Have you ever imagined what it would be like to shift gears from a humble landscaper to a real estate tycoon? Well, this episode is a fantastic opportunity to learn from someone who has successfully made that transition. We're thrilled to host Scott Jelinek, a seasoned real estate investor who navigated the challenging waters of the 2008 market crash and came out stronger. Scott generously shares his journey, strategies, and the innovative "slow flip" method that has enabled him to steadily accumulate wealth in the realm of real estate.

Scott's experience is a testament to resilience and the power of a changed mindset. He reveals how the 2008 crash reshaped his approach to investing, inspiring him to create strategies that emphasize living the best life over amassing the most wealth. A key point of discussion is his unique focus on selling the financing of properties, a method that requires a small initial investment but offers significant returns. Scott’s perspectives are not just about amassing wealth, but also about achieving financial freedom. He redefines the game of investment, underlining the importance of enjoying life's journey rather than solely focusing on the destination.

Never one to hold back, Scott also opens up about his biggest business mistakes, providing invaluable lessons for us all. Other interesting points touched upon include his views on leveraging and debt, the concept of having enough, and how it's feasible to take a vacation and do nothing if you so desire. This conversation is a goldmine of wisdom for anyone interested in real estate investing or seeking paths to financial freedom. So, join us in this enriching conversation with Scott Jelinek and gain insights that could potentially transform your approach to investing and life.

About the Guest:

Scott is a lifetime entrepreneur, having started his first business, a vending machine route, at just fifteen years old. He served in the army before returning to the working world and entering the real estate industry. He has owned and operated a wide variety of businesses from tanning salons to hot dog shops all while buying, selling, and renting properties. Today, Scott uses his knowledge and experience to coach other real estate investors.

https://www.slowflip.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-jelinek-78556b6/

Fast Five Questions

1. If you woke up and your business was gone, you have $500, a laptop, a place to live, and food, what would you do first? " I'm going to have to start networking for lenders, private lenders and networking for buyers, not so much the sellers. if I was going to use the 500, that's what I would use for us to do some marketing to try and locate some sellers"
2. What is the biggest mistake that you have made in business? "I'm subscribing to the the leverage and debt theory that the world teaches"
3. What is a book that you would recommend? "The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss"
4. What is a tool that you use everyday that you would recommend? "Amortization Calculator"
5. What is your definition of freedom? "To be able to wake up in the morning and do whatever it is you want to do...definition of financial freedom, I think it's the ability to say no to opportunities"

About Jeff: 

Jeff spent the early part of his career working for others. Jeff had started 5 businesses that failed before he had his first success. Since that time he has learned the principles of a successful business and has been able to build and grow multiple seven-figure businesses. Jeff lives in the Austin area and is actively working in his community and supporting the growth of small businesses. He is a board member of the Incubator.Edu program at Vista Ridge High School and is on the board of directors of the Leander Educational Excellence Foundation

Connect with the Freedom Nation podcast at https://freedom-nation-podcast.captivate.fm/

Connect with Jeff:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freedomnationpodcast/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JeffKikel

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffkikel/

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Hello, Freedom Nation. It's Jeff with another episode of The Freedom Nation podcast. And on today's show, we're going to learn a little bit about a different concept. In real estate investing. I have Scott Jelinek on and Scott started off his real real estate investing career in 1994, built a massive portfolio and pretty much got wiped out going into the 2008 market crash of real estate. And he wised up after that and realized that there was he started looking at some of the other people in the industry who had survived through that, and realize that they were doing something very different. And that's what he modeled. And that's what he teaches today. So I'm really excited to have Scott on. So stay tuned. And we'll be right back in just a minute.

FN Intro/Outro: Welcome to the Freedom Nation podcast with Jeff Kikel. On this show, Jeff shares his expertise in financial and retirement planning from a different perspective, planning for your Freedom Day, which is the first day that you wake up and have enough income or assets and do not have to go to work that day. Learn how to calculate what you need, how to generate income sources, and listen to interviews from others who've done it themselves, get ready to experience your own Freedom Day.

Hello, Freedom Nation, it's Jeff here. And we are off on another journey of learning about ways to invest and ways to get to your Freedom Day. And today, I've got Scott Jelinek on. He is a real estate investor. But he does a little bit different from a lot of people that I've heard out there. And some of this is from his own experience of going through the ups and downs of the real estate market. So Scott, welcome to the show. But

Thanks for having me, Jeff, I'm excited to be here. This, your audience, I think falls right in line with my whole thought process. That's why I was really looking forward to this.

