Pod Insights BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast The Easiest Way to Invest in Real Estate This Year About this episode There is an easier way to invest in real estate in 2025. It doesn’t require a ton of money or experience; anyone can do it (even a complete beginner), and it’ll lead to you having more money, more passive income, and a bigger bank account. Successful real estate investors agree: this is a “cheat code” to start investing in real estate in 2025. What are we talking about? It’s not short-term rentals or buying apartment complexes; it’s actually extremely simple—house hacking. Both Dave and Henry used this low-money down, high-impact real estate investing strategy to grow their portfolios to be worth multiple million dollars. It’s the BEST way for a beginner to get into the real estate investing game and allows you to buy properties with just a fraction of a regular down payment. We’re so convinced that it’s the best bet for beginners that we’re bringing on the BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast producer Ian Kay, a complete real estate beginner, to walk him through how to use this exact strategy to start his real estate portfolio. We’ll break down the numbers to show how one smart investment can fund your dream home and leave you tens of thousands richer. Ready to invest in 2025? Then don’t sleep on house hacking! In This Episode We Cover: The easiest, most beginner-friendly way to start investing in real estate in 2025 One simple investing mistake that could cost you $60K+ (and how to avoid it) The steps you should start taking NOW to get your first investment property in 2025 How to analyze a house hack and crucial metrics to check BEFORE you buy In analysis paralysis? This is what to do NOW to get out of it and get closer to your goals And So Much More! Links from the Show Join BiggerPockets for FREE Let Us Know What You Thought of the Show! Ask Your Question on the BiggerPockets Forums BiggerPockets YouTube BiggerPockets Deal Finder Let Us Know What You Thought of the Show! Grab the Book on House Hacking, “The House Hacking Strategy” Find an Investor-Friendly Agent in Your Area House Hacking 101: What It Is and How to Get Started Connect with Ian Connect with Henry Connect with Dave (00:00) Intro (02:20) Want to Start Investing? (04:54) What Do YOU Want to Achieve? (08:23) House Hacking (Easiest First Investment) (18:42) Analyzing a House Hack (23:40) What to Do RIGHT NOW (32:59) Stuck in Analysis Paralysis? (34:13) Next Steps Check out more resources from this show on BiggerPockets.com and https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1067 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email [email protected] . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Dave Meyer? If you know you want to invest in real estate, but for some reason you haven't yet pulled the trigger, it's okay because today we're going to help you get over the hump and get into your first deal.
0:15 Dave Meyer? Hey guys, it's Dave here from BiggerPockets here with my friend Henry Washington. If you've listened to the last few episodes of the show, you're probably excited, I hope you're excited, about the possibility of investing here in 2025. And we've talked about how real estate is the best asset class to build long-term wealth and eventually achieve financial freedom. And on average, if you start investing today, you can be financially free in 10, 12, 15 years. And we've also talked about why right now is a great time to get into the market and buy a deal based on our economic outlook for the rest of the year. But we've also realized that even if you agree with me on all of these topics and you're fired up about investing, if you've never bought a property before, you might be hesitant to take the leap
1:00 Dave Meyer? because it is a scary proposition to actually become an investor. Henry, tell me, I mean, this is a pretty common scenario, right?
1:07 Henry Washington? I mean, this is a question that people ask literally all the time. They say, I want to do this, like I got it, but I still don't know what to go do next.
1:18 Dave Meyer? If people seem to intuitively understand that real estate investing is a great option for them, it's just kind of obvious. But there is this analysis or hesitance or honestly fear about getting started. And we're going to close the gap today. We're actually bringing on a potential investor onto the show who's in this exact situation. He also happens to be the producer of the BiggerPockets Real Estate Show, Ian Kay. We were actually, the three of us, Henry, Ian and I, were planning a show to help people close this gap. And Ian was like, this is me, I am this person. We got to make a show to help me. So we, Henry and I basically bullied Ian into coming on to the show.
2:02 Dave Meyer? And we're going to talk to him about what's stopping him from getting his first deal. And hopefully, we're going to coach him into a position to where he can go out and execute on his first deal in the next couple of months. Henry, I know you're excited.
2:15 Henry Washington? I had not wait.
2:17 Dave Meyer? I am also excited, so let's bring Ian on. Ian Kay, welcome to your first episode as a guest on the BiggerPockets Podcast.
