Video Closed Captioning:
good morning good afternoon good evening
folks michael zuber one rental at a time
back with this tuesday guest and great
friend of the channel and content
creator of the four three two one
strategy in the great course how to get
started one rental at a time mr
lumberjack how you doing sir i’m doing
awesome mike and excited to talk about
this one because i think not enough
people talk about this awesome so we
have done a great job of talking about
making work optional in 10 years we’ve
talked about the cheat code to wealth
all of these things
we have been clear that it takes time
i think what i want to do here
is not only talk about the fact it takes
time
but also highlight that the first three
to five years
suck just
suck they’re slow you get frustrated
daily discipline feels like you’re stuck
in mud
it just it
until you have the option to recycle
capital
it sucks
once you can recycle capital it is
life-changing so
do you agree the first three to five
years suck
that’s an understatement yeah
that’s my word you might choose to use a
different word yeah
yeah i mean
and
especially if you self-manage
especially if you self-manage and most
investors most 72 72
are self-managing certainly when they
start
and so
you will
you i always tell people as a landlord
i get to see the state of humanity on a
daily basis
yeah um
yeah
and it’s and and some of it’s really
cringe-worthy um i know in the beginning
um i took offense when people said
something about my property because i’d
worked hard on it i did the work yeah um
i had picked what i picked and i planned
what i planned and i’m like if you don’t
like it
gtfu
yeah
you know
so and for me it was you know
it was it was re i mean really hard 9th
grade dropout was really hard to get
people to pay attention to me was really
hard to get contractors to show up
um
everybody wanted to be paid up front
uh you know it because that was the that
was like going into what was starting to
boom you know and so that was really
really hard and so
yeah i think the the first few years i
mean
it’s kind of like anybody that started
their real estate journey in the last
three years
this is not what it’s like
this isn’t what it’s like it’s not
it’s not it’s there’s going to be ebbs
and flows ups and downs there’s going to
be projects that go sideways there’s
going to be contractors that lie to you
there’s going to be tenants that lie to
you then you’re going to find some great
tenants that with you for a long time so
it’s really just kind of getting your
bearings
um but the only thing that i would say
is you it it’s a great lesson in not
taking things personally yeah you know
yeah again right people read my book my
first tenant horror story and we did
everything right still a horror story
yep uh
it’s funny mine was two deals was two
yeah
all three of us had nightmare first
tenants yeah and again i belie again i
i don’t know this for certain but it
certainly feels this way to me that real
estate tests you on purpose they’re like
of course how committed are you
exactly are you gonna get washed out
like you did in the stock market michael
are you gonna have to find something
else yeah it’s um
it tests you but again i think
for me
i got i was fortunate in timing
because i was able to recycle or do a
cash out refi just after three years on
my first deal
and
because again california markets are
very up and down they’re nice they are
steady right
yep uh so
that’s what it turned that that was
life-changing for me for most people
it’s five years because it’s more steady
any in most markets but when you can
recycle that first for me was the first
20 grand
and and oh by the way get extra i took
out too much granted
but then that became two more houses
i was like
oh my god no multiplier i’m like this is
legal
yeah
i can’t i got nothing left in there in
fact i have negative money
because i took more out and that gave me
these two
and then oh by the way time continues on
those two became this and then that
became that
it’s but
until you can res until you have the
option you don’t have to but until you
have the option to recycle capital
it’s hard i know that saving money sucks
we we we made a game of it man we got
down to 50 that’s hard to do
but yeah
how did we keep buying we freaking saved
money and saving money is slow greg
dickerson would kick me in the ass
because he would have said go make more
money which of course he’s right if i
had to do it again i would i would have
other side hustles but yeah
my mind wasn’t there greg’s an
entrepreneur i’m not i’m i’m like i can
earn money and i can save i didn’t i
didn’t know about being entrepreneurs
but
yeah
i mean the first three to five years
it’s it’s hard i know like when you make
that first purchase and you get the deal
you’re so excited first off go take a
picture in front of it that is something
i’ve never done which is stupid
so you have something to remember
and then
go get the next one yeah
yeah i mean i think that you know
there’s never been a better time to
monetize gifts talents and abilities
than there is right now today
you know whether and doesn’t matter and
the more niche it is the the more
opportunity that you frankly have
because if you’re really good at
something that’s a little bit odd weird
or different
people will seek you out and they try to
find you just make sure that you know
that you have some sort of an online
presence and it’s like you can open up a
business and have a web page
and do all this stuff have google
assistant you can do all of this stuff
for like less than a thousand bucks yeah
like
and that that’s the opportunity so yeah
the the first three to five years and
what we do it absolutely sucks it was
horrible i mean i was flipping cars i
was buying cars and selling cars that
would make me a little bit extra money
i was still making six figures but i
would still any time that i could find
another pocket to make a little bit more
and then finally when the housing market
really started to move and i could i
refined my the house i was living in i
revived that how many years how many are
just curious that was um
[Music]
so
i think right around the same three it
was i think three three or four it was
right around there yeah it still wasn’t
i was able to pull out like a hundred
and that bought from that bought me a
try that bought me a triplex and
that bought me a triplex and i found a
deal on craigslist for 115 grand i
bought that property
uh i put the
because it was an investment i had to
put the 20 down but when i bought that
property i knew i was buying it for the
guy was just like he’s like yeah i’ve
gotten 57 phone calls this morning i was
like yeah i imagine he just went or
priced it i bought it i literally
brought with me a pns we signed that
right then i gave him a deposit check
um we were done and then after i closed
within 60 days i actually was able to
get a heloc on it for another 75
thousand dollars
so it was like 120 then create you know
doing that against my primary and then
doing that you know buying this three
three plex and that was making me 700
bucks a month and then buying the other
small house but then being able to lever
on top of the other side of that and get
another 35 000 in cash that bought me
another dupe that bought me another
triplex that was making me like eight or
900 bucks a month
and there you go that was all over kind
of like a two or three year period so
what i want people to hear from this is
um the first three to five years sucks
for everyone and what i mean by sucks is
it’s slow it tests you yep like you say
uh
you’re in the people business and people
people are gonna disappoint you oh yeah
and um
[Music]
just hold on yep
and once you can recycle capital again
you don’t have to recycle capital but
when you have the option to recycle
capital it is
it is the sign that you’ve gone to the
next step right you have got you have
come out of the choppy waters to a
calmer area because you have the ability
to to balance ups and downs when you get
to that point so
um
i want to tell people it’s worth it it’s
not fun uh i’ve shared lots of crazy
stories over the years but uh
yeah that that’s what it means for me
the first four or five years suck i
can’t help you it’s it’s slow for
everyone
it just is so uh matt how can people
find you lumberjack landlord on youtube
8 p.m thursday nights eastern time mr
and mrs lumberjack and 11 30 a.m eastern
time on sundays and
at lumberjack landlord on instagram if
you want to up your landlord game yeah
and he puts out the real stuff none of
this
silly thing so thank you for all you do
buddy thanks mike appreciate it yep