Wealthy AF Podcast

Trading the 9-5 for Financial Freedom: A Real Estate Success Story

• Martin Perdomo "The Elite Strategist" • Season 2 • Episode 268

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Ever wondered how to make your first step into the world of real estate investing? Our special guest, Nobu Musekiwa, shares her own unique journey from purchasing a condo at 20, to house hacking a three-family home in New York City, and then skyrocketing its value through renovations. If you've ever felt constrained by the corporate world, Nobu's insights on tackling workplace challenges, shifting mindsets, and achieving financial independence will resonate with you.

In a world that still grapples with gender disparities, Nobu Musekiwa talks about her experiences in the corporate domain and her determination to take control of her career and life. She shares how the pandemic served as a significant turning point in her life that propelled her towards a fulfilling life beyond the 9-5 grind. This episode is not just about financial freedom, it's about empowering women in real estate and illuminating how buying a home can be a game-changer, providing more control and options in life.

And if you're a person of color exploring the real estate landscape, Nobu addresses the challenges you might face, emphasizing that social media can sometimes present a distorted view of property purchases. She shares her practical advice on making your first real estate deal and stresses the importance of understanding your finances, considering options like house hacking with a fourplex, and leveraging an FHA loan. This is more than just a conversation; it's an enlightening guide that could equip you with tangible wisdom for your real estate journey. So, tune in! Let Nobu's story inspire you to take that first confident step in your own real estate journey.

NOBU MUSEKIWA'S SOCIALS:
WEBSITE: https://nobumusekiwa.com
YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/c/MakingCentsofDebt
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/nobumusekiwa/

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Speaker 1:

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Latinos and Real Estate Investing Podcasts, where individuals just like you come to learn how to create wealth through real estate investing, entrepreneurship and business ownership. And today's guest is Nobu Musekiewa. I said that right, didn't I? I hope so. You sure did. I got it Perfect. I said goodbye to a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company and a blooming career in sales when she became work optional at the age of 36. Nobu now teaches single millennial women how to leverage their credit and corporate salaries to gain financial freedom through house hacking and exit their rat race. Nobu, I love that. Welcome, first and foremost. Welcome to Latinos and Real Estate Investing Podcasts. Appreciate you being here, taking the time, thanks so much for having me Share, sharing with us.

Speaker 1:

So tell us about this journey. Where did this journey start of you wanting to help women get out of the rat race? How did your real estate investing journey start? First of all, let's start there.

Speaker 2:

So my investing journey started with a little seed that was planted by my sister. So I was a senior in college, I was 2005, and she said, hey, you should buy a condo. And I thought, okay, let's look into this. And at the time, as you know, getting mortgages was pretty easy. I'm going to get a mortgage. So I was able to get a pre-approved for estate and income loan and I started working with her realtor and her realtor. Even though I was a kid I was 20, she treated me with respect, she explained everything. We were able to make a couple of offers on condos and I wasn't able to get one at that time. The properties that I was interested in they didn't meet the type of loan that I had. The building had to have a certain percentage of owner occupants versus investors and they didn't meet that criteria. So we put a few offers in and it didn't end up buying anything at that time, but just the experience of looking at houses and seeing it as a real possibility just put this idea that buying a house is not difficult. And the interesting thing is I didn't appreciate that experience at that time. But now I am so grateful for Vicki Wilcox and my sister for planting that idea, because I see now that so many people have this idea that buying a house is a hard thing, it's not possible, and that experience just opened up my eyes. So I was 20 at the time. I didn't buy that condo.

Speaker 2:

I ended up graduating college, I moved to Dominican Republic for a couple of years I taught English and then, when I came back from DR, I moved to New York City and I wasn't thinking about buying houses at all. I was just living my best life, regular 20-year-old partying, going to brunch. But in all that, one thing was I got really good at managing my money. So I was making $48,000 a year in New York City and I still wanted to have a life. I still wanted to go out. So I had roommates where we split rent. I had roommates where they paid more. I started Airbnbing my apartment and that covered my whole rent and through that I was able to get back into. Ok, I need to buy a house now because I don't want to keep wasting my money on rent.

