The Agent Podcast - EP 81 - Alan Corey - Everything We Are Taught Is Wrong
[00:00:00] Alan Cory: Had a $50,000 salary was able to, my goal was to buy one property a year every year for five years. And so I did that. Was able to leave my day job through house hacking after five years. And then I became known. You know, kept getting it in the press. Barbara Corcoran bought one of my flips.
[00:00:18] Alan Cory: And so I kept getting on TV and news and stuff, and I got a book deal called A Million Bucks by 30 about how I became a millionaire by 30 through real estate and, and. Low salary and a very expensive part of New York City. Moved to Atlanta and I was known as the real estate guy to my network in Atlanta.
[00:00:33] Alan Cory: So I became a realtor. Everyone was just begging me to help them buy real estate. And I was like, fine, I'll, and honestly, I didn't really, I think highly of realtors, because I always knew more than the realtors that I used in New York City. And so then I did that, found out I loved it. I really enjoyed it and quickly became one of the top agents in Atlanta.
[00:01:15] Ray Sjolseth: Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Agent Podcast. Today I'm here with my buddy, Alan. Welcome to the show
[00:01:21] Alan Cory: Raymond. Thanks for having me. I'm so excited.
[00:01:23] Ray Sjolseth: Yeah, I'm glad you're here. So why real estate?
[00:01:26] Alan Cory: Why real estate? Well, so I Just grew up with not a lot of wealth, but I was surrounded by wealth. Like both my parents were school teachers and, but we lived in a, you know, middle class neighborhood with the good schools. But we you know, technically now as an adult, we, we probably couldn't afford it.
[00:01:42] Alan Cory: They just did everything that they could to get in a good school district and I, I never had the things that my friends had. And so I always grew up in like, and I, wasn't, I guess, Equal to other people. And I just had this desire and goal, like, I'm going to create wealth. I want to do this. And after I [00:02:00] graduated college, I went to New York City and moved to New York City.
[00:02:02] Alan Cory: And I thought at the time I was going to be a, a famous standup comedian. So I moved to New York City to do standup comedy for three years. And. . During that time, I was living in the projects of Spanish Harlem in Manhattan. This only place I could afford is a legal sublet. And just, I just realized, man, I, I thought I knew wealth being in the suburbs of Atlanta.
[00:02:23] Alan Cory: But New York wealth is different. And I just like, I just don't understand how people could even go to Starbucks, like, like that, that, that sort of wealth was just like, man, that, that must be nice. How do I do that? And so I Went to the library and just got every single book I possibly could on wealth building, you know, stocks and investing and mutual funds and real estate.
[00:02:45] Alan Cory: And, and I just read book after book. And honestly, the, the stocks didn't resonate with me. I, didn't really fully understand it and I I didn't feel like I was control in control. Like, I, couldn't You. Tell the CEO to, you know, your customer service sucks and change it and do this or, or change the prices.
[00:03:03] Alan Cory: Like it was, I just felt like I was gambling. But real estate, I was like, oh, I get it. Because one, I've lived in a house before, and I've paid rent before, and I, I was currently paying rent. And I was like, oh, it just, the, the, it just sort of clicked a little bit quicker and easier for me and I was like, oh, I am a hundred percent.
[00:03:20] Alan Cory: And control and like what I can charge, what I'm gonna fix up, as you know, pretty much my expenses and income. And I just felt like finally I see a future where if I just set a plan buying one property a year for the next five years, I could replace my day job income. And, you know, I was, 22, when I bought my first property, it was $99,000 condo, one bedroom.
[00:03:45] Alan Cory: I bought it with $10,000 that I had saved up for an entire year. At that time, my salary is $40,000. And so you know, they, I was eating ramen noodles every single day. I just had to go. But by January 1st, I was gonna buy a property and I bought the cheapest one I could, which was, it was in Brooklyn.
[00:04:02] Alan Cory: I'd never even been to Brooklyn, but I was like, I, I've gotta buy it. I, I have 10% down payment and there's no other property anywhere. And so it was a one bedroom and a place in Brooklyn and, and I. House hacked it, which is I basically just took a huge heavy curtain and blocked off my living room and rented it out my living room to a friend of mine who is, you know, didn't also have a lot of money, but that, that basically changed my trajectory because that rental income in that living room basically paid for the majority of my mortgage.
