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Retirement Planning for Business Owners w/ Amelia Misenheimer · Real Estate Investing with RealDealCrew

0:00
Most businesses don't sell. They close.
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So if your business is your retirement plan,
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you don't actually have one.
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Emilia Meisenheimer managed over four hundred and fifty rental doors,
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built her own portfolio, and now sits down with business owners one on
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one to build the whole wealth picture,
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not just the piece of financial advisor gets paid to see.
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In this episode you'll learn why your advisor can't see most of your money,
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how one client saved over six hundred thousand dollars just by cutting fees nobody
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told her she was paying.
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and how to pitch creative financing so that the seller actually wants the deal.
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If you're building systems for your investing business,
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start at realdeal crew dot com.
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Let's get started.
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Amelia Meisenheimer joins me here today and you can find her on LinkedIn.
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And the the last name might trip you up,
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so I'm going to make sure that is a clickable link in the show notes so
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you can go right there and connect directly.
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I really appreciate your time,
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Amelia. We're going be talking about all kinds of things,
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not only your your history, but primarily what you're focused on today,
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which is really helping people get into this game.
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So appreciate your time here today.
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Well thank you for having me, Jack.
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I'm really excited for our conversation.
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So y you have kind of had a you're bouncing all over the place.
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I mean you're even in in a different country at this point,
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I I believe. Like what
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Well, I'm I'm back in Indiana.
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I was in England, so
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Mm.
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I yeah, where I met my husband was in a military community and so when
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we started dating, he was like,
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Watch out, I'm getting deploy you know,
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I'm moving to England next summer and I'm like,
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ha ha, okay. I'll worry about that then.
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Well joke's on me, I had to worry about it.
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I found myself in England. so we moved back about two years ago and
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I really enjoyed Indiana. I never thought Indiana would be on my bingo card,
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but here we are.
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Yeah, I I was gonna ask, was that kind of a culture shock for a while?
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Especially coming from England,
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yes. That that was a big culture shock.
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I would you know, I'm from rural New Mexico.
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is where I am I'm a licensed realtor in the state of New Mexico.
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That's where I used to have my companies.
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And so for me this is living in a big city and we have like a Target
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and like three Walmarts and all sorts of cool s an airport.
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I'm two hours to Chicago, an hour to Indy.
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So this is pretty high living for me in all in all reality.
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So I'm a I'm a pretty easy person to please as far as that.
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that
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'cause my my true roots was like,
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you know, an hour and a half to the nearest target,
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an hour and a half. Like we didn't have Chick-fil-A.
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We don't have an airport. We don't have any of this stuff.
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So I'm living the good life here.
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I can say that.
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Yeah. It's just kind of a fish out of water.
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You know, what what's kind of funny is that my wife and I watch a
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lot of British sitcoms, but I can't
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Mm-hmm.
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I can't imagine that it's even close to reality.
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it's probably closer than you want to admit.
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You know, it's funny, I tell people I'm like,
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We both speak English but we're not speaking the same language.
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So I actually my husband and I bought our house that we lived in while
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we were over there.
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And trying to get through this like mortgage process because I mean this
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is what I do for a living. I am an investor myself.
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I was I am still a licensed realtor,
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so I would help people through this process.
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I'm like, I should have this figured out.
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Easy peasy. no. It I mean it you're lucky if you get through it in six months.
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So we were living in temporary housing for six months as we work through this
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process. And then there's just so many little things like they didn't
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use the same words. And and finally I was like,
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when when is closing? And they're like
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I don't know what you mean. I'm like,
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when do I get my keys? And they're like,
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completion I was like, Yes, what is completion?
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Like when do I get my ki you as a consumer,
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like that's what I'm in
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But that's what I'm concerned about,
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is when do I get my keys? So it's really funny though,
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like I would say closing, and it was like just right over their head,
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but completion, I'm like, how is that a better word?
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I don't know. so there's just a few little hiccups like that,
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and it would be everywhere. Like I tell friends,
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if you're gonna order food from a restaurant,
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like whatever you read and whatever image you have in your head,
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it's going to be close, but whatever comes out is going to
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be different than whatever you think.
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So just prepare yourself.
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for everything to be like one step off of whatever you envisioned in your head that
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this dish looks like and that's like how the whole company operated.
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It wasn't bad, it was just one step off of whatever you th were expecting
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or thought, it was not that.
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Yeah, it's it's it it I almost joke the fact that it it's it's almost like
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the US we we changed the English language just enough to just out
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of spite or something. I don't know.
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I don't know. Some of the words are just just ~ off.
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Something, yes. Because
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it it is entertaining.
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Well, y your family's been involved in real estate for generations.
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Like could you talk a little bit about that what your grandparents started out?
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I think they started in land and and how that's progressed forward
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and what maybe how it even shapes your investing and strategies today.
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You know, it's been really interesting seeing it.
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I've been so grateful to see it in real life through multiple generations.
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So my grandpa started out, he was a dry land farmer,
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which if you want to talk about a gambler,
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talk about dry land farming in New Mexico.
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Like you are solely relying on rain,
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and rain is not totally popular in New Mexico.
