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Transcript

Alex E Edwards - Mortgage Before Marriage · REL Freedom Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: And you're watching the clients, you looking at the the CDs, and you're like, This don't make sense.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm getting huh, huh?
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: This doesn't.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: I found a property.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: You made that.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: I made this.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: That doesn't make sense, right?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, a lot of a lot of the clients is not going to say, nah, you know what?
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: You should, I'm going to teach you how to do this, right?
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: And fortunately for me, is this this one client did that for me and said, Hey, you know what?
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: You should flip this.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Go for it.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I went for it and I never looked back.
• 0:30
  Mike Swenson: Welcome to the Real Freedom Show.
• 0:32
  Mike Swenson: We inspire you to pursue your passion to gain time and financial freedom through opportunities in real estate.
• 0:37
  Mike Swenson: I'm your host, Mike Swenson.
• 0:39
  Mike Swenson: Let's get some real freedom together.
• 0:59
  Mike Swenson: I'm your host, Mike Swenson.
• 1:00
  Mike Swenson: If you want to get started on your real estate journey, check out our website freedom throughrealestate.com.
• 1:07
  Mike Swenson: We've got all of our content there: articles, information, podcast episodes, really with the goal to help inspire you to pursue your dreams inside of real estate.
• 1:18
  Mike Swenson: I'm super excited about our guest today.
• 1:20
  Mike Swenson: Some great stories to share, great examples of ways that you're building freedom.
• 1:24
  Mike Swenson: But we've got Alex E.
• 1:26
  Mike Swenson: Edwards here.
• 1:27
  Mike Swenson: So Alex is real estate agent, broker of Thumbprint Realty, largest black-owned brokerage in New England, author of the book Mortgage Before Marriage, and also a TEDx speaker.
• 1:38
  Mike Swenson: Closed more than 1200 transactions.
• 1:41
  Mike Swenson: In addition to that, you are multifamily investor, single family investor, Airbnb, Flips, Construction, you name it, you've done it, which is why I love having people like you on, because it shows all the different things you can do inside of real estate.
• 1:54
  Mike Swenson: So, Alex, we're so excited to have you on the show.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited to be here.
• 1:59
  Mike Swenson: Why don't we just start, just talk a little bit about your background, you know, your story, how you got into real estate, and we'll take it from there.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm from Boston, Massachusetts.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, in in high school, I took the first time homebor class in 10th grade.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and fast forward, I got a job at Bank of America at 19 years old.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: I was going to Mass Bay Community College, and my professor said, go purchase something and treat it like a business.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I went and bought a home at the age of 20.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: I bought my first multifamily.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I bought my the funny thing is at an adjustable rate.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: Me too.
• 2:38
  Mike Swenson: My first one was adjustable.
• 2:39
  Mike Swenson: So yeah.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: So when I was when I bought it, I think I was paying about$21,000,$2,300.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: And in about two, three years, I was paying almost$3,000, right?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I mean, I'm still young, so you know I'm I I want to buy things that's that has no value still, right?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: I couldn't do none of that.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: Vacations, nope, no vacations at all.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: Cooking my food and bringing it to work, no eating out.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: I struggled, and then I got a loan modification, and I also filed bankruptcy.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: And the bankruptcy allowed me to um to draw to to get rid of about$89,000.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: And the loan modification dropped my rate down to 2%.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I still have that home today.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh after that, you know, I'm I made more money in the house, right?
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I became like um, it's called a a mentor, a mass mentor, where um you you you get people to live in your home almost like a group home.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: And that then I quit my job and then I start buying more real estate, became a real estate agent first, stopped buying more real estate, and never looked back.
• 3:55
  Mike Swenson: That's awesome.
• 3:56
  Mike Swenson: I mean, it it shows too that you can get Delta Punch and still figure out a way to work through it.
• 4:02
  Mike Swenson: I know for us, I remember, you know, we bought in uh 06, and I remember working with our lender who is a relative, and so he's like, hey, we've got this adjustable rate mortgage planning on living here more than five years, and I said, No, because we're gonna go buy a house, got the adjustable rate mortgage, and same to you.
• 4:20
  Mike Swenson: I was working for a nonprofit, my wife was in grad school, and I looked at that payment and I was like, we can't make this thing work.