[00:04:32] Alan Cory: And it was like, oh, these books were right. I just need to do more of this. And then I was able to save another $10,000 the following year and that was just my goal. How am I gonna redeploy $10,000 every single year? And things just sort of took off from there and I fell in love with it, left my day job and, and, you know, got a book deal and all sorts of great things started happening.
[00:04:52] Ray Sjolseth: Okay, so before we go too far down that story, here's my question for. , if you could go back in time knowing what you know now and do all of that over again, what would you change? .
[00:05:06] Alan Cory: That's tough cuz I, I, I'm in a very good place right now and so I'm almost like, I don't just do the same things that I, that I did
[00:05:13] Alan Cory: But I think what it, my struggle and was maybe I didn't, I, I didn't come from a real estate family, I didn't have any real estate friends. Like it was just the author on a book was, is was my only. Now, you know, I'm, I'm 44 and so this was 22 years ago. And so there was no YouTube, there was no social media.
[00:05:35] Alan Cory: There was no way for me to like contact these authors. And there was no like blogs about real estate. I was just, you know, I would read CNN's real estate section and then NBC News, real Estate section, and then AOL's, you know, and Yahoos, I was, that, that was my source of information. But now, now that I've been in this and, and like.
[00:05:52] Alan Cory: Other people who share this passion. There's other people who do this full-time. I think if I would've had a network of friends I probably would've grown faster. Maybe made, you know, even better moves, but I, I really just put everything on my shoulder. And, and went full force. And I, I think that there's a better opportunity now to just know there's mentors out there, people who, who want to help young people and help them succeed outside of just reading someone's book.
[00:06:16] Alan Cory: So I, that may, that would probably be my only tweak is try to find real estate friends.
[00:06:22] Ray Sjolseth: So Alan, what are three things that you're really proud of over the last 20 plus years of your.
[00:06:28] Alan Cory: I'm proud that I just started and I took control of my life. The, the worst thing for me personally was I, I didn't wanna be the coulda, woulda, should a guy, like I didn't want to be like, oh man I, I could have been a millionaire if I would've bought that house two years ago, or whatever it was.
[00:06:44] Alan Cory: Right? And so my sort of thought process was, listen, I'm broke. I'm living in the projects. I only have $10,000 in my name. If this goes. Terrible. The worst case scenario, I'm back broke living in the projects. Like, like there it was, like, it was a bet that had really no downside to me, and it had just tremendous upside.
[00:07:06] Alan Cory: So I, I just sort of looked at like, Hey, I can live this life. I can eat ramen noodles every day. I've done it for a year. And it's might as well. Do something if I really want to change my life. And so I think it was just sort of mindset was, was one of the, the big factors. And I'm proud that I just believed in myself to get it done.
[00:07:24] Alan Cory: Because it was all me. It was all, like I said, I didn't have any mentors. So I, I think it's just that self-confidence, self-belief, and just knowing, hey, there's gonna be things I don't know. I already know. You know, I, I already know. I don't know a lot but I, I, I knew I could figure it out. I knew I could read a book.
[00:07:39] Alan Cory: I, you know and I'll just go from there and, and I'll, when I had a plumber come over, I would just sit next to the plumber the entire time, looking over his shoulder, asking questions because I just wanted to learn like, what, what is a thermal couple or whatever it was, you know? And you know, hot water heater being fixed and it was just, I just wanted, I was just craved knowledge because I was like, this is my way out.
[00:07:59] Alan Cory: And I, and it just went, you know, it was just like, I guess this part two is just quenching your knowledge and your curiosity. And I do, I'm someone who has very few interests, but when I am interested in something, I go really, really deep. And so that, that was, was sort of allowed me to just build confidence in what I'm doing and just cause I didn't have.
[00:08:19] Alan Cory: every, like if I went to my parents, they're like, Alan, you're crazy. Do not put all your money into this apartment, because that's not what they would do. And you know, my friends were all standup comedians who don't have money, right. Or business interest. And so it was I, I was really a fish outta water.
[00:08:36] Alan Cory: And, and so I remember like, My entire book, you know, my, my bookshelves in my bedroom was just all wealth building books. Which being 22 in New York City, same comedian, like when someone came over to my house, they were, they, everyone just made fun of me. Like, you're such a nerd, you're such an idiot. And but it was like, I guys, I really like this.
[00:08:55] Alan Cory: It's really fun. And then The funny thing is all those comedians ended up being my tenants for, for the next, you know, 10 years. Cuz they all needed a place to live. And so I don't know, I guess I'm looking for a third thing, but it's, it's probably just Knowing that this, it seems risky if you don't understand it, but if you really do understand real estate and, and how it works and, and the, the benefits of a mortgage and the leverage that it's, it to me, the more I know about it and the longer I'm doing it, it gets, it, doesn't it?
