Reverse Engineering Your Financial Freedom with Ali Garced

Ali Garced: [0:00] And he is like, too easy. Let's work backward. So how many closings does that mean you need to have? How many appointments? How many conversations? How many conversation attempts? And my number is six. As long as I have six conversations about real estate every single day, I will make my income of $308,000. That's my goal. So that's it. It's just numbers. It's just working backward. It's I don't know. I love it. Welcome

Speaker 2: [0:27] to the collecting keys podcast. The show where you'll learn how to use real estate to create massive income, not just passive income. Real estate doesn't have to be a get rich slow game. Listen to the country's top real estate operators, and you'll have all the tools you need to replace your w two income and go beyond in under twelve months. Ready to take things to the next level? Let's jump in with our hosts, Mike DeHaan and Dan Austin for today's episode of the collecting keys podcast.

Mike DeHaan: [1:04] What is going on, guys? On today's episode of the collecting keys real estate investing podcast, we have Ali Garced, who is a podcaster investor and does a ton of stuff. And it was a super awesome episode because basically her short term backstory is that she, you know, was a started as a veteran, worked for the government, went on became a realtor, and now has gone and gotten financial independence, and is trying to really elevate that by paying down her mortgages and doing all these sort of things that are like, kind of counterintuitive to what a lot of real estate people say, right as like their common knowledge. But the stuff that she does is simple, repeatable, and it makes sense. And, know, there was just like so many things in this episode that kind of leave you wondering like, why doesn't everybody just do this? Like, it's obviously not that hard with what she's saying.

Dan Austin: [1:52] Yeah. It's like any other good investor, simple steps, and I like how she talks about the business aspect of being an agent. So we know there's a ton of agents out there, and a lot of them don't treat it as business. They treat it as kinda like summer camp, and then they're not agents for very long where she kind of went under the wing of a great mentor and really looked at the analytics of her business and talks about like how many people she needs to talk to every day just to meet her financial goals, which aren't, you know, measly, they're good goals, like, it's legit. She's doing great with her financial independence.

Mike DeHaan: [2:19] Yeah. I mean, it's like I said, it's such a repeatable process that there's no reason that other people cannot follow in the exact same footsteps. Even at the end, she talks about how she wants to pay down her properties to really boost her cash flow. And she did something that does not happen very often, she talked about this methodology that apparently is very common that Dan and I had never even heard of before. It's just this whole complex way that she is paying down. I'd say it's complex, actually not that complex. This way that she's paying down her property significantly faster, using these other lines of debt and things. And it's very fascinating. She can go into the details, I still don't fully understand it. We're going to have her come and talk to the end our instant investor members about how to use this strategy. Right. Because like, once again, it's something that we've never explored, never heard about. And that doesn't happen for raffling. You've been around the block for a while. So for sure. Anyways, guys, enjoy the show with Ali Garcette. Absolutely reach out to her as well. She leaves you her phone number at the end if that isn't a big green flag that she wants to say what's up. I don't know what is. So reach out to her.

Mike DeHaan: [3:20] She has a lot going on. And she has a wealth of knowledge. And enjoy guys. It's a great episode with Ali Gar said. Alright, guys. We are here today with Ali Garced from the Invest to FI podcast. And you are an agent, investor, all around just awesome person. And so we're super excited to have you on the show here today. Ali, thanks so much for coming on.

Ali Garced: [3:42] Mike, Dan, thank you for having me on. I really appreciate it. I'm excited.

Mike DeHaan: [3:46] Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I guess for people who don't know who you are, all the stuff you've done, all the stuff you're working on, kinda give us a lowdown. How'd you get into real estate? How'd you get into kind of that current stuff you're working on? Let's just start from the beginning and go from there.

Ali Garced: [4:01] Yeah. Yeah. So, born and raised in New York. Fast forward to me joining the military, and therefore, me having access to the VA loan. That's how I got started with real estate investing in 2016. And, of course, read Rich Dad Poor Dad, but everyone not to hate on that book, but that book has it's all fluff, no tactical. So I was super excited when I heard about Bigger Pockets and, you know, hearing about more tactical information. The how to, because I am huge on checklist. What is the next step? What do I need to do right now? As opposed to theoretical. But so I read a couple of books there, and I actually was pretty miserable at my w two job. And that is what fueled the fire of me realizing that I needed to start working on something for myself, a way out of my w two. And that's what led to fast forward to now, where I have a small portfolio of properties with my wife. We have seven properties, eight doors. And what we do is move in. We do owner occupied loans. So we just move into a property, live there for a year, year year and a half. If we want some extra sanity, move out, and move to the next property. And we just rent out the old ones. We've done some purchases that are out of state, sight unseen, and not all properties have we lived in. But, yeah, we've definitely utilized the VA loan, conventional loan, traditional, like vanilla, you know, middle of the road type financing can get you far. Yeah. Yeah. I achieved financial freedom last month.

Ali Garced: [5:34] And that's not just because of the rental properties, though. That's also the residual income from me being an agent as well. And so I'm working on paying those properties off now.

Mike DeHaan: [5:45] Perfect.

Ali Garced: [5:46] Everyone talks about, you know, hundred hours, but you really don't need that much.

Mike DeHaan: [5:49] Yeah. I think that's such a super valid point that a lot of people overlook. And also, Joe, I appreciate your comment about Rich Dad Poor Dad. That was actually one of our jokes at our little GoBundance meetup that we had a couple weeks ago, was people get so into these books.

Dan Austin: [6:02] I

Mike DeHaan: [6:02] know. And they're always like then they don't seem to seem to realize that you can honestly just like read the title and get like what it's about. And Rich Dad Poor Dad's a little bit more in the weeds, I guess. But there were a lot of people that have you like, have you read this book called Who Not How? It's about how you should find who's gonna do your work and not how you're supposed to do it. Not

Dan Austin: [6:21] how. Yeah.

Mike DeHaan: [6:21] On the call. I get it. I just I got I don't need to read the whole thing. You gave me the one sentence breakdown.

Dan Austin: [6:26] All the books on my shelf are a quarter to half read. I don't think I've finished a book in a long time.

Mike DeHaan: [6:31] Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Every now and then you can find gold. And and so like that's why I did like a lot of the Bigger Pockets books like the Burr book. I credit that one for opening my eyes to real estate, right now with our current business, because we've evolved our wholesaling business to wholesaling business. Alex Trebosy's $100,000,000 offers has been huge, And I'm currently reading that now for the second time in a couple of weeks just because it's been so impactful. But people just love their books, man. They do. There's a lot more to learning than just reading. You actually have to take action after a while. Right.

Ali Garced: [7:04] Yeah. And just like Alex Tremozi says, a lot of that is just mental masturbation.

Mike DeHaan: [7:08] Exactly.

