Breaking Free from the W-2 Mentality (Episode 3)

Frank Hereda (00:02.474) All right, Grant, my buddy. So welcome everybody to another episode of Focused, Free, and Fit. Today we have a special guest, Grant Warrington. It's Warrington, right? Warrington, Grant Warrington. So Grant and I have crossed paths a few times here and he's doing some really incredible stuff and I'm excited to talk today about all of. Grant Warrington (00:17.506) Warrington. Yep. Frank Hereda (00:31.37) everything he's involved in really. So, uh, it's going to be exciting. So welcome buddy. Grant Warrington (00:37.198) Thanks, Frank. I appreciate it, man. I've been looking forward to chatting with you. So this is gonna be fun. Frank Hereda (00:42.846) Yeah, I'm excited. So, you know, apartment investing, I believe, is kind of your niche, but I want to get into everything. And you've done some pretty spectacular stuff lately, but I want to get before that. So, you know, recently you and I have talked, you're in Florida now, and I believe you were in Michigan, correct? Okay, so before we get into the current, why don't you tell me a little bit about you? I'm interested to know. Grant Warrington (01:03.819) Yeah, correct. Frank Hereda (01:12.542) even further than before Michigan. So tell me about where you grew up and how you grew up and is there a tie between what you're doing now? I'm just curious to know that about you. Grant Warrington (01:26.878) Yeah, absolutely. No tie whatsoever. Um, no one I knew was in real estate. Um, my parents were blue collar. Um, I was, you know, I do a workshop and I show people three pictures on the workshop, one's my grandfather in front of his crane. We were crane operators. Then my picture of my dad and I'm in the seat of my dad's crane at like four years old. And then there's me in front of my crane. That was my destiny. Like that was my destiny. It was laid out and I accepted it and I was happy with it. And I loved it. I was a construction worker for 23 years. So I was born in Trenton, Michigan. Stayed there. I bought my first house at 22 and sold that house at 47 and moved to Florida. So my life was... It just, uh, it was something I, I just had this push inside me, right? The one thing was I hated having a boss. I just, I could not stand it. And even talking to you right now about it, like I can feel that burning inside where I'm like, Oh, I just, you know, my boss decided if I was going to work the weekends, how much money I was going to make, uh, if I had to work eight hours or 12 hours that day. And I just, I could not stand someone else being in control of my life. I just could not. So. That's what got me into real estate very quickly. Early 2000s, they were giving away mortgages. I bought three houses, I took three mortgages. I was gonna rent them out, let people give people breaks, be a great landlord. Everyone decided not to pay me because I didn't screen properly. I had a bad drinking problem back then. And I just so unprepared for that. And I had to declare bankruptcy in 07. Um, I mean, I think you're getting the point here that like, this wasn't an easy path for me and it was a path that if I had to quit at any point, any, no one would have blamed me. So, you know, I declared that I declare bankruptcy lucky it was only me in the deals gave the houses back. Grant Warrington (03:34.09) And I was so relieved. And I'm like, I'll never get in debt like that again. I'll just never do it. Well, 2014 met my wife and she's like, I've always had this dream of owning rentals. And I'm like, I always knew I would get back into it. I did, I just, I knew it. And I said, you know what? Let's do it again, but let's do it differently. Like I'm gonna educate myself. And that's what I did. Thanks, Bigger Pockets. That's where I started. Frank Hereda (03:44.55) Hehehehe Yeah. Grant Warrington (03:57.43) We bought one single family rental realized, oh my gosh, we got up to 11 in two years and realized we are not going to make a lot of money in these. It's too hard to scale these things. So we switched to small apartments and the rest is history, I guess. Now there's a lot in that history, but that, uh, yeah. Yeah, there's a lot. Frank Hereda (04:16.154) There's a lot there and a lot of similarities between you and I actually. And so I can relate to a lot of what you just talked about but I'm curious as a father of an eight, almost eight year old, how much of an impact did, you know, you saw your grandfather crane operator, you saw your father crane operator, what? Made you how much of an impact did that have on what you did? And what made you eventually say, this is a no-go. How did you find the courage or the drive to say, I'm going to break this cycle. If you want to call it a cycle, but how did that take place and how much of an impact did that have on you and your profession in the beginning? Grant Warrington (04:56.031) Yeah. Grant Warrington (05:03.702) Um, it was tough. Um, I think you're, you're asking like to break that 23 years of construction to quit and do something else. Frank Hereda (05:12.267) Well, yeah, I mean, because I feel like you look up to