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So
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Ultimate gambler there. so he just started picking up these parcels of lands
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and he would do real estate contracts,
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he, you know, sometimes would get a loan from the bank,
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he negotiated, you know, to make the payment yearly payments on time of harvest.
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So there's so many strategies to investing,
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right? So he picked different strategies that kind of work for him,
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and he got into the land. Well,
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I mean, he amassed tens of thousands of acres of land over the course
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of his lifetime, and what was so humbling.
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when it kind of came down, he got offered to sell his land and they were gonna
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basically buy him out of everything 'cause it's obviously a really big deal.
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And he did not think twice about it.
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He was like, I'll take it, take that check it and ran to the bank.
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And it was interesting 'cause I was so attached to the land and I was
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so attached to the farming lifestyle.
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And I helped him plow fields and my dad,
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you know, would farm in Bell Hay and like I was so I'm like,
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grandpa, like how do you just
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Turn your back on this way of life because they,
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I mean, they also lived on the farmhouse,
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which the farmhouse sold with the farm,
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so then they had to move. And he did not care.
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And I don't know if it was, you know,
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that kind of that depression era.
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He got his check, he did what he wanted to do,
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and on to the next adventure. But that in itself taught me a lot,
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too, is like you look at different investments and not having so much
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of that emotional attachment that we can get.
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I mean, it's money, it's still emotional,
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but when you're investing
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keeping that strategy at mind.
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So then he did, you know, a 1031 exchange and got into real estate.
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Well my parents had started, my parents,
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my aunt and uncles, we had all started investing in real estate when I was a kid.
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So I would go around to you know with my parents and collect rent
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or clean rent houses. And I can tell you t plenty of stories about gross,
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disgusting rent houses. But you know,
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seeing that as a kid too of collecting rent and one of I'll say one
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of my favorite stories. don't know if
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Favorites the right word, but you know,
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it was near Christmas time and we went to go collect rent.
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I was in the car, my mom's going and knocking on doors,
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and this family has all these toys.
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There's like a go-kart in the front yard and all of this stuff.
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And she goes and the woman's like,
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It's Christmas, I don't have my rent.
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I spend it on toys for the kids and you know,
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yada yada. My mom's like, My kids don't have any of these toys.
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Like, what do you want? Do you want to spend Christmas in your home or do you want,
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you know, crap for Christmas kind of thing?
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And the kid comes out from behind the mom and is like,
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you can have my go-kart if we can stay in our house for Christmas.
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And so here I am, another kid who's roughly the same age as this kid,
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watching him give up his toys and his go-kart so that way they don't have
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to move out of their house for Christmas.
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You know, and it's sad that this young kid had more almost intelligence than
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his mom, but that's how we got that's how I got my first go-kart was
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in lieu of rent, essentially. And
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And my mom took up. My mom loaded that go kart up in the back of the car
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and off we went. But it was just so powerful seeing some of that and seeing
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the way people live and how people take care of houses.
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And you know, when you see it with a kid's eye,
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you don't have that filter. Like it's so easy as especially as I became
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a property manager. You know, we managed over four hundred and fifty properties,
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you know, dealing with hundreds of tenants and and it's easy to kind
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of become jaded to it or
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You're like, great, another another one of them,
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you know, and then they trash the house and you just become but when you're
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a kid you just don't have that filter.
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You think everybody's the same and everybody's equal and so some
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of those exposures at that young age I felt were so powerful because
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it just the lessons hit a little deeper and a little more raw than when
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I can rationalize it of, you know,
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they couldn't pay rent because you know,
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I mean, we got into like the when the mil when the government shuts down 'cause
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we're in a primary military area,
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like
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They can't pay the rent because they're military and the government shut down
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and you know they don't have an extra cushion to keep paying their rent while they
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don't get a paycheck, which a lot of people don't.
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So it's just interesting kind of seeing how those lessons carried forward with
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me and obviously still impact me today as we talk about investing.
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What kind of houses do you want to invest in and what kind of properties,
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you know, make the best investment?
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And there's so many conversations for all of this.
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And at the end of the day, it's what works for you,
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right? You know, so many people like
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that's their dreaded task is going around knocking on doors for rent money.
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Like if somebody, you know, like I do not want to do that.
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Like great, don't invest in that way.
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So it's just I enjoy having those different aspects to it.
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And then when I started investing in my own rentals in 2010,
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so also in New Mexico, it's where I'm from.
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And I and that's one of my other,
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you know, values. I'm like, invest where you know.
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And I think that is lost in today's out of state investing and,
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you know, do this and do that.
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I'm like,
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I know the economics, I know the employers,
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I know what's going on in the community,
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I know what areas of town I want to invest in and what areas I don't want
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to invest in. So a lot of my rent real estate is back there.
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But even like buying in England,
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you know, we actually bought the house we lived in,
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we ended up buying another investment property in England as we figured
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out the dynamics of investing in another country and the restrictions that
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go along with that. And the currency exchange,
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I call it my 3D investing, because not only not only do you have like income minus,
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you know, liabilities and expenses and all this,
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but like
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You've got currency going on in there too,
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so that's just kind of an extra layer to keep things exciting,
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if you will.