We got a vehicle that you've got a vehicle that can plug right into the Freedom Day method. So this is awesome. So why don't we get started, Scott, tell us your story of how you got to where you're at today.

So we only have six hours. So I'm not going to tell you the whole story. But I started buying in 1994, I was a landscaper back then and back then. And I don't know what year you started buying. But back then there was a thing called non qualifying assumptions where you were able to assume someone else's mortgage with the bank's blessing. They ended up in 1987 for FHA and 89 for VA, but when I bought in 94, it was legitimate like a sub two, but with the bank's blessing $5,000 down and take over payments. So shortly after I bought that house, I had no interest in real estate I bought it to live in. Shortly after I bought it a house on my blog came up for sale with a white sign Magic Marker and said $2,000 down, take over payments. And I was pissed. And it had nothing to do. I didn't know anything about values, the balance, equity repairs, I knew nothing about anything other than I paid five grand down. And this one was two grand down. And so my genius brain said, Well, let me buy that one also. And, you know, and then you know, of course to average out and I did and I rented it out. And that was my first time even ever thinking about real estate because every month they would pay me and I would pay the mortgage. And that was the start of it. And I became obsessed with, you know, buy as many as I can. I used to call it my McDonald's plan. I said I wanted to buy a million dollars worth of properties. And then I can go work at McDonald's if I want for 30 years and I'll be a millionaire. That was my plan. Mind you, I was a kid. So 30 years didn't seem like a big deal. Now 30 years. Is it a little bit different?

Yeah, it comes up a lot faster. Nice. Thank ya.

Now I'm not willing to do more than five. But anyway, so I crushed it with that. And I started buying and buying and buying. I got to 84 properties by 2007. And in basically everybody taught and still teaches in which I liked that you're not one of them that teaches this. Everybody taught and still teaches the leverage model equity, the refi to get die, all that stuff. And basically I did all of that I did everything they said I pulled out my first 20 properties worth of equity and parlayed it into more and more and more until 2007 hit. And I got crushed. I had almost a million dollars in cash at the time. I 84 properties and overnight their values plummeted. I had 30 40% of my tenants not paying. I used up all my money trying to save everything. And then the inevitable happened right? I lost 55 of my houses to foreclosure out in. And this is hard. You know, this is hard on anybody. Right? But it's especially hard on me. I'm driving an Escalade that's wrapped in stop foreclosure. And here I am, I have houses in foreclosure. And so it was a rough rough time. But I remember you know, most people back then went back to their jobs that they had before they got into real estate and you know, and they went back to their previous lives but I didn't have a previous life. I was a landscaper and I had now I had this big lifestyle built around real estate. And I couldn't I had nothing to fall back on. And so I remember watching there were certain people who were still crushing it still doing really well. And these were the old guys who were free. They were the ones who weren't participating in the boom, they were lenders, they owned everything free and clear. Which to me back, then you're an idiot, how do you free and clear you're an idiot, you can make so much more money, if right. And then I had a valuable lesson, which I learned, I said, all of these guys are worth 10s of millions of dollars. And they're not playing the same game, we were playing with the refiling and the leverage and making these little spreads. And so that is when I kind of came up with what we call a slow flip now, which is where these properties were at the lowest prices ever. But I couldn't buy him I had no bid and I had no credit anymore, and I had no money. So I came up with a plan, how can I pay, I want it to be free and clear. But without any money, you can't just buy him free and clear. So I had to borrow the money. So I came up with a private lending plan where I borrow it, but we pay it off amortize no balloon in five years. Okay, simultaneously selling them on long term financing for 30 years. And so that's the basis of the plan is we buy them on five year mortgages, we sell them on 30 year mortgages, we sell, believe it or not to a lot of investors, who I jokingly referred to as 2005. Scott, I always say, you know, everybody's like, Well, why would they buy it? I said, because it's me, I would have bought it, I would have been. Exactly. I'm like that was exactly what I was looking for low money down, I can make two $300 a month, and deal with all the headaches. I said, now that's not me anymore. Now I'm all about freedom. And all I want to do is collect my checks on the first of the month. I'm not a landlord anymore. And I love what we do now.

Yeah, that's awesome. So you know, if going back to that time period, if you could have done it all over again, would you go down the route that you are now or would you? Do you think you would have gone? No, I've still got to keep doing this.