your grandfather. You look up to a lot of cases, sometimes maybe not in this case, but so you look at you look up to your father and your grandfather and you're like, okay, and I can envision you being a crane operator. Like what happened one day when you were like, okay, I'm done doing this. I'm not doing this anymore. Or what happened? Why did you do that? Grant Warrington (05:16.834) Yeah. No, 100%. Yeah. Grant Warrington (05:29.118) Yeah. It, it was a slow process, but I'll tell you the truth. I knew I was meant for more, not that there's anything wrong with it. So I, you know, and I always have to preface that, right? Not that there's anything wrong with it, but I loved it. And I still love that, that. Frank Hereda (05:37.367) Okay. Frank Hereda (05:41.144) Yeah, of course. Grant Warrington (05:46.186) that is in me. I'm a blue collar construction worker still to this day. Like I got my work boots. I could open that door and I could show you my two hard hats that eventually I will wear again when I build, um, something as an owner. But, uh, I love that fact, but I knew I was meant for more. I knew there was more out there and I hate it. I just hated having that boss. It drove me. It drove me like anything, nothing else. It just was incredible. But So I slowly started, what I started doing was believing. And not really so much in myself, I started believing in other people. I saw that other people did it and I knew them and I could touch them and I could see their properties. And I'm like, I remember telling my wife, it's gotta work. Not that she was doubting it, but I'm like, it has to work, look at him. We're just doing what he's doing. It was my mentor. I'm like, it's gotta work, it's gotta work. Why isn't working? Frank Hereda (06:25.027) Yeah. Grant Warrington (06:45.974) gotta work. Well, now we need to level up to apartments. We've got to get away from these single family rentals. And, um, the, what happened was the last straw, I was now a business agent for my union, which is if you know anything about unions, that's where you want to be. I'm not running a crane anymore. I'm, I have a truck. I have two pensions. Um, Frank Hereda (07:02.464) I do. Grant Warrington (07:10.282) I'm set dude. And when I quit, that's what they said, like nobody quits, they get fired. What are you doing? And I'm like, my path is going this way. And the last straw was my boss asked me to do something that I didn't morally agree with. And I said, no. And if you have a boss, you don't have that option. And I just said, I'm not doing it. And he said, meet me at Starbucks. It was in Milford, Michigan or wherever, New Hudson. And I was like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna get fired. So I'm thinking of my grandpa and my dad. I'm like, oh my gosh, they're gonna be so disappointed in me. Can you imagine me having to tell them? Like my grandfather and my dad were both born on our Indian reservation. We're Menominee Indians in Wisconsin. So it came from poverty, moved to Detroit to better themselves and their families because there was no work there other than logging. My grandfather became a crane operator. So my father did, this is something we are proud of in my family. My uncles, my cousins are crane operators. Now I have to tell them I got fired. Like I was so disappointed. And just then I'm sitting there and that mentor I was telling you about, he sent me a text and I didn't text with him often. I would just text with him or call him when I had a problem or I was making progress. I never wanted to be the guy that reached out just to bug him. Right. I wanted to say, Hey, I bought this property. Hey, I did this. So he sent me a text. So I'm like, oh, this is odd. And it was a picture of a check for $638,000. And it said, my biggest check yet. It was from a refinance. And I was like, something broke inside me right then. And I was like, I am done. I am in the wrong spot. I have to go. I'm like, I don't care what they say to me. I'm done. I'm quitting this job. And I knew I was gonna quit. Could I financially? Absolutely not, absolutely not. We had 11 rentals, I could not do it, but I didn't care. Something broke inside me, something snapped, and I was like, dude, I am gone. So bring them on, bring the boss on, let them do whatever, whatever they're gonna do to me. They ended up punishing me a little bit. I had to go walk a picket line in the middle of Michigan on Lake Michigan, it was freezing, but I was done. And the funny thing is, a month later after that, Grant Warrington (09:36.274) my, uh, that mentor had said, Hey, I needed, I'm looking to hire a director of operations for my property management company. Do you know anybody? And I was like, Hey dude, I could do it. And he's like, Oh wow, you could. So I quit. Um, and, and that was a whole, another story. I mean, I hired, then I had to break the news to my boss and I had to break the news to my parents. And that was scary. Um, But the funny thing is two years after I quit that exact month, I became a millionaire. So it was worth it. Yeah. Frank Hereda (10:10.414) crazy. I think that's, that's such an