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Yeah, there's those quite
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So that's a long-winded answer for that question.
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No, that was awesome. That was that was great.
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The you you what what's really telling there though is that,
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you know, as property managers,
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you you're absolutely right. It's hard not to get a little jaded when dealing with
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some of these residents because even at a young age it it almost sounded like
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you recognized the
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bad decisions or the poor decisions that the adults were being that were
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be that were being made there.
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Like it
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y you know, they they opted for these gadgets versus keeping their family
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a roof over the family's head.
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Yeah, and I mean and it can be like such little things too as I'd have tenants come
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in asking to pay late on their rent and their nails.
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You know, they got all these brand new long fancy nails done.
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I'm like, you can afford to go to get your nails done,
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but you can't afford to pay your rent.
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Like and it's those little things that would just drive me nuts.
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And none of my business how you spend your money.
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Did you pay your rent? Did you not pay your rent?
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That's all that matters as a property manager,
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but it is a little hard to keep some of those thoughts.
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Yeah, well
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I saw this firsthand, especially during COVID.
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Like there was the the rent moratoriums and a few other things and I'd
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see they were not paying rent,
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but there were brand new TV T V boxes in the dumpster and you know,
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it was it was just dri just driving
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Exactly.
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you crazy as you're doing everything you can to just stay alive.
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Exactly. Exactly.
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So in the end though, you moved into teaching people how to do this.
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Like what do you help people do?
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How do you do it? And and I I suppose did they do start
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the conversation through LinkedIn or your socials?
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Yeah, so LinkedIn's a great place to start.
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I also talk about investing on Substack,
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it's kind of my hot my two hot spots.
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I'm of course on Instagram and fi Facebook,
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but LinkedIn's probably the best place.
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You know, it's when we talk about investing,
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right? We can talk about real estate,
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which I believe real estate is the number one investment to build wealth.
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You want to talk about any the king of England,
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his wealth is in real estate. It's the land he's owned,
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you know, for thousands of years at this point.
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these big companies buying out Times Square,
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they're buying out, you know, all of these things like this is real estate.
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Like McDonald's, McDonald's is not a hamburger company,
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they are a real estate company.
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And and so real estate is such an important part of investing.
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It obviously takes a special person to invest in real estate.
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But with the way technology has come,
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you know, with syndications and with different things like that,
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it's okay, let me let me lend,
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you know, you Jack a hundred thousand dollars and you go buy the house
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on the corner of the street and you pay me interest.
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Cool, that's a great way to invest in real estate with little risk.
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I mean, Jack, if you default on your loan,
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I'm gonna, you know, now own a house wherever,
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you know, it is kind of thing.
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And there's a challenge in that.
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But as technology has changed the way people are allowed to invest,
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to lend money, to, you know, do different things,
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it's really changed how people can build wealth.
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And that's the conversation I like to have is,
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you know, real estate is a piece of wealth.
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But you all we should all be diversified.
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None of our eggs should be in any one basket,
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you know, and the stock market has its place.
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The tax deferred IRA accounts have their place.
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Roth accounts have their place.
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Like it's it's building this puzzle.
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And what I have found with working,
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you know, as a realtor, and I could and real I'm a realtor and I don't really like
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realtors. And I can say that because I'm a realtor.
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But you know, so many realtors,
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they just become like tour guys.
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They're not they're not investor investment advisors.
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They are like,
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Here's a house, do you like it?
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Not nope, let's go on to the next one.
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It's not taking that critical eye and saying,
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would this make a good rental?
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Or what what are pros and cons of this property?
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If you wanna, if you w and say like you want to live in it,
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because again, military, like a lot of people will live in it for three,
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four, five years and then turn around and sell it.
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Well, depending on how you buy it,
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if people will use their VA loan,
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they have no money down in it.
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So when they turn around and sell it in three to five years,
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there's no equity. And then they're having to come to closing
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you know, tens of thousands of dollars and they can't understand why.
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And then nobody explained it to them.
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And so there is not many people who exist in the space.
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So like, let's talk about the big picture.
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And let's talk about the strategy behind it.
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So especially, you know, as business owners,
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we get so involved in our day-to-day of working the business,
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running the business, following up with leads,
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putting out fires, you know, whatever it is.
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But it's really easy to invest all your money back in your business.
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So your business isn't your retirement account.
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It's not your retirement plan because most businesses close.
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They don't usually sell. I mean,
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I was lucky to sell my business and my property management company,
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but I still didn't send it for life changing money by any means.
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And so it's like how do you create wealth?
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So for me, creating wealth was my rentals.
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That those rentals are what allowed me to transition from being,
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you know, in a business full time to being a dependent stuck in England,
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not able to work. Because the visas to work are over there are really difficult.
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So
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That's kind of what pushed me into the consulting side of okay,
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how do I help other people realize that there is more to investing than just your
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401k? Like, yes, take advantage of that company match.
15:35
Like, great, do it. But if you want to build real wealth,
15:39
that gives you the financial freedom to operate however you want to operate.