Speaker 2:

So initially I was looking to because of my income. I thought, ok, I can only buy a condo. That's all I can afford in New York City, right, Because $48,000,. What am I going to do with that? In New York City? And I think I heard on a podcast that when you buy a multi-family, you can use the income from that your future income from your tenants to get a bigger mortgage. And so that lit a light bulb in my head, and so I started specifically looking for multi-families and that, knowing that, I was able to qualify for a bigger mortgage, and I started looking at multi-families, and that's how I got started.

Speaker 2:

And in that journey, I started having conversations with people that I would meet at open houses, and this one gentleman I wish I remembered his name he had mentioned oh, we were able to get this renovation done so quickly. And I said what renovation? So I started looking at OK, how much was the last sale price on this building? And I started seeing that it was $200, $300,000, but now it's on sale for $700,000. And so I said, ok, so these people, these investors, they're buying these houses super cheap, they're fixing them and then three months later, they're selling them for way more. And so I thought, ok, well, maybe I can do that.

Speaker 2:

That's a good thought, and so my first big journey into actually doing this real estate thing was buying a three-family house in New York City on a $48,000 a year and fully renovating that building.

Speaker 1:

That is how I got started, you did your first deal. Your first house hack was a freaking rental. You are brave. So at 21?, 20, I was 28.

Speaker 2:

You were 28. Still You're brave. That's I commend you, I salute you for that.

Speaker 1:

That took a lot of guts to do that, especially in New York City. Where in New York City did you buy this property? I was born and raised in New York City.

Speaker 2:

In the Rockaway, so in Queens.

Speaker 1:

In Queens. My sister has a house in Queens there. So what did those numbers look like? So tell people, because you specialize in teaching house hacking, so is that what you did there? You house hacked that first property.

Speaker 2:

I did house hack that first property.

Speaker 1:

So tell us what house hacking is first, so maybe there's listeners that don't know what that terminology means. And what did the numbers on that look like? How much did you pay for that house, by the way, before you answer that, so the actual cost on the house was $206,000. So what was the ARV that's?

Speaker 2:

$650,000.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so how does a how does so tell us how you did that, explain to the listeners, how you did that Right, how you took that and what is house hacking, and how you the whole playbook that you did in New York City?

Speaker 2:

Yep. So house hacking is taking your primary residence where you live, and creating income from that. So you could be, you could buy a single family house and you can rent out rooms. That's house hacking.

Speaker 2:

I like to do multi families because of that that hack where you get to get a bigger mortgage because the banks Consider that income that you're gonna get.

Speaker 2:

So you can buy a two family, a three family or four family and the Beautiful thing is the type of loan that you get is gonna be the same as a single family. So just as you would put three and a half percent down for a single family, you can do that for two, three or four family. So you get to pretty much Get a taste for being an investor, but you are getting in way cheaper. You don't have to put down the 15 or 20 percent down. But for me, my big Benefit is that you get to eliminate your rent right. So if you do your math properly, you're not paying rent, you're not paying a mortgage, and what that means is you can now take that income and you can save it, you can pay off debt, you can use that to stay faster to get into your next property, and so that's why I love house hacking and Makes me sad that more first-time homebuyers don't do it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, I gotta tell you. You know, when I bought my first house, I was 2021, 21. When I bought my first house, my wife and I long Island and I wanted a house hack. I had no idea that's what it was. So I had this idea that I was gonna tell my wife, hey, my girlfriend at the time she was in my wife, but she was my girl I was like, hey, babe, we should buy, we should buy a four unit. We live in one and then the other three. That was as far as I could think. Right, that was as far as my vision. Like that was it. Like the other three, we can rent and we can live, rent free. But at the time we already had two, we had one kid and the other one was on the way and she was like no, I don't want to live with people. And that was a limitation, that was a limit.

Speaker 1:

And you know, now we have all of these doors and we have all this real estate that we own.

