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cover of episode From Zero to $8,000/Month Cash Flow in Just 2 Years (While Working a W2)

From Zero to $8,000/Month Cash Flow in Just 2 Years (While Working a W2)

2025/4/28
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Real Estate Rookie

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Luke Tetreault
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Tony J. Robinson
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Luke Tetreault: 我对我的工作感到非常不满,想要寻找更有意义的事情。我儿时朋友的父亲是一位房地产投资者,他成为了我的第一个导师和私人资金提供者。我的第一笔房地产交易是在Facebook Marketplace上完成的,我委托我的未婚妻实地考察了房产,并通过Facebook Messenger与卖家协商,在未亲自查看的情况下购买了房产。我依靠我的导师和他的律师完成了交易,对合同细节了解不多。通过Redfin网站上的已售房产信息进行市场比较分析,评估了房产的价值。我最初的计划是自己和家人一起翻新房产,并计划通过再融资来获得利润。我通过再融资获得了利润,并偿还了贷款。我的朋友没有参与房地产投资,而他的父亲则坚持传统的投资方式。他采用的是传统的、不依赖银行贷款的投资方式。在完成第一笔成功的BRRRR交易后,我继续在Facebook Marketplace上寻找房产,并开始与承包商建立合作关系,以提高效率和可扩展性。由于没有尽职调查,我低估了税收成本,导致现金流低于预期。之后,我将房产转换为Airbnb,现金流显著增加。两年内,我积累了35套租赁房产和13套翻新房产,月现金流达8000美元。我快速扩张的关键在于积极的心态、对交易的反思以及对资金筹措方式的学习。我加入当地乡村俱乐部进行人脉拓展,并因此结识了几个重要的合作伙伴。我利用自己的高尔夫球技在乡村俱乐部建立人脉,并结识了几个重要的合作伙伴。我的资金支持主要来自主动寻求合作的投资者。我与合作伙伴的交易结构通常是固定利率贷款,期限为一年。我最近完成了一笔18单元移动房屋公园的交易,并且正在考虑更大的公寓楼项目。大型多户型房产的尽职调查比单户型房产复杂得多,需要考虑更多因素,例如租户法律法规。我通过承担债务的方式获得了18单元移动房屋公园,没有自掏腰包。我与贷款人达成协议,承担债务以获得房产,并推迟一年还款。我购买18单元移动房屋公园时没有自掏腰包,并获得了5万美元的额外资金用于翻新。我的未婚妻和母亲帮助我管理业务,这让我能够继续全职工作。我正在考虑辞去全职工作,但担心这可能会影响业务的增长。我建议设定个人储备金目标和现金流目标,以便能够辞去全职工作。我会在Instagram和Facebook上分享我的联系方式。 Ashley Kerr: 持续的行动在房地产投资中非常重要,有些投资者将这一点发挥到了极致。Luke在两年内,一边从事全职工作,一边积累了35套租赁房产和近百万美元的资产,月现金流达8000美元。欢迎Luke参加播客访谈。 建立一个支持性的团队,包括经纪人和贷款人,可以帮助你找到合适的导师和资源。询问Luke关于第一笔交易的细节,包括购买价格和如何判断这笔交易是否划算。对Luke的第一笔交易表示赞叹,这是一笔非常好的交易。询问Luke关于他朋友及其父亲是否也参与了房地产投资。询问Luke在完成第一笔成功的BRRRR交易后,接下来的投资策略是什么。将房产转换为Airbnb后,现金流显著增加。将长期租赁转换为短期租赁后,现金流大幅增加。将房产转换为Airbnb后,投资回报率高达230%。对Luke在两年内取得的成就表示赞叹。询问Luke如何在乡村俱乐部中建立人脉关系并获得资金支持。询问Luke在乡村俱乐部中如何向他人寻求资金支持。询问Luke与合作伙伴的交易结构。询问Luke正在考虑的更大规模的交易。询问Luke在进行大型多户型房产尽职调查时,与单户型房产有何不同。询问Luke如何为购买18单元移动房屋公园筹集资金。 Tony J. Robinson: 持续的行动在房地产投资中非常重要,有些投资者将这一点发挥到了极致。Luke在两年内,一边从事全职工作,一边积累了35套租赁房产和近百万美元的资产,月现金流达8000美元。欢迎Luke参加播客访谈。 建立一个支持性的团队,包括经纪人和贷款人,可以帮助你找到合适的导师和资源。询问Luke关于第一笔交易的细节,包括购买价格和如何判断这笔交易是否划算。对Luke的第一笔交易表示赞叹,这是一笔非常好的交易。询问Luke关于他朋友及其父亲是否也参与了房地产投资。询问Luke在完成第一笔成功的BRRRR交易后,接下来的投资策略是什么。将房产转换为Airbnb后,现金流显著增加。将长期租赁转换为短期租赁后,现金流大幅增加。将房产转换为Airbnb后,投资回报率高达230%。对Luke在两年内取得的成就表示赞叹。询问Luke如何在乡村俱乐部中建立人脉关系并获得资金支持。询问Luke如何在乡村俱乐部中向他人寻求资金支持。询问Luke与合作伙伴的交易结构。询问Luke正在考虑的更大规模的交易。询问Luke在进行大型多户型房产尽职调查时,与单户型房产有何不同。询问Luke如何为购买18单元移动房屋公园筹集资金。建议Luke增加个人储备金并提高现金流,以便能够辞去全职工作。建议Luke设定个人储备金目标和现金流目标,以便能够辞去全职工作。