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If you want to work 60 hours a week,
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great, work 60 hours a week. But if you also want to take off three months,
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like how do you still have that income coming in?
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And building that kind of comprehensive picture is a unique thing because there
15:54
is a piece that goes to the IRAs.
15:56
There is a piece that goes into real estate.
15:58
There could be a piece that goes into your antique classic
16:01
car collection because you just absolutely love classic cars.
16:04
Like that's great. It could be Bitcoin,
16:06
it could be NFTs, you know, whatever it is.
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It's like know what you're doing and how does that fit in the whole puzzle?
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And most people don't, there's nobody out there talking about the whole puzzle.
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Financial advisors focus on how much their assets under management.
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How much of their your money are they managing?
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And that's all they care about.
16:23
And even like with my parents,
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they obviously have a substantial real estate portfolio.
16:27
Their financial advisor, the way his program works,
16:32
they can't even make certain investments because they're too heavily loaded
16:35
in whatever, you know, diversification of the stock market.
16:37
But their financial that companies does not consider all of the real estate they
16:43
own. They only see that picture of
16:45
Assets under their management.
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And there's so much more to life than assets under your your financial planners
16:53
advisement. And then you get into paying them fees and then you pay,
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you know, mortgage you pay fees for mutual funds.
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And it's just all of these and it's hard because these fees are hidden.
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You're not having to write a check to your financial planner every month
17:08
for them managing your fees. So many people don't even realize that they're paying
17:12
fees. They don't
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realize that they're losing one,
17:14
two, even three percent of their money every month just because it's being managed
17:17
by somebody else. And so having these conversations to look at things differently
17:22
is is what I love to do. And if you want to keep your financial planner,
17:26
great. They serve a purpose. There are so many people out there who don't want
17:29
to manage funds, but if you want to like,
17:31
no, let's let's dump this in an index fund because there's so many studies that show
17:35
index funds outperform managed accounts most of the time anyways,
17:38
like
17:39
Dump it in index fund, save your 2%.
17:41
I had a client, we she started managing her own accounts by the funds
17:45
she saved over like 13 years, she's gonna save over $600,000
17:52
by just managing her accounts herself and not paying that fee.
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And I was like, has anybody ever talked to her about that before?
17:58
No. You know, so it's how do we look at things in a way that aligns with you?
18:03
They reach your goals. If you don't wanna knock,
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don't door knock, don't invest that way.
18:08
but having that investment agnostic conversation of building a life that works
18:12
for you and your values, your goals,
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you know, your kids, your legacy,
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however you want to leave that.
18:18
Mm-hmm. Just to remind everybody,
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we're talking to Amelia Meisenheimer,
18:23
and you can find her on LinkedIn.
18:25
I'm going to have that as a clickable link in the show notes.
18:28
If you found some value in what we're chatting about so far,
18:30
do us a favor, share this with one of your friends.
18:33
If you're watching us on YouTube,
18:34
give us a like and subscribe. It's kind of interesting you bring
18:37
up the financial advisors, but this goes with in like any of these partnerships,
18:42
whether it's financial advisors,
18:44
attorneys, accountants.
18:47
It's so hard to find somebody who is willing to I don't want to say stick their neck
18:52
out, but to actually be that partnership you're looking for and
18:58
be that actual advisor that you need in these p these spaces.
19:02
I did a review of my with my financial advisor too,
19:06
and I was barely making enough annually to pay for him.
19:11
I I was it was stagnant. There was no growth there at all.
19:15
Other than what I was putting into it.
19:17
Yeah, and it's it's so frustrating too when you find that out.
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When you when you sit down, you do the math,
19:23
and you're like, you didn't want to tell me any of this?
19:24
Like you didn't want to raise that red flag of like,
19:26
hey, your account's not performing.
19:27
And it's and I think that's that's the disservice so many of these industries bring
19:33
to the table or do, is they're not they're not being proactive about what they
19:38
can and cannot do. And even like your accountant,
19:40
so many accountants are being counters,
19:42
if you will, and you know, and they file retroactively.
19:46
But to find a true accountant or tax advisor,
19:49
however you want to call it, that will sit down with you in October and be like,
19:52
okay, here we are year to date.
19:54
Here's your income, here's your expenses.
19:56
Let's look at what that's projected out to the end of the year.
19:58
Okay, you're as of right now, you're estimated to owe 30,000 in taxes.
20:03
Cool. What can we do to minimize,
20:06
you know, to mitigate that? What investments can I make?
20:09
Do I top up my retirement accounts?
20:11
Do I
20:12
Buy equipment. Do you know, there's so many different things that you can do,
20:15
especially when you do it in October,
20:17
because you have till December to get it done.
20:19
But it's such a special accountant to do that.
20:22
Thankfully, my accountant he does that.
20:24
And I, you know, for me it was just normal.
20:26
And then as I got to know more and more people,
20:29
I'm like, y'all, y'all, nobody nobody has these conversations with their
20:32
accountants. So it's been interesting.
20:34
And of course I Googled. So of course my algorithm is now full of
20:37
all these tax advisors.
20:39
And I think that's a fascinating industry too,
20:41
because there's no regulation behind a tax advisor.