[00:09:21] Alan Cory: It feels more risky, not. To pursue real estate. Like the, the upside is just so tremendous that not even trying seems to be riskier, cuz you, you're, you're just gonna stay where you're at if, if you don't try, but you could just level up your finances fourfold, fivefold, tenfold. It, it's unlimited. So might as well try.
[00:09:42] Alan Cory: It's like buying a lottery ticket where you lose $1, but you, you could make a billion dollars. And that's how I look at real estate is. It's a calculated risk. And I am in control. I'm not in control of picking the numbers in a lottery, but I am in control, you know a method, a step-by-step, buying one property a year, slowly paying off the debt, raising the income leveraging that to go buy another property.
[00:10:04] Alan Cory: And so I, I guess that, that, that sort of, and another cap the things that kind of kept me going back then and still keep me going today.
[00:10:10] Ray Sjolseth: So with all that being said, what is one fear that you moved past? in order to get you to decide, right? Because it's a decision. Anything that we do is really a decision and that's the catapult to action.
[00:10:25] Ray Sjolseth: So what is one fear that you moved past to make a decision, like, I got this, I'm gonna do it.
[00:10:31] Alan Cory: Well, I'll say I, I got fear after I bought my second property. And so it, I, I used that mindset to get by my first two properties. And the, the talking heads at the time were like Susie Orman Dave Ramsey the, the big personal finance people that were on tv.
[00:10:46] Alan Cory: And so that started becoming a thing and I still really started listening to that. And Clark Coward, he's like Atlanta-based guy doing the same thing. And, and they're, they're all their mantra. It, it is, you know, pay off the mortgage, you know put 20% down on a, on a property. And it's well-meaning advice.
[00:11:02] Alan Cory: And I, I think that's advice that's people are like, oh, that's logical. So it's true. And I just started questioning it cuz I kept running spreadsheets and excels and, and saying, it, it doesn't make sense for me to do this. And so it, it basically took me. Running a model after model and presenting it to my wife and saying, it makes no sense if we pay off our mortgage like because of this and look at this.
[00:11:25] Alan Cory: And if we take this home equity line of credit and I put it here like we're gonna triple our wealth. Like why it doesn't make sense. And once I finally. New enough and comfortable enough that I could convince my wife that we're gonna do this. And I, I was like, here, here's Plan A. We're, we're, we're gonna double our money here plan B, if, if that doesn't work out, we're gonna like, you know, get a 75% return.
[00:11:47] Alan Cory: And if, if, if C doesn't work out we're, we're going to you know, maybe get a 25% turn if this worst case scenario happens. And then like, the worst, worst case scenario, we're gonna break even. And, and I was like, might as well try. And so with. I, I took my HELOC, I had a duplex in Brooklyn with my HELOC.
[00:12:04] Alan Cory: I bought the neighboring duplex. So that was my entire down payment, my home equity line of credit. And I financed the remaining part. So it was basically a hundred percent financed house. And it also took me getting a mortgage on my primary, a second mortgage, right? And so that's a lot of debt and leverage, and that sounds scary to people, but this is how my life just took off.
[00:12:27] Alan Cory: With that new duplex, when I rented it out, it paid off the entire down payment, heloc, it paid off the new mortgage, the other remaining 70%, 80%, whatever it was. And I was making an extra $2,000 a month. So if I didn't do that, and, and that was, that was my take home pay at my job, right? And so With that leveraging, all of a sudden I, I, I could leave my day job because I was making $2,000 on this rental and I was making $2,000 work and it didn't take me 40 hours a week doing that.
[00:12:55] Alan Cory: And fast forward five years later. That was a, a property i I [00:13:00] bought for a million dollars five years later. Not because of any insight, this was not part of the plan, but I sold it for $2 million and, and so all of a Brooklyn in the last 10 years, that was Brooklyn and I only bought there because it was all I could afford.
[00:13:14] Alan Cory: It wasn't hot and des desire, I was. Desirable and I would still buy that again and again because of the $2,000 cash flow positive after all my debts are paid off and that's why I buy everything. But the fact that it doubled in value and I became a millionaire that would never have happened if I stayed on the course of paying down debt and you know, put every penny to get your mortgage paid off.