• 4:27
  Mike Swenson: So now we were able to finagle some things and got a different mortgage and made it made it workable, but we turned that property into rental as well long term.
• 4:35
  Mike Swenson: So it shows that real estate is an awesome opportunity, an awesome vehicle for investment.
• 4:40
  Mike Swenson: That doesn't mean everything's always positive, but there are ways that you can work through it and turn it into a positive long term.
• 4:46
  Mike Swenson: Talk about kind of getting getting your license and then uh starting to build your business.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so got my license.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and this is the time where um Obama was running.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I when when we are voting for a new president, and um what you could what you should notice is their marketing, and so you see it everywhere.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: So what I did, I came up with Alex E.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: Edwards for your mass for your um real estate agent, right?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: It'll be Alex E.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: Edwards for your real estate agent, Massachusetts most trusted.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: I got radio ads, the radio ads blew my career up.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was so much money that it was I I could I was giving clients away.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like it was just I was giving clients to my broker.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: My broker was like, look, calm down, you're gonna need these clients, but I couldn't keep up at all.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so um I used radio and then social media.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: This is when social media was was heating up.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: I used to take um photos, I used to buy my clients Samsung TV from BJ's, and now we have a uh now we have a um a partnership with BJs, but buy these Samsung TVs with BJ's from BJ's, and we will take a picture at the closing table with the Samson TVs, and that took my career to another level.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: And people will call, hey, uh yeah, we want to use you.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: Are we getting a Samsung TV though?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know?
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's what really boosts my career.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: I really base my anything I do, I base it on three things.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: I break my life down to three things, right?
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: This formats, systems.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: The three doings, the three doings allow me to always be successful in real estate, right?
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: And the three doings are here.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: It comes.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: All right, I want everyone to pay attention.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: The first doing, I'm gonna do what everyone else is doing.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to copy.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: All right, whatever works, that works, that works.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: All right, I'm doing that.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: So that could be cold calling, that could be um giving your cards out, postcards.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the the second doing, do what everyone stopped doing.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: We have successful agents that stop doing certain things.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: They're probably not going to open houses anymore, they are probably not door knocking anymore.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: So now I'm going to door knock as well.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: And the third doing, the most important doing, you do what everyone else won't even think of doing.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's your sauce, that's your creativity, right?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: Mine's again was the marketing, it was the TV, was the videos.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: I was doing that, and no one else was doing it.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: It was my space.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: So if you or if you join if you're you you're just you just jumped in this industry, those are the things I would do.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: The three doings.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: See what everyone else is doing, what everyone stopped doing, and what can I add that that's mine.
• 7:38
  Mike Swenson: That's awesome.
• 7:39
  Mike Swenson: And yeah, great, great example of a way to get business.
• 7:41
  Mike Swenson: I know radio ads are an amazing thing.
• 7:43
  Mike Swenson: And in uh, you know, in some ways, from people that I've heard that have done them, it's you know, sometimes you're kind of outside your territory, but worst case scenario, you can refer that stuff over to people that are too far of a drive based on how far the radio ads go.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: The good thing about a lot of a lot of cities have their local radio as well.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: I I chose local, I did the local radio and it worked.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: It honestly, it just it worked.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: It worked, but it it's it and is local radio and again building building your team, right?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: You got the um financial advisors, the CPAs, the probate attorneys.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: I love probate.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's where I buy most of my real estate.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: So probate attorneys, um, and and and just helping them out, they're gonna help you out.
• 8:29
  Mike Swenson: So, what what came next for you then?
• 8:30
  Mike Swenson: Was it uh kind of the investment side of things as you grew your business, or is it the broker side of things as you as you became a broker and and launched your own firm?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: So the invest the investment.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: I had an opportunity to purchase a flip, and so I I purchased a flip and I couldn't believe it.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: I made$150,000.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: And it I remember checking my bank account every day to see if it cleared.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: And when I seen that check clear, I said, holy woo, it happened.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: I couldn't believe it.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: I was happy, I was like, I felt successful and it was probate.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, is it's just again when people die without uh without a trust, you know, they leave back behind these assets, and you know, a lot of times the people they leave this asset to don't want it, they don't live in the state, or they just can't take care of it, and so they sell it um for a lower price uh than market.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, I was it was the flip.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: And then after that, um I got married.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know, my and when I met my wife, you know, we decided before we get married, she has to buy a multifamily.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: She bought a multifamily, and then we got married, and our marriage had a flip, two multifamilies.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: And is it is this the best thing?