Speaker 1:

And Now we look back and we think and I'm like, babe, you remember when you said that to me, I said imagine if you just would have listened, if you were to, just if we would have sacrificed, if we would have just Sacrifice a little while in our life, how much further would we have been today? You know, we still, we still we did okay, but if we would have just done it, then how much further what we have done today. So that's one of the challenges that I find with some people. That was my challenge that held me back. But can you break down as to how do you scale and how do you do this house hacking thing from one to the next, so next in the next, and give us some numbers? I give people some like some real numbers, like okay, this is what the numbers look like for you, and then how you moved on to the next one and the next one, and and how people can do that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So for that, that first house Like that it was 200, 206 was the sale price. It was a foreclosure and it was not, wasn't a wasn't. A lot of people think that foreclosures are something that you have to Go dig and find and first that is true. But you can also find foreclosure is the MLS. So this was a foreclosure on the MLS and because it was bank owned, regular, regular buyers, so non-investors Got first dibs when putting in your office first and people don't don't recognize that. So even if you don't have cash like if you don't have the cash like Martin, to go buy the house, you actually get to benefit because you get to put your offer in first and you're probably going to be offering way more than an investor Because it's for you to live in. So it was 200,000 is what I got it for. And then it was 9095 was the renovation cost and I specifically used a 203k loan to buy the house. So it's an FHA loan so you can still put your your low down payment but you can include all your innovation costs. So I didn't have to have a hundred grand in the bank to get this done. It was part of my mortgage. I just had to find a contractor that was willing to abide by the 203k rules and get paid After they do the work essentially and that was a big hurdle of finding someone that would be able to to do that. But once you do that renovation, once you get in, you do the renovation. Even if you don't do renovation, you now have a few years of People paying your rent. Your tenants are paying your rent. You have that on your taxes. So now you can go ahead and buy your next house and your bank is gonna look at your history of your tenant income and that's gonna help you to get into your next building. Whereas if you just buy you know my first house was a regular single family Then I don't have the extra income from those other tenants. Now get me into the next one.

Speaker 2:

For me, what I did to get into my next house was I I Looked at my, my numbers. I think a lot of people just kind of go by, a lot of regular people, not like non-investors, just go by like here is what I I feel I want to get, whereas I bought a single family for my next house Because I was moving for work and there were limitations for what kind of house I could buy to to qualify for my relocation package. It's a single family, but with that single family I still had the idea of, okay, how can we buy this house and how can we make sure we make money off of it? Right, I think we, we think it's more complicated or we don't have a lot of experience. But either you got to have equity that you're building, that you're forcing, or that you're not just hoping for, or you have to have cash Flow.

Speaker 2:

So with the single family, I didn't want to do a renovation. So I said, okay, like how can I buy a house where I know I'm gonna make money from it? And so I specifically bought, like a three family, sorry, a three bedroom with two different bathrooms. So I know that I can rent out one of the rooms and that's gonna cover a good chunk of my mortgage. So the math was like the mortgage is 900 and was 940 on that property and roommates are $800. So I know that, no matter what, I'm gonna be fine. And in addition, there's that extra thousand dollars from that first property that can still cover the rent, the mortgage, even if, if things go awry.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's, that's, that's a brilliant strategy. So so at what point did you go into your six-figure income job? Right, you was in a pharmaceutical sales job in New York City. They make a lot of money. I tried to get a job there when I was selling insurance. I just I don't have a college degree, so I they don't. They don't hire you if you don't have a college degree. I was a great salesman and selling insurance and I wanted to switch over at the time to sell pharmaceutical. So I knew I could make a lot more money, but I never. I never was able to to move over. So my question is why did you decide to leave? But when did you decide to leave that career as a pharmaceutical sales rep in New York? You guys make a ton of money there in NYC. I know that I did the research, so so why did you decide to leave that job to go into Into full-time, you know, buying real estate and and then deciding to? You wanted to help women Leave. Do the same thing you did.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So I switched from nonprofit to Pharma in 2016 so a few years. About my house in 2012, so four years after I bought that house and I Initially I was nervous about switching to corporates. I thought, you know, corporate's gonna be terrible, they don't care about people. But it was actually a good experience and in that first company that I was in, I actually got laid off within a year and a half.