20:45
There's not even regulation behind a tax filer.
20:47
Like I can go file your taxes for you.
20:50
I I'm not qualified. Or like, you know,
20:52
that that's essentially H and R block.
20:54
They hire people, they give them a brief training,
20:55
they run them through the system,
20:56
like, you're a tax filer. And you're like,
20:58
you know, it just blows my mind.
21:01
But again, nobody nobody knows this underside of the business.
21:04
Nobody really understands how accountants work.
21:06
Nobody understands.
21:08
what to even expect out of their accountant.
21:09
And so even as, you know, an as an advisor myself,
21:14
and I don't give financial advice,
21:15
I'm not a lawyer, I'm not an accountant,
21:17
you know, but it's like I'm in your back pocket to be like,
21:19
okay, what questions should should you be asking your accountant?
21:23
What proactive questions should you be doing this?
21:26
So like for my clients in like September,
21:28
I'm like, hey, call your accountant,
21:29
schedule an appointment. I will attend c client meetings with people if they want
21:34
to just to have
21:35
You know, 'cause that 'cause they can be intimidating meetings too,
21:38
especially some of these really smart people types,
21:40
you know, they can come off a little aloof or not very clear communicating
21:44
and and it's easy, especially as a woman too,
21:46
to feel railroaded in some of these conversations.
21:49
So, you know, I will attend meetings with clients of like,
21:52
okay, what questions do we need?
21:53
What what is this inspection report on your real estate investment really say?
21:57
Like what what is the outcome that you're expecting out of this?
22:00
'Cause there's just
22:02
We've become so isolated in a lot of ways that we don't have those people
22:06
in your back corner. I was lucky to grow up with my parents in
22:09
my back corner saying, Amelia,
22:11
watch out for this. Did you think about this?
22:13
You know, what about this? And they had,
22:16
you know, 20 years of experience at that point.
22:18
But how do you have somebody with 20 years of experience in your back corner helping
22:24
you watch out? And even if you I don't know all the answers.
22:27
I I don't.
22:28
But I usually know a pretty good question to ask and we can go find
22:31
an expert or somebody else who does know the answer.
22:34
'Cause that's half the battle.
22:35
You know, knowing what questions to ask is like ninety percent of
22:39
the battle at anything you do.
22:40
Yeah, you mentioned railroading.
22:42
It's kind of something that I've been doing a little bit more of.
22:46
Like it's kind of interesting because you know when you engage companies like what
22:51
I what I do, there's a lot of I'm gonna say snake oil in the AI space,
22:57
the tech space and what have you.
22:59
So it's been
23:00
Yes.
23:00
a little bit more, hey Jack, can you jump on this call with me?
23:04
I'm having a meeting with my developer,
23:06
just to help
23:07
Hold hold these other team members a accountable a little bit or be a little
23:11
bit of a project manager, if you will,
23:14
just so that you know, th they just feel a little more confident of
23:18
of what's going on.
23:19
Well, and so much of it too, I feel like is industry lingo.
23:22
You know, when I can talk on cash on cash returns and your return on investment,
23:25
your internal rate of return and blah blah blah blah blah.
23:27
Most people eyes glaze over. And do those numbers really matter?
23:33
Maybe. Maybe they matter to you,
23:34
maybe they don't. Like what is your goals out of this deal?
23:38
I've bought a property at a loss,
23:40
it was negative cash flow, but I still bought it because I paid zero down.
23:45
It was an owner finance, and he carried the note for me.
23:49
So I knew I had a short term, I was negative cash flow,
23:53
but I did not have to come a penny out of my pocket to get that deal done.
23:56
That was worth it to me. And I think those are the type of things that
24:00
get lost in some of this conversation and get lost when people start dropping
24:04
all this industry jargon and, you know,
24:07
and I think that is one of the biggest,
24:08
and every industry does it, you know,
24:10
but it's just such a disservice to the normal person who's investing
24:13
and putting their hard-earned mer money into a deal,
24:16
and then these big fancy.
24:18
you know, syndications or whoever or,
24:20
you know, AI developers or whatnot are dropping all this lingo on
24:24
you and you're like, What are you even saying?
24:26
And they're usually not saying anything.
24:27
That's the worst part. There's nothing of value coming out of all of these lingos.
24:31
Getting me all heated over here,
24:31
Yeah, that's that's very true.
24:33
Hey,
24:34
Jack.
24:35
that's what I do. So okay. So let's talk a little bit about the creative financing.
24:40
I mean, this is one of those things that people actually throw around
24:45
a lot regarding that. But you know,
24:48
I've kind of found that when I've had to do any kind of creative financing,
24:51
it's actually taking pieces from this strategy and that strategy,
24:55
and it's it's not a catch all kind of bucket.
24:58
I almost say it's like learning learning music in a little ways.
25:01
You start with the scales and then you can't play jazz until you've
25:04
had some experience. Like w what what do you think?
25:07
Like regarding regarding creative financing,
25:10
is that like one of those things that takes a little of experience or coaching?
25:14
It does, and I'm not gonna compare it to music because I'm not at all musical.