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: And then, yeah, it's the best thing ever.
• 9:58
  Mike Swenson: Quick to back up to that flip, because I know there's a lot of agents out there, and this is why I love interviewing people that are real estate agents and and own and run teams, is for getting that flip, how did you recognize the opportunity?
• 10:11
  Mike Swenson: You mentioned it was probate, but in terms of like running numbers, finding the property, you know, okay, if I put this much into it, here's what I might, you know, think I sell for.
• 10:20
  Mike Swenson: Walk through at that time kind of what was going through your head, being you'd never done anything like that before, the risks, and then obviously the the potential returns, but love just kind of hear your analysis as hey, this is my first investment deal.
• 10:33
  Mike Swenson: What do I do?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it's it's you know, you're a real estate agent, you you run in comps just like you you run in for any other listing, right?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: But now you you run in, you run in like future value, right?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um it was it was a it was a um a condo, um and you know, and also you know, ran the the the construction, right?
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: So everyone said not to buy this condo.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: It was a one-bedroom condo.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, no, don't do it.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Don't do it.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: The market didn't bounce back yet, don't do it.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, nope, I'm going for it.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I bought this condo.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: I looked at the ARV and I said, you know what?
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: I think I could get about three fifty for this particular condo.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um I purchased a condo at at um at at I think it was like a little under 150.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I put in about 50,000 into the particular condo.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Again, it's a one bedroom.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: It was about 600 square feet.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: And one thing for sure that what I learned, what I know um about myself, I'm really good in the people business.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like I don't consider myself being in the real estate business.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: I'm in the people business.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're in the people business, you can understand how people feel.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of times real estate is an emotional buy.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: They want to feel good.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like you could tell someone, you are going to make a lot of money here.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: If they don't feel good, they don't care about the money, right?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: So when I flip, I want to make sure that people feel good.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: I put certain things in my flip, like pot fillers, um, fireplaces, um, um, this the new technology, right?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: I the the the smart toilets, right?
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: So so I always put these in my flips because I want someone to say, you know what?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: You don't got this.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: I got this.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: My friends don't have this, my family members don't have this.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: And believe it or not, that's equity.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's that makes your your your your product valuable.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so I did it with this particular property.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then it was the presentation.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, the presentation, I went, damn, I staged it.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: Staging is very important.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: I staged it, and then I had the local um cafe make smoothies at the open house.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: It was crazy.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: First open house, I got an offer over$350, and we closed in about 40 days.
• 13:04
  Mike Swenson: What an awesome way to start.
• 13:06
  Mike Swenson: Because I I think, like I said, so many times agents just don't think like an investor and don't see those opportunities that are out there.
• 13:12
  Mike Swenson: And it's like, no, you're seeing all the stuff before other people get to see it.
• 13:18
  Mike Swenson: You've got all the tools and resources and vendor contacts to be able to pull this off, and you're too busy worrying about kind of you know slinging your next home and and not being able to make$150,000 like you did on a flip, right?
• 13:31
  Mike Swenson: And I always say that.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: I said, you know, I was a wealth giver.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I was a wealth giver.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I was I was stupid, right?
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Now, of course, I'm gonna share the wealth of my clients, but share all of it, don't you don't buy anything from me.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: And we've not taught that, of course, right?
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: We know get this for your client.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: And you watching the clients, you're looking at the the CDs, and you're like, this don't make sense.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm getting, huh?
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: Huh, this doesn't, I found a property.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: You made that, I made this.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: That doesn't make sense, right?
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, a lot of a lot of the clients is not gonna say, nah, you know what, you should, I'm gonna teach you how to do this, right?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: And fortunately for me, is this this one client did that for me and said, Hey, you know what?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: You should flip this, go for it.
• 14:21
  Mike Swenson: And I went for it and I never looked back.
• 14:23
  Mike Swenson: Now you mentioned about your wife buying a multifamily property, buying multifamily properties.
• 14:28
  Mike Swenson: Um, I know you've got some of those for your for your kids in the future too.