So I have two answers to that knowing what I know. Now, clearly, I wouldn't go down that route. Because I'm now I'm very much against leverage very much against the debt very much against all those things that came with it. However, if it meant to still have the mindset that I have now, would I do it all over again, to have the same outcome I have now? Well, 100%. I wrote an article once that was it was called I think it was called five reasons why I'm thankful for the bust. And it was. And it was interesting, because I equate so much of my success now to what I went through with the bust. just changed my mindset. And this is something interesting, Jeff is I talk about the bus like it was yesterday. And somebody just last week was like Scott, you know, that was 15 years ago, and I had to stop and think and I'm like, Oh my God, you're right. That was 15 years ago. And to me it was last week, the IML.

I mean, I remember it being in the financial services industry. I mean, quite frankly, I mean, it is very, you know, in my brain all the time, like, okay, that could happen. And it wasn't that long ago, but it was 15 years ago. That's crazy.

And I tell people I said your plan. And I mean your plan being the burr people in the leverage people and all the refi to die, people I said, likely will very well work for you. And you'll do great. And you'll make a bunch of money in his note. And I'm not saying it won't work. What I'm saying is I'm too old to start over again. And so if something was to happen, again, I'm not participating in at this time, I'm free and clear, I have 178 properties now 92 of them are free and clear. I have 24 More come free and clear. This December, I got three payments left. And and they're all paid off within five years. And so I'm much happier. Could I make more money doing the leverage model? Quite possibly. But the answer that I tell people when they talk about which I used to say during 2005 Scott would have said is well you can make more money if the the way I answer it, Jeff, would you probably say the exact same thing to your people? I say, it depends on what game you're playing. And I said, if you're trying to die with the most money, then you are correct. I said, but if you're trying to live the best life than my planes the way to go. And that's, that's exactly how I always answer it.

That's awesome. I well, I love it. And I mean, you know, it's one of those things that I guess it comes from, it comes from the world that I come from, you know, the financial services industry was created by what I call asset gatherers, you know, the mutual fund companies, the brokerage firms, the insurance companies, they're, you know, when you look at what their end goal is, they want to amass the most amount of money that they possibly can. So what do they teach people? Well, the the only way to do this is to save tons of money. And then you know, you can get about 4% of that per year as an income stream. So I've got to you know, if I want to make 100 grand, I've got to have somewhere in the neighborhood of like $2.2 million. And if I'm sitting you're at 25 grand and looking at how I gotta get to 2.5 million, well, how am I gonna it's just it doesn't seem possible to me so people just don't do it. Versus Okay, I need let's say 10 grand a month. How am I going to get there and your method I think is very simple. look like all I gotta do is find the right property. I have a game plan. I'm guessing with a lot of what you do. I mean, you're, you're on the front end of it. And, you know, it's like you're not having to do. You're not cleaning toilets. You're not managing the properties, though. Maybe you're on the side of it. Yeah.

Yep. It's, you know, there's a saying, I often tell people, which I didn't make up, I heard it somewhere. But I say if you if you do, what's easy, life will be hard. And if you do, what's hard, life will be easy. And slow. flips are hard, but only for five years. If you don't do them, your life can be hard for the rest of your life. I'm like, so I'm always like, just if you stick it out for five years, I've so many people in my program that we have set free and they're already at 1020 $30,000 a month. I'm like, the amount of freedom that that gives you is insane. And it's it's five years, it's not the 30 year plan, like the Berg you know, all those other guys are doing 30 year mortgages and refi forever and always having to manage payments. I said it's five years, five years. And you for me?

Yeah. And they're gonna write me a check every month. And I'm going to turn around and so yeah, it's the year typically. So just kind of walking through this in my own brain so that everybody understands as so I go, you know, I'm today, Scott, I go out I find a property. So what type of property Am I looking for? Typically?

Alright, are you sitting down? I can tell Jeff. So. So I didn't ask you what part of the world do you and I went to Austin, Texas. Yeah. Okay. So in Austin, this does not work in Austin. But it doesn't mean it doesn't work. So I have people all over the country. And most markets, it does not work in but what we do is we invest outside of the area. So I live in Virginia Beach, but we I have a lot in Virginia Beach from during the bus times. But where we invest now is mostly Midwest. And so we were mostly in Missouri, we're in Illinois, we're in Indiana, there's we have a lot of guys in Ohio and Alabama. So we're buying properties, as well as if you were sitting down when I tell you these numbers, we buy properties for $30,000. On average. Yeah, God. And people when they hear that the first thing they want to say is, what country do you live in. And there's no such thing as a house, but 30,000. And I'm always like, Listen, before you argue with me spend three minutes on the internet, just pick a state go to go to Illinois or whatever and type in go on Zillow and type in 50,000 or under and you will see hundreds of them. And so on $30,000 We pay 12% interest on our to our lenders. So $30,000 at 12% interest amortized for 60 months, your payment comes to 667 33. And that is that is no balloon that is principal and interest. It is paid off after five years. So on average, we sell them at 89,000. And we get 3000. Down and 875 a month. So that 75 A month covers our 667 we really don't make any money. However, there's only 60 payments, the 61st payment, it's all ours. Yeah. So the traps people fall into is one they don't want to wait five years. And I'm like, listen, you've been waiting your whole life. What's another five years to be free? Right, exactly. And the second thing is people have this thing in their head where they they don't believe it actually exists. And that's my hardest part as a coach is to show people this does exist. And yes, you can do it. And once they get that out of their head, people are buying 235 In their first month, and then they start rocking and rolling. But in the beginning it's hard just to get past those hurdles in your own brains saying that well if it was everybody loves to say if it was that easy, everybody would do it. I'm like, I don't know why everyone doesn't do it. I'm always talking when he's not doing this.

