1513 – Ways to Invest in Real Estate with Bud Evans

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0:54With us right now, it's Bud Evans. Bud, you're a fellow military veteran. Thank you so much for your service. You are the president operations manager of Aim High Properties, and you are found on the web at BudEvans.com. Bud, thank you so much for joining us. Josh, it is an absolute pleasure to be here. I actually feel kind of intimidated because I look up to you as a podcaster. Oh, get out of here with that. You, on the other hand, I would have saluted you. I did five measly years, and you, my friend, have decades of experience wearing the uniform in the Air Force. Just to touch on that just a little bit before we kind of get into the meat of this.

1:37Yeah, sure thing. I did 15 years enlisted. I'm sorry, 19 years enlisted, 15 years commissioned. I went through four Air Force specialty codes, ammo, then into contracting and acquisitions, then into finance when I got commissioned, and then finished up in intelligence for the majority of my commission career and retired in October of 2021 with 34 years. All right, just so I can have the scoop, because you were intelligence, tell me something you're not allowed to say. No, you don't have to do that. I'll tell you what I'm not allowed to say. I'm not allowed to say that I was in the Guard for 14 years, and I was a police officer for 13 of those.

2:16Wow, no kidding, No kidding. All right. So today you are very heavily involved in real estate. And could you share maybe a little bit about what Bud Evans Consulting is, the work you do, part of Aim High Properties as well? Absolutely. So Aim High Properties is a conglomerate. We own everything from property management to personal portfolios, group portfolios. We do joint ventures all the down to we have a hair salon. And we're primarily into that real estate niche. Bud Evans Consulting specifically, I work with Tarek El Moussa. We coach his students up and I have my own personal program. And currently I'm working on Aim High Network of Real Estate Investors.

3:00That's the Aim High REI on Facebook. What I'm trying to do is create a free site where people can go and exchange information, no solicitations, without getting slammed with any kind of guru, or coaching program stuff where people can just ask questions for free. Yeah. Well, that sounds nice. And, and like, who are you typically working with as part of that network? Yeah. Right now we're working with beginners and I'm bringing in people who are seasoned who have done this for a while, trying to get those folks to provide their knowledge to, to the base that's just coming into the real estate field.

3:35I look at it like collaboration is better than competition. So what they do is create this collaborative environment where people can walk in and actually ask questions without having to worry about, you know, any kind of immediately getting slammed with some sort of coaching fee when they're done asking that question. Yeah. And then what is the, like, how does your business model work then? So obviously you're doing consulting. So at some point then there's, you know, kind of maybe an opportunity to engage a little bit deeper? Sure. If someone wanted to follow up and wanted to get a little bit deeper into it, then yeah, then they can book calls with me directly.

4:11And I do guarantee a deal by the end of our time. And if we're not done in 10 calls, then I just continue to talk to you until we get one. Wow. And so right now, and I suppose this kind of gets into your tentpole, your kind of messages, but why real estate? I mean, there's certainly a lot of places we could put money and either actively or inactively realize growth from that. What drew you to real estate? Great question. I did not tell you that I was the mayor of Sinemans in New Jersey. When I was involved in politics, I enjoyed economic development. Oh, yeah. Down plan. We brought in a legal store.

4:54We put up an over 55 community, a few pad sites, converted an Acme into a storage facility with a couple of pad sites on that. It was awesome. I really enjoyed it. And when I took the promotion at work, I had to resign from committee, which was great. But then I had 40 to 50 hours of my life back. So I decided, you know what, real estate would be really fun to get into because I enjoyed doing what I was doing with economic development. Then prior to that, I had read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, which is a Bible for all real estate investors. And found that it really kind of changed my mindset. And then I started collecting real estate personally, getting involved with joint ventures and whatnot, and found that I enjoyed not only did I enjoy buying and holding real estate, But I enjoyed telling other people how they could do it too.

5:42And that's kind of how I got to where I am right now. So how do we find, are you typically a fan of buy and hold real estate? I am. I am. I know flipping, you better know what you're doing. And, you know, there's the, I mean, there's a potential for loss in anything. But yeah, like, how do you identify great properties for, you know, And again, I assume you're buying up a property and you're going to keep that rented out. That's correct. Yeah. And the way that I coach people in the property management field, whether they're going to do it personally or they're going to do it with somebody else, I have a whole process that they can ask the property manager that they're interviewing.

6:23But if they choose to do it theirself, our goal is to keep tenants for five to six years minimum properties, which basically you have to set up yourself for success before you buy the property, run your numbers effectively, get all that stuff squared away. There are certain guidelines that I make my clients hold fast to, the 1 % rule, things of that nature. How much operating expense should you contribute, whether it's a commercial multifamily property or a single family property. And we go from there and try to get them at the very beginning, reaching out to agents, wholesalers, other investors like me, and getting their feet wet with the networking, because that's what really generates your leads.