2:26 Speaker 02 Totally different on this side of the camera.
2:28 Dave Meyer? Yeah, I was gonna say, I was gonna welcome you, but you're here every single time we're recording, so you're already here. But welcome to having a microphone in front of your face.
2:37 Speaker 02 Oh, well, thank you. It's my greatest fear is not being on the podcast. It's knowing there's nobody else producing the podcast.
2:44 Dave Meyer? We're flying blind right now. There's no guardrails right now.
2:48 Henry Washington? Hopefully this show makes it on the air.
2:49 Dave Meyer? Yeah, well, so Ian, tell us just a little bit about your position and what you're hoping to learn and get coached on, I guess, from Henry and I today.
2:59 Speaker 02 I started working at BiggerPockets, producing this show in August. So I've been here about four months. And before that, I didn't know anything about real estate. You know, I was into personal finance, like I had investments primarily in the stock market, but real estate was never something that felt, you know, I never thought about it. It didn't feel like something I would have any idea how to do it. And then over the course of working on this show and listening to this show, I got sold on it as an investment, you know, especially in these shows that if you're listening to this now, the last few that have come out are Dave's theory of real estate and his case for why compared to stocks or bonds or crypto or other things you can buy, real estate is a great, great option. I believe
3:44 Speaker 02 that. Like I, you know, not just saying it because I work on the show, but the case is convincing. So I'm sold. I want to get in. I'm just not sure where to start.
3:54 Dave Meyer? Henry, isn't this so validating? Like Ian, who knows, who actually knows us, and here's the unproduced version of this show. The unedited version still is interested in investing after knowing both of us.
4:08 Henry Washington? Literally, everyone in my life who spends any amount of time around me, I have convinced in some way, shape, form, or fashion to do an investment real estate deal. Every single one of my friends, so I spend a significant amount of time with, has either flipped a house, bought a rental property, or done some sort of real estate deal, all with the exception of one, and I'm working on that one right now.
4:28 Dave Meyer? That is an impressive track record. I love that and I'm encouraged by this because I feel the same way, Henry. Everyone wants to get into it. I meet random people and tell them what you're interested. People get the idea of real estate. People inherently understand what a good investment it is. But like Ian, it is somewhat confusing at first if you're just starting out to figure out what steps to take next. So let's jump into that. Henry, you seem ready to grill Ian on his on his position here. So I'm going to just hand it off to you.
5:01 Henry Washington? I do want to cook Ian here because I feel like one of the first things he asked is this is something I should be looking at now or something I should be looking at in the future. And like it's now, the answer is now. But for the sake of the show and the listeners, because everybody's in a different place. One of the first things that I always want to know about somebody who's thinking about investing is like, at what level they're thinking about investing? Like, what is it that you're looking to achieve with real estate investing? Because if you see yourself as a person who's going to have a real estate investment business that you're going to scale to some amount of properties larger than maybe say 10,
5:43 Henry Washington? then there's probably a different approach that I would tell you to take, or I would tell you to take two approaches at the same time. But if you're somebody that's like, hey, I just want to buy one house a year, two, you know, two houses a year. Then the approach I think would be a little different. So it really just depends. The first thing you have to know is like, where are you trying to go with real estate investing? What's the goal?
6:01 Speaker 02 Yeah, well, I put it this way. I'm not trying to do what you do, Henry.
6:07 Dave Meyer? Yeah, you're more on my my end of the spectrum where you're going to hopefully keep working in because we need you here. So if you're going to say, hey, I'm quitting BiggerPockets, that's going to be a problem.
6:17 Speaker 02 Yeah, I'm definitely more, I'd say, toward the Dave end of the spectrum. And like, before I started working here, the concept of like financial freedom, this idea of accumulating a certain amount of money, assets, quit your job, like, I never really even heard of that. Like, that's not the angle that I approached this from. I'm approaching this almost from the same angle that like I've always approached stock market investing, which is this is generally like a good place to put my money. It'll accumulate over time and it'll put me in a better financial position in the long term. You know, if I could get to a portfolio where I've got. Four, five, six properties, you know, somewhere three, four, five years from now. Like that would be incredible to me.
6:59 Henry Washington? I love it because I think there's tons of people in that boat. And to add a little more color or context, would you mind sharing with everyone how old you are?
7:07 Speaker 02 I'm 36 years old.