[00:13:33] Alan Cory: It was like, no, that's dumb. Go reinvest it. So you get $2,000 a month. Oh. I I, the, the bonus, the imaginary lottery ticket that came with rapid appreciation, that had nothing to do with me, doubled it. And so I've just taken that lesson and I try to teach other people that. And I, I, I try to never pay off my mortgage.
[00:13:50] Alan Cory: I put as little, much money impossible in every single deal as soon as there's a lot of equity to a cash out refi. Because now what I've also learned is I'm creating a mutual fund of real estate. People, you know, the, the blanket advice. Don't buy individual stocks. Don't buy individual stocks. You know, get a mutual fund where you've got 500 you know, different stocks and, and they're all gonna carry each other.
[00:14:13] Alan Cory: Apply the same thing to real estate to reduce your risk. Cuz if you have one property and it's paid off, then if you have a vacancy, Right. You're not making any money. You're actually losing money because you still have to pay property tax and in insurance and utility bills and you know, things like that.
[00:14:28] Alan Cory: But if you leverage that property and you have four or five properties and one is vacant, you're still positive because the other four that aren't vacant are going to carry you. So you, you're still the loss. It cancels out the loss. Yeah. And so and then because I've got four or five, these sort of imaginary lottery tickets with rapid depreciation keep happening, right?
[00:14:48] Alan Cory: So you know, it. I've spread out all these properties all over and I've got more of a mutual and mutual fund sort of approach. And then another one will double in price and then, you know, 10 years later, another one will double in price. That those things would not be happening to me if I just tried to pay off one.
[00:15:03] Alan Cory: And so it, it reduces my risk over and over again. And I just keep reinvesting and. It, it saves you on taxes. You know, a story I like to share regarding inflation cuz a lot of people don't understand what, what it really means. Like why do you wanna invest in real estate and infl inflation? And sort of the way I break it down is, you know, imagine you pull into a gas station and you find a dollar on the ground.
[00:15:25] Alan Cory: Today you, you, you, and you have two options. You can take that dollar walk into the gas station and you can buy a, a dollar of Snickers bar, right? Or, you know, if you follow what the prevailing advice is. Hey, congrats. You got a bonus. You got an extra dollar once. Don't you mail that into your mortgage payment and pay off a dollar?
[00:15:43] Alan Cory: And you're gonna pay it off that much faster. Don't spend it on yourself. Right? So a lot of people have that dilemma whenever they come across extra money. Now, I take that same example and say, let's, let's imagine you left that dollar on the ground and you came back 10 years later and that dollar still happened to be.
[00:15:59] Alan Cory: Wow. What a find. You pick up that dollar, you still have the same choices. Do you go into the gas station and spend it on a Snickers bar? Well, you can't, because when you walk into that gas station, the Snickers bar is now $3. So you can only buy a third of a Snickers bar, but you can take that dollar and still pay off a full dollar on your mortgage note, right?
[00:16:20] Alan Cory: Because that, that doesn't change that. So your, your dollar is worth more in today's dollars than it is in future dollars. So why would you? Ever want to pay off and get rid of that benefit or your mortgage payment even though it stays the same, but because of inflation, it's getting cheaper and cheaper and cheaper.
[00:16:37] Alan Cory: Why do you wanna get rid of that benefit? You know, spend all your dollars now on today's stuff because it, the, today's stuff is always gonna get more and more expensive, and you have the most purchasing power today. So imagine if you leverage that over 30 years in a property and you've got two properties, three properties, four properties, all those payments are gonna get cheaper and cheaper over time.
[00:16:57] Alan Cory: In real dollars. And also at the same time, because of inflation, your rent that you're charging is gonna go up and up and up, and the property values are gonna keep going up and up. So I, I just keep finding examples and reasons never to pay off my mortgage. And so I, I really try to you know, put that into people's brain that I don't have as big of a microphone or a stage or a platform than the people giving this.
[00:17:17] Alan Cory: I don't agree with that advice, but you should question their advice. Cuz when I share this, everyone questions me and I think I've overcome every single, every, every single objection. And I was like, I'm glad you're questioning me. How come you don't question the big people who are giving the opposite advice?
[00:17:31] Alan Cory: Like, let's, let's do this together.
[00:17:33] Ray Sjolseth: I love that.
[00:17:34] Ray Sjolseth: I love all of that, and I think that's gonna be a different episode or maybe live that we can do together to really talk about that. Sure. Yeah. And I will share a lot of mistakes that I made along the way and things I wish I would've done different, including just keeping properties.
