#4: Why Turnkey Investing Can Help You Become Financially Free with Ali Boone

Full Transcription Of Today’s Episode

Trevor Oldham 0:45

Hey, everyone, welcome back to the real estate investing exposure podcast and today on the show I am super excited to have on Allie Boone le is a former aerospace engineer turn corporate dropout. She is a real estate investor in lifestyle entrepreneur. Her own real estate portfolio started with investing in five properties and 18 months using primarily creative financing. And after leaving her nine to five job to pursue freedom through entrepreneurship. Her company hipster investments managed to facilitate over 18 million in real estate transactions and its first five years of business alleys practical and straightforward. Real Estate advice has been featured in Business Insider, Motley Fool Fox Business, the BiggerPockets blog and US News alley excited to speak to you today.

Ali Boone 1:30

I’m excited to speak to you. I’m excited to be on this podcast.

Trevor Oldham 1:33

Most certainly it was actually the first client of our company back in, I think it was December of 2017. It’s funny. Yeah, three years or years. Yeah, three and a half ish years. And I don’t think I ever told you the story. I remember how the business got started was on Upwork. And just branching out doing my skills. And I remember coming home from the gym, I was driving in the car. And I totally forgot that we had a call, I forgot to put it in my calendar and I saw the area code of Los Angeles come up. And at the time, I had been getting like a bunch of spam calls from a successful real estate investor gurus sort of person that I attended this event, but I kept getting all these spam calls from him and his company be like buy our product, buy our product, and they’re all out of out. Yes, they’re all out of LA. And I answered the phone. And I was like gonna be like, just stop calling me. And nonetheless, it happened to be you. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I totally forgot about it. But obviously, we had a great conversation and been working together for quite a while now. So excited to have you on excited to talk to you today.

Ali Boone 2:30

Hope it makes you feel any better. I don’t even remember that whole thing. On the phone. That’s cool.

Trevor Oldham 2:36

That was back in the day. I think I don’t even think zoom was even pop,

Ali Boone 2:39

say like if zoom was around. It was like the early like most of the stuff I was doing was not on zoom. So it was not any Yeah. Oh my god, talking about dating ourselves.

Trevor Oldham 2:48

Yeah, quite a while ago.

Ali Boone 2:49

but you know, for my audience, usually is we work together for what, like a year or more something. And I was so impressed by your work. And I was just like, Oh my God, who is this guy like no. business owner, it’s hard to find good people to work with. And so when you find them, it’s like the angels are singing. I was like, Man, this guy. And one day I randomly typed in your name to Google stock you I found out you were 18 or something. I was like, calm again.

Ali Boone 3:18

Are you a team? This is amazing. I was not that functional when I was 18.

Trevor Oldham 3:25

This has been good. This is the third business I’ve launched. But when the second is that I launched I was the one that like really made me gravitate towards like being responsible because that company was a motivational company. And it grew to like 600,000 social media followers. I had different podcasts at that time. And it was always weird being in college and go into classes and like these kids are going out to parties. And then here I am on a podcast interviewing like millionaires is totally different lifestyle back then.

Ali Boone 3:47

Like kingspan champion. I don’t remember my first couple years of college so props to you because I was doing that when I was in college.

Trevor Oldham 3:55

Yeah. Yeah, I appreciate it. But it’s been great to know you over the years. Especially, you know, I think a lot of clients Luckily, they don’t ask me my age. But sometimes people say like, oh, like you look pretty young. And I’m like, Yeah, like right now. I’m 24 I started the business when I was 20. I find that most people they sometimes considered age a factor but more often than not, they’re like, can you produce the results in it? You can then we’re happy

Ali Boone 4:14

well, and older folks don’t always work out well for me. So like a free on something new.

Trevor Oldham 4:21

Yep, exactly. Now hopping into hipster investments. I know you had been working your corporate jobs seem pretty good. But was that the reason? Like you just didn’t want to be working a nine to five job forever? Is that what really led you into real estate investing?