7:08Yeah. Are there general rules of thumb of, you know, are we going to go, you know, like maybe a duplex, a fourplex, or a single family? Like, is it more to do with available assets to invest? Or is it also, do you factor and personality. Yeah, personality, social status, economic status, all of that stuff. We throw all that in there because there are so many different ways that you can invest in real estate. Like a beginner, my nephew is 24. He just started his first LLC. He's starting a consulting company. He's going to be following my general contractors around. He's about to buy it while he's renting an apartment right now, but we're going to get him into a triplex for an FHA loan for 3.5 % down.

7:54you know he's putting down minimal amount of money renting out two of the units to other people who'll be living in one himself they're paying the baggage boom there's house hacking right that's for a 24 year old but if you're a 50 year old who has a thrift savings plan in our case right in the military case or you have a 401k and you can self-direct that then you can invest in syndication deals if you're accredited or non-accredited there are certain things there are so many different ways that you can invest in real estate. So it really kind of spans all kinds of demographics. The nature of my business though, is, you know, for those who are just starting out in real estate, regardless of your economic status, and we can help you find the appropriate network to invest in real estate.

8:36Yeah. Tell me more about the model. I'm just, you know, so I've got, you know, I've got a 22 year old, she's in Colorado. You know, she's living with someone else paying rent And, you know, maybe in a year or two, I, you know, I think, you know, we'd be open to, we're definitely open to diversification. But real estate makes a lot of sense. And obviously that's one of the models is like, well, you know, if she's on the ground there, I don't, you know, again, you kind of have to know the people involved. But a possibility would be kind of that model where, you know, you got a duplex, you know, she's, you know, she's in one side of her, you know, a percentage of it.

9:15And then, you know, she'd be responsible for, you know, maintenance upkeep, you know, calls, that sort of thing. You know, I don't know. Does that that can go sideways? I'm nervous about, you know, risk. And certainly, you know, anytime you involve family, friends, that sort of thing, like, well, I'll have you please school me on what I should know before we even entertain thoughts like that. So I'll start this with a story. So two of my first students with Tarek were, one of them was a veteran and his girlfriend, and they decided to move in together. And the first question they asked me was, hey, how can we use our VA loan to invest?

9:52Should we do that? And my first question in response was, why haven't you done it already? So we found them a quad, and then we rented out the three sides. They're self-pidging. There is free software out there that you can use, like whether you want to use Zillow or apartments.com. There are apps like Stessa, which is assets spelled backwards, assets spelled backwards, that's stessa.com. I'm just throwing out plugs because they're free software that you can use to self-manage these properties, especially if you only have one. It's really not that heavy a lift. And getting those kids into those types of situations, if you do that once, that's great.

10:30If you move out and you buy your forever home and you decide, I never want to invest in real estate again, and then that asset grows and grows and grows in value, great. You now have an appreciating asset that's probably going to outperform the stock market over the next however many years. You sell that and you send the kids to college, right? Or you hold on to that until you're 60 and you pay medical bills or whatever. So house hacking is a beautiful way to get into it when you're first starting. If you are looking at increasing that, then you do the same thing. you house hack once, you get that duplex, triplex, or quad.

11:02You use, if you're eligible for a VA loan, if not, I highly recommend an FHA loan. It's not just for first-time buyers, but you can put as little as 3.5 % down, run those numbers, live in one unit, rent out the other or others, and just start making money hand over fist. You do that a couple of times, now all of a sudden you're a millionaire. You have an asset that's going to appreciate over the course of time, plus your tenants are paying it off. Plus you can depreciate that on your taxes, which is an outstanding, you know, an outstanding benefit for that. And then you get the standard cashflow.

11:39It's a four pronged approach. It's four pillars in real estate investing that everybody should know. My concern or one of my concerns, you know, in investing in real estate would be, you know, I'm still, you know, even if I work with a mentor, like I feel like I'm going to be, I'm not going to get a good deal because there's just so much competition. My perception is there's so much competition from other investors that they know what they're doing. They know the market. They know all the people like they're going to get all the good deals and I'm going to get stuck with something that's kind of like.

12:10Yeah, honestly, the majority, Josh, the majority of people who are in this field are collaborators, not competition. So that's one of the things that I preach collaboration over competition. I will tell you that there are so many opportunities out there that there's enough for everybody. It's just that simple, right? We have to get out of that scarcity mindset and look at the abundance mindset and start acting in that manner. There is enough for everyone to go around. It's just a matter of taking massive action and finding the deal. Yeah. Here's another kind of scenario that we're thinking about is that we've lived in Orlando, Florida for the past 15 years or so.