[00:17:48] Ray Sjolseth: But a, as you're talking and I'm thinking about it, knowing a little bit of your history, you were an investor way before. You were a real estate agent, and the investor's eyes are much different than a real estate agent's eyes. So now you're still an active investor, but you're also an active agent.
[00:18:05] Ray Sjolseth: What, what in your opinion, do real estate agents need to understand to best serve real estate investors? Right, like the market we're in today, right now, January, 2023 is changing, right? We're coming out of, by all means, a very. Huge hockey stick up in the real estate time, and I don't think it's gonna crash.
[00:18:27] Ray Sjolseth: I'm not an expert, but it's definitely changing. It's becoming more of an investor buyer's market, at least where I am, based in Chicago. So every market's gonna be a little bit different, but real estate agents who they serve, right? It's the game they're playing, right? That's the cool thing about real estate, like real estate.
[00:18:44] Ray Sjolseth: People are always buying, selling, investing. It's just what game are you playing at the time during that season? , Alan, in your opinion and your experience, which I think is very important and relevant to this question, what are some of the things that agents really need to understand about serving investors and even serving buyers that maybe they have never been talked about or hasn't been prevalent, is definitely not talked about when you get your real estate license?
[00:19:12] Alan Cory: Yeah. Well, I think it. As a realtor, there's there at every couple, there's, there's someone who approaches buying a house as a lifestyle decision. And it's, Hey, this is where my friends are gonna live. This is my commute to work, this is my the school district I want to be in. Right? And then typically there's another person in the couple that's a spreadsheet decision, like, what's the money gonna cost?
[00:19:35] Alan Cory: Is this gonna make us money? Is this gonna lose us money? Right. So it's just getting people. And, and saying there's no wrong answer. Do you wanna buy a house? That's a lifestyle decision, or do you wanna buy a house? That's a spreadsheet decision because it's very difficult to marry the two and there's no, there, there's not a problem to, to say you're gonna spend money on a house that's going to make your life happier.
[00:19:57] Alan Cory: Like, like you should have a happy life, right? Just understand if you're gonna buy the house in the great school district near the restaurants with a short commute, it's gonna be more expensive and it's gonna affect other things in your life. Probably wealth building. , and that's okay. Wealth building doesn't need to be the most important thing in your life.
[00:20:12] Alan Cory: Now, if it's the other person, it's also looking at at it that way too. Hey, we can look at every single house as an investment and a spreadsheet decision, and I can come up with so many ways that you have $20,000 to spend on a house that's gonna make you $40,000. But I can promise you that that may not be a house that you wanna live.
[00:20:33] Alan Cory: Today, or, or you ha maybe, you know, if this is very important to you, that you wanna double your money. You have to be okay with living in a house, making some lifestyle sacrifices, and then in two or three years you move out and then we'll go buy you that lifestyle house when you have a little bit more money.
[00:20:49] Alan Cory: So just sort of having that conversation upfront and saying what is important to you? What are your goals? Because if you're have conflicting goals going in, we're never gonna find anything that pleases both [00:21:00] parties. Specifically for today, let's say you're buying a house with 7% interest rate. I personally as an investor in residential real estate and as a primary home buyer.
[00:21:10] Alan Cory: Don't care what the interest rate is ever. It's a variable. It just goes into my numbers, right? So I can find plenty of terrible real estate deals that have 0% interest rate. And I can also find plenty of amazing deals that have 15% interest rate, right? Like, it, it, it, it, it's just a variable that you plug in.
[00:21:29] Alan Cory: It shouldn't really affect your decision. But if you're buying as an investor with your investor hat on, If you can cash flow at a 7% interest rate, like, like it is today, right? Three options are gonna happen in the future. Either the interest rate drops and it goes from 7% to 5%. , great. You're making money at 7%.
[00:21:50] Alan Cory: Now you can refinance at 5% and make even more money. Like good thing you bought at 7% and just didn't sit on the sidelines, right? That's option A. Option B would be the rates stayed the same for the next three or four years, and so you. Good thing you locked in at 7% because it's still 7% and waiting would not have benefited you.
[00:22:10] Alan Cory: You've got some tax breaks you've paid down some of your principle, you know, the property value's probably still roughly the same. Maybe it's gone up a little bit. Okay. Now option C is, let's say the interest rate goes up to 10% 12%. Well, hey, congrats. You're a genius. You locked in at 7%, you know, kudos to you.