Because because you're not on all the you know, all the bigger pockets and everything else. Yeah. Well, and I think you know, the the biggest part is Yeah, you look at the Kris Krohn 's of the world and all these guys you know, Grant Cardone. Oh, you know, you can you can be flying around on a jet and all that. Well, your strategy, you're not gonna be flying around on a jet. But yeah, I can go sit on a beach for an entire month and make 20 grand. And I'm good. You have to do they're

Exactly right with that. So I tell people with my program and people that join my program, I said we are not teaching you to get not to mean you can't do it. It'll just take longer. We're not teaching you to have Lamborghinis and jets and yachts and all of that stuff I am teaching people just like you do Jeff how to be free how to wake up in the morning and do whatever we want and I already forgot your term for which I loved what was it workout lifestyle work optional I love that and that is exactly it. That's the basis of what we teach it's not to get a jet Now mind you, some people have higher ambitions and they can still continue on this path till they get that sort of stuff but that's not what this is about. This is about getting 10 or 20 grand a month and being free to do whatever it is you want to live a work optional lifestyle I love that term. Yeah,

well I mean that the cool part is and this doesn't require a ton of work you know it's not like a birth strategy where you're managing a back end project and you know trying to get this thing up and ready and then find a renter and then refinance and all that and bank we don't even mow

The lawn we don't clean them out. If they're filled with stuff we do them exactly as is. That is awesome. The houses I've never even seen, like I haven't I don't go Who out there? I mean, so I have houses all over. I've never seen them. I have somebody go through pictures and video someone put a lockbox on and then we do the paperwork and I've never actually gone in like seeing the house, nor do I want to. Yeah.

Well, that's I mean, that's the beautiful thing of it and you're still making a nice little profit. Yeah, on the sale price of it and everything at that point. And like I said, then you're writing, you're writing it as a private mortgage at that point. Correct.

So, and you know, amortization schedules, but a lot of people don't. But $875 on a 30 year mortgage comes out over 30 years to $315,000. They end up paying us for this house that we got the 30,000, which we didn't even pay the 34. We had a private lender pay for it. So when you do the math on how much we get back on each one, it's staggering.

Yeah. Yeah, that's amazing. I love the strategy. I mean, once again, it's the simplest strategies that everybody overlooks, they want to make things so freakin complicated when it comes to real estate and all these techniques and all that to get zero down. I mean, you're basically doing zero down.

Yeah, we don't use I believe me, I have people that have come from all walks of life, they have nothing to start with. And they have built a life with it. Because that's the whole program is to do it with no money. The reason this opportunity exists, is because there's a gap in the marketplace. And that gap is the sellers on these houses need cash to sell, the buyers need financing to buy, and yet their banks won't finance them, because they don't want to do the small loans for $30,000. So we basically just step in the middle, we give the seller the cash, and we give the buyer the financing, and then we step back out of it and just collect our checks.

That's beautiful. Yeah, that's absolutely beautiful. Now, I love me, once again, it's the simplest strategy ever, you know, and you don't even have to have a team on the ground that, you know, manages the property and cleans it up and all this kind of crap that you have to have. I'm an Army. Yeah, an army of one, I don't really have to have anything, I just have to be there and negotiate the deals and go from there, which I think is fantastic. Now do you have kind of an army of hard money lenders that you work with or

Private lenders, so we don't use hard money typical hard money lenders, the they want to do a short term like six months. So we raised five and our teach this because this is the most critical part of it, we, we teach and we raise private in private money from private individuals, not people who are in the industry, not people who are lenders, just people who have money in their bank account or in a 401k are a new time, and we pay a 12% return so they love us most. All of our lenders since I started this in 2011 have stemmed from our other lenders. Okay, once they run out of money, they start bragging to their friends how much they're making next thing you know, their friends saying, Hey, see if he needs any more. And all of our lenders have stemmed from our other lenders.