Ali Boone 4:32

Yeah, so I wasn’t planning on real estate investing. My famous story is I went to school all the way through a master’s degree and I finally landed the dream job. So I walk into my first corporate cubicle and you know, I’m in my business casual outfit. I was like, oh, man, like, here I go. I’m an adult. And I turned the corner and into the cubicle and I’ll never forget the image in my head. It was just this gray drab cubicle and this voice in my head. I was like, This isn’t gonna work. I mean, I knew before I ever sat down in the chair. I mean, I probably knew deep down like I was never gonna be good at working for somebody, I probably never wanted to do that. But I always heard, go to school, get good grades, go to college, get a secure job, that’s what you do. And then you retire at 65. So I did all of those things, thinking I should do it. And I didn’t really I wasn’t doubting it necessarily at the time. But the minute I got into that cubicle, I was doubting every thing. I just been in school for seven or eight years. At that point, I was like, Oh, my, that’s going somewhere. And so I spent the next five years my only goal, I didn’t care how I did it, I just needed out of corporate. I didn’t even know if that was gonna involve working for myself, I just needed at a corporate I needed something more adventurous, something more me and my corporate job lasted for five years. And in that five years, I really got to dream job status. But it wasn’t my dream. It was a lot of other people’s. But it wasn’t mine, and very grateful for the experience. But in that process, I was just researching everything. And so I ran across some real estate investing deals. And I thought, well, while I have a secure paycheck, because the route I’m going, I’m not going to have that for very long, I might as well do something smart with my money. So I started investing. And that led one thing led to another in the networking and everything else, it just kind of organically happened that I started investing for myself. And that transitioned into helping other people invest. And I fortunately, it worked out really well. And I was able to leave the corporate job. And I’ve been doing this running hipster now that was born in 2012. So we’re coming up on a decade, it’s been super stressful, but super rewarding. Entrepreneurship is not at all easier than corporate but it is more me my first year I was so broke, I haven’t you know, the famous entrepreneurs story. And I was like, I’ve never been more broken my life, but I’ve also never been happier. So it’s a different kind of stress. And I get to sleep in and dictate my own schedule and all that. So real estate happened to be an amazing vehicle for that whether it was me starting a real estate company or people investing that’s you can do different things with real estate, to achieve whatever your goals might be.

Trevor Oldham 6:59

And for your company or service little clicks is more Return key model where someone can come in and purchase a property through you throughout the country, whether the different markets that I’ve seen you advertise I believe like Cleveland, you know, you always get Memphis and you get these, you know, Kansas City, you know, what made you gravitate sort of that turnkey model? Because obviously there’s a lot of niches when it comes to real estate wholesaling, flipping multifamily Self Storage mobile home, like there’s tons of them, what do you think of the passive cash flow? Because I mean, someone can go out there and buy a turnkey property 20k down, potentially get a property that’s cash flowing 100 to $200 a month, do you think it’s the cash flow that sort of gravitated toward you with you know, not having to invest large chunks of money.

Ali Boone 7:33

it was the past 70 I mean, I would love to make more per month, I would love to, you know, if you flip a property or making a lot of capital upfront, I would love for all those things to be true. But like I said, I got into real estate just investing for myself completely outside of my business. And I have started even before I really knew what I was gonna do in real estate, I had started looking into things and buy towards some rental properties more local to me, I was looking into flipping and in my head, I was like, I mean, if I have to do those things, I guess I’m smart, I can figure it out. It’s not my natural skill set. I’m not handy. I’m not any of that kind of stuff. But if that’ll get me out of corporate, I suppose. But that hesitation kept delaying me from getting involved really in much of anything for real estate, because my perspective was especially with wholesaling. wholesaling is not an investment strategy. It’s a job. And so if I had to if it meant I could be my own boss, of course, well, I’d have another job. But that ultimately wasn’t my goal. I wasn’t trying to leave one job for another. So I held out, held out held out and then all of a sudden, I started investing in some other stuff. But all of a sudden turnkey rental properties came across my desk, and I was like, wait a minute, I can still do something smart with my money. Because this I at the time, I don’t think this was my way out of corporate This is just investments. And so you know, if I have a full time corporate job, I didn’t want to spend time flipping houses or doing any of that complicated stuff. So all of a sudden, turnkeys land on my desk, and I was like, You mean, I can get a really good investment property without doing all of the work? Oh, my God, tell me more. And that’s what it was, was the passive factor. And once I left corporate and made a business out of Of course, I’ve been working ever since. But from an investment standpoint, I wanted to invest not work. So that was the big I mean, it’s passive. And yeah, you’re gonna pay market value for a turnkey property as opposed to a value add. But I also have a lot less risk and I don’t have to put any work and much work into it. So yeah, pass the factor all day long.