• 14:31
  Mike Swenson: So talk a little bit about what you guys have done there and why you've done that.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Mortgage before marriage.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: And this is a thing that no one wants to talk about, but you need to love yourself before you love someone else's finances are debt.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: And the way you love yourself is making sure you don't need anyone else.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: And my wife is such a beautiful soul.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and the truth is she doesn't need me, she wants me.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the difference.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I could honestly say real estate made her want me and not need me.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh her particular property, she's making, she's making, I want to say almost$4,000 a month profit on that multifamily.
• 15:14
  unknown: Right?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Or just on that first one.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: She bought it with NACA and that program allows you to put nothing down, no closing costs, doesn't even go by your credit score, it goes by your credit report.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and it allows you to buy down your rate so you could get a phenomenal rate today at NACA.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not gonna, it don't like one of the agents closed and they got a 4% right at NACA.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: So she used that product and it was the best opportunity, uh, the best product at the time, and I think still is, and she purchased that home.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: So what we we got married, we realized we we realized our tenants paid for our wedding, but they weren't invited.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, wait a minute, what else can these tenants pay for?
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so we bought more homes and we bought we came across this one home in Everett, Massachusetts.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: And if you look up Everett, Massachusetts, it's where Bob Kraft is building a brand new stadium right now.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um Encore Casino built a casino there.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: This is after we got there.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: And we lucked up.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so we we trusted that home to our at the time with our three-year-old son.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: And he he has this article, the the youngest uh landlord.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: But again, guess what?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: The power of real estate.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: We turn that same that same property into a an Airbnb.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: We receive awards from Airbnb for just being the best Airbnb in that in that area.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: The power of real estate.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: We thought we thought we were gonna rent it, but we stumbled across Airbnb.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: And in that town, Airbnb have better rules, or that town has better rules for airbnb.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: That city has better rules for Airbnb.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: So we lucked up nine minutes away from the from the um airport.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: We got on Encore, new new um, new stadium coming.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: We have the north end.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's the best um location for what we was doing.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: And we lucked up, and again, we blame real estate.
• 17:36
  Mike Swenson: It's awesome to hear the the the good side of that stuff too, because you mentioned about you know, with your first property and something bad happens, where here you buy a property, great intentions, numbers make sense, and then all of a sudden something awesome happens and it comes out better than expected.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: The bad the bad part of that story that I didn't I didn't buy eight more in that same in that same city.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's a bad side.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: I think about it all the time.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: Again, with that Airbnb, I'm in the I'm people business.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: We have a monopoly room, the whole room is just monopoly pieces, stripes, we have a flower room, and this Airbnb turnover like it's it's no tomorrow.
• 18:14
  Mike Swenson: That's awesome to hear, and and what a great story for your kids, too, to see that they can participate, don't necessarily have to, but if they want to, they can.
• 18:23
  Mike Swenson: And and so they see the power of real estate, and you're teaching them early.
• 18:27
  Mike Swenson: You know, we haven't touched on the broker piece, so you know, a little bit about you know, going from being an agent working at uh a different brokerage versus the decision to go off on your own.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm an honest person, very honest person.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: So someone was working at my brokerage, and I want to say I I got jealous.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it was the wrong thing to do, but I was still young and I was not as mature, I am as mature as I am today.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I was jealous because I found out he was making he had a better split than I had.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so I put 80% all over my house, uh, 90% all over my house because that's what he was getting.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I couldn't believe someone's getting more than me, and I'm number one.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: And um one of my friends said, Who like who cares about 90%?
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: Won't you get 100%?
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: Go for 100%.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, You know what?
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go for 100%.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: Got my broker license, went back to my broker and said, Do you want a partner?
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, Not at this time.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I bought him a watch and I said, Thank you for your time.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I started Thumbprint Realty.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: One of the hardest, easiest business to ever start.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: The beginning was easy.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: I would say it was it was it was easy.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: It was making money, no overhead.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: It was just, you know, office was$800, um, not a lot of agents.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, now we are like 50, 56, 56 agents, and it's tough, right?
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: We have a lot of success.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh last year we did over 100 million, 100 million in sale.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: We did that for the last three years.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, we we we did over um one over a million dollars in down payment assistance for our clients, right?