Speaker 2:

The great thing is, my multi-family saved me at that time because I didn't have to worry about getting a job quickly and after that when I went into sales. So that's when I went into my like six figure, six figure job after that and eventually I Was able to. I did well in my sales role in the city so I was able to. I was promoted to go to corporate, to the headquarters, and that first year at corporate headquarters I made a ton of money, but I Was working for someone that Created an environment that was was very micromanagey and just wasn't safe to talk, and it was a bad year for my mental health. It's toxic. It was perfect, perfect word.

Speaker 1:

Soxic, that sounds like to me Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2:

So I was crying every day Like I had to start seeing a therapist, like it was. It was a bad year mentally because of the environment at work and After that year I just decided that I never wanted to be in a place where and not I had to stay at a job because I Needed the check right and in that time, like I had the funds where I could have left, but I had taken this huge relocation Package and I wasn't willing to get into 30,000 in debt, of debt to leave this job. So I felt like I was stuck. I know, technically I wasn't right, we make decisions. I could have left, but I felt like, okay, like I've worked so hard to pay off my debt, I've worked so hard to make a decision in a place where I feel good financially, where I don't want to give that up by quitting this job, so I stayed and it was a bad, bad year Mentally. So that really made me realize, okay, like I don't really need to, I don't want to deal with this. And in that time I didn't have my, my single family yet and I was thinking about not buying a house. But that experience made me do the math and realize that the value of my multifamily had gone up so much and the money that I would be fighting for to get an increase, that work just wasn't worth it. I could do more for myself by just focusing on buying more property. So that made me decide that I needed to find my way out and save my money.

Speaker 2:

And then, in addition to that, I worked in sales training. So I me and four of my other colleagues were responsible of training you know, one of the top divisions in the company and as I stayed in that role, I saw that a lot of Males that we trained were rising up to higher positions really quickly. And then the women that we trained, even though there were more talented or even the same talent as the guys, like they were being told to hold back, and some of it was management side, some of it was self-imposed and I just it. I didn't like that.

Speaker 2:

I Know that's just like the game that you have to advocate for yourself, but I I didn't want him to place where I had to possibly deal with the toxic environments and then have to be working harder than my male peers to prove that I was worth the raise or prove that I Should have a higher role and I just wanted more control over how much I'm making and what I'm doing and the time that I'm spending. And then, right after that, was the pandemic and I was just like, yeah, like I don't, I don't want to. You know, life is short. I want to be able to do what's important to me and what matters to me, as opposed to staying in situations because I feel like I have to be there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm sure that resonates with a lot of listeners right now, and not just male, not just females. It's a real thing for women. I know that that's. That's definitely a real thing. You just expressed that. It's also a real thing for men, right? I felt this.

Speaker 1:

I used to feel the same way when I was in corporate telling insurance. I felt like, hey, because of the way I looked, it's a selling life insurance 20 year old Kid. Right out, 20 Life insurance sales is a bunch of older white guys 50s in the 50s and 60s and I'm hustling right now I'll go to the Bronx and sell life insurance. I'll go anywhere. I didn't care, I go to projects. I felt like I didn't wasn't at the time. That was my mindset I had.

Speaker 1:

I also will admit that at that time in my life I didn't know what I know today. I wasn't as red as I am today. I didn't have the experience, so I had some of the victim mindset. I don't believe in that crap. Today I make my own opportunities. I go and I make it happen. I don't need no one to give me. I don't need anyone. No one makes opportunities for me. I make them. I go out and I work and I make them for myself To different. It's a bit of a different mindset at that time, though it was what was me. I'm working hard, I'm producing it. It's a bit of a tough, but it's a real thing. It's a real thing for women.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I agree with you 100% that a lot of it, like I mentioned, like part of it is, yes, there's other parties, but a lot of it too is your mindset as well and what you think and you, if you have that I, that mindset of you, know I I'm gonna push my leader to do whatever well, I'm gonna push forward, like even if they might think of me differently because I'm a kid or I'm black or whatever, like If a lot of it is in your head 100%. So, yeah, mindset plays a big, mindset plays a huge role.