Trevor Oldham 9:21

Almost certainly. I think that’s one of the coolest things about the turnkey business model is typically more there’s gonna be a tenant in place it’s gonna be you don’t have to go in there and fix it all ourselves. Typically, it’s gonna be a nicer property. And and when it comes to the turnkey properties, was there a certain market that you’re looking at at the moment? Is there a certain market that you enjoy investing in more than others?

Ali Boone 9:40

It changes all the time. So I bought my first turnkey property in 2011. So I really am at the decade mark, and in that decade, it changes all the time. You know, I started investing, we’re in the middle of a crash. So the markets at that time were completely different than what they are now. Honestly, in 2021. The housing market is so bonkers and inventory Is it an all time low? Mostly our markets, our focus markets are whichever ones have inventory. because not many do. Ohio has taken a huge set hit Chicago segun. A huge hit. There are Florida right now is huge for new construction. These are bigger, nicer, more expensive new construction, lower cash flow properties. But really what’s happening in 2021, because the foreclosure moratoriums are preventing properties from hitting not the market, but we can’t rehab or the turnkey providers, they can’t buy the properties to renovate them to sell them as turnkey. So the market in general is really shifting towards new construction, just because nobody has access to a lot of existing properties. So new construction is huge. It’s not for everybody, but it is big thing. The Midwest is always kind of a hot spot for turnkeys. Because you can buy a fantastic house for $100,000. I live in California, and people you can buy a bathroom here for $100,000. So you know, it’s the Midwest, I think we’ll always have a lot of upside in that area. But yeah, like whichever market is the best of the time, which I you know, a market could have tons of inventory one year, and then it’s just gone the next. So it’s a mobile thing. And that’s one advantage of turnkeys is because you’re doing more hands off stuff, you can move with the markets, you can invest in multiple markets. Whereas when you do it all yourself, you’ve got to develop a team and you’re kind of limited to that area. Well, what happens if that area is no longer advantageous for investors? It’s one of the cool I mean, it’s fun, you get to move markets, but it also gets a little bit stressful because it’s like, what market do I invest in? Let me look at the calendar. What’s good now keeps us on our toes.

Trevor Oldham 11:32

Yeah, no, certainly, I could definitely see all the markets shifting. I know for myself being in the housing market, and potentially can’t decide exactly what I want to do whether I want to, I’m in an apartment right now. And I want to either buy a residential family house, but I’ve been leaning more towards house hacking and buying a two, three and four family living in one and renting out the other units. But I can just tell you, at least in my market, and Massachusetts, it’s crazy where people are offering you can take a house that’s 375, where it’s already overvalued and someone will come in, and the house needs a full gut and they’re offering 50k over asking and waive all contingencies. And it’s just it’s crazy. It’s a crazy market.

Ali Boone 12:07

It is crazy down like crazy down. Yeah, it’s hard right now.

Trevor Oldham 12:12

most certainly, as you mentioned before, you know, you’re coming up on a decade of running your business. And as you’ve started to got into the business and have grown it you know, over the last 10 years or so what do you think the most difficult challenges you’ve experienced before