Ali Garced: [7:09] Where like it's it feels good to learn. It feels good to pretend and feel like you're taking the next step when really you're just running on that hamster wheel. If you're not actually out there in the field, you're not really progressing. So

Mike DeHaan: [7:21] Yeah. Yes. It's it's people's excuse to not have to do the hard stuff. Yeah. But that is what it is.

Dan Austin: [7:27] So when you say you're not happy with your w two, is that because you worked for the government? Was that the w two you're Yes. Referring Okay. Just wanted to clarify that.

Ali Garced: [7:37] Of course, my views, you know, do not represent the views of the DOD. I served as an active duty officer for a decade in the Air Force. I separated as a major. At the time, I just wanted to replace that major income. I was making a $107,000. I wanted to become a real estate agent. So I went from being a federal agent to a real estate agent. And everyone was like, you what? You're not gonna go work for the FBI after this? Because that's like the next stepping stone.

Mike DeHaan: [8:00] Right.

Ali Garced: [8:01] I'm like, no. I wanna be a And they're like, you're crazy.

Dan Austin: [8:04] You're a weirdo.

Mike DeHaan: [8:05] Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Ali Garced: [8:07] So I matched my income, you know, month eight, and now I'm like on the way to triple it. And it's just been I I'm so glad that I just focus on something that I like.

Mike DeHaan: [8:15] Yeah. Mhmm.

Ali Garced: [8:15] So and I'm sure a lot of people can relate to. Not everyone's happy in their w twos. Start working for yourself.

Mike DeHaan: [8:20] Right. Well, you jumped into something that you actually have upside that you can control.

Dan Austin: [8:24] Mhmm.

Mike DeHaan: [8:24] You know, especially if you're in a serious bureaucracy, which the government is the ultimate bureaucracy. Right? Yeah. You can crush it. You can be the best person, but you're still going to be capped, especially on a year by year basis. Mhmm. You know, same thing if you work for any like large corporation. Like, I used to work at Boeing.

Ali Garced: [8:40] Really?

Mike DeHaan: [8:40] And that was the biggest thing that I realized was, I can do super well, but I'm still only getting a 5% raise this year. Yeah. So what's the point? You know? It's good that you realize that. But

Ali Garced: [8:50] No matter how hard you work, the other person, at least in the government where, know, like the the one really good thing that I liked about the government is women get paid the same. You know? Like, we all know how much we're making. Mhmm. So there is no, like, there is no favoritism when it comes to that. It's black and white. You're a captain. You make this much. You're a major. You make that much. But with that said, you can be the hardest working major, and you're making the same amount of money as the shitbag. You know? Like, what is the point? There is no incentive to work hard. There isn't.

Mike DeHaan: [9:16] And that's why those people get into those roles, and they just stay there forever until they rot. And then they're all miserable. Right? So as you got into becoming an agent, you already owned some rental properties at that time as you had the real estate bug. So I guess, like, where exactly along your path did you decide to make real estate your career?

Ali Garced: [9:36] My wife had been telling me to be a realtor for maybe two years before I finally made the decision to get my license. In the beginning, I thought I was all selling sunset. I'm like, I don't wear heels. I mean, look at me. I'm wearing a backward hat and a t shirt.

Speaker 2: [9:51] This is

Ali Garced: [9:51] what I wear every day.

Mike DeHaan: [9:52] Yeah.

Ali Garced: [9:53] And I just thought being a realtor was like wearing dresses, wearing heels, just very showy. You know, like having to have the latest car. I don't that's not what I value. So and then I thought it was just all drama. It was just silly sense at HGTV bullshit. It wasn't until I realized, and I heard a couple of podcasts from other investors that were also agents, where they were using their commissions to help further their own personal investing And I'm like, wait. The two really do go hand in hand. Even if I don't personally use my access to the MLS to purchase on my own, I could use the commissions, use some extra money aside from what I'm already making in the military, make more money, and then more down payments on other properties for myself. So I started looking into that, and that's when I realized it is a whole business. It there's KPI. There's it's sales funnel. And I loved it. I fell in love. And because it was so different. I had to be organized. I wasn't organized in the military. You know? You had you know, a couple of meetings that you have to go to every week that but that's it. There is no like, what's the shortest way to save time to get the most amount of done. You know?

Ali Garced: [11:01] There wasn't any of that. Yeah. So after I maxed out my my VA loans, so I have two VA loans out. My wife has two VA loans out. At that point, that's when I became licensed. And I started as a way to just use extra income to purchase more properties. During that process, I fell in love. And I'm like, you know what? I actually put my own personal investing off to the side. So instead of me continuing to look at out of state markets and build a team in another market, another area, now that's where my wife and I pivoted to where we just move around locally. So, yeah. The strategy that I mentioned before.

Mike DeHaan: [11:38] Nice. I love it. That's awesome. You mean to tell me that to be a successful real estate agent, you can't just like go to the HOA potluck once a quarter and make millions of dollars. That's what they told everybody in 2021. That's why everyone was leaving their corporate jobs.

Dan Austin: [11:52] You gotta hit your sphere of influence, dogs. Sell houses, everybody knows first. Yeah, exactly.

Mike DeHaan: [11:55] All of a sudden, have these people that are not religious that are joining churches because they gotta grow that sphere of influence. Right? CrossFit gym membership. Every CrossFit gym. Anywhere they can build like an unspoken level of trust, they're fully Yeah.

Ali Garced: [12:07] Yes. And you have to say my business runs off referrals as if people know what the fuck that means. Yeah. I

Dan Austin: [12:13] know. Oh, that is a great point. Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like though, you're kinda like Mike and I, we got into real estate though, because we're like, oh, we wanna grow, we wanna have invest, we wanna have passive income, we wanna invest, grow assets, all that stuff, but then you fall in love with the business part is what you said. Like can you talk about that, like how you went from like not knowing shit about business to where you're at now? Because you've obviously done very well for yourself. And what elements of that like do you get super excited about?

Ali Garced: [12:37] Yes. I love talking about this. I interviewed 13 different brokerages before I got my license. That's the type of person that I am. I am so risk averse, and I wanna make sure that I make the right decision the first time. So I interviewed brokerages that were local brokerages that had a lot of older people, brokerages that had a lot of young people, tech heavy, not tech heavy. You know, just all sorts, just so I can get a feel for each type of office. And the group that I ended up joining, I mean, I wouldn't have it any other way. They gave all of the checklists, all the resources, the scripts, the canned emails, everything that I needed to just plug and play for free, no team split. And since then, I've added even onto that with, like, adding the 200 step onboarding process for agents. Because as I was going through it, I knew that I wanted to build something out for agents that wanted to join under me in eXp. So they have everything for free. There's no team split. You can't find that anywhere else. So the amount of giving and, like, the abundance mindset and being surrounded by people that were just so giving. You know, the more you give, you will receive. That was different from the mentality that that I was surrounded by with in the military where it was like, how can I stand out? It's me, me, me. I want the promotion. I want whatever.