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Hey, rookies. We often talk about the importance of consistent action for real estate investing, but there are some investors that take this to an extraordinary level. Today's guest has built a portfolio of 35 rental units and completed 13 flips in just two years, all while working full-time as a welder. And honestly, what makes this story even more remarkable is how he's leveraged networking and private money to really accelerate his growth.

Starting with literally zero investing experience and no formal business background, Lucas created nearly a million dollars in equity and $8,000 in monthly cashflow. So today, he's going to break down how he went from his first Facebook marketplace deal to recently acquiring an 18-unit mobile home park through Creative Financing.

This is the Real Estate Rookie Podcast, and I'm Ashley Kerr. And I'm Tony J. Robinson, and let's give a big warm welcome to Luke. Luke, thank you for joining us today, brother. Thank you, guys. I appreciate it. So, Luke, you work as a welder for your full-time job, but you've told us you don't love your job per se. So how did you land on real estate for your next steps for financial freedom? Well, I think it kind of started with, it was a little bit more than, you know,

a dislike of my job. I found myself pretty, pretty miserable. Just kind of disappointed in myself how I kind of ended up where I was at in life. I always felt like I should be doing something a lot bigger, a lot more. And I just never felt like I quite fit in with the guys I was working with, you know, the

long 60 80 hours a week we were working and you know before I knew it I was 25 years old and I'm like I started welding straight out of high school I didn't go to college um just went kind of straight to work and I just felt like my life just kind of I snapped and all of a sudden all of my younger years are over and I'm just not really getting anywhere um

So that's kind of how I kind of started thinking outside of the box, getting out, you know, what am I going to do? And real estate kind of fell into my lap because...

I had one mentor in my life and it was my best friend growing up's father. He was a custom home builder. He had a few single family rentals and it was just kind of always topic of conversation. I can remember when we were younger, just, you know, he was going to pick up rent or he was going to fix a house. I don't think I really took much to it. You know, when we were in high school, I was 18, you know, our mind was on some other things. But I think that kind of ingrained...

somewhere in my mind, you know, I always kind of knew I could fall back on that. So I think once I got to almost a breaking point of where I needed to make a change, you know, I kind of, I called him up. I, we had a quick phone call and, um, I was like, yeah, let's now or never, let's just try it. I'll find a deal. And I kind of made an agreement with him where he'd essentially be my first private money guy. And, um, I ended up

finding the first deal, it kind of all just snowballed from there. I want you to take us through your first deal, Luke, because I'm told that you found your first real estate deal on Facebook Marketplace, which is almost the quote of like finding a good deal on Craigslist, right? So walk us through how you found this deal. It gets even better than that because the top off, the fact that it was off Facebook Marketplace, I sent my now fiance to go walk it because I work a lot. So it's hard for me to be free during the day.