Ali Boone 12:26

being an entrepreneur? For sure. I mean, I think the cool thing about entrepreneurship and real estate investing is I think the challenges are very similar. Because when you go out on your own, like who in school, I mean, maybe they teach it more these days, but who of us learned entrepreneurship or running a business, we need to learn how to file our taxes, investing, it’s just feels like you’re in this black hole of what do I do. And you know, it’s hard to get guidance, unfortunately, and we have the internet and all that. But that almost can have a counter effect because it gives you so much information. It’s hard to get traction. And I would say the absolute hardest thing that I’ve experienced over the last 10 years. And this is specific for me for entrepreneurship, but it can be investing also as the unexpected emotional journey. Before I was an entrepreneur, I was a pilot and engineer like there are no emotional journeys, there’s no emotions. And it’s like oh checklist for this checklist for that no problem. And I was used to being I was trained to be in control of my life. And it suddenly when you venture out as an investor or an entrepreneur, on one hand, you need to stay in control of the process. But you can’t really control the results all the time or the outcomes. And as an entrepreneur, I may have a fantastic month where I made 10s of 1000s of dollars in the next month, I make nothing and that roller coaster is not really something I can always control. I can certainly do things to help alleviate that. But at the end of the day, I can’t make people buy my product or buy my service. So I think just from me being a former control freak, because I had control over everything I did, I suddenly didn’t have control. And so that spark motional journey is not quite the connotation I’m trying to allude to but it is it messes with your emotions, because if I don’t know where my rent payments coming from the next day or the next month, that’s stressful. I’ve never been in that situation before. And it brings in the mindset component of how do you get past these things? How do you survive these things? Unfortunately, before this all started, the rich dad series of books started with Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki really gave me outside of investing advice. A lot of the things he said in his books almost had me prepared. So that when those challenges inevitably did happen, I knew they were normal, because oftentimes it’s like, oh my god, what did I do wrong? I would edit it. And so when I had already read about them ahead of time, I’m like, Oh, I’m experiencing that. Not that it took the stress away, but I at least knew that it was okay. And it was normal. Every entrepreneurs not knowing where their next rent payment was gonna come from. At some point. It’s like a rite of passage, but going through that journey and having that fear and all that kind of stuff. It’s stressful when you used to have control over your life.

Trevor Oldham 14:55

I can see that that’s stressful. You know, even I can see myself trying to build this business up. You know, from the ground up, and you’re really going out there and building something, whether that is a business, whether that’s an investment portfolio, when you start at basically nothing, and you have to learn all this knowledge, you have to get all the tools, the skills, and then building up, you know.

Ali Boone 15:12

from Like, who do I trust? Is that guy scamming me and some people are trying to scam me that’s even worse.

Trevor Oldham 15:20

Exactly. It’s crazy who you hear you never know, I could go on for days for the amount of either a client’s that we have taken on, I want to say there’s a lot but occasionally we’ll take on a client where they’re a little scammy. And it comes time to pay and they happen to disappear off the face of the map. We’ve hired outside marketing people to market our business, and we signed a contract with them. And at the end of the contract, you know, we three months, no new clients have come in, but we paid them a couple 1000s of dollars. And then we ended that relationship.

Ali Boone 15:46

I did a call with a marketing company yesterday who was pitching me something, and I could just hear my own tone. Because I’m so jaded. I feel like such a jerk. I’m like, you could be fantastic. But I’m so jaded by marketing companies. Because Yeah, I’ve been on the site. It’s like, sorry, what were you doing for me again, other than taking my money? Cool. But how do you know how like, Oh, yeah. Oh, my God, we can we can go on for like, the stresses that come along. We’ll have to do that sometime. Do like a evening wineglass on, like, it’s happy hour.

Trevor Oldham 16:22

Exactly. I know. Speaking of marketing, I know that I have a good friend, Charles Dobbins, I know that you’ve been on his podcast, I believe twice. I know that Charles is he has his own, believe it his, he has his own plane. And he also had been a pilot. And I always find that when I’m listening to his podcast, he always has the thing that says real estate comes down to a sales and marketing game, you know, you always have to drive new sales. And that comes through your marketing. So within your business, how have you been able to generate new clients and to find new people bringing into your ecosystem?