Speaker 1:

Let me tell you I have. So my son might, my son's 20, and he works here with me. So he's done a bunch of wholesale, so he gets, he leads the whole. He's actually leading the wholesaling department right now, right for the company. Right, he's leading and and I remember he started with me at 18, right when he graduated high school, when he worked a little few little bullshit jobs and then he decided that I want to work with you. He didn't want to go to college. So, okay, fine, but you're gonna start at the bottom, right, so you're gonna report to my sale, my head sales guy, and he was out there.

Speaker 1:

We were, you know, working on leads, getting working on sales. And I remember one day last year he comes, he's like I want to go to lunch and I was like, okay, so I'm gonna go to lunch, and we go to lunch and he's like you know you, he was crying. He was crying. We went to subways and he was crying. He was like you have me do all of this stuff and you treat other people, your other employees, better than you treat me. And I'm letting him talk and I'm letting him you know that and you let everyone and I could just see myself so much. I could see so much of myself in him when I was working in corporate, just trying to earn my stripes, playing the victim right. I could see so much of what I was a kid. I see so much of why. Why was in you and I was like dude, you have to earn your stripes you. This is not gonna be given to you just because it's my company. You got to go and learn, you got trust me. You can be grateful that I taught you how to fish and then I didn't give it to you Because of one day I'm gone. You know how to find a deal. Do you know how to run the numbers? You know what a good deal looks like.

Speaker 1:

He just bought his first, his first investment property this week and we were in the truck yesterday we went out to do. We locked up another property yesterday and he thanked me. He was like that. I remember we had that conversation, thank you, and I was like you told me I was gonna be grateful one day. I. He's like I. I'm grateful now because now I told him. I said you can move up now. Now, now you can partner on this slip. We just bought, we closed the property yesterday said you're gonna run to you and I'm gonna give you 10% profits on the profits on that deal, so but you run to keep me out of it. You're running the contractors. You are like you're running it. I'm gonna come and just check in every once in a while, but it's your baby.

Speaker 1:

Anyways, my point is that a lot of times when we're young, we don't know better, we can't see far. We can't see far, we can only see us in front of us, and that's why older people tell us you're foolish, kid, just wait, just wait, just wait. So so here you are, now and now you have this passion for this, this passion for teaching women. Tell me why women I mean, I think I know why women. You just kind of shared a little bit, but you have this passion to teach, to teach women to get out of the rat race. Tell us about that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean. So the reason why women is. After I bought my first house, I started having conversations with my friends and so many of them just Didn't even realize it was possible to even get a house. And a lot of them also, even though they maybe Realized that, yes, it's possible, they thought well, what if I get married? I can't buy this house before. And To me it's like well, what if you never get married? He ought. If you get married, you know, 15 years from now, uh-huh, it's 15 years of rent that you are Missing out on, and on top of that, just an equity. What I've seen in sorry go ahead and equity.

Speaker 1:

I was gonna say you said rent and I said an equity rent and equity. They're missing out.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, absolutely. That's even bigger than the, than the rent, and and then also just from my experience of seeing the differences in treatment Okay, we know the pay gap is real right, the pay gap is there, and even if, on top of that, you're probably gonna have to just work harder than your male peers to get recognized in corporate Whether or not we, even if it's a company where they're trying to be better about these things, and so you can still keep your job and that's fantastic. But you can leverage your first house so you're in a place where you have more options, either with your job or your relationships or your life. And what I see is a lot of people not just women who buy their first house and they miss an opportunity to use that house to get a leg up. And so my passion is to help more women just recognize that buying a house can be just a place where you sleep, or it can be a vehicle for you to get that equity, to get that cash flow, so that, down the line, if you're in a job that you don't wanna be and you can exit.