and she's never done one construction job she's never bought a house before she has zero real estate experience so she walked it she's like oh i guess it looks all right and uh

I negotiated with them over Facebook Messenger because they didn't want to take a phone call. And I bought it sight unseen to kind of make things a little more interesting. And to not even talk to the person either that they won't take a phone call. Oh, my God. So I guess let me just ask, like, Luke, how did you not at any point feel that this might have been a scam?

given that Facebook marketplace didn't want to talk on the phone, were you worried at all about that? Honestly, I had like 20 mutual friends with them. So to me, that was a real person. So I didn't know him personally, but I was like, you know, it's gotta be, it's gotta be legit. And she showed up, they were there when she,

was there and they walked through it. There was a tenant in there. So she was like her first experience of tenants. She's walking over all their stuff. They're kind of like walking them through the homeowner. She said it was just wild. And, uh,

Yeah. We decided to go through with it. So let me ask you this for like your first steps as, okay, you guys negotiate through messenger. You have a deal. What's the next thing that happened? Did you hire an attorney? What are those next crucial steps to actually close on the property? Luckily I kind of really leaned on my mentor there. Cause you know, he's been, he's been doing, he's been in real estate for 30 years and, um,

So as soon as we agreed on a price, I just kind of went to him and, you know, he sent me to his attorney and,

They drew up all the paperwork. I didn't know what I was looking at. I barely even read the contract, if I'm being totally honest. And we just bought it. That was kind of how it was. I don't know if it was ignorant, me being naive or just ready to go. I don't know. But luckily, it worked out. And Luke, obviously, you're in a unique position because you had this mentor, someone who had a lot of experience in real estate.

And for a lot of the rookies that are listening, you may not have someone like Lucat that can kind of hold your hand and guide you through this process in real life right next to you. But there is a way to kind of create your own board of mentors. And I think a lot of it starts with

building the right team to support you. So for me, the folks that really helped me early on were my agents and my lender. And they were kind of my conduit to introduce me to the other people that I needed to meet. So for the rookies that are listening, use the BiggerPockets agent finder, use the BiggerPockets lender finder to get connected with folks in your specific markets and

that are already working with real estate investors and can hold your hand to say, Hey, you found this amazing deal, Luke, here's, you need to go talk to you next. So just trying to make sure that for the workies that are listening, you understand what those, those options are for you as well. So Luke, you, um, you find a, you find this deal, uh, I guess, give us the, give us the numbers on it. What, what did you end up buying it for? And how did you know that it was actually a good deal? So they had it listed for like 85 grand, I think. And, um,

I mean, I really just kind of took it upon myself to comp a property. So I went on Redfin and all the solds and I was kind of doing the whole bang. And I figured it'd probably be worth right around 120, 130. And it didn't need much work for,

what it was, I mean, from the pictures I saw. So, uh, I figured my original plan was I was going, I was going to be the one to fix it up along with my mom does, she helps us do stuff and my fiance. So, um, I figured we could fix it up pretty cheap. I budgeted for 20 grand. And, um, I was like, you know, after kind of listening to your guys' podcast and to some other people, I was like, you know, we could refi out. Um, and,

And then move on to the next one. And that's kind of how it went. We ended up putting a little over 20 grand into it. And, um,

We got it rented. I took it to the bank and they appraised it at like $135, $133, somewhere in there. And I pulled out as much as I could. I paid him off. We profited a little, took home a little less than $20,000 and we were off to the races, I guess you'd say. That's awesome. What a killer first deal. Yeah. At the time, I didn't know that because I had done so little research.

research and stuff. But now kind of where I'm at now, it's, yeah, it was a pretty good one. So with that property, you ended up renting it out. What were the rents? What was the cashflow? Yeah. So we ended up now it's rented for like 1350 and it cash flows about 400 bucks a month. That's awesome. Yeah. Yep. With no money into the deal. You pulled all your money back out. Yeah. Yep. It worked out great. This might be one of the best first deals Luke that we've heard on the podcast. Yeah.