Ali Boone 16:51

I always tell people, I’m a terrible marketer. And most people don’t argue me on that. But I’m pretty set on that stance. So my company has been a little bit interesting. And this has been a big frustration for me is traditional marketing outlets. I’m not good at, I’m not good at lead generation, I’m not good at going out and finding leads, I’m just not. And what has really worked for me, and has been really the crux of the whole business the whole time, is I just speak genuinely to people, I started this, I kind of started the company. Yeah, I was investing. But I also got picked up by bigger pockets to be a writer. And so I was writing for them. And through my writing, you know, my biggest thing in my head was that because as a new investor, I was so stressed out, if I don’t have a bit of trust, like I, I don’t know if the words coming out of your mouth are true. And I’m about to slap a big chunk of money down, you know, like, it’s intimidating. And so I always had this thing in my head of like, I want to be just this voice of comfort, if that’s the right word, like I’m always gonna tell you like it is I’m not gonna I don’t fluff anything up. And I’m very transparent. Like, I’ll tell you turnkeys can suck, they can totally suck. And also be the first one to tell you if I don’t think a turnkey is right for your situation. People are like, don’t you sell turnkeys? I’m like, Yeah, I think what the main thing, I would say, almost 100%, because I’m terrible at lead generation, in the sense of going out and finding the leads. But what has brought the leads to me is me just talking and being real. And it’s not one on one kind of personal connection. Because real estate investing of a lot of industries is a hard one, because personalities are not usually a thing in it, and they shouldn’t matter. Honestly, you know, it’s about numbers. It’s about logistics. It’s not about emotions. It’s not about customer service. It’s not about any of that stuff. Cool. I appreciate that. But at the same time, it’s hard to connect with people in the industry, because everyone’s gone rogue, there’s no checks and balances really anywhere. I mean, a little bit, but it’s that connection with people. And I love talking to people, I love doing podcasts, I love sharing my knowledge. And anytime I share my knowledge, it comes from the kind of mindset of, I’m just going to tell you what I know, take it or leave it. I’m not trying to sell you on anything. I’m not trying to whatever. And so I think that mentality and that approach has been very beneficial because that’s what people are attracted to people are craving. somebody that’s real, someone that’s going to tell him a truth, someone that they know is not fluffing them up to scam them type of thing. And so I mean, that’s been my big thing, because I ended up Yeah, obviously I work for bigger pockets for a long time I’ve written for Business Insider, I’m in investopedia. You know, I write all over the place and then I just interact with people. That’s my whole job was talking to people and just being very true and authentic. If any of your guests are good marketing experts, let me know but there’s different ways to look at marketing and people’s argument when I tell them I’m a terrible marketers. They’re like that’s not true at all. Because your marketing comes from you speaking, I just trust them on that one, then keep doing what I know how to do.

Trevor Oldham 19:44

I think, that’s perfectly talked about just speaking and just being genuinely honest with people that come to you are interested in purchasing a property instead of just taking their money be like hey, you know, this actually isn’t a good fit for you. And I know that there was we couldn’t leave a bad taste in some people’s mouth because I know that there was a I’m not going to say the name. But I know that there was another turnkey provider a couple years ago where they had been selling properties that look nice and new. And then they actually weren’t nice in there. So I think that by you being honest with these people, and I’m sure you know who I’m talking about, and just being genuine, I think it just helps you stand above some of these shady people that are out there.

Ali Boone 20:16

Yeah, I mean, that’s the thing is like, because it’s already an intimidating industry. And you know, I put out a book last year and the whole book is it’s real estate investing. But it’s mindset based, because it’s like, people can give you how to guides all day long. But if you don’t know what you’re doing, like, those aren’t helpful, and they can get you in trouble. And, you know, obviously, I’m not in a suit, I don’t dress up. Like, I don’t need to dress up and the people that have had the biggest impact on me. They’re not wearing suits, they’re not pulling out briefcases, they’re just like, real a real talk. And like, cool that I can work with. Because when I don’t know what you’re fluffing up, or you know, you’re trying to sound all like, stoic and professional, I don’t know if you know what you’re talking about, like, I want the real conversations. I mean, my favorite activity in the world is I volunteer in prisons. And one of the things I love among a million things about volunteering in prison, is I love that we can just put stuff out on the table inmates like, well, I murdered someone, I’m like, cool. Now that that’s on the table, we can get somewhere. And obviously, I don’t condone murder. But out here outside of prison, people are so busy making everything sound good and fluffing it up. And so like take that back to real estate investing. That’s intimidating. And it’s not helpful, the more and more people that can just be real, because you’ve got to get the information from somewhere. And it’s hard to get in this industry. So yeah, that’s, you know, I just kind of want to offer that to people and it works for some doesn’t work for others. That’s cool. But I sleep really well. And I because I know that I’m not the reality as if I put you into a deal that absolutely blows up, that is not helpful for my business at all. Because what’s gonna happen is, you’re gonna leave me a terrible review on bigger pockets, and no one’s gonna want to do business with me again, that’s how the game goes. So it’s not in my best interest to lure you into anything. So I’m almost extra caught. I’m like, Hey, here’s what you need to look at. You know, it is so critical for me that you do have a good experience. And while I can’t guarantee it, and know it, nothing’s guaranteed, it matters. So you know, that’s why I try and tell people is I have a very vested interest in things working out well for you. Let’s work together on that.

