Episode 507

Enhancing Rental Investments: A Unique Model of ROI and Resident Incentives with Daniel Dorfman

Daniel Dorfman is the visionary behind Roots, a real estate fund designed to provide affordable access to great return properties. He recognized the need for a win-win situation where residents could feel invested in the homes they live in, while also ensuring cash flow for investors. Dorfman observed that traditional security deposits often discouraged tenants from caring for the property, leading to a decline in quality. To address this issue, he created a unique model where tenants become partners in the investment from day one, acquiring a percentage ownership stake in the building and portfolio. Additionally, through the Living in Lake Yona program, tenants have the opportunity to earn rental rebates by responsibly maintaining the property and being good neighbors. Dorfman's innovative approach has not only transformed the tenant-landlord relationship but also yielded impressive results, with higher rent payment rates and improved asset quality. While challenges and resistance are expected, the Roots model is designed to incentivize participation and foster a partnership mentality among residents.

Connect with Daniel Dorfman: https://www.investwithroots.com/

LIKE • SHARE • JOIN • REVIEW

SUPPORT THE SHOW!

"You can invest 10,000 hours and become an expert or learn from those who have already made that investment." - Jack

Transcript
Speaker:

Daniel Dorfman joins me here today, and he is with investwithroots.

Speaker:

com.

Speaker:

You're going to have to go to their website because this is

Speaker:

a very unique business that I've, I haven't run into yet.

Speaker:

And I mentioned Daniel that this might be the, be a first.

Speaker:

But what Daniel and his team have developed is a way to not only return.

Speaker:

And find some R.

Speaker:

O.

Speaker:

I.

Speaker:

For their investors, but also incentivize the residents that rent from them directly

Speaker:

in it that we're going to dive into this, and it's a interesting concept.

Speaker:

So I really appreciate your time here, Daniel.

Speaker:

Wonderful.

Speaker:

Thanks, Jack.

Speaker:

And yeah, I'm excited to dive in and go through the model and just

Speaker:

chat with you for a little bit.

Speaker:

So it'll be fun.

Speaker:

One of the things that struck me right off the bat, and you can elaborate on

Speaker:

this a little bit, but, when we are dealing with rental properties, one

Speaker:

of the things that is a big headache is the residents and they, them

Speaker:

not taking actual ownership of the property and they just beat it to heck.

Speaker:

Is that one of the incentives behind this model that you found?

Speaker:

What, what caused you to go down this road?

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Good question.

Speaker:

Basically, roots was developed for really two reasons.

Speaker:

One was to make sure anybody had access to a very solid great returning real

Speaker:

estate fund that they could access for as little as a hundred dollars.

Speaker:

And then the other portion was to try to figure out and craft a model that

Speaker:

was a win in that the resident who lives in the homes that you purchase and that

Speaker:

you're invested in at the end of the day, that is the person who determines your

Speaker:

cashflow your properties, appreciation and all that is determined by the location.

Speaker:

But for an investor, cash is king and cashflow is really important.

Speaker:

And what we saw year after year before going into this model was that, people

Speaker:

would move in and no shame on them, but they move into the home, they put 1,

Speaker:

200 down and are having about a 50, 50 expectation on whether they're going

Speaker:

to get that back or not from day one.

Speaker:

The moment that they spill on the carpet in your place at a 1, 200

Speaker:

deposit, in their mind, it's gone.

Speaker:

And from that moment on, I hate to say it this way, but they're

Speaker:

playing with house money, right?

Speaker:

The reality is, they're not going to care for the property as much.

Speaker:

And what we wanted to do was say, Hey, Jack, you moved in with us.

Speaker:

First off, the coolest piece is, Jack, we don't take security deposits here.

Speaker:

Your deposit or your traditional deposit is actually invested

Speaker:

directly into the fund from day one.

Speaker:

So from day one, Jack, you're going to have a percent ownership stake of this

Speaker:

building and of our whole portfolio.

Speaker:

So how cool is that?

Speaker:

And then two.

Speaker:

Through our living it like you own it program, you're going to get the ability

Speaker:

to earn a rental rebate each quarter that you take care of the property, you pay

Speaker:

rent on time, and you be a good neighbor.

Speaker:

And through this model, what we've created is a partner and not a tenant.

Speaker:

And so far it's been mind blowing.

Speaker:

It's been night and day.