You found it in a very unconventional way, messaging someone on Facebook. You had a private money lender line up the whole thing. You estimated 20K in rehab. You actually spent 20K in rehab, which isn't normal.

You refinance, pull cash out, and you're still cash flowing several hundred dollars per month. That is amazing. Looking back now, it is pretty funny that it all worked out that way. Luke, I have a question about your friend's dad being the private money lender. Does your friend invest at all too? Or is this just something that you've done? And I guess if your friend has, then why hasn't he with his dad's help? No, he does not actually. And-

I don't know why. Me and him kind of, once high school hit, me and him kind of went two different ways. He was a great lacrosse player. He actually won a couple of national championships. Unfortunately, it came from a little different family, and I went right to work after high school. So I think we just kind of had different mindsets. I think he's kind of back in town now, and I'm sure he'll eventually get into it, but...

I also kind of, his dad helped me. I mean, to this day, I love him and he's, he's, he's, I call him my dad. And, but he, he built his portfolio brick by brick cash, save up cash for the next house. Like no banks involved, no nothing. So when I started kind of going this route,

it quickly turned into him calling me crazy. So that was the one and only deal we've ever done together. I just find it interesting because my story started out very similar where I started working for my childhood friend's father as helping him with his real estate as a property manager. And he was my first mentor, but my first deal, I actually partnered

with his son. So my friend growing up and we did our first deal together and kind of my pitch was like, look what your dad is doing. We should do that. We're going to take a real quick break, but when we come back, Luke, I want to hear more about your journey and how you were able to scale so quickly to 35 units in two years. We'll be right back.

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Okay, let's get back into the show with Luke. So Luke, you've had your first successful BRRRR that you completed. What is the next move for you? What did the next couple of deals look like? We kind of just kept the ball rolling with the next one. I found...

I'm honest to God, another house off Facebook marketplace. What market are you in Luke? I wouldn't mention that. What market are you in? I'm in a small market outside like Rochester, Syracuse area of New York, kind of in a bunch of, we've kind of stuck to the smaller towns and I don't know if that plays a difference, but I've bought quite a few deals off Facebook marketplace. We kind of went, walked it, same deal. It was

So this was a lot different where we were going to be getting into some real rehab on this one. And I bought it for $40,000. We put another $40,000 into it. And at the end of it, it ended up appraising for like $145,000. So that was another great one. But it was...

A lot of learning lessons along starting to work with contractors because after that first deal, I didn't really mention, but halfway through it is when I started kind of building some relationships with contractors, with guys that do stuff because I got about a month in to me doing the work after I work. Usually I don't get out. We usually start working around 5 a.m. I work till 5, 6 o'clock at night.

So by the time I get over there, it's seven. And actually, productivity wise, you're probably only getting an hour and a half of work done a night. And after about a month of that, I sat down with my fiance and I'm like, this is this isn't going to work. This isn't scalable. This isn't repeatable. I mean, it's just and I'm miserable. It sucks. And so we started finding people. So then they kind of finished up that first one for us. Then we kind of rolled them into this next one.

and immediately that didn't work out. So I was on the hunt for contractors. I found some more, they came in and we ended up doing the property pretty decent. They weren't the best to work with, but it was kind of one of those things where I couldn't be too picky because we had the house and we had to get it done. And so, but yeah, we ended up getting it done. We

That, come to find out, cash flowed a good $40 a month. When I ran my numbers, those were not the numbers I budgeted for. I thought I was going to be like the other one, around $300, $400 a month. And I had made some mistakes. I missed a couple. This was a different town, and taxes were way higher for whatever reason. And I just skipped it, honestly. It was just me not doing my due diligence.