[00:22:25] Alan Cory: And you, you're making money. At 7%. You, you maybe not make money at 10%, but glad, good thing you got in. Sure. If the interest rate goes up to 10%, your property value probably dropped a little bit and maybe your equity gone down, but you're an investor who's in it for the cash flow. And so just wait out the cash flow and enjoy the cash flow.
[00:22:42] Alan Cory: That's why you bought you're not trying to flip it, you're not trying to sell it, so just wait it out. And this is what's great about real estate investing is if it's cash flowing, I can wait for the best time to, to sell. Right. I, I don't need to sell in a down market because I'm making money. Well, and then when it's in upmarket, I'm making more money and then I can sell.
[00:22:58] Alan Cory: And so that's how I, I sort of approach it investing year round is, Honestly, it doesn't matter to me. And then the second thing is let, let's now put on our primary home buying hat again. You're gonna need a place to live. , you're, if you're renting from a landlord and their insurance costs are going up and they bought the property that you're renting with a 7% interest rate, guess what?
[00:23:20] Alan Cory: They're gonna have to charge you rent. That is above their expenses. That's just the, the business that they're in, right? No one, no landlord's gonna rent to you for a year at at a loss. So whatever you're paying anywhere for rent. Someone else is paying. The person who owns it is paying less, right? So getting on that property ladder, getting in it as soon as possible is, is, is the most important thing.
[00:23:43] Alan Cory: And I think owning property is, is, is how are you gonna change your wealth easier and better than anything that you'll ever see anywhere. But if you really, really wanna look at the math, it is in your best interest to rent. Take that money and go buy an investment property. So if you just can't fathom buying a primary resident right now, but you have the money to do it, then go buy an investment property that cash flows and then that.
[00:24:11] Alan Cory: Cash flow should offset your rent. So let's say you, you can rent for 1500 bucks a month and you're gonna go buy a house that's gonna have a mortgage payment of 1500 bucks a month. You just can't get on the same page. Well then go put that money in an investment property that's gonna cash flow, give you a profit of 300 bucks a month, and now your rent is 1200 cuz you're paying 1500, but you're making 300 off your money.
[00:24:31] Alan Cory: And and so that, that's. , that's what the math says you should always be doing. And you know, I, I try to convince my wife of that too, like, we shouldn't have a primary look at the numbers on this spreadsheet. I, I, I couldn't ever convince her on that. And I, it, it's okay. It's a compromise, but that, that's the other way I would approach it.
[00:24:47] Alan Cory: Buy real estate one way another, either it's use it as a lifestyle decision or investment decision.
[00:24:51] Ray Sjolseth: I think that's brilliant. And it's so simple, right? It really simplifies that process so that it doesn't become a overwhelming. .
[00:24:59] Alan Cory: Yeah. And, and yeah, it's. The, I love it when a spreadsheet makes a decision for me because cuz it's not emotional, it's not, you know Right.
[00:25:07] Alan Cory: Kind of thing. Right. And so primary, I think a lot of agents, if you're listening, who may have a co, you know, couple, you can't get under contract. It's you haven't narrowed the focus enough. They, they're, they're, they're comparing this school district, with that school district, this commute, with that commute.
[00:25:23] Alan Cory: A single family with a duplex. And you, you, you, you can't ever find a winner. You're not comparing apples to apples, but if you get them every single time you talk to 'em, every time you let, let's narrow the focus. Let's narrow the focus. What's the radius? What's the school district we have to be in?
[00:25:37] Alan Cory: And then you find five houses that are for sale. You put it in a spreadsheet, one is gonna jump out like this. Checks all your boxes. I know you don't love the kitchen, but guess what, in terms of price for square foot or however you wanna evaluate it, one is gonna shine. But it, it's got the three bed bedrooms, two baths, it's got a garage, or whatever their must haves are.
[00:25:56] Alan Cory: Hey, I found the best five. One stands out to [00:26:00] me. Or it could be like all five of these are, are equal. And now you know what your money can buy. Your money's gonna buy this waiting doesn't mean that we're going to probably find something better. We'll probably find something similar. Every home is, is a compromise.
[00:26:15] Alan Cory: And I learned that cause I started helping people buy $30,000 houses, then a hundred thousand dollars houses. Now it's 2 million and 3 million houses. I and I just gotta tell everyone out. The people buying 3 million houses are compromising, like it that, like the compromising doesn't go away if your budget goes away.
[00:26:30] Alan Cory: So it's just, just be aware that that's an ever going thing.