Speaker 2:

If you're in a relationship where you don't wanna be there anymore, you don't have to feel obligated to stay there because you don't have the means to get out. If you wanna help your parents go on vacation, you can do that because you have extra budget, because you're not putting all your money towards your rent and towards your mortgage. So my passion is just for women, because I think sometimes, as women, we don't see the things that we can do. So many times I'll post and say, hey, if you have any questions about buying a house, let me know, and I get so many guys that come in the DMs and they're willing to take risks right now and the women aren't. And so I think guys are more willing to go out and try and figure things out and women just need a little bit. Some women need a little bit more encouraging, need to see examples, and that's why I work with women specifically.

Speaker 1:

That's great, that's great. So it was after you talking to your friends that you realized that there's a need for it. And let me ask you a question Do you, you know, being a person of color both of us do you find that it's challenging in our cultures, where home ownership becomes this thing? That's far away and it's like what is your experience as you coach people and have you coach minority folks, you know, latinos and brown, black and brown people what do you find? That is the one limitation that interferes with people doing this right.

Speaker 1:

A lot of people look at you know, I know I talk to a lot of people and some of my friends are like man, you're doing this, you're doing that and you're lucky, and I'm like dude, do you not see me on Instagram on Sundays, going to my properties and sometimes working on a Sunday, and do you not see like, do you not see that? Do you not see me going on dates with my wife where the dates are like hey, babe, I gotta go, we're gonna go to the movies, or we're gonna go to, but before we go to movies, we're gonna stop at this property and we're gonna go check on the contractors, or we're gonna go check on the process, on the projects, and see how it's coming along. Like dude, it's constant. Like I'm building, I'm just I'm building an empire here and that doesn't. That's not luck, it's just work ethic. What are you finding? Is you know that one limitation, and how do you help them overcome that?

Speaker 2:

I think for people of color, a big barrier is not seeing examples around you. So I think for people of color that have people that they know that have by property, it feels more attainable. But then the people that they don't know, anybody around them that has bought a house and even on the block, like everybody's a renter, then they have this idea, they have this perception that it's something that's not possible. And then when they start like they're, when they try to access or try to tap into that inspiration by looking on social or going on YouTube or whatever, a lot of the stories are like big time investors, like they see, okay, like this person you know Martin's buying a hotel, or this person is buying you know a hundred units. But then they don't take the time to step back and say, okay, but they started with one thing.

Speaker 1:

Go back to the first one.

Speaker 2:

Exactly so now they think well, I can never buy like-.

Speaker 1:

The hotel or under your Right.

Speaker 2:

I can never buy a hotel. But then it's like so the big thing is just reframing and thinking, okay, like you're seeing the story now 10, 15, 20 years later, but all these big time investors that you're seeing, they started with just like one thing. And like you don't need to keep listening to like 15, 20, 100 episodes right Of collecting or releasing investors. Once you've listened to like five let's say 10, you have the information you need like go through something Right. And I think we get into the trap of like I need to learn more. I need to learn more. I need to learn more.

Speaker 2:

You really don't Like, you just need to like whatever you want to buy, where they want to start with that single family, multi-family, whatever, think about the equity or think about the cash flow, and if you get one of those things right, you're good. And then you, and then, as you do what you learn and you get more experience, then you start going little by little. So I would just say, like, if you're a person in the cloud that's listening, just remember that like nobody started, nobody started up, nobody started with a thousand units, just start with the one and take action. Don't keep listening and taking knowledge and not taking action, just Get going.

Speaker 1:

That is so sound advice. Nobu, I believe in the input-output method. This is something I learned. I remember I was watching a YouTube, I was watching a YouTube video or something, and the guy said you know, I do input and output and output and output and I was like what the heck is that? And he's like every time I read a book, every time I listen to a podcast, every time I watch something that I find value in and I learn something new that I resonate with me. He takes it in and then, immediately the next day or the next moment he could, he puts it to work. He puts it out to work. Right. So, listen to this podcast, listen to YouTube videos, whatever it is that you're listening or you're doing, but learn it and then go do something with it. Go do something with it.