That's beautiful. That's beautiful. What made you come up with this was this somebody else was doing it or you just kind of figured it out?

No, it nobody was doing. I mean, people have always done this in some facet or another. Basically, what made ours unique is that we took both sides together, everybody is always the people forever has sold houses with owner financing. So we didn't invent that, what we did is invent. And maybe people were already doing it, the combination of buying them on short term money, and then selling them on long term money. So people have always sold with owner financing, but we're also buying them and paying them off in five years, which is kind of the big differentiator. And the reason was in I want to say necessity, but it was also getting smacked around by the bust, where I was like, I'm willing to suffer. But I am not willing to go through what we're going through again, which meant I'll, I'll jump back in the fire. But I am not going to start over again. Meaning I'll do whatever for five years. But now once I hit that, I was going to call it I would say my freedom number, but I was going to use your term and say Freedom Day. Once you hit that day, I said now there's no going back, no matter what happens in the world, no matter what the Fed decides. Whatever happens in the economy, it doesn't affect us anymore. Because they're free and clear. Yeah.

What are you typically offering the buyers on your end, as far as financing rate,

It ends up being somewhere generally between nine and 11.5. It depends on the purchase price, because sometimes it's 69 to 99 Average is 89. But the interesting thing is, as the purchase price changes, 6989 99 the payment generally stays the same. So nothing really changes except the interest rate. Yeah, in 875, over 30 years is still 315,000 Whether or not you paid 69 for it and 99 for it, you still paid 315 in the end. So that's why the interest rate may fluctuate a little bit.

That's brilliant. Well, and like I said, I mean, it's it's the simplest thing and you're not really holding property, which is awesome. I mean, you're holding an asset, which is the financing on it. And I mean kind of worst case scenario and your spot is somebody stops paying on the property and you still own the property at that point.

Yep. One of the things I always tell people I say we because people like well why would they pay this much for why wouldn't they do it this way? Why would they do it that way? And I always say we sell the financing the house comes with it. When we're actually selling is the financing That's all people are buying, they're buying the ability that because ours they can buy the other ones might be a better deal, but you need to pay cash and they don't have the cash. Mind, you only need three grand down. So that's what we're selling is the opportunity. We're selling the financing. That is

Fantastic. I love this man is just, like I said, is the greatest idea. And it's the most innovative one I've seen in a long time.

I absolutely love it. It's changed everything for me. And mind you, I started in 2011 Doing this model, okay. And it wasn't until 2016 where the skies opened up. Because during those first few years, we were still doing all this work. But we weren't making any money, because it's going to service your lenders. It wasn't until 2016, where all the sudden it was like, Oh, now we get to keep all the money. And it changed everything from them.

Well, I mean, you could combine this strategy, you know, let's say you're somebody who doesn't have a whole lot of money working out. I mean, you're you're going after the same properties that you would if you were flipping out if you were if you're doing like a wholesale deal,

Right? Well, that's what I teach my people I say wholesale and slow flip wholesale for now slow flip for the future, right? Yeah,

Well, and that's it, it's like, okay, so do the wholesale deal. I mean, take the deals that you don't want to really keep, okay, great. Just flip those deals over to somebody else, you make a little spread on there, five to 10 grand that pays you while you're waiting and the rest of the night, you're out there searching for the exact same properties that you're looking for in this case, and just keep that up like that. So I think it's, my guess is you've got to cultivate the those investors as the main thing first.

Yep. Well, we try and do them simultaneously. It's one of those cart before the horse things. Because if you find the property and don't have a lender, you can't close if you have a lender and don't have a property, then they're like, Well, I said, Yes, but I can't I got to deploy my money, or else I gotta find something else to do. So I'm always telling my people I said, you got to do in both simultaneously. We're constantly looking for lenders, we're constantly looking for properties.

Nice, nice. Well, I'm just amazed. I think it's phenomenal. What's new in the world? What else are you doing right now? Or what do you have on the table?

So unrelated to business? I'll tell you what, I just saw something I was working on today, which is why I'm telling you I just closed on a house in the Bahamas that I bought. That is my plan. Now I was originally going to wait my son's 14. And my original plan was to wait until he left for college. But me and my wife decided let's just do it now. And we did. And so I'm really excited about it's on the island of Bimini and it's just absolutely beautiful. And

Are you guys going to move there permanently, or just use it kind of on and off?