[00:26:34] Ray Sjolseth: Yeah. It's all scalable, .
[00:26:36] Alan Cory: Yeah. Right, right.
[00:26:37] Ray Sjolseth: All right, Alan, this is amazing. Let's talk, let's talk more about you and what you do. You have a podcast, you've written books you've been on TV as you mentioned. Tell us, tell us what you teach people with everything that you do and the impact you're trying.
[00:26:51] Alan Cory: Yeah, I because real estate changed my life so profoundly, I, I, I feel like I've got to carry, you know, pass that torch on and say, listen, the new generation, you know, I started 22 years ago, year tw in your twenties, you're in your thirties, but you can start this in your forties and fifties. It really takes five years and five properties to change your life.
[00:27:14] Alan Cory: So I'm learning from my audience, you know, A lot of 'em understand the concepts and they just don't have the money to invest real estate. So now I'm teaching courses and educating people how to buy real estate without money. And I, I tell them, you know, I've, bought over 30 million of real estate without putting a, a dollar of my money in.
[00:27:35] Alan Cory: And, and every real estate investor is broke, so I call it the broke method to real estate investing. What I mean by that is if you're really a passionate and you love real estate, like I look at. Three deals a month. I wanna buy all three. And I don't have a enough the money to buy all three, right?
[00:27:49] Alan Cory: So I'll buy one. And then the next month I, I have five deals and I wanna buy all five and I can't, cause I don't have any money. So there's ways to build and buy real estate without spending your [00:28:00] own money. And so that's what I'm teaching. And cuz if you don't have money, you gotta bring other, other, other things to the.
[00:28:05] Alan Cory: So the broke method is an acronym, B R O K E, and the B stands for being a big deal finder. And if you can go find the deals and that have a lot of meat on the boat and, and the investor who invests with you then obviously it's much easier to find partners and raise money if you find, if you have that big deal flow.
[00:28:25] Alan Cory: And so I educate and teach how to find that big deal flow. So that's the b r is reputational pull. So what's I found is what happens. People need to know what you do and what you're looking for. So I started telling everyone I'm buying multifamilies in Brooklyn and in Atlanta. And I, and I bought a few, and then all of a sudden, all the real estate agents, I, I didn't know this was gonna happen.
[00:28:48] Alan Cory: I learned this in, in retrospect, looking back on my career, that Oh, if, if you have a deal for multifamily, Alan buys these all the time. And then what? Because I was telling people about it. I'm looking for these. And then as an agent, everyone came to me and they says, Alan, I see that you're talking about, you know, social, on social media and stuff, and then the papers and the newspaper that you're buying Multifamilies.
[00:29:10] Alan Cory: I wanna do that too. Will you help me find it? So then all of a sudden I had this reputation of a multi-family. And so it attracted not only clients to me, but also off market deals. I had other agents calling me, they say, I don't know how to do this multi-family, Alan, can I give you this listing for a referral fee?
[00:29:26] Alan Cory: And so all of a sudden I, I had this reputation and the leads were finding me. So that is a, that's the r that reputational poll is. Let people know what you, what it is that you do, and then the leads come in and they, they start finding you and you're pulling organic leads in. And that's obviously a game changer.
[00:29:44] Alan Cory: And I, started doing that with new construction. I started doing that with my, the neighborhood I lived in, getting clients. Oh, I, I see you do a lot of business in you know Oakhurst neighborhood. I want to get in there. And so everyone was like, well, you gotta talk to Alan. And I, I just found, like I had started doing all these niches and niches and then I'd do a new niche when I mastered it.
[00:30:02] Alan Cory: And my. Just started pulling in more clients, more off market deals. So that's the R and, and the broke method reputational poll o is ongoing outreach. And so that is just networking and, and calling and fi you know, following up with your clients, following up with the contractors, even the cleaners. Hey, are you cleaning out any house that looks like it might be coming for sale?
[00:30:21] Alan Cory: Calling the, the, you know, one 800, you, you know, hauled junk away guys. Hey, you know, what, what houses are you guys cleaning out? You know, things like that. And what happens is, you know, maybe that that cleaner doesn't go anywhere, but then that cleaner starts talking to someone and they're like, oh, you're about to sell your house.
[00:30:38] Alan Cory: You should talk to Alan. I clean his house. Right? And so I, I just started doing ongoing research and then I became the networker. And so a lot of times it would be, oh, I, you, yeah, this person. You know, orbit of my life is selling a single family in a certain school district, but this person in another orbit is looking in there.