So that was kind of an eye-opener to where we got it running. I was pumped. It was an attorney. She was great. And then we started kind of paying everything. And after like a few months, I'm like...

This thing is, we ended up turning that one into an Airbnb now, actually. Interesting. So you guys pivoted the strategy a little bit. And since you made that transition, what has the cash flow look like on that one? That one on average does like a thousand bucks a month. Yeah, that's amazing. All right. So to take it from 40 to a thousand. What a drastic change in cash flow by make transitioning that set of strategy. How much more did you have to put into the property to furnish it and-

Things like that. - Not much. I mean, we spent, we only spent like five grand on getting, it's a small little two bedroom. So we kind of, we definitely went the cheap route, but I mean, it looks great and it does really well in the area. It's the number one Airbnb. - You said something that was like pretty amazing. So we got to pause in this Luke, right? Because you said that you were netting 40 bucks per month as a long-term.

you transition to short-term and it went from 40 to 1,000, right? So that's an additional $960. I'm breaking up my calculator here. That's an extra $960 per month in profits, right? So 960 over 12 months is $11,520. You said the investment rate

to get that additional revenue is only 5,000, right? So if we take our profit of 11,520, divide that by our investment of 5,000, we get a cash on cash return of 230%. The reason why I point that out is because there are a lot of people who are listening that already have properties that much like yours aren't meeting their initial projections

But instead of focusing on buying the next deal, sometimes you can get a much better return by reinvesting into the properties that you already own. And that is an amazing proof of concept because you invested $5,000 and got a 230% return. Could you have put that money into a different deal and gotten a 230% return? Probably not. But going back to your story, Luke, because I think it's amazing. I just want to make sure I have your stats right.

35 rentals, 13 flips, 8K in monthly cash flow in two years. - It's not entirely correct 'cause we have a few things that are under contract to sell and buy, but it's right in there, yeah. - Generally speaking, right? - Yeah, yeah. - So I think the biggest thing is, I can't even wrap my head around that level of activity in such a short timeframe. So how were you able to scale so quickly?

What was kind of like the secret sauce that allowed you to move at such a rapid pace? I think it was a mixture of just my mindset, mentality, and...

kind of really reflecting on the deals we've done and kind of looking at those, how we did them and how can we kind of do them again. So I was just kind of going back to where we originally talked and where I was in life. I just, you know, I was ready to get out of it. And, um, I'm the type of person that, you know, once I kind of reached that point, like, I'm just, I don't care. Like I will go and I'll make it work. And, um,

So I kind of had that mentality. And then once I did the first deal with my buddy's dad there, I learned that that was an option. And then obviously exploring all the forums and YouTube and podcasts and stuff, learning about private money, different ways to get money. I actually went out and joined our local country club to try and network. And that's where I found...

a couple of the guys that I do all my deals with now. What a great idea. I know our local country club, I mean, it's on the sticks, but it's like $100 a year for a social membership if you don't play golf and you just want to go and be a social member. What a great investment. That was kind of where our head was. And that was why we joined. I like to golf, but

I didn't need to necessarily join the nicest place in town, but me and my fiance kind of talked about it, and we figured it would probably be good for business, and it definitely has been. Luke, let me ask, right? So you joined the country club. First, what was the cost? It's like $3,500 a year. Okay, so...

Not a small expense, but definitely not a major expense either. But that's what somebody would pay on a mastermind. Yeah, exactly. Or even more than that in a lot of situations, right? So $3,500 for the year, you join, you're a member now.

How do you go from I signed up to getting to the point where the folks who are in this country club are actually lending you money? Because like, are you just going in there handing out your business cards and I'm Luke, give me your money. I'm Luke, give me your money. Like, what is that? What are the actual conversations look like? Well, so luckily for me, I kind of have a foot in the door because I'm

very good at golf. So when I go and sign up for like leagues or tournaments, everybody wants to be on my team. And that's not cocky at all. It's just... No, no, no, no. I love the honesty of it. Just the reality of it. Yeah. It would be the literal opposite for me. Like no one would want me on their team if we were golfing because I am terrible. So I'm glad you had that working for you. Yeah. So, and that's kind of how...