Speaker:

Going from looking at our other portfolios and our other properties

Speaker:

that we own and invest into versus the quality of the asset and the quality

Speaker:

of paying on time, or the, the amount of times it's paid on time it's crazy.

Speaker:

It's been very unique.

Speaker:

And of course we've got learning curves and there's always people who don't

Speaker:

want to be involved in the program, but.

Speaker:

This has been built to incentivize the ones that do, and there's a lot that do.

Speaker:

So how do you measure some of this?

Speaker:

You mentioned like being a good neighbor, for example.

Speaker:

How do you measure some of that in regards to the, these incent, this incentive?

Speaker:

So that's one, that's what I'll say is there's two parameters

Speaker:

that are just like you, that are definitely manageable, which is.

Speaker:

No late rent and once a quarter we asked them to do a video of the

Speaker:

inside and outside of their unit.

Speaker:

So those two pieces completely measurable.

Speaker:

What we mean by good neighbor is a lot of our units are small multi

Speaker:

family in, you're going to have some neighbor encounters here and

Speaker:

there and also you know, no police activity, that kind of thing.

Speaker:

But it's not something we're monitoring from a standpoint of like

Speaker:

you, if we haven't heard anything, you've been a great neighbor is our

Speaker:

stance.

Speaker:

So you have them video the inside of their apartment.

Speaker:

What did you say once a month?

Speaker:

Once a quarter.

Speaker:

Once a quarter.

Speaker:

Do you have them uploaded to a shared platform of some kind then?

Speaker:

We do.

Speaker:

Yes.

Speaker:

So we have them upload it.

Speaker:

And really the purpose of that video is twofold.

Speaker:

One as you guys know, and anybody listening who owns property knows

Speaker:

a lot of times you move somebody in and then you don't get eyes on

Speaker:

that asset or inside that asset for three years or two years, right?

Speaker:

And it's at the turn that you walk in and.

Speaker:

You're walking through and there's blue stuff all over the ceiling.

Speaker:

And you're like, Hey, did you see all this?

Speaker:

And they're like, yeah, it wasn't bothering me and I

Speaker:

didn't want to bother you.

Speaker:

And the reason they don't bring it up, is because they think they're

Speaker:

going to get blamed for it one.

Speaker:

And then they have, there's this whole thing.

Speaker:

Versus letting it go to the end.

Speaker:

And then you, Oh yeah, just take my deposit.

Speaker:

You're taking it anyway.

Speaker:

And so the purpose of this is walking through, you see a small water spot.

Speaker:

Great.

Speaker:

Hey, I noticed this.

Speaker:

We'll come check it out.

Speaker:

That's a hundred dollar leak.

Speaker:

That turns into a 2, 000 problem later.

Speaker:

And so that's the first purpose is like preventative maintenance almost.

Speaker:

And the second purchase purposes, we believe in this resident and

Speaker:

we believe that they're going to one day have the opportunity,

Speaker:

hopefully to go buy their own place.

Speaker:

And Hey, how about some like ownership training almost, right?

Speaker:

Like you're understanding what to look for.

Speaker:

You're seeing like, Oh, the gutters a little over full,

Speaker:

like this is what you would do.

Speaker:

And so that's part of it is we want to, be as we want to make a big

Speaker:

impact as we can on that resident as well from that standpoint,

Speaker:

it works.

Speaker:

So the person moves into the apartment they're a part of

Speaker:

this fund through their deposit.

Speaker:

Do you, have you found that they stick around a lot longer than

Speaker:

a normal resident as well then?

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Right now of the residents that we had move in.

Speaker:

We're seeing about a 97 percent renewal rate which is big, right?

Speaker:

And I will be the first to say where we're 18 months into this model, where we're

Speaker:

able to exercise and execute on this.

Speaker:

Took a lot of time to understand and craft and create and

Speaker:

see what we need this to do.

Speaker:

So is that a ton of time?

Speaker:

No.

Speaker:

But those are the numbers that we have so far.

Speaker:

And the people that have left.

Speaker:

The turnover cost has been significantly lower.

Speaker:

We are looking at a 750 turn right now which is unheard of in the like

Speaker:

this single family asset space.

Speaker:

So you're primarily investing in single family houses

Speaker:

within that, five units and below at this point we do have an eight unit And

Speaker:

we're not against looking at the multi family space as we grow but we are very

Speaker:

familiar with the single family, small multi family asset and we like it a lot.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker:

So what would somebody expect?