12:53I don't want to be here June, July, August, and some of September. And so like already in our mind, we know that we'd love to, you know, be somewhere up north, someplace a little cooler. Should we be thinking about, I mean, is there maybe some smarter ways? And I think we're pretty flexible on where, you know, given that that's kind of our desire over the next few years. Should we be taking, what advice would you give us in that scenario? Yeah, it really depends on what you want to do here. And here's the crazy thing. You can buy a property, let's say you don't like the heat in the summertime in Florida, and you decide that you want to live in the Poconos for three months.

13:38Well, you know, Poconos are a mountain range in Pennsylvania for anybody who's listening, who's not familiar with any geography or it goes Pennsylvania up through New York, right? So you can buy a lodge or a property up there and use that as a short-term rental, block it off for three months or during those months that you don't want to be in Florida and then rent it out for the rest of the year all through the snow bunny season and into the spring where a golf is, there's a lot of golfers that go up there. It's, there are great little camps and whatnot that you can, that you can go up there as well.

14:10So fall, winter, and spring, it's an all year round short term rental opportunity. So you can do something like that. And you can do that pretty much anywhere. If you wanted to be in Vermont, you could do that. When the leaves change, man, the prices in Vermont, go through the roof, and then you have a whole ski season. And then you've got the spring in Vermont, you can do something like that. Or Colorado, same thing. Pick a place. There are so many opportunities out there. So if our desire was to be there for say three, four months out of the year, we would do short-term rental or seasonal rental then like an Airbnb or something like that.

14:46Absolutely. You could do that without question. Huh? Yeah. All right. These are all really great ideas. All right. So, so, but I want to kind of have folks pull up your website, budevans.com. And you know, for someone that's listening to us, like, but it seems like a really nice guy. Well, you do, you exude authenticity, my friend. When somebody goes there and they're interested in kind of that kind of next step in the relationship, what would you recommend? Yeah, just book a call. I am not a salesman. I'm not going to sit here and try to, you know, pigeonhole you into some sort of guru coaching type of program.

15:28I am looking to network. If you book a call with me, we're going to have a discussion. That's pretty much it. I want to find out where you are, where you want to go. If I can help you get there, great. If I can't help you get there, maybe I know somebody who can. I know a lot of coaches. I know a lot of people. So we can definitely get you into the right network and find a place that you might want to belong. And you know what? It's just a matter of having a conversation and figuring out where people want to be. I enjoy the conversation and the journey more than I enjoy the destination. Yeah. You are a, you're a podcaster as well.

16:01I am. Is that right? Yeah. What's your podcast? It's the Aim High podcast. Oh, yep. Here it is. Yeah, the Aim High podcast. So to our friend that's listening to our conversation right now, just do a search right now. Aim High podcast with Bud Evans. You'll find it. And what do you talk about on Aim High podcast? Primarily real estate. What we're doing is we're trying to provide the opportunity and the tools for a beginner investor to achieve generational wealth. So I get people that are on there who are invested in real estate, figure out where did they start? How bad was their first deal? Right.

16:36So we look for their first deal. We look for their worst deal. And then we try to figure out how they overcame that. So we can if somebody else has that same problem, they can find a way out. And then where are they now? Where are they going? And then we have the soaring for the same four questions that we ask every guest. what changed your mindset what tools do you use what keeps you motivated you know and then if you had one thing to change what would it be yeah when you first started yeah but before we uh and you know again you're i want to make sure folks again you go to bud evans.com um let me ask you this question i mean i love asking this um your experience uh in the military how did that prepare you for the work that you do today and like how did that i wouldn't say not prepare you like empower you to be the type of business leader that you are today?

17:25Josh, that's a great question. So I'm going to hit this from two different angles. Okay. The first angle is this, I am a checklist and standard operating procedure oriented person. So when it comes down to it, you know, I don't want to say that I'm an engineer and a binary type personality. I'm really not. I am quite creative when it comes down to it. And, but it did help me in that facet where I am looking at, you know, spreadsheets and whatnot, business plans, business models, and I kind of gravitate towards that. Processes, procedures, standard operating procedures, checklists, calculators, things of that nature, right?

18:01So that's what I use in the business, and I have no problem, you know, dishing those tools out. The second aspect of this, what I'm making within my companies, my goal is to hit a$1.2 million revenue stream, you know, about a hundred thousand dollars a month and take half of that money and donate it to veterans mental health causes. That's the second reason that I do what I do. And the second reason why the military had such an impact on me and why I'm doing what I'm doing right now. Yeah. Well, again, but thank you so much, both for your service and the work and the impact that you have with folks today.

18:40Uh, again, your website, bud Evans.com, but thank you so much for joining us, Josh. It is an absolute pleasure. And again, thank you. I love your podcast. I I was so overwhelmed when you said yes, that I could come on this podcast. I was like, this is great. Ah, yeah. But it's a pleasure to have you, sir. Thank you so much. Thank you very much.

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