important story. Um, everybody always, I find that everybody that does what we do, which is something on our own or we have to break a mold and it's, it's a big leap. And so there's a lot of people out there that are looking at you, maybe looking at me and saying, man, how do I make that first leap? And I think that's why that story is important. That's a big deal. Uh, good for you. That's, that's really cool. Grant Warrington (10:34.551) Yeah. Grant Warrington (10:39.69) Yeah, thanks. That's what I like people to know. Cause I used to watch these podcasts, right? In 2014, 15, 16, 17, right? I still do, but I would watch them and be like, yeah, you, you own 2000 units. Yeah, great. What does it do for me? Like, yeah, that's great. Like, do you remember how you started? And I still do. I tell people I'm still that close to the beginning. You know, we own 41 units, but I remember because I'm still in the struggle too. Like we're not sitting on top of that mountain, right? We're. Frank Hereda (10:43.568) Mm-hmm. Frank Hereda (10:57.475) Yep. Grant Warrington (11:09.558) We're still clawing our way up it, but we do what we want. My wife and I went on a walk this morning. We ate breakfast together. I just had a phone call with a friend. And now we're doing this podcast with another friend, right? So like life's good. It's blue skies and sunny out here. It's warm. I live in Florida. Yeah, yeah, I know. Frank Hereda (11:29.602) Yeah, I'm jealous. Don't go to the Florida part. That's not gonna make me upset. I'm not far away, but it's still better where you are. Grant Warrington (11:36.394) Yeah, it is it is and believe me that that's why we came here because But it's just incredible that what you can build but I bet and I tell people I had nothing special I quit drinking in 2011. I had to overcome that with the help of God that would have killed me So thank goodness I did that but you know if you don't have a massive drinking problem if you're went to college If you're well-educated, man, you're way above me and look what I did. So it just starts with one step and it's not hard. I always tell people that all the time, like digging a ditch for a living. If you're a ditch digger, man, that's hard work. If you go to prison for 20 years, that's hard. Like this is inconvenient. So yeah, if you wanna change your life, be willing to be inconvenienced. And listen, Frank Hereda (12:26.72) That's a great point. Grant Warrington (12:33.694) The American dream is alive and well in this country. It's just Americans aren't doing it. So we're both in abundance. We see people from other countries that join go abundance, right? Now they live here now and they're my friends and yours as well. And I'm like, could you speak English when you came here? And they're like, not at all. And I'm like, and you're a multimillionaire today. Frank Hereda (12:40.457) I totally agree. Frank Hereda (12:57.002) I always marvel at someone who comes here with nothing, doesn't speak the language, and then they're successful and then we have people that have lived their whole life and are doing nothing and I'm like, wow, it's just such an eye opener. Grant Warrington (13:07.902) Yeah. It's incredible. I also love it when people tell me I don't in broken English, they'll say, I don't speak very good English, you know, and I'm like, dude, you speak two languages, I speak one. Like you're way ahead of me. That's awesome. You know what I mean? Like, like people need to realize that embrace that and, uh, and realize they could do that too. You know what I mean? It's nothing special. Frank Hereda (13:20.258) Yeah, exactly. So true. It's so true. Frank Hereda (13:32.151) Yeah. So let's take it a little bit further. So you decide you're going to quit your job, quit the union, and you're going to start doing this on your own. But I think you took that other job as a property manager. So how did you make the transition to being a property manager? And was cash flowing your life the first goal or no? Did you just? Grant Warrington (13:49.227) Yeah. Frank Hereda (14:00.538) keep working property management and buying rentals until you had enough money coming in from the rentals and that, what was the process to being able to get into just doing the rentals and are you there yet or no on the journey? Grant Warrington (14:14.738) Yeah. So we, I was the director of operations for that property management company. So, you know, I, I managed over 800 units, including our own. Um, so it was an amazing experience, but it was a ton of pressure. So I stayed there 16 months. Um, in the first month, they kept telling me, Hey, don't worry. It'll, it'll get easier. You know, it's going to get easier. And it was, I mean, I was working very hard, very long hours. Frank Hereda (14:22.735) Okay. Grant Warrington (14:43.174) And in the first month, the 12 unit building burned down and luckily nobody got hurt, but I had to put that building back together. Um, from scratch, you know, I hired all the teams. I oversaw all the work. I dealt with the city. It was incredible, but looking back now is an incredible experience, but it was, uh, it was