7:09 Henry Washington? Okay, 36 years old, ready to start again. I started when I was 36. Perfect. So what I would say, somebody in your boat, you're already investing in real estate. You're just on the side that pays for it instead of the side that makes money. You're just investing in somebody else's real estate. I assume you're in a house right now.
7:25 Speaker 02 I am, but this, I don't own this house. So I'm just renting it.
7:28 Henry Washington? Right. So you're in a house and you're renting, which means you're paying to live somewhere, which means you're investing in somebody else's real estate, which is, there's nothing wrong with renting. I don't think there's anything wrong with renting, but you're asking how to get started and when you should get started. I think the best way to get in this business is by leveraging your primary residence. And so if I were you, if I were in your position, I would be getting pre-qualified for a home purchase. And I would be shopping right now for duplexes, triplexes or quadplexes, where you could live in one of the units and rent the other units out. And also for everyone else, you are no kids, right?
8:14 Speaker 02 That's right.
8:14 Henry Washington? And significant other, yes, no?
8:16 Speaker 02 Yes.
8:17 Henry Washington? Okay. So, I mean, I feel like there's tons of people in this boat, even some who have kids, but maybe in this boat, right? Ideally, you can house hack by buying a multifamily, living in one unit and renting the other units. And that's a fairly easy way to get started because the analysis isn't as tedious. Like if I go buy a multifamily, I gotta find something that's going to cash flow, hopefully in the first year, right? Or else it might not make sense for me to invest in that right now. But if you're going to live in something for a year or two, you're not necessarily worried too much about, is it going to pay me $500, $600, $700 a month in that cash flow? What you're worried about is, is it going to limit my monthly living expenses? Let's say if you're paying $2,000.
9:02 Henry Washington? Dollars a month, you go get a multifamily unit and now you're only paying, let's call it, you know, a thousand dollars a month, say it cut your cost in half. Well, you still pay two thousand dollars a month because you're used to it. Don't change your lifestyle, right? You just pay that extra thousand into a savings account over 12 months and then you'll have $12,000 over 24 months, you'll have $24,000. Now you have a down payment for your next property, right? It just allows you to scale. So you're not adjusting your lifestyle because you don't have to pay for your next deal. You just save that money and use it to reinvest in your next asset. And I tell everyone like in your boat, you should buy a duplex and live in it every single year until you or your significant other say, I will never share another wall with anybody
9:47 Henry Washington? else. And the reason I say every year is because your first time, your FHA program, your VA loans, your conventional loans, they're going to require you to live in it for at least 12 months before you can go use that loan product again. FHA, you can only have one, but you can get multiple conventional loans. And so you live in it for 12 months and buy another one. And if you repeated that for two years, you'd have what? Four to eight doors, depending on how many you bought in just two years. You know, I think that that alone would probably put you in a significantly better financial position and you don't have to do much to do that. You don't have to sacrifice much and you're in a very, very great time of the year to be looking for properties.
10:31 Dave Meyer? Okay, so we do need to take a break, but I first want to tell you about something really cool coming up. It's called Momentum 2025. It's BiggerPockets Virtual Investing Summit. It starts February 11th and you can join us for an eight-week virtual series every Tuesday from 2 to 3:30 PM Eastern Time, where we'll dive into all things real estate investing to set you up for success here in 2025. I'll of course be there, but I'm also going to be joined by 17 other amazing real estate investors, including Henry Washington, Ashley Kerr, James Daynard, and a whole lot more. We're all going to be there sharing our insights on what's happening in the market and how you should make smart moves in 2025.
11:12 Dave Meyer? And it's a really cool program because it's not just about listening. You're actually going to get a chance to meet other investors matched together in small mastermind groups. And this creates a great chance to share ideas, to get feedback on your own plans and to have some external accountability. So that's going to be really cool alongside the direct access to season pros. You're also going to get tons of bonus resources by joining. You'll get more than 1,200 bucks worth of goodies, including books. You'll get planners, discounts for future events. It's really an incredible package. You can register now for Momentum 2025 at biggerpockets.com/summit25.
11:56 Dave Meyer? That's biggerpockets.com/summit25. And if you sign up before January 11th, so in just a couple of days, you can actually snag a 30% discount on our early bird deals. So you want to make sure to check that out as soon as possible. All right, we'll be right back.
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15:32 Dave Meyer? Thanks for sticking with us. Let's get back to the show. So Ian, would you house hack?