Speaker:

Like you say they have their deposit with you.

Speaker:

What is a resident, other than this little bit of ownership into the

Speaker:

building, what are they getting in return?

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

That kind of flips it over into like just our investors overall.

Speaker:

We are a privately held reg a REIT.

Speaker:

And which means that anybody non accredited and

Speaker:

accredited can invest in it.

Speaker:

And the second that the resident invest via their deposit.

Speaker:

Into the fund, they are treated and become investors just like you

Speaker:

would if you were to enter the fund.

Speaker:

And so expectations, we always shy away from future telling, but in the

Speaker:

18 months that we've been around, our funds up around 24% when you combine

Speaker:

the distributions and the appreciation.

Speaker:

And the last 12 we're up 16.

Speaker:

That's a parameter of where we've been historically and where we feel like we

Speaker:

can consistently hit for our investors.

Speaker:

So when you rolled out this program, what have been some of the most

Speaker:

significant changes you had to adopt as you were trying to figure it out?

Speaker:

The video submission and kind of usability of that video is big.

Speaker:

The other part that I'll say that probably is a strange one to communicate, but

Speaker:

it's the the tenant landlord relationship as it is today is not always the best.

Speaker:

And in a lot of cases when people are moving in they

Speaker:

haven't had a great situation.

Speaker:

I actually don't.

Speaker:

I don't really know anybody who I've ever talked to who doesn't have a Bad

Speaker:

landlord story to tell it's just part of the way the relationship has always been.

Speaker:

And so I think one of the biggest hurdles that we have to cross when deploying this

Speaker:

type of program is skepticism and the idea of look, I'm not, this is, you're too good

Speaker:

to be true or whatnot, whatever that is, but like earning the trust of a resident.

Speaker:

To, really show them that we're partners in this building has been a stepping

Speaker:

stone and we've had to learn to how to, how and how to communicate that

Speaker:

with them and to talk to them about what it means and stuff like that.

Speaker:

With the video thing is I'm probably going to adopt that myself.

Speaker:

One of the things that as for property management you try to

Speaker:

do a regular inspection, but I'm already showing units remotely

Speaker:

without having to meet people there.

Speaker:

It would make sense.

Speaker:

I guess I'm surprised I haven't thought of doing that piece remotely as well.

Speaker:

Everybody's got a phone these days.

Speaker:

That's probably low hanging fruit.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

When you want to do it, let me know.

Speaker:

We can talk through some implementation.

Speaker:

No, that's interesting.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

You said, how many units are you doing here now over the past 18 months?

Speaker:

This is,

Speaker:

so we have 104 units on the program and yeah, we are in a buying

Speaker:

period right now, what I, we're getting a pretty good investment.

Speaker:

Last week, actually we the roots fund passed the 10 million mark.

Speaker:

Which is great.

Speaker:

And we're excited about that.

Speaker:

And excited about going to find the next 10 million.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker:

And where is your primary markets?

Speaker:

We're strictly in Atlanta for right now.

Speaker:

That's where we live and operate.

Speaker:

And so we really wanted to Figure out this market, figure out what this

Speaker:

model meant and how to deploy it.

Speaker:

And we've been building our own software and stuff like that as well.

Speaker:

And I would say we're going to be here for the foreseeable future, unless we

Speaker:

see An opportunity in another market that is too good to pass up and which

Speaker:

will expand, but we like Atlanta.

Speaker:

Yeah, no, that's especially good.

Speaker:

As I see, you see a lot of companies, even solopreneurs who are trying to make a go

Speaker:

of any kind of real estate investing, and I've been one of those people singing in

Speaker:

the chorus that you need to focus and.

Speaker:

And perfect that one stream of income before you start to expand

Speaker:

into other markets or other avenues.

Speaker:

So that's good and encouraging, especially at 18 months, that's 10 million.

Speaker:

In 18 months that's some extraordinary growth.

Speaker:

How have you been coming about growing so quickly?

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Really, so our, my background is in real estate investing.

Speaker:

We did a lot, we have a residential realty agency team here in Atlanta as well.

Speaker:

And so prior to starting the fund.

Speaker:

I was doing a lot of syndicated deals through partners in New York, LA and

Speaker:

in different areas coming to Atlanta.

Speaker:

And so that gave us a leg up in terms of going out to find our

Speaker:

first few investors or whatnot.

Speaker:

But really I have to give credit to the model, right?