very tough on me. Um, but you know, now. Frank Hereda (14:46.179) Ugh. Grant Warrington (15:08.902) or, or going forward. Um, you know, I, I worked that job for 16 months and probably 12 months in my wife said, that's it. You're going to quit. And I'm like, what am I going to do? We can't afford it again. We're in the same situation. I took a pay cut to take this job, but it broke that W two mentality that I need. I need this paycheck. It broke that I'm like, Oh, I can, I can quit my career job and do something else. So that got me out of that. And I learned a ton. Um, but my wife's like, you're going to quit. You're a realtor. You've had your license for years. We buy our own stuff back then. We didn't really do it for anybody else. She goes, well, just be a realtor for other people. And I'm like, okay, now I'm going to go to, to take another pay cut to zero. And can you imagine, you know, people's wives saying, Hey, just quit the steady income and we'll just go to nothing. And we're just going to figure it out. We'll just trust in ourselves. And I did that, realized quickly. I hated being a realtor. Um, I, again, I had another boss, right? I had, uh, but now I have a ton of tire kickers as well. So being a realtor is tough. Um, you give a ton of free advice, a ton of free timeout, you know that. And, um, it, it takes a special person. And again, I was like, okay, I, I just, I can't. I can't have this. I was getting ready to write a contract on an eight unit building for 1031 exchange, uh, we were doing, I had two days left on my 1031 exchange. And one of my clients called me and said, Hey, I want to see this house way out in the boonies. I know I'm not going to buy it, but I just want to see it. And we need to go right now. And I was like, Oh my gosh, this is it. I'm I can't do this anymore. So I ended up getting the eight unit. They did not buy the house. It worked out, but I quit that as well. And now we live off of our rental income. Um, and I did end up buying a 20 unit apartment building while I was the director of operations for that property management company. And that's what put us over the hump. And that's what changed things because then 16 months later, I found that building off market. Grant Warrington (17:16.426) We use seller financing on the deal. 16 months later, we, we rehabbed it and we got a check for $300,000 tax free because it's debt to us. And we went out and then bought another off market. I found another off market apartment building. We bought an 11 unit and then we were off to the races. Now we have 41 units. It's just my wife and I, we, we own them ourselves, no partners. So, you know, when you hear people say in syndications like, Oh, we have a thousand units. uh, assets under management. That doesn't mean much. Um, it doesn't mean you, you have much because you don't make a lot of money, maybe on an acquisition fee, but you don't make cashflow. We cashflow $10,000 a month, uh, tax free and, um, that's net and it's just, it's incredible. And I, another thing I like to let people know is, you know, you hear all these people complaining that rich people get all these tax breaks. It's so untrue because here's the thing. Frank Hereda (17:50.137) Yeah. Grant Warrington (18:16.234) The tax breaks were available to me as a construction worker. They were there. They're there for everybody in the United States. If you do not do things to take advantage of them, you cannot take advantage of them. So when I was a construction worker, I didn't own a company, right? I didn't have these things. Now I do, now I own property and I own these things now that I can take advantage of them. So do something different so that you can take advantage of these things. That's my advice, cause it's there for everyone. Frank Hereda (18:23.718) That's right. Frank Hereda (18:45.006) Well, nobody wants to read the tax code. Nobody wants to understand the tax code. They should and they could, but you provide housing, you get tax breaks, you provide jobs, you get tax breaks. And that's really essentially what it says. Most of the tax code is geared towards, I believe, that it's geared towards how you can save money on taxes. There's not much of the tax code that talks about why you have to pay taxes, but no one wants to focus on that, and you're right. Grant Warrington (19:08.226) Mm-hmm. Grant Warrington (19:13.823) Yeah. Frank Hereda (19:15.622) It's totally true. So you now have 41 units, great, and you're on your way, right? And so talk to me about how you're building this. I know you have a class, I know you put out content regularly. Let's talk about that a little bit, and how is that helping you? Grant Warrington (19:19.596) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Grant Warrington (19:32.502) Yeah, and I always tell people build your brand, right? You and I have talked about it too. I know you do, you got a YouTube presence and Instagram. And I always tell people build your brand because you're gonna be amazed at where it's gonna take you. And I remember years ago, a guy asking me, why are you doing this? Because I started years, a few years ago. And