Ali Garced: [13:53] It was night and day difference. So on top of that, there we have free coaches. So like my sponsor, my sponsor sponsor. Everyone is just like a coach and available to you. And I took advantage of that. I was scheduling my one on ones with them, going over my business. That's where Ruben Garcia is my sponsor's sponsor. He was a CEO for Keller Williams and Fayetteville, and then before they all moved from Keller Williams to eXp. And he was the founding block of what helped me in my business as far as this is how much income you want to make. And I told him, hey, I'm just trying to make I'm just going to replace by $107,000 in the military because I want to leave. And he's like, too easy. Let's work backward. So how many closings does that mean you need to have? How many appointments? How many conversations? How many conversation attempts? And my number is six. As long as I have six conversations about real estate every single day, I will make my income of $308,000. That's my goal. And so that's it. It's just it's numbers. It's just working backward. It's I don't know. I love it. I hope that I'm making sense.

Dan Austin: [14:58] Oh, you're making perfect sense.

Mike DeHaan: [15:00] Absolutely. And that I mean, that same concept, you can find fundamentally at the core of every single business. You know, so like for us on the wholesale side is exactly the same thing. We know our cost per deal is about $3,500 k our cost per mail piece is just over $1 So we know for every 3,000 to 3,100 piece of mail that we send, we should get a deal from that. Yes. And you can break it down to know how many conversations we have lead to offers, how many offers you make lead to deals. And you use that to basically, you know, you can't guarantee it necessarily. But you can focus on those lead indicators to do the things that you need to do to that should statistically get you to the lag indicators, right, or the success, right, that comes from it. Yeah. And if they don't do that, that means something about your process sucks or something about you is not going right. And that's where you, like, learn what you need to get better at. And so many people, they try to skip, like, the the work part where you have to, like, be honest with yourself on what that looks like Yep. And then you improve through practice and putting in the wraps. But that's awesome. That's that's a great mentor.

Mike DeHaan: [16:02] So was I guess, how did that work with with each week? Because I know a lot of people that have or sorry, e x t. How did What is e x t? E x t. E x p. E x I'm an investor, man. I've never been a realtor. I don't

Dan Austin: [16:14] know the world.

Ali Garced: [16:15] It's all good.

Mike DeHaan: [16:16] How does that work? Do they like pair you up with that person, or do you like seek them out after you jump in?

Ali Garced: [16:21] Good question. Yeah. Because mind you, I'm in Tucson, Arizona, and I choose the group that's all at the time, they were all in North Carolina.

Mike DeHaan: [16:29] Interesting.

Ali Garced: [16:29] But that's the one that had the most benefit to me. You know? I was able to save the most with my commission, make the most with my commission. And yet, I had all these free coaches. Like, yes. Even if they're in a different market, at the end of the day, being a real estate agent is the same thing. So with eXp, the way it works, it's all it's all about who you choose as your sponsor. So your sponsor is what, like, unlocks whatever they have available to you as an agent. That's what you will be getting for you, for your business. So it's super important that you're able to talk to your sponsor. A lot of people just kinda sign up under somebody, never hear from them again. It might work, but you wanna make sure that not just your sponsor, your sponsor sponsor. Everybody is seven levels up, pretty similar to the way Keller Williams does it, that you have the resources that you need to succeed. With that said, you're a ten ninety nine. You're an entrepreneur. There's no way that any entrepreneur will succeed if they need somebody over their shoulder, government mindset, w two mindset, saying, hey. Did you do this? Hey. Did you do that? You need to, like, not be handheld. And that was a really, really big change that I needed to make in my own mindset where I I was so used to that. We all were. You know? That's just what we do is we just get micromanaged. And making that switch to running your own business, you have to have some faith in yourself that you can do it yourself without anybody checking in on you.

Mike DeHaan: [17:52] Yeah. I mean, that's massive. And I I think that that is why most people fail when they pursue a sort of entrepreneurial endeavors because they don't have that. And let's dive into that a little bit because I love the way that you've the where you came from doesn't necessarily translate to being a good realtor, right? So you obviously had some growth that went into it. Because like, you meet a lot of people that are good realtors. They come from a sales background. They come from like a hustle background. You were literally in the antithesis. Yeah. Right? And you had to develop it. So there's people out there, the Yako Willings will say like, oh, it's all about being determined. And, know, just like being a hard dick and like figuring all this stuff out. But that's there's obviously a lot more of it than that. Right? So from your perspective, someone that's coming from a similar boat that wants to get to where you've gotten, what are, like, the main things, I guess, that you found helpful? Like, how did you develop that mindset? Like, what did that growth process look like for you?

Ali Garced: [18:49] It started with surrounding myself with people that I wanted to become. So my sponsor, that's who I wanted to become. Her sponsor, that's who I wanted to become. And they weren't people that made me feel good that were at my level. They were people that made me feel intimidated. Like, wow. Can I ever reach that? I don't know, but I wanna try. And with we're in 2023. Being surrounded by people no longer means in your same city, in your same ZIP code. It means who do you see every day over Zoom? You no longer need to be in the same time zone, country, hemisphere. You can surround yourself by people that are across the world, across the nation like what I did. So that's so important. People feel like they need shoulder to shoulder, and you need to get rid of that mindset so bad. Just join a community, a digital community, of people that are at the level that you want to one day get to. Mhmm. So and,

Mike DeHaan: [19:48] of course,

Ali Garced: [19:48] that you have access to. Because you can join communities where they're just so far ahead that they're they're too busy, and they can't give it back. There's not enough time in their schedule to give back to you, to have like one on one calls, free coaching calls. So that makes a difference night or day. And then again, once you start surrounding yourself by these people going to these Zoom calls, whatever it is, at that point, you see other people in your position and what they're doing. That's when it's feeding in just making the fire even bigger where it you're no longer alone. You're no longer surrounded by people within your own ZIP code that maybe don't try hard or in your w two that don't give a shit anymore. You know? I've been there.

Dan Austin: [20:29] Mhmm. Yep.

Ali Garced: [20:30] It's just a race to the bottom there. Like, how little can I do before my boss finds out? And then what a terrible mindset to have. What a way to live life. Right?

Dan Austin: [20:39] That's not good for anybody involved.

Ali Garced: [20:41] Yeah. Yeah. So that that's the biggest thing.

Dan Austin: [20:44] So that's fascinating the way you just explained it. It's throwing me back to some of the stuff that you you know, you hear in the newbie realm of real estate, is like, go find a mentor, go get a mentor, and you legit did that. But the challenge people tend to have is they like message somebody like, hey, you be my mentor? And most people are like, I don't even know you, like why would I wanna be your mentor? And you've also brought up joining the wrong communities where those people that you wanna be around just don't have enough time to give to you. Yeah. So you actually sought out and found a group of people through eXp that were willing and felt responsibility to the people in their group to actually give that to them. And the badass part about that is, is you found it, if you couldn't find it in Tucson, you sure as hell did find it in North Carolina. So, do you have any advice for people that maybe aren't eXp realtors, or maybe they wanna become eXp realtors, but like how to seek out or find that group of people?