15:36 Speaker 02 So I think it's a really appealing option. I think I might need Henry to come up here with his whiteboard and give this speech to my significant other.
15:45 Dave Meyer? What's the hesitation?
15:47 Speaker 02 It's sort of the idea of like pushing back us having a primary that we're going to live in long-term and really feel like a home to us. We lived in New York for a long time, so renting was kind of the only option. We've continued renting. We've moved a lot. There is kind of a soft, like not necessarily an economic reason, but more of a soft reason of just feeling settled, feeling like we're in a home that we're going to live in for a long time.
16:12 Dave Meyer? Yeah, that makes sense to me. I think there's economic reasons to buy a primary residence. There are emotional and just like stability reasons to do it well. So those make a lot of sense, but is it actually going to delay it or will it actually speed up your abilities to get a home because it will actually put you in a better financial position. But Henry is about to burst at the seams. I don't let him talk.
16:41 Henry Washington? I don't want to take over this show, Dave. I don't.
16:43 Dave Meyer? No, do it. Take over the show. I'm gonna go eat lunch and you guys just talk.
16:47 Henry Washington? Look, I understand, like, I don't want to seem like I'm not human. Like, I understand that that's, like, that's a one. Like, you want to feel like you've got your own place and that it's yours and you want to build this life. And I get it. Do you want to build a life or do you want to build the best life that you can, right? Because that is comfortable, but wealth isn't built in your comfort zone. If you want to be comfortable, then don't do this. This isn't going to be comfortable in the first two years, but it's not going to be so uncomfortable that you're gonna hate the journey. It feels like you're taking a step backwards, but in actuality, you're taking a huge leap forward. So when I did this, the way I sold it to my wife was I said,
17:32 Henry Washington? The goal for us was to get to what our dream home, right? What that dream home looks like. And I knew, and I said, okay, well, is our next home gonna be our dream home? And the answer was no, we couldn't afford our dream home as the next home. So the goal was to work, get the raises and promotions that we would need in order to afford the next home, buy the next home, do it again, raises and promotions, buy the next home. And so when we mapped it out, it was gonna take us at a minimum five to seven years to get from the home we could afford now to the home we felt like was our dream home. And we weren't factoring in the cost of real estate going up. We were just assuming that real estate prices were what they were now, right?
18:17 Henry Washington? So it was probably gonna take a little longer. I said, so in five to seven years, we can potentially be in our dream home, right? And so we wrote that down. I said, the house hacking option. If we were to go and buy a duplex, live in one unit and rent the other unit, and the duplex we were looking to buy, we were gonna be able to save about, we were paying $1,200 a month, and we ended up paying about, just for math's sake, we ended up paying about, we're saving about a thousand bucks a month, so we were still paying about 200 bucks, right? And so we took that thousand bucks a month, and we did, we put it in a savings account. We said, we'll do this for two years. After two years, we'll have $24,000.
18:57 Henry Washington? And at $24,000, we can then use as the down payment on the dream home. We'd probably have to supplement a little bit, put a little bit with it, but we've got two years to be able to put a little extra away now as well. And so by the time that two years comes, we can rent out the unit that we were living in, rents will have increased, and the cash flow that that property produces will then cover a little under half of the mortgage payment for our dream home, plus we will have all of the down payments saved up for our dream home. So I said, we can get to our dream home in five to seven years, and we can pay the whole mortgage, or we can get to our dream home in two years and only pay half the mortgage. Which option would you prefer?
19:41 Dave Meyer? Yeah, that's a really good way of putting it.
19:42 Henry Washington? So we house hacked and we got there and we still to this day only pay half of our mortgage because the cash flow from the house hack that we lived in in our personal name because we used an FHA loan, we take that and we pay half of the mortgage at our dream home. Like I do this right now.
19:57 Dave Meyer? Can I also just challenge the idea of comfort? I guess like maybe I'm unique in this, but I just don't feel like sharing a wall with someone is that bad.
20:05 Henry Washington? It's not uncomfortable. It's fine.
20:07 Dave Meyer? I'm doing it right now. I'm, I'm, I'm living in a townhouse.
20:11 Henry Washington? You look so cozy right now.
