that juices you, you will. Because when people get depressed, and of course, suicide rate in the military is horrific, which is, I raise money for it almost every year and military suicide, it's horrific. It's because they're focused on themselves. Okay. When you focus outwardly, that's when all that dissipates in and it brings happiness, and but what a great parallel brother for your listeners. what a great parallel. Um, so no, I couldn't agree more. yeah. Love it. Yeah. Thank you so much,

Hutch The Marine Investor: 35:36

brother. Um, so I have about three minutes before I have to go get dressed and go do the Marine Corps thing. Okay? Okay. I wanna, I wanna talk about a focus round and then we close it out, man. Um, which is just the acronym focus. What do you do for fun?

Rod Khleif: 35:50

Oh man, my boat, my jet skis, my scooter, I've got this, I can't run anymore. So I've got this gay elliptical bicycle. I ride around the neighborhood of the amusement of my neighbors. I love it. But it's the gayest thing you've ever seen. You know those. I like to be outside. Bottom line is I like to be outside. Yeah, that's good. So what is one

Hutch The Marine Investor: 36:06

opportunity that really changed you forever? Changed your life forever?

Rod Khleif: 36:10

One, one opportunity. That changed my life forever. Well, I'm hoping it's this senior housing thing. I'm very excited about that. that thing's got legs, so very excited about that. and I think being around mentors that have impacted my life, like Tony Robbins and I do, I've had coaching myself for years. I, so multiple opportunities and, but it's usually around coaching boot camps or masterminds that I attend to continue my education.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 36:33

Yeah, no doubt. And you've worked with, you know, high performance folks to include the coaching students, you know, what would you say, what would you say is what is one communication skill that every leader should master?

Rod Khleif: 36:44

Communication skill, uh, listening, which I'm the worst at. but yeah. Listen, listen, listening is probably the most important thing. Listening to understand versus listening to respond. Correct. You know, and, and I, I work on that every single day. My coach has me squeezing my legs, so I stop interrupting, I guess Swear to God true stories like a strategy, but yeah. If, again, guys, if you're listening, I've got a ton of free resources at my link tree rods links.com, including that goal setting workshop. I hope you'll check out a bunch of free books there that are best in class books, and link to my podcast. And again, I hope you'll check that out if you're interested. but, Hutch, I appreciate you having me on, brother. That's, it's been a lot of fun. Oh, okay. Yes, absolutely. What is something you wish you understood earlier? Something I wish I understood earlier. That the secret to success is massive freaking action. Bottom line. Yeah. I, my most successful students aren't the smartest, they don't have the most money. They're the ones that just go do it. they, they lose the story that, you know, people have stories that hold themselves in place, they lose the story and they just go kick ass. They just go do it. Those are my most successful students by far.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 37:49

That is awesome, man. So, with all the seminars that you have been to, what does success mean to you nowadays?

Rod Khleif: 37:56

Oh, it's shifted. You know, I used to, I, you know, I wanted the Lamborghini, which I wrecked, I, you know, the Rolls Royce, the Bentley, all this stuff that I got that I thought was important. Right. But as you, as you mature, your goals change. And I know this is gonna sound like hyperbole, but I've got a wall in my office down in my other building here at my compound, right. And it's covered with hundreds of thank you cards. And I get love every single day I get a card or a gift or a DM or an email, literally every single day. Yeah. And it's addictive. You know, when you get that much love, for the impact that you're having. And you know, it's a beautiful thing. So I, I just had a warrior event for my coaching students in Phoenix two weeks ago. And just, you know, the incredible success and, and the love I get from being in that environment. I mean, that's what juices me now, brother. Just juices the hell outta me. It's not material things, stupid shit like watches and stuff like that.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 38:41

Yeah. That's awesome man. Um, so Rod, if our listeners wants to get in touch with you, what is the best way for the, for them to do it?

Rod Khleif: 38:46

Yeah, the best thing is rod's links.com, rod's plural, links pro.com. There's a bunch of free books there. There's my bootcamp if you want to come. I'm LA January 23rd, 24th and 25th. It's the only event I do live each year. Everybody, about a thousand people there. Incredible networking. I've got a ton of, like I said, the free books there are fantastic. My bestselling book is there, bestseller in three categories. I give it away for. Free. You pay like six bucks in shipping and it costs me 30 to send it. People are like, oh, that's'cause you, you make money on that? No, it costs me 30 to ship it, even with the six bucks. But, but my free book is there. yeah, so rodslinks.com is absolutely the best way hitch. Thanks.

Hutch The Marine Investor: 39:21

Perfect man. So listeners, what you just heard today, wasn't just real estate, that was ownership. And I like to tell you like, look, when you get to own certain version of yourself, your past, your present, and your future, that is the epitome of owning more of America, right? So you can lose money, you can lose deals. But when you master your mindset, you never lose momentum. So you might have some setbacks, but momentum. The momentum. Keep going. So whether you are on your journey, keep learning wherever you are on your journey, keep learning, keep moving, keep experimenting because the goal isn't just to build world. is to build the kind of inner strength that that, that lets you rebuild. So until next time, keep pushing, keep growing, and always own more for America. I'm Hutch Marine Investor out.