Ali Garced: [21:34] Continue to listen to podcasts, because that's how I found the community that I did. Mhmm. Like, listen to podcasts, see what groups that they're a part of, and go to their free trainings. Usually

Dan Austin: [21:43] It is.

Ali Garced: [21:44] Hopefully, they'll have free trainings available. So you don't have to make the decision. You can test it out. Test the waters. Do I like this community?

Dan Austin: [21:52] Right.

Ali Garced: [21:52] Do they have something for free where I can just test it out? That's always best. In case they don't, then I would say reach out to other agents. Don't just talk to recruiters. Right? Talk to other agents and see. Are you successful? Do you have access to this person? Like, they say that I'm gonna have access to. And I actually have a YouTube video on 19 questions to ask before you join a brokerage. Because it was the questions that I should have asked. Either way, I made the right choice. But I'm seeing a lot now as I interview a lot of agents that are unhappy or they were given false promises. So these are the questions that you should be asking before you join, for sure.

Dan Austin: [22:28] Yeah. I'm gonna double down on what you said before, which is listen to podcasts, sign up for the free stuff, and also add to that and say reach out to those people. Mike and I say that on our podcast all the time, when we have people on our show, reach out to them, they're here for that reason, they wanna be involved in the community, they help out. But like, legitimately, like, it feels like a wall for a lot of people, like, oh, I'm not gonna reach out, I'm not gonna sign up for that, but once I switch my mindset to doing that, and signing up for the free courses that you hear people pitch, and it's okay that they're gonna try to sell you on something else, that free content's usually pretty damn good, and getting access to people through podcasts or social media is incredibly easy nowadays.

Ali Garced: [23:03] They're right there at your fingertips. Yeah. And once you do reach out to them, and they give you some advice. If they give you some advice, do it.

Mike DeHaan: [23:11] Yes, it

Ali Garced: [23:11] That is where ninety nine point nine percent of the people will fall off. And then therefore like, I see it a lot in my inbox. I'll I'll give them some advice, especially as a as a realtor. Like, hey. Join the trainings. And then they'll ask me a question like, hey. I'm struggling with this. I don't know how to find leads. Have you been to any of our trainings? The answers are there. So why would a mentor or someone that you're wanting to to be your mentor spend any more time with you? Step one, of course, like listening to them, find a community. Step two, once you reach out to them and they gave you some advice, implement, like you said, Dan. And step three is reach back out to them and tell them, hey, you told me to do this. I did it. This is what happened after. They will love you. They will take you under their wing because no one else does it. No one else implements. You'll stand out just by doing that alone.

Dan Austin: [24:02] I love the third part too where you say, reach back out and let them know how it went. What are the results? Like, that's actually really cool.

Mike DeHaan: [24:08] Yeah. And not enough people do that. We have people ask for tips and stuff all the time, and I'll shoot them something, and then I'll never hear from them again. So I don't even know if they follow

Ali Garced: [24:15] it. Yeah.

Mike DeHaan: [24:15] Right. You don't know if it worked or not. Yeah. You know, and kind of a meta view as well on in terms of, like, setting up your environment who you're around. If you are someone that feels like you're kinda trapped somewhere or you don't know where exactly to start looking for it, if you really invest time into, you know, listening to these different podcasts with guys or, you know, girls, people that you vibe with, that you kinda like like what they're doing, Honestly, because the style of the content is so kind of personal, right? So like, you have such a personable relationship that you kind of develop with them, even though you just listen to them, that kind of becomes your network, right? And that was a big thing for me, like when I was at Boeing, and I was first decided that I wanted to do something bigger, I got started getting into these different business podcasts. And it changed my way of thinking, you know, because all of a sudden, I'm spending a lot of my free time hearing these people that are not that much older than me, that are doing things with their life that I have interest in doing, and then you start to view the world a little bit different, right? And that's kind of like phase one, that's absolutely accessible, there's no barrier to that. And the next phase is like finding those people directly in your influence, right?

Mike DeHaan: [25:22] And then the third phase of it is like trying to find the people that are, you know, further along you're trying to get to. And that's how you really can start to scale up from there. I think that that's really good advice. And, you know, I think the big thing too, people is a lot of people focus on trying to bring people value. Like, what you hear a lot is like, find a mentor, figure out how to bring them value. That's really hard to do if you're trying to figure something out. So that's why people have things like coaching programs, and training programs, or like being part of a brokerage. They're invested in you because they make some sort of money off you doing well in the business. Yeah. Or like, don't be afraid to pay for a coaching program, because that is your way of bringing them value, is you are providing them revenue. In exchange, they're more than happy to give you the information how to stick around. And people act like that's a weird thing, but it's not. Like, that's That's business. It's business. It's easiest way for someone who is new to bring value to someone that is experienced is to give them money. Yes. It's not that hard.

Ali Garced: [26:16] Yeah.

Dan Austin: [26:16] Right.

Ali Garced: [26:17] And especially like Good point. Like in our community, eXp gets a bad rap for that. Like, oh, well, they're just there to recruit. I am financially incentivized to make your business run. Like, what? And all that for 3% of what you make. That's not a 50% split like every other team out there as a realtor has. It's either 3%, which doesn't come out of your pocket. That doesn't does not come out of that agent's pocket. Or 50% that you'd be paying for a team lead all for the ability to be shoulder to shoulder. Yeah. You know, like, pick your heart.

Mike DeHaan: [26:49] Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And that's great. No. So that's awesome. So then and you obviously went down that realm. Let's talk about your investments as well, since we're already kinda running up on time here, is crazy. So love to hear about your agent background. That's awesome. It's your investments. You utilize the VA loans very heavily. Okay. You've built a little portfolio for yourself. Okay. Let's talk about that process because VA loans are a unique product. But I also know that there's tons of people out there that have access to them, but just don't necessarily know how they can use them for investments.

Ali Garced: [27:16] Yes. I teach the VA loan on base and online as well. The VA loan, if you're active duty, and you serve for more than ninety days, and you're in good standing, you have it available to you. Or if you are a spouse of a widow and you have not yet remarried, the spouses can use the VA loan as well. So with the VA loan, the biggest benefit is 0% down payment and no PMI, and no pre penalty payment as well. So it's huge. You know, it's pretty similar to USDA loan, but, of course, not everyone has access to the USDA because not everyone wants to live in rural America. Mhmm. But it's it's really good. And there are ways to structure your offer to get accepted, especially military communities. Military communities favor the VA loan as opposed to nonmilitary communities. That is gonna be harder to get your loan accepted only because not all agents know how to use a VA loan. Not all lenders are used to using VA loans.