Speaker 1:

I post a challenge to a host of meetup every month and investors meetup and this week was my weekly, my monthly meetup and in my meetup and those of you listening, they all listened to my podcast. Those of you listening, remember I said to you guys, I tell them is okay, what can you do from what you learned today? How can you go and put it to work tomorrow? Right, I just shared some information with you. I just shared some information with you about money and lending and finding deals and go what can you? How can, what do you? What's one thing you can do tomorrow Make a phone call to a lender, go talk to two lenders, go find out their criteria, go ask them what are the things I need, what are the things I need to do, what are the things I need to learn, what are the things that you're going to need when I find a deal? Go, take, that's it. You've got to go and take action. So I commend you for that, for sharing that, that gospel of taking action.

Speaker 1:

Someone is listening to us right now, noble, and they're. They're wanting to buy their first deal right, and they don't know where to start. They have a job, they have a corporate job, they have good credit and they're like man, that sounds good. I know a lot of people like this. You know a lot of people like this.

Speaker 1:

We come across a lot of people. They feel stuck in the job. They're in a toxic work environment with a manager they hate or a company they don't like, but they're there because it pays the rent, it pays the bills. They're like man, what? Where can I start to go get? What's the next thing I need to do to get things moving in my life right? What would you get? My first deal? What advice are you giving them? What are you telling them? How do they get started? I know you love house hacking. Where should they start? Because a lot of people, especially people that look like me and people that look like you, don't have a lot of times that we don't have the access to. We have access to education online, but we don't have the education or we don't have someone telling us hey, go get this, go do that, go do this, go do that, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom and go, just go like go. You know what I mean. What are you telling them to do?

Speaker 2:

I'm going to tell them to do two things. First thing is to get a good grasp of what's happening with your money. So actually take a look and see here are all my bills, here's how much I make. If I were to buy a house today, like how much makes sense for me to spend, I would start there. A lot of people start by going to a lender but they don't take a look at okay, like they don't look at how much can I actually pay based on what I'm currently spending, and they end up spending too much. So understand that can I pay the same as my rent? Can I pay less than my rent? Decide what that number is.

Speaker 2:

And then step number two is to go to a lender and ask them how much you qualify for based on your income. That'll just just taking that action, even if you don't know what you're going to buy. It will Just give you a sense of possibility because now you can see okay, like I thought I couldn't even qualify, but here is what my options are. And then you can take a step back and think through okay, what do I actually want to buy, like, do I want to buy a single family, a condo? Do I want to buy a two-family, like whatever, but just understanding your money and then just talking to a professional, because a lot of times I see people just getting stuck in their heads and thinking they don't qualify, like I don't think I don't make enough money, my credit score is on high enough, but until you talk to a lender you don't really know, like, what your options actually are.

Speaker 1:

That's good advice. So you're basically saying check your money and then, once you know your money, decide. So get clarity. Basically Get clarity on what you want to pay. Get clarity on what you want. Do you want a condo?

Speaker 1:

My advice always is to a newbie that is looking to get into a person that hasn't bought a house, that's looking to get into real estate. The long game is to own real estate is buy a quad. I would go buy a quad if I could a fourplex and house hack. Get an FHA loan, put 3% down, go live in one, rent a three and then do it again next year. Go buy another one 75 miles, 100 miles I don't know what the requirements are these days for that, but go get another one 100 miles away yeah, 100 miles away and do it again. Right, and now you have eight units and guess what happens? In five years You'll have 20 doors and you'll be financially free, just like that. It's short as five years.

Speaker 1:

This is not that hard, guys. It's a couple of little skills you need to learn. You need to learn numbers, math, simple math and the sixth grade math. Really, you need to know math. Know the be atone to what the interest rates are, be atone to what the rents are, know what your payment's going to be, and then you just got to calculate a couple of little things Vacancy, maintenance and repairs. You put that aside every month for when those things happen and voila, that's it. That's it, it's really that simple.

Speaker 1:

I wish.

Speaker 2:

I bought a quad initially.