Speaker:

It's the investors that we have coming in.

Speaker:

Understand and love the fact that, wow, okay, yeah, if I can make 16 percent

Speaker:

and above or whatnot and help a resident who is renting and let's be real that

Speaker:

residents, if you're in a place for 1, 200, your opportunity to go from

Speaker:

renting to owning is pretty tough.

Speaker:

It is tough and it is getting tougher.

Speaker:

And so a lot of our investors have just loved the idea that, yeah, we make a

Speaker:

return, but we make an impact and we.

Speaker:

are hopefully helping someone who didn't have that opportunity, invest in a home.

Speaker:

And so that's been the catalyst for us.

Speaker:

We've have talked to investors who said, I don't that, that sounds

Speaker:

too much like a charity opportunity or, I don't mix my charity with

Speaker:

my profits or stuff like that.

Speaker:

But, to me, our investors have come and they've referred.

Speaker:

A lot of people via word of mouth because of the model.

Speaker:

And those are the investors we want to see, right?

Speaker:

We want to build a community that is galvanized around making

Speaker:

great returns and great impact.

Speaker:

Just to remind everybody, head over to invest with roots.

Speaker:

com and I'll make sure to have that link in the show notes.

Speaker:

But if this is intriguing to you, I'm going to ask for a quick

Speaker:

favor, share this episode with.

Speaker:

One of your investing friends and this is really an interesting model that I think

Speaker:

Daniel, if they go to investwithroots.

Speaker:

com and they reach out to your team, what type of could they, what

Speaker:

type of information can they find

Speaker:

there?

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

The landing page, invest with roots is going to give you the highlights.

Speaker:

It's going to give you our investments.

Speaker:

It'll give you the kind of frequently asked questions.

Speaker:

But if you hit that little chat button in the right hand corner.

Speaker:

I'll be honest about six times out of 10, you're going to get me.

Speaker:

And then the other times you're going to get another individual and you're

Speaker:

probably going to get circulated to a point where we want to meet with you.

Speaker:

We're big on one communication.

Speaker:

We're big on quick 15 minute meetings.

Speaker:

And, although you could go to our site and invest end to end just from

Speaker:

there I encourage people to take the second, let's meet for 15 minutes.

Speaker:

Let's chat about questions.

Speaker:

And let's get to know each other a little bit more than, just going

Speaker:

in online and submitting your investment, which we love to, but.

Speaker:

So it sounds like it, would it be fair to say you've been in real estate

Speaker:

investing for quite a bit quite long.

Speaker:

I think I, I went to your LinkedIn profile.

Speaker:

I saw you were, it was like six and a half years.

Speaker:

Probably

Speaker:

longer than that.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

So I started investing in the Atlanta area in 2009.

Speaker:

And that's when about my first property, me and my wife did.

Speaker:

And from that point on we had saw real estate as our, not gonna say

Speaker:

retirement plan, but our passive income plan for the future.

Speaker:

And we both believed in it.

Speaker:

And so literally every.

Speaker:

Every dime we would save up we go to buying another property.

Speaker:

And so in 2017, we decided to take that path a step further,

Speaker:

which was, let's, we like this.

Speaker:

We love real estate.

Speaker:

We don't, we like what we're doing as a career, but we didn't love it.

Speaker:

And we decided to build a team together and it's worked out great.

Speaker:

Yeah, that's neat.

Speaker:

So your wife is actively involved in this as well?

Speaker:

So she is.

Speaker:

She actually is more actively involved in our residential team.

Speaker:

She runs our entire like retail side residential

Speaker:

team.

Speaker:

How has it been working with your better half?

Speaker:

I love it.

Speaker:

Obviously there, it's a lot of time together, which is great.

Speaker:

And, can be a little bit, I'm sure irritating for her more than me.

Speaker:

But the beautiful thing that I love about it is, our bad days

Speaker:

are both of our bad days and our great days are our great days.

Speaker:

And you don't have to play the coin of Oh, Hey, how was your day, honey?

Speaker:

George at the water cooler, made me mad or something like that.

Speaker:

You can, everybody's in, we're embedded.

Speaker:

There's true buy in on every conversation.

Speaker:

Any tips for those that are considering starting a business with their spouse?

Speaker:

Be open to the idea that work doesn't have to be work, because I think when you,

Speaker:

and it's, I don't know how to explain it.

Speaker:

I've never been asked that question, but I think what happens a lot of

Speaker:

times is people like to say like, all right, dinner table, shut it down.