Mike DeHaan: [28:13] Mhmm.

Ali Garced: [28:13] So yeah. So, I have purchased I know I have two VA loans out, my wife has two, and we have three conventional. Does that math work? Something like that?

Mike DeHaan: [28:22] Mhmm. Yeah. That'd be Yeah.

Ali Garced: [28:24] Okay. Yeah.

Dan Austin: [28:25] Yeah. I like it. It works.

Ali Garced: [28:27] And so, a lot of our portfolio is here in Tucson, Arizona, and then a couple in previous states that I've lived in before. So and we don't plan on living here in Tucson forever. So every single play place that we plan on living to, we do plan on purchasing. Again, owner occupied because my wife doesn't want a house hack. I've been trying to convince her to house hack, but she's not on board. So we met in the middle, and at least we'll, you know, rent it out. We'll keep it as a rental no matter what.

Dan Austin: [28:53] So, yeah. So she doesn't want a stranger living in your house

Ali Garced: [28:56] with Yeah. Know. Like, go figure. Right? I don't know. She's crazy.

Dan Austin: [29:00] My wife's the same way, she's like, nah, I'm good.

Mike DeHaan: [29:03] The same way, I don't want that either. That'd be cool. Yeah, I know you would, but you're a weirdo.

Dan Austin: [29:09] I just wanted to get some tips, you said how to get them, like you have some hacks on how to get them accepted. Like what is your number one tip for people with a VA loan to use it to get their offer accepted on any type of because it was challenging last year. Last year was weird.

Ali Garced: [29:23] Yeah, last year was, the last couple of years have been hard. I have only ever not gotten my offers for clients accepted on the first time twice. The rest were we're getting your offer accepted. I also have a YouTube video on how to get your offers accepted. But time is the biggest thing. So which also goes hand in hand with the lender. As long as the lender knows what the heck they're doing with VA loans, then they'll be able to structure it in a way that where they can close on it fast. Because if the lender knows what they're doing, if the underwriter knows what they're doing, then therefore, they don't have to fumble once you're under contract. So you can legitimately say, we can close in this house in in twenty two days. That's the fastest I've seen, twenty two days. Wow. And otherwise, it's gonna be like forty five days, and it's still stuck with the underwriter. And then the listing agent is like, what the heck? You know, the seller is like, hey, what the heck? Those are the two biggest things.

Dan Austin: [30:12] Yeah. I've seen offers come in that are like sixty day and longer closings on VA loans, and everybody's like, well, a VA, you know, that's how how long it takes. And you're saying, that's not the case. That's just shitty underwriters, shitty lenders not knowing what to do.

Ali Garced: [30:25] That and and or the a lot of the buyers it depends on the appraisal as well. So if the buyer is very certain that they want to purchase that property, then as soon as they're under contract, pay for the appraiser to go out there. Because the appraiser is also what takes up a lot of time too. So right now, it may be like two weeks, week and a half. But instead of waiting for all the inspections to come in due diligence period to end before then the buyer tells the lender, okay, let's get it appraised now, that's a waste of time.

Mike DeHaan: [30:57] Got it.

Ali Garced: [30:57] Yeah. So you could already be on the appraiser's schedule while you're you're doing your due diligence. And of course, that's at risk to the money that you're gonna be paying for the appraiser, about $700. So Right. Should the inspections come back and you realize that you wanna take that you wanna get out, you can get your earnest money back, but you might be forfeiting that $700 on the appraiser.

Mike DeHaan: [31:17] Right.

Ali Garced: [31:17] However, it got your foot in the door. Yeah. They accepted your offer.

Dan Austin: [31:20] Yeah. Totally. And that's the cost of doing business, to be honest. And you might win some, lose some. It's kinda like earnest money in the investor world too. Sometimes it just doesn't work out and you pay out earnest money.

Ali Garced: [31:28] Yeah. And take it off your taxes.

Mike DeHaan: [31:30] Yeah. Yeah. Boom. There you go. When you say find a good lender, is there specific lenders that specialize in that? Or is it better to use local banks? How do you find a good lender that understands these VA loans?

Ali Garced: [31:43] Yeah. Definitely ask a realtor. Some realtors because there are some lenders that do, like, all 50 states. Your you know, the buyers won't have face to face interaction with them, but who even does anymore with lenders? So there are some lenders that always come out, like, just out of the woodwork, you know, with, like, super cool programs that have very low interest rates because they're new. They want to get their name out. So they're losing money in the beginning, and then they're going to add on fees at the end as they gain more momentum as a business. Or local lenders are always super good too, of course, as long as they've had experience with lenders. So if you, as a buyer, if you have access to the VA loan, talk to multiple lenders on the same day because rates change daily.

Mike DeHaan: [32:23] Mhmm.

Ali Garced: [32:23] So contact these lenders and say, hey. Assuming a credit score of a middle credit score of x y z, assuming a thirty year fixed VA loan, what would my interest rate be looking like? And assuming no points. So do that. Ask those three questions to multiple lenders in in a single morning, and you'll be able to see like more or less apples to apples comparison of how much you're gonna be paying and what your interest rate's gonna be.

Mike DeHaan: [32:45] So, yeah. So going from there, I guess how do you know if one's good or not? Because like they might not be the one with the lowest rates. Mhmm. Know? You And I mean, I know from personal experience, typically, the best lender isn't the ones that I found with the lowest rates. They usually have, like, the most hoops to jump through versus, like, a local lender that kinda understands just, the market a little bit better, especially if you're an entrepreneur of any kind.

Ali Garced: [33:06] Yeah. That's where I would ask if they work nights, if they work weekends. Because you're submitting a lot of offers, or at least as realtors, we're submitting a lot of offers on weekends at night. So if the lender works nights and weekends, most likely, they're local. Most likely, they're not gonna be one of these big lending companies. So that's huge. Yeah. That's huge for you to say to be able to text your lender on a Saturday and say, hey. We just saw this property. We wanna place an offer. Mhmm. Can you have our prequal reflect this exact amount of what we're prequalified for? So that's really big. And then just also asking them how many VA loans have you done in the last twelve months? And see if it is it five? Or is it 35? I think 35 is low.

Mike DeHaan: [33:47] But Right. Yeah. And going for that hustle factor pretty much being the number one thing. And then I guess, you know, from a VA loan standpoint, what are like the main goshas that people tend to run into? Mhmm. I know the appraisal thing's always big if like people are trying to overbuy. Maybe just go through, like, the main risk factors that people have missing a deal because of the Galen's.