I'm like, you know, I don't know, but I'm gonna be, I know in five years I'm gonna be happy I did it instead of upset that I did it. And building that brand for me, um, you know, I, I've been able to do some pretty amazing things, um, for one, it's social. Um, I call it social capital. And for instance, like Grant Cardone reached out to me and, um, I got to go interview him live in January and down in Miami at Cardone enterprises, uh, got to meet Grant, it was just incredible experience and, um, just a couple of weeks ago, I was doing an Instagram live. And Grant Cardone saw and he jumped on and he, you can, you can look at it on my YouTube channel at Grant Warrington or Instagram at Grant Warrington. And, um, he jumped on and, and Grant's telling me he's like, Hey man, you're doing awesome things. Like I really, what you're doing, you're helping people you're doing. And it just blew me away that he would do that. And, and he really just pumped me up for about two minutes. And I, for a guy to do that, right. He's a billionaire to reach out to me. and put time into me like that, that to me is huge. And that's what real estate investing is. If you do the work, people will help you and these people will come into your life. And I always like to tell people, if you're, even if you don't wanna make videos now, record what you're doing, take pictures of everything, because in the future, you can use that content. So I have videos from five years ago and... You know, I didn't have any audio on it, but I'm just with the mic. I'm going to talk over the video at some point when I get around to cutting up those videos and that's what people can do. So always record what you're doing, record your journey. And even if you don't want to post it yet, um, you can post it at some point in the future, but building that brand is just, is just huge. You just really need to do that. Frank Hereda (21:47.382) Yeah, and I was listening to someone talk about the era of the personal brand. Couldn't agree more. Putting out content is probably the most important piece of that. How do you find, I think you also have a class, right? And how is that working out and playing into this? Grant Warrington (22:04.746) Yeah, that is another great story. So I got to meet Ryan Panetta and I was golfing with Ryan. And again, I paid now I paid five grand to go golf with him. Right. Because now I'm a contributor for bigger pockets, my content starting to take off. And I'm like, I need to talk to somebody about this. So I reached out to Panetta and, um, and Ryan's contents just blown up, has blown up through the roof. So him and I went and golfed in Vegas. And, um, and he told me like, Frank Hereda (22:27.851) It has. Grant Warrington (22:33.13) listen, are you helping people with your reels? Like, are you helping people buy apartments? Are they able to know exactly what you know? And I'm like, with my 30 second reels, no, they're helpful, but no, they don't know what I know. And he's like, you owe it to people to put something out there and to build something to help them, right? And I'm like, you know what? I never thought of that. So I built the apartment buying blueprint. You could go to apar And I teach people how to buy small apartments and I teach them how to do it in 60 days as well. Um, I did it in 43 days, uh, when I was up against the wall with that 1031 exchange. So, uh, for me, I had all these questions, right? I didn't go to college. I didn't, I didn't know all these things. So like there's And this is what it seems like there's one big question and then there's another big question Well, then how do I do this? But there's 50 little questions in between that nobody covers, right? Here's this big question. Here's another big one and I'm gonna solve those but what about all this in between? And that was where my problem was so I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna make a course where I solve all this and I answer all those questions. It's videos and then also Right now I give out coaching Frank Hereda (23:32.698) That's right. Grant Warrington (23:51.382) for free. So I coach people on it as well because I'm like, I don't want anybody getting stuck and I want that accountability to help these people. And it's been amazing. I got like 48 students as of right now in the course. The course has only been up a year and a half. I knew nothing about courses, nothing about marketing, nothing about anything when it started. So I'm really pretty amazed that a lot of people have been able to find me and I'm helping people start that dream. as well and supercharge their investing with my help. So it's just been it's been really incredible. And that's my focus now. Frank Hereda (24:28.974) That's really cool. It's impressive to see everything that you've done in such a short amount of time. Not to take anything away from you because you've been doing it for a while, but it's impressive, so that's pretty cool. Talk to me a little bit about, so on the apartment investing, right now we're going through a lot of change out there. So tell me what you think about, or what people need to think