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so we had a very successful year.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but running a brokerage is tough.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's it's real tough.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, if you have the will to do it and do it the right way, you will be you'll be very successful.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: And again, don't think about being in the real estate business, think about being in people business.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: That's how you stay in in this business much longer, and that's how you grow your brokerage much much faster.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I use the three doings to keep growing.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: And now we have partnerships with some of the your biggest names from some of the biggest names in the world, BJs, Simply Safe.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, just to name the YMCA, just to name a few, and that's just because of the third doing.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how I keep growing my brokerage, is just keep adding more benefits.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: And one thing growing a broker brokerage where I messed up and I didn't realize until recently that you have your own business and you can't, you don't have to cap your business and you have to think outside the box and you have to think big.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: When you think big, you have small problems.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: When you think too small, you have big problems.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: So if you think big and go for the roof and say, I want everything, this is what I'm gonna do.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm calling BJs and telling BJs, hey, you need to partner with me.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: This is who I am.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: Guess what?
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: BJ's gonna listen to you because that's because they believe in what you say about your business.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: So if if I would uh if I could say something uh to uh one thing to your Viewers, don't ever say you have a small business because people are gonna look at you as a small business.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: I don't care if you're the only employee.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: Do not say you are a small business.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: You are the biggest business with one employee.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: You're the biggest business with one employee.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's and it and we don't understand that.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: When we say small or we we downsize our downplay our company, that's at that's marketing.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: And that's negative marketing.
• 22:34
  Mike Swenson: Yeah, you do an awesome job of marketing and painting things in a positive direction.
• 22:38
  Mike Swenson: Are you looking to get started or scale in real estate investing but don't know your next step?
• 22:43
  Mike Swenson: Are you overwhelmed thinking about finding deals, analyzing deals, doing due diligence, and managing properties on top of it?
• 22:50
  Mike Swenson: Go ahead and push the easy button and invest with us.
• 22:53
  Mike Swenson: Real estate investing is what we do full time.
• 22:55
  Mike Swenson: We've done dozens of deals with hundreds of doors.
• 22:58
  Mike Swenson: We have the knowledge and experience to handpick the best deals that most investors can't find.
• 23:02
  Mike Swenson: We've at large off-market deals all the time where you can hopefully find returns and economies of scale that you just can't find on your own.
• 23:09
  Mike Swenson: The best thing is it's 100% passive to you for less capital than you put down trying to acquire a property on your own.
• 23:16
  Mike Swenson: Don't let this year go by where you don't make the leap, add to your portfolio, or you just did an analysis by paralysis.
• 23:23
  Mike Swenson: To find out more, visit freedomthroughrealestate.com and click on invest.
• 23:28
  Mike Swenson: You can book a call and learn more there.
• 23:30
  Mike Swenson: So get to scaling your portfolio now with us by your side.
• 23:33
  Mike Swenson: That's freedomthhrughrealestate.com and click on invest.
• 23:37
  Mike Swenson: So talk a little bit about I mean, you've got your real estate agent business, you've got your brokerage business, you've got your investment business, you know, flipping, building all that kind of stuff.
• 23:48
  Mike Swenson: What do you see happening here with the next handful of years?
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: Again, understanding real estate and where we're going, I think at this point, we are selling something that we all want.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: And that's fame.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's being the most popular.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: And with that being said, is doing the same thing but renaming everything.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: So now I flip with married, I flip with married couples, and that's called that net that department is married and flipping.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: My wife teaches a whole bunch of women how to flip in the process.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's called she flips.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we just created a documentary on it, my wife and I, named Mortgage Before Marriage.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'm here because of mortgage before marriage, right?
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: So, so the next five years is is selling more fame and getting enlarger because of the name and also our processes and the fact that we do a phenomenal job.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: But I think it's very important for that person that's listening to me and saying, What do I do now?
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: What can you sell that no one else could sell?
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: I realized I was never very, I was I wasn't very operational.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: I was very creative.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I could hire someone else on operations, but the creativity, I was second to none.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: I knew how to deliver a message so the world can understand what I'm saying, and now want to work with my company.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it's very important that as a leader, it's your job.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: You can't say I'm shy, you can't say that's not me.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: You have to stand on the forefront and take your business to another level.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: And also, tech is huge, right?