Speaker 1:

That's why I say it Me too, I wish I bought a quad. You did much better than me. You bought a triplex, so good for you. Like I wish I would have bought a quad in 2000. My goodness, in New York in 2000, a quad was like $250,000, $300,000. It's like, oh, my goodness, I think about that now. I was like man, we fell at mill right now, wherever it is. Yeah, I know, we missed that, I missed that. But hey, whatever, I got my properties, I got my assets. Now I figured out the game Little later than I was.

Speaker 2:

The big thing if you are, if you're house hacking. So if you're going to live in the quad like we, like other people that teach about house hacking, they get really complicated about like you got to do, like this calculation and cash on cash and but if you're living in it, you can. All you need to worry about is are my expenses to run the building and the mortgage covered by the rent? And if you're doing that, you're winning, because you're where you're winning is that you are saving your rent and you're saving your mortgage. What, what did you say? Don't worry about these crazy, not crazy. It's not crazy for you all, but you want complicated for us, complicated for regular people investor calculations. Just, is my mortgage being covered? Are my expenses covered? If yes, you're good. Simplified, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you don't have to learn all the other stuff as you go. You know, like as you go, like you gave. So that's real fun advice for someone that just wants to jump. I'm a big believer in just go, like learn and go, learn and go and then associate yourself or listen to podcasts, learn and go, learn and then go, then go to meetups, go, and you're going to learn all these things as you go along. You're going to pick up all of this terminology and all of these calculations and it's not hard, it's really not. It's actually pretty easy Once you get it, once you understand, like it's pretty simple math, it's really simple math, noble. Thank you so much for coming out. Really appreciate you. You ready to play? We're going to go into the untitled round section where I'm going to ask you a series of questions. You don't have to think, you don't have to justify, you have to do is answer with one word answers. And are you ready to play? Let's go, let's do it, okay, real estate is amazing.

Speaker 1:

House. The housing market right now is opportunity. I've always wanted to travel to the Maldives. The president right now is who?

Speaker 2:

need help.

Speaker 1:

By the way, I don't know these. I don't know what they're going to have me ask you. I'm reading them, as my team puts these questions together for me and they do some research and they just they're funny, they're hilarious. My advice to all female entrepreneurs is just do it. Never underestimate the power of your mindset family or business, family book smart or street smart.

Speaker 2:

Street smart all the way, new York City.

Speaker 1:

Seafood or steak, seafood, wine or beer wine, words or action, actions, no question. And lastly, angry client or angry co worker?

Speaker 2:

angry client.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for coming out, my dear. If there was a lady out there that you know, would you coach men by any chance?

Speaker 2:

I do.

Speaker 1:

Okay. So if there's a human being out there that's interested in learning, connecting with you and maybe bringing you on so to you can walk them through that first house hack, how can they reach you? How can they connect with you? Where do they find you? What's up? Talk to us.

Speaker 2:

You can find all my information at wwwnobubio, so not dot com, so nobubio.

Speaker 1:

all my contact information is on that page, so at the bottom of the page and we'll also have it all in the show notes, or you just got to go to the show notes and click on the link. It'll make it will make it real easy for you to find her. And thank you guys for listening and watching Nobu, thank you for being here and this was great interview, sound advice given here by Nobu. If you are an individual that's looking to get your first deal going, I want to inspire you, I want to empower you. I want to encourage you to go, do it right. Don't overthink. I think there's a few things you need to know.

Speaker 1:

Nobu nailed it. You need to. You have the equity right. You get the cash and the numbers right. You rent right. You buy it right. Like, don't overthink it. You got to live somewhere. If we're talking about house hacking, let me tell you something. You got to live somewhere and if you got to live somewhere, you're going to have to pay someone. And if you have to pay someone, let it be the some, let it be your mortgage and let other people pay for that mortgage for you. At least help you with it so it creates wealth over time. I believe in the real estate. Don't wait to buy real estate. Buy real estate and wait, and that's where wealth is created. Appreciate you guys listening. Appreciate you guys watching Nobu. Thank you for being here, peace out.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for having me.

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Martin Perdomo

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