about. I mean, cap rates have changed quite a bit. Grant Warrington (24:40.642) Thanks. Grant Warrington (24:47.214) Mm-hmm. Frank Hereda (24:55.006) Um, there's a lot of people that are in syndications and the commercial market and where it's, what it's going through over the next starting now and over the next couple of years, I know I watched some of your podcast, uh, that you did with, with Grant and how he's very bullish on it, right. Um, I think there's going to be a lot of opportunity over the next five to 10 years in real estate in general. So what's your thought around all of that and what, what are you having conversations around and where you, what's your plan? Grant Warrington (25:10.113) Yeah. Grant Warrington (25:15.263) Yeah. Grant Warrington (25:21.03) Well, my advice to people is educate yourself. Like I always tell people, what if you could have bought my course in 2007, 2008, right? We know what happened. Like what if you were geared up ready to rock and roll 2009 to start buying a small apartment buildings, five to 20 units, right? From mom and pops off market. That's how I teach people how to find them. Right. Because these deals on market, you know that they're just. Frank Hereda (25:45.88) Yeah. Grant Warrington (25:46.474) There's there's no deals. So I teach people how to go out and create your own deals So what if you could have been educated and you could have been rocking and rolling in 2009? Your life would be completely different today. Mine would be I wasn't prepared back Frank Hereda (25:57.722) For sure. And no one did as much as they could have even if they did something. Grant Warrington (26:01.65) 100% and you got to give those people credit back then because nobody knew that the market was going to rebound Back then people were scared and they took action So I tell people prepare yourself now. What if the market does crash? What if you're prepared to come out on the other side and just start moving right and start buying properties? Um, I don't know what's going to happen, but i'm big on preparing i'm big on always be a buyer so again Frank Hereda (26:08.354) Nope. No. Grant Warrington (26:29.438) I think people are starting to realize like in 2019, 20, if you wanted a deal, you had to overpay. And I think people now are going, you know what? This is a business. So why would I buy a business based on what it's gonna do in five years when I put all this work into it? Like I'm gonna turn a profit in X amount of years. So I'll overpay now because one day I'm gonna be making money. That doesn't make sense. So I teach people, Grant Warrington (26:58.282) It's a hundred dollars per unit per month is what I teach people to look for That way you're looking at cash flow now I've bought buildings that didn't cash flow because we knew we could turn around quick and make them cash flow But that's a good I have a deal analyzer and that's what like when you hit those numbers It turns green in my course and that's how people know. Okay, I got a good deal, but You know you just you have to be prepared And with one of the ways to do that is seller financing, off-market properties. It's a great way to do that because there's a lot of landlords out there in their 70s, 80s, whatever, baby boomers that own these properties and probably don't take the best care of them and are looking to get rid of them or their second generation, third generation, they've had these properties and... they're looking to get rid of them, they just don't wanna be involved with a realtor or pay realtor commissions and things like that. And those people are out there. Frank Hereda (27:58.262) I know you had your first couple. I don't know if that's all 41 that you have. I think actually all 41 you have is in Michigan, right, or no? OK. So how is it going not being in Michigan and you being in Florida? Do you ever go there? Do you just have such a good boots on the ground that you don't have to worry about it? Talk to me about that a little bit, because I know property management plays a large role here. And how has that been going for you guys? Grant Warrington (28:05.198) Correct, yeah. Grant Warrington (28:21.598) Yeah. Well, here's the thing. So we've always managed our own stuff because we didn't have a ton of money. So I tell people, if you have money, if you have a good paying job, do not manage your own stuff. Let somebody else do it. You're gonna get smaller cashflow from it, but it's a long-term play and over time, it's gonna be well worth it because now you're gonna be used to that smaller cashflow. We manage, we get a larger chunk. If we would have turned that over to property management, that would have cost us $40,000 just in management alone. And we're like, wow, that takes us out of financial freedom real quick. So we can't do that. So that's why we managed from afar. We did hire one person in the beginning. It just wasn't a great fit for both of us. She ended up quitting. And it was an easy hire. I always tell people the easy hires are always not the best hires. They're usually the worst. This person, not to downplay on her, Frank Hereda (28:54.576) Mm-hmm. Frank