Speaker:

Don't talk about work.

Speaker:

And that's not going to happen in an entrepreneurial or startup mindset.

Speaker:

And so I think, Okay.

Speaker:

Embrace the thought that work isn't work and life isn't life.

Speaker:

It's all one melded in thing and it could be fun regardless.

Speaker:

So don't try to don't try to silo them is what I would say.

Speaker:

Yeah, I always struggle with that concept of that work life balance that I keep

Speaker:

hearing everybody talk about and I think what you're describing is actually the

Speaker:

balance is that it just melds together and if you enjoy what you're doing, I

Speaker:

guess it doesn't feel as much as work.

Speaker:

Yeah, I think that's the thing, right?

Speaker:

You gotta, it's all how you look at it.

Speaker:

And I try to look at it like it's just.

Speaker:

It's all life balance.

Speaker:

And I just happened to do some transactions and work throughout it.

Speaker:

So going back to your original investing strategy, it sounded like you were

Speaker:

doing it yourself with your wife.

Speaker:

You're buying single family homes.

Speaker:

Has the new model outperformed the old?

Speaker:

Yes.

Speaker:

Yeah, I say that with a heavy heart because I.

Speaker:

Spent a lot more time on that old model and I spent, gosh, you put a

Speaker:

lot of resources, a lot of time and a lot of energy and money into, your

Speaker:

rental properties, especially when you're on a small scale, like we are

Speaker:

you, it's every, it feels every other month you have a cash drain, right?

Speaker:

Something goes wrong, some roof, some air conditioner, whatever it might be.

Speaker:

And I love it from a standpoint of.

Speaker:

One day I'm going to be able to re refinance those assets, get

Speaker:

the capital and go play again.

Speaker:

But it is, it's a grind in that model.

Speaker:

And this has been been fun, right?

Speaker:

It's been fun to see it grow and see the numbers from a cashflow and from an

Speaker:

app, see it take place in a better way.

Speaker:

So you know, you mentioned your FAQ.

Speaker:

What is the most viewed question on there or what was, what's your top

Speaker:

one that people typically ask you?

Speaker:

How long am I locked in?

Speaker:

When can I get my money out is usually the top question.

Speaker:

And For our fund that answer is quarterly.

Speaker:

So we have a quarterly redemption period.

Speaker:

And another unique aspect of our fund is there are no exit

Speaker:

fees after the first year.

Speaker:

So there's no, and there's no entry carry fees or anything like that.

Speaker:

We tried to build it to be as low barrier of entry.

Speaker:

As possible for everyone to be able to participate.

Speaker:

So

Speaker:

did you have to go reggae simply because you were doing those deposits, because

Speaker:

they're going to be relatively smaller

Speaker:

amounts.

Speaker:

Yes.

Speaker:

So we did a funny story.

Speaker:

One of our partners originally, we are, there's a.

Speaker:

A bit of a disagreement, in terms of, what it would like of doing

Speaker:

that because it's reggae serious.

Speaker:

It takes a ton of work.

Speaker:

It takes audits.

Speaker:

It takes time.

Speaker:

And for us, like when we were building it, there's there wasn't another.

Speaker:

There wasn't another reality because we knew we wanted to give the resident.

Speaker:

Ability to invest in the property and you just can't do it any

Speaker:

other way.

Speaker:

So what was the disagreement there?

Speaker:

Just that

Speaker:

other our partner did not think it was worth it.

Speaker:

Oh, sure.

Speaker:

Has he come around or did he part ways?

Speaker:

We had

Speaker:

to part ways.

Speaker:

So great friends just different mindset in terms of that

Speaker:

application or of that process.

Speaker:

So it sounds like you have a number of partners involved outside of your wife.

Speaker:

Yeah the roots team is 10 people full time and two of them.

Speaker:

So there's three co founders.

Speaker:

And seven other folks that have joined the mission with us and probably soon

Speaker:

to be 11 within the next month or so.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker:

So with that, what type of things did you tackle to make sure

Speaker:

it was a strong partnership?

Speaker:

Really just understanding core values and vision.

Speaker:

We spent a lot of time going through and creating a core values card and

Speaker:

Understanding what we thought it meant from a person and a partner

Speaker:

standpoint to want to be here and want to be a part of our group.

Speaker:

And I think after we laid that out and after we really started to focus

Speaker:

in on what the mission is that's when we've been able to attract some really

Speaker:

amazing partners to come join us.