I've met so many people because I started to get random text messages like, hey, there's a tournament going on next Friday. Would you want to go? So because of that, I've just met the biggest roofer in our town. I know him. I have a cell phone number now, so he does all of our roofs. I met a guy who owns a couple big fence companies, so they do our fence. I mean, just all these...

relationships that have come of it. It's just, it's, it's worked out great. Tony's literally looking up golf lessons right now. Not golf lessons, but I'm looking up our local country club right now to see, like, I've never even looked into it before. But how cool to take something that you enjoy doing, that you love doing and turning it in a way to network and to make those connections. And that's just kind of what I did. Whenever we play, I just would make a point of, um,

talking about what I had going on. And I've learned that guys with money, everyone kind of thinks the same. Everyone's trying to make money with money. So they hear of a young kid who's hungry, who's doing deals. They're not afraid to throw him 100 grand. And you're good at golf, so you must be press ready. Yeah, of course. I guess, Luke, one final question on that piece. Was it a very direct ask on your part after you had built these relationships to go to some of these folks and say,

hey, you know, I'm in real estate. I've got this deal. Let me know if you're interested. Or was it more, I guess, kind of the inverse where they were like, hey, Luke, if you ever have anything, let us know. I work with three main guys now and two of them came to me

And then my very, the first guy, I actually printed out the entire deal. I brought it to his office where he works and we kind of sat down and went over all the numbers and I kind of sold them on the deal. And since that, now that I have, it's been a lot easier now that I have stuff going on and kind of people know what I'm doing. And that was like the biggest thing I preached to anybody I talked to was I wouldn't ask for any money that I couldn't pay you back, whether there's

house burned up in flames. And I truly meant that. And I truly would never borrow money unless I had a way of getting them paid off in other deals or in other equity lines I have. So being very open and honest about numbers and kind of where I'm at. And then in terms of structuring these deals with the various partners, was it all private money? Were there equity partnerships?

And how are you actually structuring the relationships on these different deals? So we do a very basic, depending on who I work with, it's either 10% to 12%.

And it's just a flat 10 to 12% interest, whether I have the money out for a month or a year. And it's a year. I always cap it at a year. So that's how I've done every deal. I haven't done any equity positions yet. Um, I'm looking at some bigger deals that we're trying to possibly talk about that. But, um, as far as everything I've done with them, it's kind of been smaller stuff where we buy it, we go in, we fix it up, either sell it or refi them out. And, um,

get them out of it pretty quick. Now you mentioned some bigger deals and you've got your rentals, you've got the flips that you've done. So what are these bigger deals that you're looking at? Obviously, I just closed on a 18 unit mobile home park. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. That's been a pretty big learning curve. Is that in New York? You did close on it in New York? Yeah.

Yeah, it's like 45 minutes away, so pretty local. Then we have a couple of larger apartment complexes that we're looking at as well, but nothing official on those. So let me ask, when you're looking at these bigger deals, what has been the difference between looking at the single family properties you're buying to rent or flip compared to the due diligence per se on a larger multifamily property? Oh, it's...

leaps and bounds different. I'm learning now that, you know, so I don't want to sit here and act like I know what I'm talking about because I don't feel like I do. But yeah, there's just so much that goes into them. So many more tenants in it. I'm in New York, so there's so many tenant laws. And like I'm learning for this mobile home park, there's also a seven unit apartment building on the mobile home park that's condemned.

That we're starting with. And one of the apartments, I was like, we're kind of doing our walkthrough and all of their stuff was still in there, but they were gone and supposedly moved out. Well, I'll come to find out they did move out, but all their stuff's there. But in New York, technically, I still have to go through an eviction process. If I don't, they can sue me for getting rid of their stuff.