The intent is for the next four years to just do holidays. And you know, because we're on the school schedule now. But then after he leaves, we're going to do the winters, we'll you know, we'll do we'll do December, January, February, March, something like that. Three or four months a year.

I love that. Yeah. When when everybody back home is sitting under three feet of snow. Yeah, you're sitting on under three feet of sand.

This Exactly.

Well, cool. Well, let's transition to the Fast Five questions. Now. You're ready? Sure thing? All right. So first question you wake up in the morning, this is kind of related for you wake up in the morning, business is totally gone, you have 500 bucks in your pocket laptop computer a place to live? What are you going to do first.

So I'm going to do more or less exactly what I do. Now I'm going to have to forget the 500 because it doesn't take any money, I'm going to have to start networking, networking with for lenders, you know, private lenders and networking for you know, buyers, you know, not so much the sellers, if I was going to use the 500. That's what I would use it for us to do some marketing to try and locate some sellers. And again, we're going to have to do it simultaneously. Because we can't just slow flip or else that's going to be a rough five years, I only got 500 bucks to eat on for five years. So we're going to have to wholesale and slow flips, so that when we passed the five years, we're we're free. But we're wholesaling for the interim.

I love it. Love it. What's the biggest business mistake you've ever made?

Well, I've made quite a few. I've made quite a few. I'm trying to think of, I don't know if I'd say the one I lost the most money on or the biggest mistake but I guess if I was to say biggest mistake it would be I'm subscribing to the the leverage and debt theory that the world teaches in you know, when I talk about 2005 Scott as another person, but the reality is, he's still everywhere now, because most people are doing exactly that. And that's kind of why I got into teaching. I was shocked after the bus that I kept. I couldn't wait to go to the next seminar to see what they were teaching now. Because I'm like, Well, surely that didn't work. What's the new strategy? And they were teaching the exact same thing. And I was like, oh, man, I already know what can happen. And now you're telling people the exact same thing. And so I think that's probably my biggest mistake was was believing what everyone taught, which was leveraging debt and you know, and be in debt up to your eyeballs. And that's the way to get rich. And granted, that does work. But it's a whole different program that I don't want to participate in anymore.

And I mean, it's that you have to understand that, like you, you can easily lose everything in one spot. Yeah, one shot, very easily lose everything or lose a very large chunk of what you have at that. And the

flip side is, it may never happen again. And everybody who's doing that will be just fine. And they'll laugh at me and be like, Man, if God knew what He was doing, he would have made so much more. And they're right. But I'm okay with what I have. I mean, I have a lot. And so I'm like, It's okay that I don't have more. I read in a book recently, and you probably read the same books, I can't remember the name of this one. But there was a sentence in it that really resonated with me. And he said, he said, I have something most people will never have enough. And I really love that. Because Because I say that all the time, people are like, Well, why don't you do this? And why don't you do this, and I'm like, for what so I can make more money that I'm not going to spend, I'm like, I have enough. I love doing what I do. But I don't need to do anything crazy, that's going to take more of my life or more pressure or stress.

Well, and the cool part about what you do is, you're never going to run into the situation that most real estate investors run into, they start being successful, and then what happens, they end up hitting the wall, while the bank ain't gonna give you any more money do. So the only other solution is now you got to go find partners to come in and put down you know, put down the money, put down their credit, and then I gotta I gotta manage those relationships and everything else, and keep that thing going. And that's the only way I can scale the business at that point. So I, I love what you did, because yours is infinitely scalable. And it's infinitely scalable. And you also can go, You know what, I'm gonna take a month off and just do nothing if I want to, or I can go to Bimini and hang out on the beach for a month. And I don't have to worry about anything. Because I know, the beginning of the month, there's going to be a big pile of checks rolling into the mailbox.

So many years ago, during this transition time, it's funny that you said that I was playing I was at a casino playing craps with one of my lenders. And he you know, he had a few drinks and and he said and he was in Missouri, he never played big money. He was playing probably 500 bucks or 1000 bucks. But but he was losing and he said something to realize. And I was like how much are you down and he's like, he's like I could lose every penny I have on the planet mighty he's got 10s of million dollars. He says I can lose every penny I have on the planet. And on the first of the month, I have 80 grand again. And I was like, it was a different mindset for what I was doing. At the time when I was doing with all the leverage. I'm like, Grant, that is a great position to be in where if everything went to crap, you just gotta wait a few more days. And there's another 80 grand coming in.

Yep, exactly. I just always need to make sure I keep about a grand around so that I don't go into the hole. And then I know I've got money coming in. That's beautiful. Yep, what's a good book that you'd recommend for our audience?