20:13 Dave Meyer? Yeah, thank you. I am cozy right now. I grew up living in apartments at certain points in my life. I've lived in single family homes at certain points in my life. I personally think you can be very comfortable. I know certain people don't want that, especially if you have kids, but I would also say that there's such a broad spectrum of small multifamily properties. I house hacked in one where I lived in a tiny, single bedroom apartment above kids who partied all the time and it wasn't even that bad, but I would not recommend that for you. There are side by side duplexes where you get a fence down the middle. You each have your own yard. You have your own garage. You don't have to see these people
20:54 Dave Meyer? if you don't want to. There's like, at least to me, plenty of ways to be comfortable in this scenario. It's not like, I guess I just, I personally don't feel like it's some huge sacrifice.
21:06 Henry Washington? It's not. One of the best things to do is to just have an open mind and go start looking at places.
21:12 Dave Meyer? Yeah.
21:12 Henry Washington? You know, I talked to my friend into, into doing this and they looked at several places and they didn't like most of them, but they were able to find one that was a brand new construction duplex and this wife fell in love with the place and they moved into it and they thoroughly enjoy it. I just think that go into it with an open mind, start looking at properties, seeing what you can and can and can't be comfortable with and then make a decision. But this is a cheat code.
21:41 Dave Meyer? It's not as binary as it seems where it's like, we're either going to be in a terrible house or our dream house. The reality is usually somewhere in between where you're like, you can find a really nice place. That's also a great investment and you're getting most of what you want.
21:56 Henry Washington? Absolutely.
21:57 Speaker 02 Okay. So I have a question based on that, which is like, We talk a lot on the show about how to buy investment properties and we analyze deals and you know, you put on the calculator and you're looking for six, eight, 10% return. How does the equation change if you're looking for a property as a house hack? Are you still doing that same kind of math or is it not based on math at all really? And you're just buying, looking for a nice duplex that you want to live in?
22:21 Dave Meyer? When you're looking at an owner occupied investment, at least to me, the math is a little bit different than if you're looking at a traditional investment. With an investment, I usually am comparing a rental property to what else I could invest that money with, a stock market or investing in other business or crypto or other types of real estate deals. When you're looking at an owner occupied, to me, it's about comparing it to your current living expenses and trying to reduce those as much as possible. And how much of your, essentially your after tax pay that you're going to get to keep? And then hopefully invest somewhere else in real estate.
23:04 Dave Meyer? And so it's not as easy or as clean to come up with a cash on cash return for that. But I think I just encourage you to look for a deal that will help you maximize that savings. The second thing I would also look for is will it cash flow and get good cash flow once you move out of that property? Because as Henry was saying, you're maybe going to live in this for a year or two and then, you know, position this to either buy another rental property or buy that dream home and rent this out. I would say in two years, is this going to offer me a five or six or a 7% cash on cash return? Once I'm no longer living in it?
23:46 Dave Meyer? Those are the, at least for me, Henry, the two ways I would think about this, but curious what you'd say.
23:52 Henry Washington? No, I totally agree with you. This is something you can't look at like a traditional investment because you are going to live in it, which means there are things that you have to factor in that you're not going to factor into a traditional investment, which means you are going to care and should care about where it is. You want to be able to feel safe in your home. You want to be able to have certain amenities that you're going to be willing or not willing to sacrifice. Right. So those things aren't things you're going to put into a rental property calculator. Those are things that you may be willing to spend a little more on to have peace of mind. So A, you need to look at those things. In fact, do those things in. In terms of financially, I'm looking at two to three years down the road. What are the gross rents going to be? And are those gross rents going to cover?
24:36 Henry Washington? So that I don't have to come out of pocket every month.
24:40 Dave Meyer? I think it's one of those things where if you're buying for those amenities that you really want for your personal residence, that might save you less money when your owner occupying it, but also will make it a better deal in the long run. Because they're probably things that people will want as a rent or as a future buyer of that property.
24:57 Henry Washington? Absolutely. The other thing that I want to mention for the listeners, which I don't think will apply to you, Ian, is that there are some markets where this house hacking method that we're talking about for you may not work. I mean, I have looked at house hack deals for people in markets like Los Angeles, where it was going to cost them so much to buy the property at a house hack, that even after they rent out the other units, what they're left with paying on the mortgage is still more expensive than if they were just to go rent somewhere. And so it was a better investment for them to rent and then invest their money in cash flowing markets elsewhere, because the house hack wasn't an affordable thing.