So it's kind of like one of those things where I wouldn't have thought that'd be a big deal. I wasn't told about the tenant. It just, I was told it was a condemned building by everyone I talked to, co the previous owner. And now come to find out we might have to go through this process. So. Which do you even know where to find the tenant?

The tenants to serve them or anything. I got a number, so I got to make a few phone calls and hopefully I can offer them a little money and get out of there. So look, super excited to hear about this 18 mobile home park property that you just purchased. I think the biggest thing for Rickies that are listening is probably the thought of like, how do you actually put the funds together to buy something this big? So what approach did you take to buy this mobile home park? Was it

creative financing, seller financing, private money. What did you do to take this deal down? Yeah. So this deal was very odd situation how the whole thing happened. It was actually, I saw it for sale on Craigslist about a year ago, actually. So we go from Facebook Marketplace to Craigslist. It's even worse. So I talked to the guy, I talked to him for a few months and it was always odd conversations with him. It was just, he was super squirrely. We'd

You know, there'd be one week where he's like, I need the money. I need the money. Let's sell it. And then I wouldn't hear from him again for a couple of weeks and same kind of cycle. And eventually I just kind of gave up on it, moved on. And then, you know, a couple of months ago I saw listed on the MLS and I'm like, gosh, you know, they wanted a ton for it. So I didn't even bother.

Kind of moved on again, and then I was talking to one of the guys I do deals with, and he was kind of talking about how he's foreclosing on a property up in Addison. I'm like, is that? And I asked, and sure enough, it was the same deal. He was actually holding the note for this mobile home park. So I started kind of talking to him. He gave me the whole rundown. It was not the best situation, a bunch of back taxes, a bunch of back utilities. Nobody's gotten paid in years.

And the whole town wanted him out. So I kind of talked with a seller. I kind of talked with the lender and I kind of was the middleman trying to wheel and deal and kind of whizzle my way in there. And so the agreement I came up with the lender was, you know, if I could get him to

just sign the property over me. Can I just assume the debt and you'll start getting paid and we can all move on. You don't have to worry about going through a foreclosure process. And, you know, and he already knows I'm good for it. So he's like, if you could talk him into it, that's fine by me. So then like the next couple of months were just me and the seller kind of going back and forth and

for basically what extra he was gonna pocket on top of assuming the debt. We ended up agreeing on him not getting a dollar. So at closing I came out of pocket no money and I completely assumed the debt. We're gonna defer payments for a year while I fix the whole property up so I don't have to worry about mortgage payments. The trailer park cash flow is quite a bit of money on its own without the seven unit building in the front. So by the time I'm actually gonna have to start making mortgage payments,

everything should be up and running. It should be a really, really good deal. So Luke, you don't have any partners on this deal. You didn't even necessarily raise any private money for this deal. You just assumed the note and came with $0 out of pocket. Yeah, exactly. I actually got paid 50 grand at closing because I had to bump the note up an extra 50 grand so I could start rolling some of that into renovations. Luke, you might be the best real estate investor we've ever interviewed. Finding deals off of Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace and

I love the story, man. This guy just got burned for years from this other person and he's willing to give you an extra $50,000 to

And take this property. Imagine going to a bank and saying, hey, bank, give me $50,000 to take over this note. Oh, yeah. And if they saw a picture of the property, they would have laughed at my face, too. Luke, I got to take you with me in my negotiations moving forward, man, because you got like the gift of gab or something going on there, man. Oh, no.

No, I think I'm just lucky. Well, we've got to take our final ad break, but we've got a little bit more to get into here with Luke. But while we're gone, make sure you guys are subscribed to the Real Estate Rookie YouTube channel. You guys can find us at Real Estate Rookie and we'll be right back after the short break.

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Okay. Welcome back from our break. We are here with Luke. So Luke, before we wrap things up, I want to touch on your W-2 job. So you were able to actually move your fiance out of her normal W-2 to run the business with you. So maybe touch on what she's, you know, helping you do in the business and then also what your plan is to be able to quit your W-2 job.