Ali Garced: [34:07] In the state of Arizona, you have to have a pest. I actually don't know if this is VA wide, but in the state of Arizona, you have to have a pest inspection. And, of course, general inspection is good too. I kinda think general inspections are they're okay. All they're gonna do is point you to specific other areas anyway, so you might as well go to the subcontractors and get those inspections. Just go straight to the electrician, the HVAC, the SewerScope, definitely got SewerScope. Some gotchas are a lot of people think they can just, out the bat, invest using the VA loan. That's incorrect. It's an owner occupied loan. And if you do not intend to live there within sixty days of closing, if if you do not occupy, that is mortgage fraud. Do not mess with that. You know? Like, you can go to prison. So everyone's like, oh, how can I game it where I can, you know, buy a property with the VA loan, but I didn't really plan on living in it? I'm like, dude, do not talk to me then. I am not going to lose my license for you to no. So don't mess with mortgage fraud. It is a thing. And yeah. Actually, belaboring that point even further is a lot of people will then think, who is going to knock on the door?

Ali Garced: [35:11] No one is going to knock on the door, but UPS and USPS, they have a lot of federal investigators. I know this because I was a federal investigator, not for them.

Mike DeHaan: [35:20] That was shit.

Ali Garced: [35:21] But mail fraud, you can learn a lot as to where a person's mail is being sent to. And people don't think about that. Like Yeah. All they have to do is just say, hey, USPS. I want to know where the mail for this person is going. If you're not getting your mail

Mike DeHaan: [35:36] Yeah.

Ali Garced: [35:36] At the location where you're supposed to be living at, where you're filing your taxes from, don't do that.

Dan Austin: [35:40] Mike, you're in trouble.

Mike DeHaan: [35:41] I was say, so next time you see our UPS guy, like, yeah, got a cool UPS guy. It's so nice. Realize he's probably a narc for the federal government.

Dan Austin: [35:47] Yeah. I'm gonna throw a bag over his head and take

Ali Garced: [35:50] So okay.

Mike DeHaan: [35:50] Take him out back. Yeah. Right. He's a he's a snitch for sure. So don't don't be nice to him.

Ali Garced: [35:55] So not so much the actual delivery guy, but more so the manager of the USPS.

Mike DeHaan: [36:00] Yeah. Oh. So Okay. Never mind. No. Yeah. Sorry sorry, Clyde. I didn't mean I to mean to

Dan Austin: [36:05] got a I do have a couple questions on the VA. So one, I actually this will be a statement and I'm gonna make it a question. So, I got a VA loan, I actually didn't even know I had a VA loan in my house, that's how stupid I am.

Mike DeHaan: [36:18] So, I ended up going with a broker. It's called a TBI Dan, it's not your fault.

Ali Garced: [36:23] That's how I'll do it.

Speaker 2: [36:23] Well, I ended

Dan Austin: [36:24] up going with

Mike DeHaan: [36:24] a broker and I was like, hey, can

Dan Austin: [36:26] you give me some quotes on loans, we're gonna buy this house, and she's like, heck yeah, cool, really nice lady, did it, and she's like, okay, these are your, you know, options, and turns out the VA one had the cheapest rates and the cheapest cost. It was like the lowest cost, everything, which I was surprised with, which is probably why I didn't bank that in my brain. Was like, yeah, go with the cheapest one, we're good. I wasn't paying attention, got the VA loan, which worked out great. I think the rate was 2.75% interest. A year later, I got a call, my loan was sold, typical. Got a call from a company called the Freedom Mortgage, Freedom Mortgage, and they're like, hey, we'd love to offer you, I think, is it called the VA IRRRL, like interest rate reduction?

Ali Garced: [37:04] The IRRRL, yeah.

Dan Austin: [37:05] The IRRRL. And the guy's like, I can get you a 2.25 interest rate, it's not gonna cost you any money. And I was like, I don't believe you, but sent, like literally, that's what I said, was like, I was driving, I like, I don't believe you, but send me the paperwork, and I'll look at the loan quote. He did, and it was legit, because they had credits that offset it, And so not only did I get it for free, but it was a half percent, half point reduction on my loan. Is that something that you pitch or know about with the VA loans?

Ali Garced: [37:28] Yes. That is a huge benefit to those with that have VA loans out already. Mhmm. If and when the interest rates lower again, yes. Do an IRRRL.

Mike DeHaan: [37:38] Okay.

Ali Garced: [37:39] Absolutely. Yeah. It doesn't cost you anything. You'll get a lower interest rate. You do not have to re amortize the loan. So heck yeah. That's awesome.

Dan Austin: [37:46] That's exactly what it was. I was like, that is super cool. Wow. And I just thought it was like a scam, because I used to get those letters in my mail all the time, do your VA IRRRL. They're just, you know, from random people. But anyway, so that works. That's good to know. And then the other thing for our other non VA listeners, can you assume a VA loan, and are there benefits for non veterans to do that?

Ali Garced: [38:08] You can assume a VA loan. However, you have to come out of pocket for the difference between the purchase price and the loan amount. So in Tucson, that's about $100,000 right now because military moves every three to four years. So with the appreciation, it's about $100,000 more than what their loan amount originally is today. And you cannot finance that portion. It has to come cash. And that's one major negative. The other negative is if the sometimes the sellers don't realize this, but when the sellers are trying to get more open up the pool of buyers, and they're gonna say, hey, let's advertise this. I have a VA loan. It's always assumable. That means that they are locked in to that entitlement. So as someone else has assumed their VA loan, they cannot purchase another property. I mean, they could if they still had some entitlement left over, but say they already had two VA loans out, they're selling one of them as an assumable. They're locked in for however long those new buyers are going to keep that loan for. So as long as you don't plan on using the VA loan again, cool. But if not, if you do want to again, then I wouldn't.

Mike DeHaan: [39:21] Yeah. That's interesting with the that you have to bring the money down. Yeah. No second position. So does that mean if they're underwater that the bank will pay me to buy the house and to assume

Dan Austin: [39:31] it? The government?

Mike DeHaan: [39:32] Or is it not a two way street? Yeah. Exactly.

Ali Garced: [39:35] Ask. Always ask. Worst thing they can say is no.

Mike DeHaan: [39:37] Yeah. Always ask. Yeah. Exactly. Next thing you know, you're getting a fat check from uncle Sam because they just wanna keep the keep the yield there. Awesome. So super good stuff, Al. I really appreciate all the information. One thing I want to touch on really quick before we go into our final questions is I want to talk about the decision that you told us that you're making at the beginning of the show to pay off all of your mortgages. Because this is so counter to I guess both how Dan and I think it's how a lot of other real estate investors think where they're trying to max leverage all the time. But you've already reached financial freedom. And now you're trying to level it up even more by paying off your mortgages. So maybe dive into what your strategy is for that, and kinda why you decided to pursue that.