25:17
So you you that that analogy went a little over my head,
25:20
but I do like jazz, so I'll take your word for it.
25:23
you know, I think creative financing is also such a big term.
25:26
Like what does that even really mean?
25:27
And again, social media and how everybody's like creative financing this I'm like,
25:31
what is that? Even I was confused.
25:33
I'm like, what's creative finance?
25:34
And they go, I'm like, like a real estate contract.
25:36
And I'm like, sure, or th or sub two.
25:38
Like that's my favorite. Sub two.
25:40
I'm like,
25:41
What is sub two? you're subject to their mortgage.
25:44
So again, like a wrap-around real estate contract.
25:47
Cool. I've done t you know, I've done plenty of those in my life.
25:50
But now there's a fancy jargon behind it to seem like some brand
25:54
new creative thing that somebody just made up.
25:57
No, it's been going on for decades.
25:59
Decades. Like this is not new.
26:01
My soapbox. so I think, like you said,
26:04
when you have that experience though,
26:05
because part of part of
26:08
buying creative financing is also educating the seller because there's certain
26:13
advantages to the seller. So for example,
26:15
if a seller sells a rental property that they've had,
26:17
you know, they've had a rental property for 30 years and they want to sell it.
26:20
Well no, when they sell it, they have capital gains on it.
26:23
They've got recoverable depreciation on it.
26:25
Like they're going, they're getting hit with these tax burdens.
26:27
Most sellers don't even realize they're about to be hit with a tax bill from selling
26:31
a rental. So you know that's part of this too.
26:34
But then you get into, okay, if we do a real estate contract,
26:37
you only have to pay tax on the amount that you receive every year.
26:42
So now all of a sudden the seller's like,
26:44
so I still get my monthly income that I'm accustomed to,
26:47
because I'm accustomed to having it as a rental.
26:49
And I have to pay less tax every year.
26:52
well that sounds like a good deal or that could be a good deal.
26:56
Now the seller's risk is if you stop paying,
26:58
they get the house back, you're out,
27:00
whatever you paid, and the seller could get the house back in,
27:03
you know, whatever condition you left it in.
27:05
So there's obviously a risk on their end,
27:07
but knowing those pieces, you need to know how this affects the seller.
27:12
The seller might not care if they're getting hit with a tax.
27:15
They might be selling 10 properties all at once,
27:17
they're gonna 1031 it into the next property.
27:20
And so 1031, just to clarify, is you know,
27:23
rolling your capital gains and your tax exposures to the next property.
27:26
You do not get away with it, you do not have to not pay it.
27:29
It's just rolled into the next property.
27:31
So the only way you get away with that game is if you die.
27:34
And nobody talks about that. They're like,
27:36
in a 1031. I'm like, well, you start that,
27:38
you just start rolling it till you die,
27:41
because the step up and basis is kind of the,
27:43
you know, the washout of that game.
27:45
And so knowing how to explain the benefits of creative financing to the seller,
27:52
or knowing, you know, how to pitch it to them in a way that they're receptive,
27:55
that it's in both of your best interests.
27:58
Because I would rather pay Jack,
27:59
I'd rather pay you my interest money than I would Wells Fargo or Bank
28:02
of America or any of those people.
28:04
You know, and I think that's a value too,
28:07
as you discuss creative financing and just these different opportunities.
28:11
And I think there's no there's no wrong or right way to do this.
28:15
I mean, the wrong way is if a deal falls apart,
28:17
but like there's no box. Everything's negotiable.
28:21
And that's even I've had clients like,
28:23
I could do a real estate. I'm like,
28:24
yeah, they're like, what should I offer?
28:25
I'm like,
28:27
You can negotiate the sales price,
28:28
you can negotiate the terms, you can negotiate the interest rate,
28:31
you can negotiate the down payment.
28:33
Like there's so many levers for you to pick and choose from to pool.
28:38
And a lot of it depends on the seller.
28:39
Does the seller want a nice cash down so they can take,
28:43
you know, most of it and do the next property?
28:45
Do they want a higher interest rate with no cash down?
28:47
Like there's so many levers that you just have to negotiate and get to
28:52
to make that deal work. And that
28:55
conversation to find out those motivating factors is what usually never happens.
28:59
So that's why the deals always go south or never get off the ground.
29:02
But with your experience, especially with the military and and overseas,
29:06
do you find that a lot of your students are like in a similar situation?
29:10
Are you do you attract a lot of military people and spouses?
29:16
You know, when I when I started so I started this kind of focusing strictly
29:20
on real estate investing. So how to buy a rental,
29:23
how to analyze a deal, how to,
29:24
you know, navigate a home inspection report,
29:27
all of those. And I have courses on all of that.
29:30
And I worked with the VA and military can be awfully entitled.
29:34
And I got really frustrated with them fairly quickly in this process.
29:38
So
29:39
You know, so kind of through that I really transitioned and so now
29:42
I really like working with small business owners,
29:45
individuals that 'cause I work one on one directly with people.
29:48
Like let's look at your scenario and find and create a plan that works with you.