25:39 Henry Washington? I don't think that's true where you are, but as you're analyzing a deal, that's what I would be looking for. Am I truly lowering my expense by house hacking? Or am I house hacking just to buy something, but what I'll still be left paying is more than what I would be paying if I just rented? So those are things for listeners to pay attention to if they're looking in expensive markets.
25:59 Dave Meyer? I'm glad you mentioned that, Henry, because that is true. That is, I think, maybe one of the biggest changes in the real estate investing landscape over the last few years is that, if you asked me this five years ago, you could say, go house hacking any market. You just throw a dart at the dartboard. It's going to be a better financial decision for you. It's true still in most places, I would say, but you think about places like LA, Seattle, even Denver. I have a lot of friends because I started investing in Denver. It doesn't always make sense there. It can, but it's not as just checkmark go house hack as it once was. And so you definitely need to do that analysis. All right. So we've covered now why house hacking could be a great option for Ian. But after the break, we're going to talk about some other options for buying a first deal.
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28:46 Dave Meyer? I just booked a ski trip to Park City and I've already got the whole thing planned out. Five days, first tracks every morning before the crowds show up, my knees reminding me I'm not 25 anymore by the second run, and an embarrassing number of overpriced burritos at the lodge. I don't even care. This is the trip I look forward to all year. But here's the part I actually appreciate. The practical side of my brain kicking in is that my place doesn't have to just sit there empty the whole time I'm away. I can list my space on Airbnb and bring in a little extra income while I'm out getting humbled on a mountain. And with the co-host network, I'm not the one handling all of it.
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32:05 Henry Washington? We're back. Here's the rest of Dave and I talking about how to make your first deal.
32:10 Speaker 02 What if I find the house hacking isn't for me or not the right option? Like, what if I did, say, want to continue renting for my primary and then just buy an investment property? Because I've kind of heard a few different ideas about this. And the one that feels more natural to me would be to sort of take it slow. I could do things like start going to meetups, spend a lot of time in the BiggerPockets Deal Finder, running numbers, finding out kind of what makes sense for me. I like the idea of maybe finding partners and really invest in like small amounts, five grand, something like that, in a few different deals to learn how this business works. And I could commit my time and energy to doing things like that.
32:54 Speaker 02 And I think by the second half, end of 2025, feel probably like I'm ready to go make a deal. But I've heard a lot of people also say- Analysis paralysis, like you never really learn how to do it until you do it. So the alternate would be to like, not go out tomorrow, but take more actions that are oriented around buying a deal in the next few months, narrowing in a buy box, talking to agents, going to see properties. So that's sort of where I get lost. There's all these options. They all seem pretty good. I'm not sure which one exactly would be the best.
33:27 Dave Meyer? I don't see it as an either or situation. If you're going to house hack or you're going to go rent and keep buying real estate, you should do the things you were just saying, like you should start going to meetups. You should meet an agent because you're going to need those things. You're going to need a team. You're going to need a network. You're going to need a lender, regardless of which option you choose. And honestly, I feel like being around more real estate investors is going to help you figure out the answer. Like you will be looking at more deals. You'll be talking to people in your market about what works. And the answer will become more clear. I think the analysis paralysis comes when you're just staying in your own head and you never like go out and actually see what other people are doing.
34:11 Dave Meyer? That to me is where more people get stuck rather than like, once you get out and start talking to people and analyzing deals. I find fewer people actually have the quote unquote analysis paralysis at that stage.
34:23 Speaker 02 Yeah, the fun part for me is getting in the calculator, looking at the numbers and trying to make the return better. The hard part to me, the part that doesn't seem as fun is, you know, just walking into a room, not owning any properties of people who are investors and make connections of things like that sounds difficult. So I think that's the part that almost gives me more paralysis than analyzing a deal or looking at the numbers of what I can afford. I think that's something that maybe just takes a little bit of, I don't know, courage to overcome, you know, a little bit of commitment to go to those things and meet those people. It's like put myself in a good position.
35:03 Henry Washington? What are we, what are we doing, Ian?
35:06 Henry Washington? What are we doing, Ian? You sound like every other investor who thinks they want to invest in real estate, but they're never gonna do it, cuz
35:16 Henry Washington? I wanna, I'll go to some meetups and I'll meet some people and I'll look at some deals and, you know, maybe I'll, you know, build my network and then in, you know, Q4 of 2020, never I'll make an offer.