Trevor Oldham 22:24

And I can’t stress that enough, even now, at least from my side. When working with a potential client, I always make sure I do the due diligence on the back end, because I never want to take on someone that’s shady has done some bad things and have a reflect bad on our company. Because there’s it comes to mind, because yesterday, I had a call with a potential client and I was speaking to him. And it just felt a little off. I was like, I don’t know if I trust this guy. And it’s kind of weird, because it’s usually the other way around. And I happen to look him up. And you’re right, I went on bigger pockets, I typed in his name. And there’s a few articles just talking about how they scammed him how just not good things and you just never know like, that’s what you always want to do good customer satisfaction. Because again, you know, the real estate community can be very vocal and always want to do a great job.

Ali Boone 23:02

And honestly, it makes every there’s so many reasons all this gets complicated. That is something that makes it harder. So and God wants bigger pockets. It serves a very important role. But it can also be misleading, because I’ve worked with a couple of clients mean affiliate company, I’ve worked with a couple of clients. And they have posted negative experiences on bigger pockets. And if you have a negative experience, absolutely put it on there. But when I see what they write, because I know all of the details of what happened or what the story was, or whatever, they leave a lot of details out. I mean, it really does all of us a disservice. That doesn’t mean they’re experienced that happen. But in many instances, there’s a lot. And so one guy actually warned me before he was like, I’ve put some thought into it, I want to put and I said that’s your right, like, Yeah, 100%. So he puts it on there. And I was like, gosh, you left a lot out. And so I messaged him, I said, Hey, I saw your thing. But you have done a couple important points, like where we all went above and beyond. And we blatantly were advising him on how to navigate the situation. And he never took our advice. And one of his big complaints was a buyback amount. And he’s the one who proposed the amount. I’m like, again, it’s your right to put anything on. But like, would you consider putting the full story on? He said, Well, let me think about it. He emailed me back a few days later, he’s like, I’ve thought about it. I don’t want to put that on there. And I’m like, oh, seriously. So to make the whole situation of learning, investing more complicated, it’s so hard to tell. Yeah, to your point. It’s like the clients that you work with, you’re we’re all at risk for bad reviews, and bad reviews play a huge role, whether you’re like a brick and mortar company, and Yelp is reviewing you or whatever, but there are always going to be clients who put your business at risk because they’re crazy. And it just it comes with the territory. And it’s like, you know, on one hand, I don’t I can’t cater to those people because usually there’s nothing we can do anyways, but at the same time, it can be years later and I still get people concern because I saw a review and I’m like Seriously, and so yeah, it’s been a business owners. So fun.

Trevor Oldham 25:06

Yep, all it takes is you could have 99 satisfied clients and all it takes is that one client to leave a bad review and then all of a sudden everyone thinks

Ali Boone 25:14

on bigger pockets, you don’t see good reviews? And you’re like, oh, okay, cool. And you know, again, I never want to take away from an experience somebody had, but at the same time, you know, it can paint a fairly inaccurate picture. So yeah, it’s it’s a little tough to navigate sometimes, but from the investor standpoint in deciding who to work with and who to trust, because I attract a lot of new investors. So that’s most of who I talked to. And I feel for them because it’s like, they don’t know who to listen to. When I was learning, investing. All I was doing is reading books, like I didn’t even know about BiggerPockets at the time, and it wasn’t nearly as big as it is now. So I didn’t have to figure out I was like, Oh, yeah, I like Robert Kiyosaki. I totally trust him. JACK Canfield, any of these guy, he’s my real estate guy, but it’s easier to pick who to trust. But now there’s so many voices I feel for everybody, because how do you know that that’s not the full story? How do you know that’s an accurate depiction, because BiggerPockets doesn’t take a post off, someone can put a full out lie on there. And there it is in a story. So it can be a little tough to navigate. But that’s a lot of why I started offering one on one coaching, because to try and help people over these hurdles, when you know, there’s not really a go to person to help navigate all that stuff.