29:52
So whenever I start working with a client,
29:55
we sit down and we do what I call the wealth flywheel plan plan because wealth keeps
29:59
on moving. It's a flywheel, it goes round and round and round.
30:01
And every time it goes round, little things change,
30:03
right? Like so we start with goal setting and values and you know priorities
30:07
and we build out the
30:08
plan of what that looks like and then we implement the plan.
30:11
So right, you could have no kids and all of a sudden have kids and now
30:14
all of a sudden you're worried about colleges.
30:15
You're you know, every all of these little things change so as this wheel goes
30:19
around, there's never you're usually any drastic changes to the wheel,
30:23
but it's
30:24
What little tweaks we make as kind of time goes on as we you know work
30:28
our way through this will and and so much of so much of this work is
30:32
you know maybe two, three, four,
30:34
six months of getting things set up and then it's kinda I don't want
30:37
to say forget it, but you know,
30:39
once it's set up, you kind of leave it and check on it every six months
30:42
or check on it once a year. you know,
30:43
that's not the hardest part's getting this stuff set up.
30:46
So, you know, when I work with clients,
30:48
I really like to take that big picture.
30:49
Like, what are you doing for?
30:51
And it could be a military person,
30:52
but I really like the business owners because I like to play tax games.
30:55
I do not want to pay Uncle Sam any more than I have to.
30:57
So having the conversations around taxes is really what I enjoy,
31:02
which is odd, I know, but you know,
31:05
as a business owner, you've got a lot more opportunities to like play different
31:08
games or buy a vehicle or invest in this or do this over here.
31:11
Let's set up, you know, a simple IRA and then we can match this and write this
31:15
off and you know, those those kind of games is again all these different levels.
31:18
levers you start playing with is really what builds wealth.
31:21
It's not buying real estate's a piece of it and it's a good piece.
31:24
But if your accountant's not maximizing your investment,
31:27
you're leaving money on the table there of not getting your write-offs,
31:30
not doing your depreciation, you know,
31:32
whatever it is, like you've got to have all the pieces to make it really have
31:35
the impact.
31:37
Hm. Do you have some stories that you could share,
31:40
like some of your students, like when they came in versus where they are today?
31:44
man. So
31:45
One of my clients, we started,
31:46
she wanted an Airbnb, so she came in,
31:48
bought an Airbnb. obviously there was plenty of processes to it,
31:52
but you know, she it was in Seattle,
31:54
so she got one. Her son lived in it for a couple months,
31:57
and I think she she's owned it for about two years now and it's been rented
31:59
basically nonstop. And but what's funny,
32:01
it was a condo, so then this condo had issues with the contractor.
32:05
So now the condo association is in a lawsuit with the contractor because some
32:09
of the windows leak, you know,
32:10
in this construction of this building.
32:12
So
32:13
Even though her unit's good, her unit's fine,
32:15
as a homeowner in this building,
32:17
she is still in you know this lawsuit and being a part of it.
32:22
And so I think it's those type of things,
32:24
which is nice to have that advisor.
32:25
Because when she called me about it,
32:27
I'm like, okay, first of all, like there's nothing you can really do.
32:29
You're kind of along for this ride,
32:30
so you can sell your condo.
32:32
Or you can kinda go for the ride.
32:33
And I think having somebody that also doesn't freak out,
32:36
because most of us don't get sued on a regular basis.
32:38
As a property manager I got sued frequently.
32:40
I sued people frequently. Like it's
32:43
It's a litigious industry. So I'm like,
32:45
great. Send me your lawyer's contact info.
32:47
I'm happy to talk to your lawyer.
32:48
And so sometimes it's just having that.
32:51
But like I had another client and we start talking about investments and
32:54
we kind of did an overall analysis of where she's at today.
32:57
Well, she had rolled over a retirement account from another from one
33:02
of our previous employers into her account.
33:05
It was never invested. It was sitting in cash in her account.
33:08
It was never like put into a
33:10
index fund or anything. So I'm like,
33:12
how long has this been sitting here?
33:13
You know, we've had some great years in the tax market or the real estate market.
33:18
We've had some great years in the stock market.
33:21
And her money's just sitting there,
33:22
not not not doing anything because it was sitting in cash.
33:26
So again, so many people are intimidated by reading their retirement accounts
33:30
and read their retirement statements.
33:32
They don't really know what they're saying.
33:33
They don't know what they're invested in.
33:34
They haven't looked at like what those ticker symbols mean.
33:37
So some of this is, you know, almost the financial literacy part of it
33:41
is what do you need to know that pertains to you?
33:44
And I think when anybody sits down to learn,
33:47
like, I want to learn about real estate,
33:48
I'm gonna go get a book. Cool.
33:50
Learn about everything. I mean,
33:52
there's so much to real estate.
33:53
Like, why don't you learn about what pertains to you that you need to know today
33:58
to make educated decisions? And you need to know,
34:01
hey, here's three warning signals that will probably come up in the future.
34:06
Keep an eye out for these, but like you don't need to know every type
34:09
of real estate investing. You don't need to know about syndications
34:13
if you don't have $100,000 and you're not an accredited investor.
34:16
Don't bother. Like, let's talk,
34:19
let's have a different conversation that pertains to you.