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: My wife and I create an app.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, of course, we wrote a book, and that's what we're doing with our real estate money.
• 25:49
  Mike Swenson: It's uh fun to hear the story of kind of how everything's grown and developed.
• 25:55
  Mike Swenson: And, you know, I think for people listening too, um, you know, you've done done a lot of stuff, and and it always reminds me, you know, and people get overwhelmed of like, oh gosh, well, Alex has done all this stuff.
• 26:05
  Mike Swenson: How do I do that?
• 26:05
  Mike Swenson: And I always remind people, and it helps to remind myself, it's an affirmation, you know, how do you need how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time?
• 26:12
  Mike Swenson: And so it's just kind of putting that next foot in front of yourself and figuring out the next most logical step.
• 26:18
  Mike Swenson: And all of a sudden you look back and it's like, dang, I've created a big career, a brokerage, ton of investments, ton of opportunity, um, book and all that stuff.
• 26:27
  Mike Swenson: And it's just by taking that next best step, time and time and time again, and look what you've created for yourself.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and thank you for for that.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: And and again, I want to be honest, it wasn't easy.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: Last year was the first year I experienced depression.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like all my life, never feel never I'm doing great.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: And last last year was one of my best years, right?
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: But I realized it wasn't my best, it wasn't my best year internally, right?
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: It was my best year externally.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: So slow down, understand where you want to go, and take your time.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: I guarantee you, if you go slower than someone that's doing 10 things like me, you would run right past me.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: Right, you will run right past the old me.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: So take your time, take your time, do it right, and make sure you market very well and keep up with the time.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: Look at the stats, right?
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: If if I start over today, right, okay, if if can I break this down?
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, if I start over today, I'm gonna look at the stats.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: Who's buying homes?
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: Single women beating single men.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: They are like 24, 28 percent.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: Single men, I think it's like 9, 13.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: Married couple, the rest.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: They take they they have they take the rest.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: So who am I marketing to, man?
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: Am I going to put up a a um a uh um a real estate sign in the barbershop?
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: No, I got the facts.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: I know who I'm wanna who I want to market to.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: I want to market to single women and married couples.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: My best success is married couples.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: But guess what?
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: In a married couple, mostly, most times is a woman looking for the home anyway.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: So it comes down to women, right?
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to market to women, I want to market to to hair salons, I want to um, I want to look look for um women that earn a lot.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: What industries is dominated by women that makes more than$200,000 a year.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: What church do they go to?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, where do they hang?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: This is what I'm focusing on, right?
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: Guess what?
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: It high rises.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, high rises if your rent is how much?
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: Your rent is six thousand dollars?
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, that means you can afford this mansion down the street.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna market to the high rise, I'm gonna market to every tenant in the high rise.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I have the opportunity to pick who I want to market to, pick my my my clients.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not marketing to everyone.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's not the way to go.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not marketing to everyone.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: So if that if you're thinking you have to sell, you have to buy, you have to do rentals, you have to do commercial to make a living, you are wrong.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: You are going to be broke.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: Focus that was you, women.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I do now.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: Only women, high-earning women, I help them 10x their wealth using real estate.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: Women, women, women.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna see a commercial at the NFL game.
• 29:40
  Mike Swenson: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 29:42
  Mike Swenson: Well, thank you, Alex, so much for coming on and uh sharing.
• 29:45
  Mike Swenson: For people that want to reach out to you and learn more about what you're doing, how can they do so?
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: There's Alex E.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: Edwards on all social media platforms.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you can look, you could check out mortgage before marriage.com if you want to purchase mortgage before marriage finances before fiance, Rockefeller, before Beyoncé, before you become Mrs.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: Wright, get your finances right.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I am and thank you for having me.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: It was a fun uh podcast.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, thank you for allowing me just to rant these.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: I just appreciate you for having me on your platform.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: You didn't have to and you chose to.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much.
• 30:24
  Mike Swenson: Absolutely.
• 30:25
  Mike Swenson: Well, thank you so much, Alex E.
• 30:27
  Mike Swenson: Edwards.
• 30:27
  Mike Swenson: Check them out.
• 30:28
  Mike Swenson: Thank you for sharing your story, and yeah, hopefully your message inspires other people to take action in real estate.
• 30:33
  Mike Swenson: So I really appreciate your time.