Trevor Oldham 26:26

And that’s excellent. And that’s perfect. Being able to help those new investors, you know, somewhat overcome some of those mindset challenges that they may have. But I want to be respectful of your time, I just want to ask you a couple of final questions before we end the interview today. And this is something I’m asking every guest that comes on. And I’ve been curious just for myself being in the real estate market right now. And seeing people buying these houses, at least in Massachusetts that are already overvalued, then offering say 50k 100k over asking waiving all contingencies doing a cash offer, in my mind, like these people are gonna get screwed over at some point is the bubble is gonna burst, I just want to hear your take on where you think that the real estate market is going in 2021 and beyond?

Ali Boone 27:04

Well, you know, it’s interesting, because I haven’t seen much of a legit expert out there saying that we’re in a bubble, and that there’s no expectation whatsoever of these prices relaxing, because if you actually look at a lot of the market analytics and all that kind of stuff of what’s actually going on, it’s we are where we are, a lot of people are like, Oh, well, prices are so high, there has to be a crash come in, there’s nothing indicating a crash. And so it’s so easy to get wrapped up. And I don’t say the emotions, but kind of the assumptions and everything else. But a crash in 2008 was for a very specific reason. It was because of the mortgage issue, we haven’t had the same dynamic with mortgages, there’s it’s just very different right now, the big thing is, I would say to people now this is with the exception of find something overvalued and then offering 50k over it. But there are properties out there in maybe different markets that are completely valued appropriately. And the thing is now getting on now, because prices are still going up, interest rates are now going up, everything is getting more expensive. The Fed is printing zillions of dollars. So inflation is going to be a factor which the more inflation we have, the more profitable your property is appreciation levels in 2020, I don’t think you could have offered me a million dollars to think that a global pandemic would shoot appreciation rates through but even the Middle West had insane like 12% was at 12%. And Kansas City isn’t even an appreciating market. But you know, things are still going up. And I think if you are investing in properties, I can’t speak for flipping or any of that I’m not in that side of things. But as far as like rental properties, if you buy a property with solid fundamentals, not getting the details, there’s five profit centers, if you really analyze and you set yourself up well, for those profit centers to be profitable on property, buy it and get in now. Because the sooner you get it, the more those profit centers are going to put in your pockets, stay solid on investing fundamentals, don’t just buy something on a whim thinking before you know what you’re doing. And a lot of people right now are trying to rush they’re like coming out, you’re gonna get something really fast. I’m like, don’t do not rush, if you don’t yet know what you’re doing, because that’s not going to help anything. So it’s like slow down, learn to navigate the market and really put on your investor mindset versus consumer. It’s very easy to be a consumer and invest in properties, the last 10 years, it’s been easy, low interest rates, low prices, things are only going up while that’s about to shift. So put your investor hat on and learn what you need to and buy something solid.

Trevor Oldham 29:35

I couldn’t agree more for that. And as you mentioned, taking your time. I couldn’t agree more that and just to give you an example, you know, I’ve been looking at Massachusetts and just tying these properties that are overvalued and actually set up a tour property on Saturday. So it’s Thursday. So coming up in two days where my fiance is from an upstate New York where the prices are much more affordable and I haven’t gotten the property but all I can see is that the property is selling for 175. It’s a duplex and each units being right rented out for 950 a month, that 19 $100 a month and you’re talking the mortgage, you know, I probably just put 5% down just to save it. So the mortgage, you know, it’d be 1200 a month, and then whatever capital expenditures, so I think even like for myself, just like looking outside of typical market where, you know, I might be out of state investor, but at least it’s somewhere that I know where the market is significantly easier to get into where in central Massachusetts, it’s, it’s almost, it’s nearly impossible.