34:21
And I think having those conversations with my clients has really been the most fun,
34:27
if you will, because it's tactical,
34:30
tangible wins that everybody can have today.
34:33
I get excited because I get a help.
34:35
They get excited because their funding is invested and now they're making money
34:39
on it. They're you know, one of them opened up a simple high yield savings account.
34:43
There's I have a real estate backed CD,
34:46
is what I call it. It's still,
34:47
you know, it's still a kind of a fund.
34:49
You they're paying seven and a half percent interest and
34:52
the minimum investment's five hundred dollars.
34:53
Like, cool. I would like to where else are you earning seven and
34:57
a half percent interest? Should you put your life savings in there?
35:00
No.
35:01
Could you dump a thousand dollars,
35:02
five thousand, ten thousand dollars in there and earn seven and a half percent?
35:05
Why not? So it's having those like what what works for you?
35:10
What do you want to invest in?
35:12
And let's find things that align with you.
35:16
If you want to invest in Bitcoin,
35:17
like there's so many cool ways to invest in Bitcoin anymore.
35:20
And they're easy and they're not,
35:22
you know, like I have a my husband likes Bitcoin,
35:25
so I've gotten interested in Bitcoin.
35:26
but I use Strike and I invest a dollar a day.
35:30
That's my exciting, you know, so it's not 90 or $3 a day.
35:34
It's like $90 a month is what I invest.
35:37
Like it's not exciting. It's not life-changing,
35:40
but does it bring me joy? Yes.
35:42
And I think investing in whatever you invest in should bring you a little
35:46
bit of joy when you look at it.
35:48
Like does this like do you want to check this account or do you dread
35:51
it every minute?
35:52
that's a that's really important.
35:53
You know, it's it's this is one of those things though that you just mentioned that
35:58
I find fascinating. We have been,
36:01
as entrepreneurs, we're told time and time again,
36:04
you know, whatever you focus on grows.
36:06
You know, and that's typically in in regards to your business.
36:11
We never do that regarding our personal finances and retirement.
36:15
Like it's like and and that's the one thing that we
36:18
probably should focus on so it will grow.
36:21
Well, in your personal business,
36:23
like your personal finances, that's what gets left to your children.
36:27
That's what gets left to philanthropy or,
36:30
you know, organizations. Like it's not your business revenue.
36:33
Your business revenue does not go to your children.
36:35
It's your personal assets. It's what you've built outside of your business.
36:39
That's what gets left or passed on or donated or however you want to do it.
36:43
And so many people don't even realize that.
36:45
Like that's a big distinction.
36:47
Well, Amelia, this has just been f fun.
36:49
I really appreciate y you joining me here today.
36:53
Before we start moving into the rapid fire,
36:55
was there anything else we should have tried to hit on?
36:58
No, I we covered a lot of ground today,
36:59
Jack, and I really enjoyed this and you got me all fired up and got me
37:02
on my soapbox and everything else.
37:03
So I think this was I I thoroughly enjoyed it.
37:06
So thank you. And I I think I'm ready for this rapid fire.
37:09
All right, here we go. What lie do real estate investors often tell themselves?
37:13
I don't know how to phrase this in a simple sentence,
37:15
but not like not every deal's a good deal.
37:18
Sometimes we get so emotionally attached to a deal we wanna make it work under hell
37:22
or high water and it's d walk away.
37:25
If you could go back in time and give your younger self a piece of advice,
37:28
what would it be?
37:29
Buy more real estate.
37:30
When you were scaling your business,
37:31
what was your first hire and what has been your most recent,
37:37
if if any?
37:38
my first hire was a my I'll say my right hand man if you will as a woman,
37:43
but I am really good at the quick start,
37:48
the fast. I am details, executing on details I do not love.
37:51
And so f hiring someone to do that for me was a game changer in scaling my business.
37:58
And then even now most of my work is still a preneur,
38:01
but I hired a VA to also execute,
38:03
like posting my social media and
38:05
Doing those little meticulous tasks which drive me nuts.
38:07
So I think knowing your weakness and hiring to cover your weakness.
38:10
And finally, what single tool or process have you implemented that
38:14
has had the biggest time saving impact?
38:15
I'm gonna I'm gonna bring in the AI here,
38:18
Jack. you know, I've really dove into AI.
38:22
How do I use it effectively? How do I use it efficiently?
38:24
Have I wasted time on it? Absolutely.
38:26
But having AI help me execute a lot of these tedious tasks that I don't like
38:30
or things that I would procrastinate on because I don't I avoid it,
38:34
I don't like it. AI has really allowed me to kind of jump those last steps
38:39
to just get it done, execute it,
38:41
post it, and get it out there.
38:43
And that's been amazing.
38:44
Well, I really appreciate your time today.
38:46
This was just fantastic. One again once again you can find her on LinkedIn,
38:51
Amelia Meisenheimer. I'm gonna have that as a direct clickable link to make
38:56
you easy to find. Really appreciate your time,
38:59
Amelia. I hope you consider coming back again.
39:01
Thank you so much for having me,
39:02
Jack. I really enjoyed it.