I want to preface that none of this would have been possible without her. And I also, my mom used to work for UPS. She would load boxes on the trucks and she quit and she now works as well. So those two are kind of,

Yeah, those two are kind of full time during the day, which allows me to still kind of work and pay the bills. And like I've yet to take one dollar from anything we've made. It just all goes right back in. And the only thing we've paid is just my mom and her and the Airbnb has covered that. So, yeah.

It kind of works out great. And they're able to kind of... So we kind of split the roles where my mom kind of handles project management, I guess you'd say. And then Mal takes care of all the tenant issues, all the legal documents. She's extremely, extremely type A. So it works out amazing for emails, calls. I don't have to worry about a thing. If I need something, there's an Excel spreadsheet that is updated by the hour. And it just...

I'm not like that at all. And, uh, I think without her, we really would be in a mess because our numbers would be kind of, I'm just the, you know, I like to be in the front kind of pushing forward, finding deals. And then luckily she's able to kind of keep everyone organized. And my mom's really, uh, gosh, good at talking the contractor jargon. So, uh,

It's kind of worked out well. And then what about yourself? What's the plan for you to eventually move out of your W2 job? That's kind of where my biggest, I guess, hurdle would be right now. It's just it's obviously a scary thought, leaving, you know, a good job that pays all the bills and allows us to kind of do this. So, you know, I kind of have I have worries if I do it too soon. It might really hinder us being able to continue to grow, right?

But also I know how productive I can be. So I can only imagine if my two, three hours a day working was 15, you know? So, um, it's kind of one of those things where like, I'm, I'm nervous on it. I don't really know how I should pay myself. I don't, I'm afraid to take money from the business. I don't like the thought of it. And, um,

So I guess that's just kind of where I'm at currently is trying to figure out exactly all the logistics. Do I want to up my flipping? Do I want to just pay myself off a flipping? Should I worry about growing cash flow to kind of get to the point where all my bills are covered and then I can just not worry from that?

So that's kind of currently where I'm at with everything. Yeah. If I can kind of give you my recommendation, Luke, I think there's, there's a couple of things you you've built an expertise and a few areas already, uh, the flipping to generate large chunks of cash, which is great. Um, obviously you're, uh,

really good at finding deals in your market that are undervalued and then stabilizing those properties to generate cashflow. So you've got, and your ability to raise money to fund these deals, right? So you've got three massive skill sets, flipping for big chunks of cash, buying, renovating for the cashflow, raising money to fund all of your deals, right?

So you've got all of the pieces in place, I think, to lay that foundation to get you to step away. I think if I were you, the two things I would focus on are one,

getting your personal reserves to a point where you're comfortable and what that comfortable is, you know, what that number is going to vary from person to person. Maybe for you, it's six months of your living expenses. Maybe it's two years of your living expenses, whatever the number is, just decide for yourself. What number do I want to have in the bank? Not business reserves, but like for Luke personally, right. To, to cover my mortgage, my groceries, my bills, my fun, just my life. How much do I want to have set aside? Right.

Then get your cashflow to a number to say, okay, well, if I know my living expenses are X, maybe you want two X in cashflow, right?

Right. Because there's going to be ups and downs. You want to make sure you have money set aside. So I think if you can tackle those two things, getting your personal reserves in place and getting your cash flow to a point, again, whatever threshold you feel makes the most sense. But if you can check both of those boxes, then it's like, OK, I'm almost losing money at this point by not going into the business full time. I guess when you put it that way, I should.

Probably quit tomorrow. There you go, man. Well, Luke, thank you so much for joining us on this episode of Real Estate Rookie. Where can people reach out to you? I'm not huge on social medias, but you can look me up on Instagram. It's Luke underscore Tetro.

Facebook, it's Luke Tatro. And Luke, how do you spell your last name for folks? It's T-E-T-R-E-A-U-L-T. I'm Ashley and he's Tony. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of Real Estate Rookie. And we'll see you guys soon for another episode.

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