You know, I read a lot of books, but one of the ones that I like to recommend because, and probably everybody's read this already, but it really had a transitionary in my mind thing for me, which was the four hour workweek. I really enjoyed that. Because it was it was kind of one of the ones that was talking more about, like what we're saying, let's it's not about chasing more money, it's about chasing your life and living your life. And, and I've really lived by it. I mean, that's one of the few books I've read multiple times. And I enjoy it every time I read it, because it it resonates with me.

While in the funny thing is, a few people have brought that book up, it is one of the I put out a list earlier this year of the top 10 books that helped me get to my financial freedom. And that is number two on my list was The Four Hour Workweek because I've literally read the thing three times a year for the last, you know, ever since the second book was published. So I have this dogeared messed up copy of the book that I just keep reading over and over again. What was number one? Number one was Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Okay, that makes the first financial book I ever read, right? Didn't have a clue what I was doing. But it changed my whole mindset. early on. Now it I'm a little thick headed. So it took me another like 15 years to get to the point where I actually took the risk and went ahead and did what he suggest. But it always changed my mindset. And it made me think differently as a result of that. Nice. What is a tool that you use in your business every day that you might recommend?

You know, I guess a tool, I guess a tool that I would say is simple as it may seem but it's my whole business is built around it is an amortization calculator, writing my phone, and most people don't really appreciate an amortization calculator until you start playing with the numbers. And for those people who don't know what it is basically, if you have a mortgage on your own house and you send in $1,000 payment, you'll notice when you get next month's statement, they took off like 120 bucks a principle and the rest of it was interest. And then the month after that it was $121 in principle and the rest was interest. And that's an amortization schedule. And I love it. I always hated it all my life when I was paying mortgages, but now that I'm coloring because it ended spectrum Exactly. Now that you're on the opposite end, I'm like I love the amortization schedules. I'm like, Who came up with this is genius. I love it because hey. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Bankers did exactly that

The funny thing is people always ask me, What do you want to be when you grow up? And I was like, if I didn't, if I knew what I knew now, I would want to be a banker. I wouldn't want to own a bank. I don't want to be a banker, I want to own a bank. Right? Because I mean, you basically own your own bank effectively your own financial company at that point. Absolutely. That's genius. Love it. All right, final question, what is your definition of freedom.

So it you know, it probably is the same as you're using with your freedom day. But I think the definition of freedom and I use it two different ways. But one is to be able to wake up in the morning and do whatever it is you want to do. If you leave your house or don't leave your house, if you decide to go boating, or don't go boating it to the ability to do whatever it is you want to do. Now, it doesn't mean that you do that every day, because we obviously still have responsibilities, but the ability to and and the other thing is, and if you were to say, what's your definition of financial freedom, I think it's the ability to say no to opportunities. Yeah. Because I remember when I would have said yes to every single everybody's like, you want to make some money wanting something, there's so many different, there's a million ways to make a million dollars, right. And I will say choose one, any one of them will work, but you can't do all of them. And I think the ability to say no to opportunity is really when you're free. When somebody's like, Oh man, I got this great deal. You can make X amount all you got to do is and to say, and this is how I answer because it's kind of a wiseass. But not really I'll be I'll say something like, you're gonna make all the money, don't worry about me, you're gonna make all the money. And that's the way I say no, because yes, I agree. It's a good opportunity. But I don't need any more opportunities. I know exactly what I'm doing. We're crushing it doing it. And so I don't even look outside of it. I'm like, just yeah, just stay in your lane and keep doing what you're doing. Oh, yeah.

Well, once again, and you shouldn't have to, and it's infinitely scalable. So I mean, if you have 900 properties, I mean, it's, it's just continues to scale, because you're not really you're not constrained by capital on your side, which I think was really, yep. And it's a five year plan. And if you're not willing to, like he said, it's a five year plan. If you're willing to put in the time for the five years, then, you know, you're you've put it in all your life, why not take the five years now,

One of the reasons that people don't like the program, like when I'll talk to somebody online or something, they'll say, oh, that all sounds fine, but I need to make money right now. And I'll ask him, well, how old were you? And they could be 4550 5530. It doesn't matter. And I'm like, I'm like, Well, you've already been doing whatever business you're in for 30 years. How about if you had started this now, five years from now, you'll never have to say that again. Yeah, but But I need money right now. I'm like, that's because that's what you've been doing all along is making money right now and not focusing on your future. I end all my meetings with my coaching people would saying do something today, your future self is gonna thank you for. And I do that purposefully. Because I do the same thing. I'm constantly doing deals where I'm like, I'm like, I'll do it. What the heck, I know, I'm not gonna make anything now. But in five years, I'll be glad I did it. Because now we'll have another 20 houses that are free and clear. I'll get a bump of 20 grand a month. And I'm like, Yeah, let's go ahead and do it. Because I'm planning for my five year self.