Ali Garced: [40:16] Yeah. Even though I achieved financial independence, I want to Again, I'm very risk averse. I do wanna make sure that this will stick around for a long time. So this is personal to me and my position that I'm in with my wife. So my wife is actually separating from the Air Force potentially. She's going through some medical stuff. So the Air Force could tell her, We no longer need your services. And so with that, we want to make sure that we have enough cash flow to hold us over until she decides what else she wants to do. So, however, I think even if we were not in that position, I think I would probably want to pay off my properties anyway. I've always been that type of person. I don't wanna be over leveraged in case, you know, something happens later down the road that's unpredictable.

Mike DeHaan: [41:00] Right.

Ali Garced: [41:01] So I started with the shred method. And there are multiple companies that do this. I do have an affiliate link in case you guys have anybody has any questions. I'm sure you guys can have one as well. So the shred method, I know that the Quark Brothers also have one too. And it's a way to utilize the HELOC instead of a checking account. So every single commission, every single time I get paid, I'm paying back the HELOC, which I only have $50,000 of a HELOC. It's not a lot. And it's at 14% interest. Still works. Yeah. And so I'm using that HELOC instead of my checking account. And every single time I get paid, take some money out of the HELOC, throw it into one mortgage. And I paid off one of my properties in seven months with the starting balance, which was like a 125,000. And I haven't I'm working on the second mortgage now. Should be done with that within the next other seven months. So in a total of fourteen months, I can get rid of two properties. And I just plan on continuing to do that. Just for security, peace of mind is a lot. Peace of mind costs a lot for me.

Dan Austin: [42:02] So that means you're taking your HELOC that you have on a property, and and is it the same property that you're paying off the HELOC is on, or is it a different property? And you're taking the money to actually pay off the first loan. Is that what you're doing?

Ali Garced: [42:15] You could do that. Yes. And actually, will further clarify. It doesn't even need to be a home equity line of credit. I actually have a business line of credit. Or it could be a personal line of credit. Any line of credit will work.

Mike DeHaan: [42:25] So I'm not familiar with this concept at all. This is new to us. So I don't understand, I guess, like, the thought process of it because you're basically exchanging debt for debt. It's more expensive. Right. Like, how does that work? Yeah. Why? I don't I don't get it.

Ali Garced: [42:40] Yeah. It's because a HELOC is based off of a daily average balance of how much you take off. So my $50,000 HELOC, I only ever really take out 20 at a time, maybe 25. And it's off of simple interest as opposed to your mortgage, which is not simple interest. It's compounding interest. So even though my mortgages are freaking 4%, I'm paying more in that month, every single month, with that compounding interest than I am even taking out the full HELOC because it's based off of simple interest. And every single time I get paid, I'm repaying that HELOC back. So there's money moving about five times a month into and out of the HELOC.

Dan Austin: [43:23] Fascinating.

Ali Garced: [43:23] There's a calculator that comes with it because I don't pretend to be super, super smart about this stuff. I just trust the calculator, and it freaking works.

Mike DeHaan: [43:32] Yeah. I'm gonna have to look into that, because like, I'm pretty crafty at math. I got an engineering degree. I am good at analyzing deals. I just need

Dan Austin: [43:41] to see Gotta watch it work.

Mike DeHaan: [43:43] Yeah. And I understand what you're saying. So if if you guys got lost there, basically, when you get a fixed mortgage, you pay a lot more interest in the first seven years versus the back twenty three years, And so, what Allie's basically saying is that you can use this HELOC to pay down the principal amount super aggressively because your pay down is going to be very small being of your ownership of the property. Right? Exactly. Okay. Yeah. But then, I guess, you know, you still have to obviously make that amount of money to pay back the HELOC. So I guess my question is why not I guess you're just utilizing the equity instead of having to have the cash available. But you still have to have the cash available at some point to pay down HELOC though.

Ali Garced: [44:20] Right. Yeah. So, you do have to have disposable income. That's like number one. You cannot be running negative every month. So, and you have to have a certain amount too.

Dan Austin: [44:29] Yeah. You're just like, I'm just gonna take a HELOC out. That's what

Mike DeHaan: [44:31] I was Yeah. Do not do that. No. I'm gonna go and get a 0% credit card with a eighteen month promotion and use that to pay the HELOC back, and then I'm just gonna have this big cycling I'm doing that every year. High of high risk debt that just gets progressively more and more risky as you go.

Dan Austin: [44:48] But It's called the shred method. It shreds your Your credit score.

Ali Garced: [44:52] Yeah. Yeah. And I'm happy to do like a one on one or a two on one with you guys, and show you my behind the scenes, like my dashboard. I'll show you my HELOC, and I'll log into my bank account. But yeah. And if anybody has any questions, they can just reach out to me. I do have an affiliate link, so I get like some, I don't know, measly amount. But it gives them like $200 off the upfront cost. So all I'm paying and all the users would pay is like, I think it's $47 a month. That's And just for the calculator service, which you don't even really need. Get the hang of it after month three.

Mike DeHaan: [45:24] Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. Maybe you could come talk to our our group coaching program about because I'm sure there's some people it's an additional way to use leverage that I'm not familiar with. So I think that would be super rad. Super valuable. Awesome. Cool. Well, right on. I really appreciate you coming on the show. We are going to jump into our final couple of questions here that we ask every ghost Every ghost. Ghost. I hope not. I mean, I don't know. Been up and watching a lot of sci fi TV recently. That's probably where my head's at. But so first question, what is the craziest real estate investing story that you this can be a big win, a big loss. This can be something when your tenants did. This can be something you worked on a client about. That was kind of a crazy situation. Whatever you got.

Ali Garced: [46:06] This one was I actually had tried to make this one an investment. It ended up not being either in my investing side or my sales side. But I had a I had a listing appointment with an older retired guy, lived by himself in a two story house. He couldn't physically go up the stairs anymore. Pretty bad shape medically. He was a hoarder. I mean a hoarder. Dude. Like, I've seen some of those hoarder shows on TV. And I'm like, oh man, that's disgusting. I walked in. I wanted to walk right the fuck out. It was so bad.

Mike DeHaan: [46:39] No. No.

Ali Garced: [46:40] So I'm deciding whether I wanna purchase property or list it. Right? If I could even list it. And we ended up not listing it. But I need to go upstairs. So and he can't he's pretty immobile, so he cannot move. I'm walking up the stairs just to make sure I, you know, I need to look up around the house, see what type of condition it's in, what needs to be done. Clearly, I'm gonna need to sell sell this to an investor, you know, wholesale, but something. So I'm going up the stairs. And I'm alone, which I don't know. Whatever. Maybe I shouldn't have been, but whatever. At the time, was still a federal agent too. So I did still have my gun. And speaking of guns, as I'm going up the stairs, I step on a gun. A gun was just chilling on the stairs. Just oh, it was and there was so much in that house that I couldn't see. I was just trying not to step on stuff that I would trip over on the stairs on the way up. I stepped on a gun. The gun went tumbling down. And I'm like I almost said his name out loud. I said his name. I was like, I almost stepped on a gun. He was like, oh, yeah. That's in case anybody tries to come in. I'm like, you can't even get up stairs though. Like, how would this help you? It was so bad. Like, had that gun gone off? That could have been bad.