Speaker:

Much brighter and more experienced than us, which is great.

Speaker:

No, I'm good.

Speaker:

So you've mentioned the word mission a couple of times and I can is there

Speaker:

a certain aspect of this that, when you say it the way you are putting

Speaker:

it into context, it almost sounds.

Speaker:

A level of philanthropy or something what you keep using the word mission, I'm

Speaker:

just wondering if there is some aspect to

Speaker:

that.

Speaker:

No it's more surrounding the idea that like it, where this all came to

Speaker:

be is because, when we were doing our own investing and when we're helping.

Speaker:

Hundreds of people a year buy and sell homes you watch, right?

Speaker:

And you watch as the ability from going, like I said, from renting to

Speaker:

owning is becoming significantly harder.

Speaker:

And then you watch something else that's happening, which is.

Speaker:

It's not, I'm not going to say more disturbing because I want that first home

Speaker:

ownership is important, but going from owning your first place to owning your

Speaker:

second, the barriers of having 20 percent down the barriers of having to be able to

Speaker:

support that income on your income, it, it starts to really move that percentage up.

Speaker:

And so what we're watching over the last, and I'm sure it's been

Speaker:

going on longer since I've been watching over the last 10 years, is

Speaker:

this moat begin to really shrink.

Speaker:

ability to, for the regular person to invest in real estate and for the

Speaker:

regular person to own real estate.

Speaker:

And so if we get to a point where the top 10 percent of our country

Speaker:

own 45, 50 percent of our land, I think we're in trouble, right?

Speaker:

I don't think that's the right spot to be in.

Speaker:

And the thing that's crazy about that to me is.

Speaker:

You don't talk, if you speak to anybody about real estate, there's

Speaker:

not someone, there's not one person who's going to sit who doesn't

Speaker:

believe it's probably one of the best vehicles to grow your longterm wealth.

Speaker:

And we're starting to shut people out and it's and that's what I say by mission is

Speaker:

our mission is to make that accessible for anybody and our missions to.

Speaker:

Help a million people honestly build wealth through real estate.

Speaker:

So with that, what are your short term goals?

Speaker:

What do you, what are you trying to accomplish now for

Speaker:

roots by the end of the year?

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Right now we are in the process.

Speaker:

We just launched first of the year.

Speaker:

We launched our own platform for investing in real estate.

Speaker:

And our goal for the end of the year is to have 12, 000 people on that

Speaker:

platform investing through our fund.

Speaker:

I will tell you, we are a long cry away from that right now, but we look

Speaker:

to put some marketing dollars behind us and really start to expand on it.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And what's your long term goal?

Speaker:

You mentioned helping a million people grow their wealth through

Speaker:

real estate over the next five years.

Speaker:

That's pretty ambitious.

Speaker:

It is.

Speaker:

Yep.

Speaker:

So going from 12, 000 to 5 to a million.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

So we track that we track that growth based off of maybe it's a different

Speaker:

comparison, but we are tracking off of, the Robin Hood and acorn numbers which

Speaker:

we're able to scale into the 20 million range within, three to five years.

Speaker:

And that's not necessarily our growth goal, but we do feel like it's attainable

Speaker:

and achievable to start off with that first a million in the first five years.

Speaker:

Well, Daniel, this has been a very interesting conversation.

Speaker:

I think we could keep going, but I'm going to remind everybody investwithroots.

Speaker:

com.

Speaker:

I'll make sure to have that link in the show notes.

Speaker:

I ask you again to share this episode out.

Speaker:

With some of your friends, but we're going to wrap some things up with some rapid

Speaker:

fire questions if you're ready for them.

Speaker:

Perfect.

Speaker:

Fire away.

Speaker:

What is a real estate investing myth that you'd like to bust here

Speaker:

today?

Speaker:

Kind of mentioned it earlier, but the myth that, it's all about location.

Speaker:

I'd turn that and say it's really about people who create your profits.

Speaker:

What book would you recommend or what are you reading right now?

Speaker:

Book that I would recommend we're actually, I'm reading,

Speaker:

we read a lot as a team.

Speaker:

And the book of the quarter is called Buddha and the Badass.

Speaker:

Definitely worth checking out if you're in the startup mindset or wanting

Speaker:

to learn a little bit about how to deploy some culture into your team and

Speaker:

into your company or into your life.