[00:30:56] Alan Cory: And sometimes I'd be the realtor and I'd get double commissions. Sometimes I would just stay out of it. Hey guys, this is, this is not my alley, this is not my, but I want you to just connect you to, and then they get a deal done without me and. They, they, they're, they're gonna love that. They're gonna appreciate that.
[00:31:09] Alan Cory: And they're gonna start including me in things. And so whether you're the plumber, the electrician, the agent, the lender, it's just being that networker and doing that ongoing outreach. And these are the, you know, the things that you have to do to invest in real estate. If you don't have money is just doing all this other stuff, which is all free, right?
[00:31:26] Alan Cory: So far a big deal flow. Just analyzing deals, that's free, reputational, pull that. Right. Ongoing outreach, that's free. Now K is knuckle up ability, and that is basically, you've gotta do the grunt work. You've gotta be the one that's, Hey I've gotta go find five different lenders to get the prices to work.
[00:31:41] Alan Cory: I gotta show up for the contractors. I gotta fire the contractor because if someone's bringing the money, I. So the deal, the money guy gets to be the lazy guy. Okay? The person, without money, you don't, you don't, you can't be the lazy guy. You gotta be the the fighter. You know, you're gonna get knocked down.
[00:31:54] Alan Cory: You gotta solve every problem. You gotta have that knuckle up ability. You gotta be the prize fighter again. It costs nothing. It [00:32:00] just takes hustle. It takes work, right? And, and none of this is easy. I'm not saying it's easy, but it doesn't cost money. And if I bought 30 million real estate without it, you can too.
[00:32:09] Alan Cory: And then E is execution, excitement. And so what happens is people get this deal and and. They freeze or I don't know enough. I need to read another book. I need to listen to another pod podcast. But if you just are always excited, let, let me execute on this. Let me try to find a way to get it done.
[00:32:24] Alan Cory: Let me keep calling 10 more people in my ongoing outreach. What can I, you know, what sort of organic leads can I get from my reputational poll? What. You know, I solved this problem for someone else in my knuckle up ability. Who can I tell that I solved this problem for who might be going through this problem?
[00:32:38] Alan Cory: And then, hey, do you know you know, how, how do I, you know, do you know someone who, who's looking to invest in real estate? Oh, yeah, Alan, he, he solved all this stuff at the, you know, the water company in the city, which they don't talk to anyone, but they talk to Alan cause he's down there every single day.
[00:32:50] Alan Cory: So if you've got a water problem, talk to Alan. Oh, Alan, you solve, you're, you're the problem solver. Yeah. I'll invest with you. And so just. Just excitement and passion to execute and try to get things done and follow through. That's the e Again, it's just effort and it doesn't cost anything. And so that's the broke method to real estate investing, B R O K E.
[00:33:09] Alan Cory: If you have these things, you're gonna be in the orbit, you're gonna be the real estate war orbit, and people are going to have deals. It'll be two money guys with the deal. And they're like, I don't have the time to deal with this. I don't have the knowledge to deal with this. Let's bring Alan in and let's give him a third of the property.
[00:33:22] Alan Cory: And he runs with everything cuz he's the expert. And, and so now that, you know, all these things sort just overlap on each other and the deals keep finding me. And I get pieces of small pieces of big pies over and over and over again.
[00:33:33] Ray Sjolseth: I love it. I'm definitely gonna be working with you on that. I love that.
[00:33:37] Alan Cory: Oh, awesome. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. It's a course now, the Broke Method Real Estate investing course. So I love it. If I could plug it. You gotta go to real estate maxi uh.com, so, yeah. Yeah.
[00:33:46] Ray Sjolseth: So Alan, where can people find you? Like if they want to learn, if they want to talk, if they have a deal. Where can people get in touch with you? What's the best options?
[00:33:54] Alan Cory: Yeah. So my podcast is Real Estate Maximalist, but my social media profile everywhere is Real Estate Maxi. I'm most respondent on Twitter, so if you go to Real Estate, Mike Maxi on Twitter that's fine. But you can follow me across all the social media channels.
[00:34:08] Alan Cory: But if you want a personal response from me you're gonna get it on Twitter. So that's probably the best place to go.
[00:34:13] Ray Sjolseth: Alan, this has been awesome. Thank you so much for sharing all of your.
[00:34:16] Alan Cory: Hi. I love sharing it. Thanks for having me. I, I really appreciate it