35:30 Henry Washington? Go get pre-qualified and start looking at properties. Go to the meetups and start talking to people. Like, you will figure it out, but you have to make a decision and your decision needs to be made now. Your decision needs to be, I'm going to buy a property by X date of X year. You determine that, period. But stand on your guns. I think it should be sooner than later. Yeah. Seems like you've got all of the pieces you need to move forward if you want to. What we're really trying to figure out is you're trying to get comfortable. And I don't, it ain't never gonna be an I'm comfortable. It's not, it's not. You might feel a little more comfortable. You might feel a little more prepared.
36:16 Henry Washington? But you're in a unique position that a lot of the people listening to this show aren't in. I would say, yes, you need to go to meetups and yes, you need to do all those things, but don't do them from the perspective of, I want to get comfortable before I make a decision. Do it from the perspective of, I've made a decision that I'm going to go buy this property and I'm now surrounding myself with people who understand this business, who know this business, who have connections in this business. And so when I get there, it's not me saying, hi, I'm Ian, I like real estate. I think I want to do something at some point because you know who sounds like that at meetups? Every frickin' body and they never stand out. But if you go to those meetups and you say, yes, I'm Ian, I'm buying a property by Q4 of 2025. I am looking at doing a house hack and these are the steps that I'm taking. Like, those are the people that stand out.
37:00 Henry Washington? And the more of a plan that you have, even if that plan is just in your head, that you're able to share with people, the more that they'll directly be able to help you. The coolest part about real estate in As a community and as a culture, like, look at the BiggerPockets forums, like, people just want to help you.
37:17 Dave Meyer? Yeah.
37:18 Henry Washington? And the more you have a defined plan and the more you sound like you're not just BSing, but you're actually going to do this, like, people will, people you don't know will bend over backwards to move obstacles for you to help you. But if you walk into those meetings and you sound like every other, I'm scared and I'm trying to get comfortable and maybe I'll do this, maybe I won't, then you'll just be, like, I hear people like that all the time. I couldn't tell you what they look like. I don't remember talking to them.
37:44 Dave Meyer? Well, I think it's, it's giving someone a, a problem that they can help you with.
37:49 Henry Washington? Yeah.
37:49 Dave Meyer? Like, if you say, hey, this is what's challenging me. I can't find deals. Someone might be able to help you. Or I need to learn about this loan product. I can point you in that direction. But what Henry's saying is, like, there are certain problems that no one in that room can help you with. You, they can't help you get comfortable. Only you can do that for yourself. And so, like, if you can solve that for yourself and then go ask specific questions, you're going to find success. Like, people will help you with, with specific goals. People message me on Instagram all the time. They're just like, how do I get started? I'm like, that's not a question I can answer for you. If you ask me a very specific question, like, did I do this analysis correct? I can help you with that question. You know, like, that is, that is something that's not going to take me a lifetime of,
38:33 Dave Meyer? you know, sitting on a couch and therapizing you to, to, to understand.
38:38 Henry Washington? You already did it, Ian.
38:40 Dave Meyer? That's true.
38:40 Henry Washington? You already did the things to prepare yourself. There is a huge chunk of people listening to us right now who wish that they were in the financial position that you are in right now to be able to start taking action. But they don't have savings, or their credit's not in a good place, or their spouse isn't on board, or the dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. All these things that you've already done.
39:00 Dave Meyer? Totally. I've seen the disappointment on Henry's face. That's all it takes. Like, Q4 2025, I haven't done it. We have to come back and do this again with Henry.
39:10 Henry Washington? What are we doing here, guys?
39:12 Dave Meyer? I also, can I just, this is maybe a controversial opinion, but you don't have to do all of that stuff. You don't have to, like, Get, run a thousand deals. You don't need to go to meetups. You need to do some of those things, but you can also pick and choose. I go to meetups now because I like socializing with other real estate investors. I never went to meetups when I was just getting started in real estate investing. I used Google or BiggerPockets forums, or, you know, just people that you would meet, like you would go and talk to a contractor who would introduce you to a lender. You know, you can do that sort of networking too. You don't have to do all of the above. There are plenty of resources, whether you use BiggerPockets,
39:54 Dave Meyer? you use an in-person meetup, you use your personal network. You just need to pick one that you're comfortable with and go with that. It doesn't need to be everything.