Speaker:

Really cool concepts worth looking up and worth reading.

Speaker:

Badass.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Check that out.

Speaker:

What is your biggest business mistake you've made and

Speaker:

what did you learn from it?

Speaker:

Once upon a time before the real estate team, I actually

Speaker:

was involved in another startup.

Speaker:

We, what I think I would say is my biggest regret or my

Speaker:

biggest learning is don't build.

Speaker:

Like a product before you have the need and the, like the in

Speaker:

consumer, the customer in hand, meaning go, test your models.

Speaker:

Bring it out on a small scale, do it as quickly as you possibly can

Speaker:

and see what the people who are consuming your product actually want.

Speaker:

Don't build inside your vacuum in this like mystery world by yourself,

Speaker:

take it out, get some feedback and build based on results and feedback

Speaker:

versus what you think it should be.

Speaker:

Yeah, I think it's, it that's very good.

Speaker:

Advice because I think I've run into quite a few people that they live and work

Speaker:

within their little vacuum, like you said, because maybe they're afraid that their

Speaker:

idea is going to be stolen or what have you, but More times than not you're way

Speaker:

better off getting that direct feedback.

Speaker:

Yeah you gotta learn.

Speaker:

And I think for us, that was going, buying our first properties and

Speaker:

talking to the residents, right?

Speaker:

Like, all right, we have an idea that they might want to participate.

Speaker:

Did they?

Speaker:

Yeah, they actually did.

Speaker:

So that's good.

Speaker:

We can build it.

Speaker:

If you could go back into time and give your younger self one piece

Speaker:

of advice, what would that be?

Speaker:

I would say that, I would have started I've taken up journaling

Speaker:

over the last two years.

Speaker:

And it's fundamentally changed the way I structure my day and structure my time.

Speaker:

And I would say younger Daniel, start journaling and writing

Speaker:

your thoughts down daily.

Speaker:

That's actually one of, I don't get that answer very often, but

Speaker:

that's an interesting, that's really an interesting one.

Speaker:

I don't think we spend enough time reflecting on things.

Speaker:

Yeah, I have this little process in the morning of writing everything

Speaker:

I need to do for the day plus.

Speaker:

It's just a thought, right?

Speaker:

What I do yesterday, spend some time with the family that kind of thing.

Speaker:

And I think what it helps you do is not just move on so quickly, but reflect

Speaker:

on what you did yesterday and write it down so that, a week from today,

Speaker:

you can go back and see what that impactful moment was that you had,

Speaker:

because you had one, you just don't remember it if you didn't look at it.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker:

All right.

Speaker:

And here's, I'm going to time you on this one.

Speaker:

You got exactly 60 seconds.

Speaker:

You're going to give everybody one piece of advice or something they can

Speaker:

implement in their business today.

Speaker:

What is that one thing?

Speaker:

Yeah I can't even stress this enough.

Speaker:

The Traction book by Agena Wickman.

Speaker:

It's the entrepreneur operating system.

Speaker:

Go out and get what is, what the heck is EOS?

Speaker:

It's about a hundred pages.

Speaker:

We live religiously off of that in this organization.

Speaker:

And I can tell you that it has driven us to that 10 million mark.

Speaker:

It has driven us to be able to be as, I'm not going to say successful, cause

Speaker:

I don't think we're really successful yet, but it's driven us to hit.

Speaker:

The milestones that we've hit so far and I can't think that author enough.

Speaker:

Yeah, that's a that is a great book daniel, is there a question or concept you

Speaker:

wished we would have covered here today?

Speaker:

No, Jack, I think we actually covered everything.

Speaker:

Great job.

Speaker:

I appreciate it.

Speaker:

I appreciate your time again.

Speaker:

It is investwithroots.

Speaker:

com.

Speaker:

Go check it out and really appreciate it, Daniel.

Speaker:

I hope you'll come back again sometime.

Speaker:

I will, if you'll

Speaker:

have me.

Speaker:

You bet.

Next Episode All Episodes Previous Episode

About the Podcast

Show artwork for Real Estate Investing with the REI Mastermind Network
Real Estate Investing with the REI Mastermind Network

Listen for free

About your host

Profile picture for Jack Hoss

Jack Hoss

We gather amazing stories from leaders in Real Estate Investing. In each episode, our guests will tell you what they are doing that works, what they tried that failed, and best of all you'll learn actionable steps to take your real estate investing to the next level.