That's she just absolutely genius. Well, I mean, worst case scenario is a refinance. Real I mean, really, the worst case for you is they refinance, and you your money train,

You get a bunch of money, more money goes away, then you buy three more with that same money, right?

Yeah. Which is hilarious. That's hilarious. Well, cool, man, thank you so much. If somebody wants to learn more about what you do, and maybe learn more about how to do this, what's the best place?

That's actually I forgot to tell you earlier, Jeff. So I wrote a book called The Art of the slow flip. And it basically goes through absolutely everything from start to finish on how to raise money, and how to find the properties, how we fill them everything. And I'm gonna give all of your listeners a free copy of it. So they can just get it at slowflip.com SLOWFLIP.COM, and just pay shipping, and I'm gonna send them out a free copy of it. And the reason I really like people to start that way, is because some people will read it, and they know instantly, that's their life's mission, right? Or the people will read it, and they will hate it. And they will be like, No, what's the next thing? I do not like this at all? And that's okay. It's not for everyone, right? It's not for everyone, because some people hate it, because they're like, but I love my houses. And what if they buy them all and I'm like, okay, but we're not in love with our houses to us, or houses or pieces of paper, we just shuffle papers. But if you want to love your house, then you're not going to like slip flips, right? And if you want to have pride in your houses and paint them and put on a special light fixture, you're not going to like this program. But if you just want to shuffle papers and collect checks, then you know that's that's what this is about. It's all about freedom. And not just, you know, and that's why I always tell you, I said read the book first and then you know where to go from there.

You and I are from the same cloth of me. I could care less what the place looks like. And most of the places I own. I've never even seen.

Yeah, it makes me to I've been to seminars where the guys are talking. They're like, I'll never buy a house I wouldn't live in and I'm like, Ooh, I don't think I'd even any ride. Maybe I got three or four I move in if I had to. I want to.

Yeah, driving the neighborhood that these things are in.

I have 178 houses now and I think maybe three or four of them I would live in if I had to But no, they're not houses I would live in. That's not their purpose and that it wouldn't be for very long. So exactly. It's not their purpose.

Well Scott, thank you so much, dude, this was phenomenal. I'm looking forward to reading the book, I'm actually going to sign up as we, as we talk about here, because I can't read, I can't wait to read the book, either. Awesome. But folks take this opportunity. I mean, this is probably the most innovative idea I've seen this year or last few years. It's not the same regurgitated crap that people teach when it comes to real estate. So yes, it may not be the place where you're going to make a billion dollars, but that's okay. You don't need a billion dollars to live

Most of those things that are teaching you to make a billion dollars and a Lamborghini and a yacht, you're not going to make it there either. It's just, it's a pit. It's a pitch, you know, and, and that's why I tried to turn it all on its head and be like, listen, let's just be real, be realistic. Our objective, which is the same as yours, Jeff, is to set you free not to get you a yacht in a Lamborghini.

Well, and the funny thing is, if you've ever driven a Lamborghini, it's the most uncomfortable car to drive on the planet. So, you know, I came to that reality myself, and then the listeners know this, but I, I, one of the things I teach is bucket list. So build a bucket list, build things. Uh, one of the things on my bucket list is I wanted to drive a Lamborghini at the f1 track here in Austin, nice cars for 450 bucks, boom, one, two or three of your properties. I have the money, and I can go do that one time and be done.

I rented one in Vegas once and I drove it out to the Hoover Dam. And back I had a good day. It was a it was a fun experience. But I have no desire to own one. Yeah,

I know. Well, I have to go to the chiropractor after I get out of the thing. Because I'm six, three. It's not like fine. I'm six three as well. Yeah. So you, you're a hell of suffer on those things. Well, Scott, thank you so much for being on and folks, take his offer up, make sure that you go to his website, I will put that in the show notes page. And as always, make sure that you subscribe to the channel, wherever you're watching or listening to this. And when you do that, give us a little up arrow or give us a five star rating. Comment, love to hear what you what you think about this stuff. Once again, this is something new, that I haven't heard. And I think we're onto something here for those that really want to build that freedom day where you can just kind of, you know, show up to the mailbox once a month. So thanks a lot. We'll see you guys back here the very next time. Thanks for having me, Jeff.

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