40:02 Henry Washington? Let's take some meaningful action towards your goals. Determine when you want to buy a property. Start looking on the market for those properties. Go and take a tour of those properties. None of these things cost you anything. Go and get pre-qualified. Doesn't cost you anything. You can do all these steps and look at houses for 90 days and buy nothing, and it costs you nothing but your time, but you will have learned so much just by doing that.
40:27 Speaker 02 I think that despite producing this show and listening to every single episode of this show four, five, six times before it gets released, I don't think I realized that I was having a little bit of paralysis, you know? I thought it was recent enough. Like, I just started learning about this a few months ago. I'm doing everything I can do, but I think that is not true. I need to go start seeing some houses. I gotta, I gotta talk to an agent. I gotta get in there. And I do think about that a lot. I'm like, what if, you know, what if I don't know what to look for? What if I'm looking at the wrong stuff? I don't know how to look at a foundation, you know? But I think I do have to go just start doing it.
41:04 Dave Meyer? I still don't know.
41:05 Henry Washington? I don't know how to look at a foundation. I'm terrible at looking at foundations. Every time I look at one and I'm like, I can tell if it's bad, but I can't tell if it's $20,000 bad or $2,000 bad. Like, I don't know. I gotta call a guy. Still.
41:20 Dave Meyer? Exactly. You just need a guy. A person who can help you.
41:25 Speaker 02 Yeah, my guy is gonna be you too.
41:29 Dave Meyer? A lot of people don't think that they're having analysis paralysis. It's like a fine line to walk. You shouldn't just do this blindly. But you know, two, three, six months, I think is sort of the reasonable amount of time to give yourself to educate yourself. Like I was actually talking to a different person in the bigger pockets community this morning, who was looking for some advice. And she was saying that she's listened to 40 hours of our podcast over the last six months. I was like, that's enough. That's enough. Keep listening because you do wanna, you need to like, keep thinking about your deal and optimizing your portfolio, but you've done enough. And she's similar to you, Ian, has, is in the financial position where she can do it. And I was like, it's time to go.
42:10 Dave Meyer? And I think that's hopefully where you're going to be at, where you're going to put yourself in a position to decide one way or another. Uh, and come back on the show, we'll help you out or we'll just make fun of you. We're not doing it one way or the other.
42:25 Speaker 02 I was reluctant to come on this time because I knew this was going to happen.
42:30 Speaker 02 I will commit to coming back later in the year, whether I've done it or not. And that will be the motivation that if I, because I don't want to have to come back and tell you that I haven't done it.
42:40 Dave Meyer? Oh, I like this accountability.
42:41 Speaker 02 Yeah, exactly.
42:42 Dave Meyer? There we go. Okay, so now that, now that you're, you're committed to it, do you know the, the next things that you should do? Like right now, what are two or three things you, you will commit to doing to try and make this decision?
42:54 Speaker 02 Yeah, I think that I have to go start seeing houses in the real world. I've done some analysis, I've looked some, but like, I think that is a step that is not as big of a consequential barrier as it felt like in my head is calling some agents and saying, I want to go see some houses. I think that's like the big step for me to take.
43:14 Dave Meyer? Thank you for coming on and being honest about this. I do really feel like this level of honesty and vulnerability about the, the challenges to getting in. Hopefully is helpful to the rest of everyone listening here because the math makes sense, but there are other things that go into being a real estate investor that, and honestly, it's more about just like becoming an entrepreneur. That is a little bit daunting. And hopefully, just by talking about it, Ian, by coming on and sharing your feelings about this, I think we'll hope realize that everyone has this sort of moment of like, jump in or not. And hopefully you all are doing it, but it is normal to have those reservations. It's really just about, you know, getting up the courage to go out and just start doing it. And hopefully, Ian, we'll hear back from you in the next three to six months that you've done it.
43:59 Speaker 02 Well, I'm committed. You're going to hear back one way or the other.
44:02 Dave Meyer? Well, thank you all so much for listening. I hope you learned something about how to get started, some options for getting over some analysis paralysis, or getting over the barriers to getting your first deal, even if it's house hacking or not in this episode. Henry and Ian, thank you both so much for being here. And thank you all for listening. We'll see you next time on the BiggerPockets Podcast.
44:22 Henry Washington? Not so easy when you're on that side of the mic.
44:24 Dave Meyer? Yeah.
44:25 Henry Washington? Mr. Producer Man.
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