Ali Boone 30:24

You know, some of the old school investors or even not old school investors are like no buy locally to where you are. Well, in some people’s case, yeah. 100%. But just like you’re saying, that doesn’t make sense. I’m in Los Angeles and Venice Beach doesn’t make sense. Yeah. And you know, the nice thing about upstate New York for you is it’s at least you can get there pretty easily. You know, it’s not like you’re having to fly across the country or anything. But those numbers sound really good.

Trevor Oldham 30:47

Yeah, no, it’s it’s crazy. The property’s been on the MLS for 175 days, I think of as of today, and it’s actually where my fiance’s family lives right now. So like, we would go there, like once a month and visit and I could check up on properties. Looking at the numbers, it seems great. I’m hoping that it’s, I’m hoping it’s still that way when I visit in person.

Ali Boone 31:07

Like, what to see if there are any. So I mean, and there may not be a specific reason it’s been listed that long, but double check, like talk to a local agent, because they’re, I mean, it could be in terrible shape. It could be like a bunch of investors have already passed that up, make sure you’re looking to check all the boxes to make sure that you are unaware of why everybody else would be passing it up.

Trevor Oldham 31:26

Yep, exactly. That’s something I definitely want to make sure before making a sizable investment into the first property. But finally, the last question I have for you is, I know you have your own real estate books out there. You mentioned Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Robert Kiyosaki. But is there any other favorite real estate investing books that you’d recommend for our audience to read

Ali Boone 31:43

my two? Well, now there’s three because I have my own book I highly recommend. So Rich Dad, Poor Dad, for sure. I mean, that’s what most people start with. If you haven’t read that, for sure. any of the books in the rich dad series, I think are all amazing. I think at this point, I don’t want to say they’re outdated by any means. But they are older at this point, they aren’t going to adjust for someone to come to more New Age nuances. But the second book that I really, really recommend for people in real estate is actually not a real estate book is the E myth revisited by Michael Gerber is a business book. But the concepts that he goes through, I think, are 1,000% applicable to because really, if you go out as a real estate investor, you are a business owner, you’re investing even if you’re doing it on the side, on top of a corporate job, even if you’re just buying one or two rental properties, you are a business owner that is owning a business. And so I think that’s why this book can be so applicable, but the concepts that he brings in are absolutely in my opinion game changing things to understand whatever you do with them. Cool. But understanding what he talks about in that book can literally change how you do everything. I think I even mentioned that book in my book. Yeah, I think that is an absolute must I have a couple of copies on my shelf, I’ve read it through at least twice, if not more, and may or may not be able to offer your folks a free copy of my book.

Trevor Oldham 33:11

That’s in a column from the last question of where our audience can find you. But I’d love for you to share that that offering for them.

Ali Boone 33:16

Yeah, so I set up a link just for your folks. So my company’s name is hipster investments. So if you go to hipster investments.com, slash exposure, I set up a link on there, we can get a free digital copy of the book. If you’re like me, and you have to hold a book in your hand, there’s a link to the Amazon link. But also, that’s where you can reach out to me as well. But yeah, go get the free copy, get in touch. Like I said earlier, I love talking to people. I do offer coaching now there’s a link on there about that. Also, me I go check out the book. And even if you’re an experienced investor, I’ve had a lot of experienced investors read it and say, Oh, my gosh, you know, thank you because they can kind of tweak how they’re doing things. But for new investors who are trying to navigate this super complicated, overwhelming entrance into this industry, obviously, I’m biased, but it’s a great book for that because the whole purpose of that book is to help you learn how to navigate that. And there’s it’s called not your How To Guide to investing, but I threw a how to guide in there of six very concrete steps you can do to get your start. So it’s and I tried to make it at least a little bit of a fun book, because very many real estate books for very long. It’s personalities not required in this industry.

Trevor Oldham 34:25

That’s perfect. And I’ll make sure to include the link to your website and also to the free book offering on the show notes page on our website. And that’s just podcasting you.com slash Allie Boone and Allie, thank you for your time today. And I’m sure our audience is gonna love this. Yeah, you bet.

Ali Boone 34:39

Thanks for having me on. Thank you.