Mike DeHaan: [47:54] Yikes. Yeah. I mean, don't worry. I'm sure it was definitely unloaded with safety on it.

Dan Austin: [47:58] Totally. Clear chain. Is that

Ali Garced: [48:00] a veteran? Absolutely.

Mike DeHaan: [48:02] No. That that's a good one. That actually, you know, makes me think about all the hoarder houses we've done. I'm like, have we ever found a gun? We found we found a baseball bat with the name of our sales manager burned onto it. Oh my god. I've never found a gun. That one. No.

Dan Austin: [48:15] Remember that house we walked that just had dead mice like Yeah.

Ali Garced: [48:18] Everywhere? I do.

Dan Austin: [48:20] Yeah. There's Yeah. Felt everywhere, like hundreds of them. Hundreds

Mike DeHaan: [48:22] of them. That was with Melissa. Was it that was the very first house that we ever walked, we were like Yeah. Starting to get into investing. I remember that. Yeah. That was just down the street from us too.

Dan Austin: [48:31] Is. It They cleaned it up nice. Whoever Yeah. Bought

Mike DeHaan: [48:34] So now that that that's a good story. That's a near miss there for sure. Alright. Second question. What is the number one tip that you would give to either a new investor looking to get started or to a small time investor looking to take their business to the next level?

Ali Garced: [48:48] I'm going with community again. You have to be in touch with and surround yourself with, again, digitally. I'd say digitally, with people that are where you want to be. Not around people who also want to grow with you, but surround yourself by people that are already there because they do want to give back. They do. Like and if they don't, then they're an asshole, whatever. But they do want to pour back into people that show that they are working and they're taking somebody else's advice and coming back to them saying, hey. Thank you so much for that advice. That feels good. Like, when someone comes back out to me after they've reached out to me and I've given them some advice and they say, hey. I did it, and this is what happened, and now I'm making x amount of money. Like, now I'm making 6 figures, and I've never made 6 figures before. I feel so good. You know? Maybe it's even selfish, but Yep. They do want to give back. So just surround yourself by people that want to help you.

Mike DeHaan: [49:35] Yeah. I mean, I think advice. I think that's massive and something that a lot of people don't realize is once you kinda know how to have success for yourself, it becomes an expectation. And, you know, to be honest, the novelty does wear off. Like, for us to sign deals, I think we when we signed two deals today, Dan, I felt nothing. Right? I am expecting to do that every single day. Yeah. But now, if I have someone in like our coaching program who signs a deal, I get freaking pumped.

Dan Austin: [49:59] Yeah. Single time.

Mike DeHaan: [50:01] Yeah. Isn't that It's just like, just seeing people go through the same journey is always so so exciting. And, you know, I don't know what that is. It's like a weird human psychological thing.

Ali Garced: [50:12] Yeah.

Mike DeHaan: [50:13] But yeah. No. I think

Dan Austin: [50:14] that's a that's a that's

Mike DeHaan: [50:15] a great tip there. So alright. Last question, Allie. Where could people find you, follow you, and reach out to you?

Ali Garced: [50:22] Can I leave my phone number here? Sure. Okay. I'll do that. Yeah. Just shoot me a text. I don't answer phone calls, so don't don't call. But shoot me a text. Yeah. My phone number is (914) 318-4918. And I'm also on Instagram a lot. And my handle is Ali the agent, and that's spelled A L I, like Muhammad Ali. But anyway, short for Alexandra, Ali the agent. Or if you have any other questions about maybe becoming a realtor, or if you already are a realtor, my website is Garced Realty, garcedrealty.com. So we can talk there.

Mike DeHaan: [50:59] Yeah. Perfect. Awesome. And then you wanna plug your podcast to you, or are not that good friends with Craig?

Ali Garced: [51:04] Actually, you know what? I haven't even mentioned the other podcast either. So I'm gonna plug two podcasts.

Dan Austin: [51:11] So I knew there's one, not two.

Ali Garced: [51:13] Yeah. So, yes. Investify, invest the number two, FI for financial independence with Craig Kurlap, where we the audience there are other investors. And I actually it's kind of on the newer side, five, six months old. I started a podcast with Shelby Osborne or Shelby Johnson now. And that one is for realtors. So that one's called The Agent Gold Mine. And you can find all of our free goodies, theagentgoldmine.com.

Mike DeHaan: [51:39] Awesome. There you go. And funnily enough, our episode with Shelby has come out on Monday. So circles are small in the real estate community. Awesome. Yeah. They really are. It's it's super weird. When I was on with her too, we, like, knew all the same people everywhere. You know? And that's another thing as well as people trying to get into these networks. All of a sudden, the world becomes a very small place because the people that are actually active real estate entrepreneurs is a very small population.

Ali Garced: [52:04] It really is. Yeah.

Mike DeHaan: [52:05] Huge names to small names are only a couple people removed all the way across the country as Yeah.

Ali Garced: [52:10] So I'm actually, Shelby's my sponsor. So, like, anybody that joined is here? Oh, perfect. Anybody that, like, joins under me, they get everything of what I offer. They get everything Shelby offers, everything. Like, that's the community that I joined. I'm like, hey. You guys are it.

Dan Austin: [52:23] Yeah. That's a great model.

Mike DeHaan: [52:24] Awesome. I love it. So, cool. Well, thanks so much, Al. We really appreciate you coming on the show. You had a ton of really awesome things that you dropped here. And you guys, you should absolutely reach out to Ali. She gave you her phone number, you know, shoot her a text. Yeah, I mean, if that isn't proof that she wants you to reach out, then I'll tell you just don't send her like any feed picture. That's that's not an acceptable usage of that information. Yeah.

Dan Austin: [52:47] Just kinda like just just text messages. Yeah.

Mike DeHaan: [52:50] Just DM those to Dan at investor man Dan on on Instagram. Totally. Would be absolutely into that. So but anyway, Ali, thanks so much for coming on. She has given you the absolute simple blueprint to have financial independence in a way that is simple, repeatable, and not that scary. Yeah. I mean, seven properties, eight doors, you guys can all do that. You don't always have to be trying to buy an entire small town in the middle in the middle of the country. So yep. Thanks for coming on the show guys. Give her a follow. Share this with anyone who might find it interesting. And we appreciate you all. Talk to you guys next week.

Speaker 2: [53:22] Thanks for listening to collecting keys. Drop us a five star review on iTunes and send us a screenshot to mike@collectingkeys.com for your chance to receive a free collecting keys t shirt.