Hereda (28:58.873) Yeah. Frank Hereda (29:19.674) Mm-hmm. Grant Warrington (29:20.39) Um, she, it, it solved a problem for both of us, but she ended up quitting. And then we went to indeed and we hired, found somebody on indeed part time. Um, I believe this, this woman works 10 hours a week and, uh, it's just been phenomenal. The other thing I teach people invest where you know, so that's our backyard. So my mom and dad are there. Um, all my relatives, all of our handymen. Um, you know, we had built up a. a business over the years. So when we left, like all our people are still there, right? So invest where you live, invest where your family lives, invest where you went to college, invest where you vacation, invest where you know, like the back of your hand. And that's a great place to start. So this boots on the ground woman has been phenomenal. She's been the reason that we don't have to go home all the time. My wife manages all our stuff now. So that allows me to do my content, allows me to do the course. And, um, she was flying home quite a bit, but now with this new girl, she does not have to do that. Um, but the other thing we did was we found a place, so we're moving to Florida flights are cheap and they're quick routes between Tampa and Detroit. So it was, it's easy for her to get home. It's a two hour and 15 minute flight, I believe. So, um, that was the other thing we looked at. We didn't want to move to Cal. Well, we wouldn't move to California anyway, but you know, like if we moved to Texas, it's a longer flight, right? Frank Hereda (30:44.655) Ha ha! Yeah. Grant Warrington (30:47.834) So that was another thing that we looked for, but it's, it's been going great. And, um, it's really what you make it. You know what I mean? So, um, so yeah, we really can't complain. Frank Hereda (31:00.378) Do you have a goal over the next couple years where you wanna be? I heard you mention construction, so talk to me a little bit about that. Do you have a plan around it yet or not really sure yet? Grant Warrington (31:06.572) Yeah. Grant Warrington (31:10.072) Um, yeah, for. for now what I've decided to do for, I don't have a plan around that, but what I, I just wanted to put it out in the universe, right. And just say it. Um, but for now, what I've focused on is my course. I've realized that a lot of people think, well, I'll just, I'll just build a course and you know, blah, blah. It'll be simple. It is not. Not the way I want to build it and not the way I want it to be. I want it to be amazing. And for that, it takes all of my work. So. I, you know, I create content in my course, uh, as my full-time job now. So I'm, I've focused on that. I want to get that up off the ground into a point where I can bring some people on and take some of that work off of my myself. Uh, but the nice thing is I have my wife, my wife's focusing on properties and, you know, we're talking about our next step. Um, but yeah, we'd like to develop something. We'd like to build something. I think that might be the. Um, the next step for us, um, that, that excites me, you know, building something because it's again, I always teach people level up, right? Level up out of, out of single family rentals level up into apartments. And then when you buy your first apartment, you're, you're going to be buying bigger and bigger and bigger. Right. I mean, it's just constantly level up and that's how I like to teach people. Um, you know, so, so that's probably going to be our next step. Again, I'm putting it out there and, uh, and we'll see what happens, you know, Frank Hereda (32:38.149) Yeah. Sure. You know, it's funny. I think that the, you tell me if I'm wrong, I feel like, you know, a lot of people, let's say you own nothing. You don't own any real estate. It's a much easier step to imagine buying a single family or maybe a duplex, right? OK? It takes something totally different to go to 20 units, 10 units, 15 units. Grant Warrington (32:59.39) Yeah. Frank Hereda (33:08.674) Because then you have all these things that pop in your head and you're like, how do I even begin to manage that? And what would you say to someone who is wondering how they go straight? Do you recommend they go straight into multifamily? Just research? Just go and learn somewhere? And I know you said your course talks about first 60 days. So that sounds like that's very realistic for someone. If they really have the money and they're willing to dedicate their time to it, they could do it that fast. Grant Warrington (33:37.046) Yeah, if they're willing to do the work, of course. Yeah. You know, like I said, I did it in 43, but I like to tell people, just start, start wherever you can. Like if you don't have a lot of money, if you don't have whatever like we did, start in single family, that's fine, but you need to realize, you're gonna need to get out of that at some point. I thought I was gonna own a thousand single family homes. I was just like, this is what I'm gonna do, this is gonna be great, until we owned 11. And I'm like, this sucks, what happened? Frank Hereda (33:42.309) Yeah. Frank Hereda (34:03.371) Yeah. Grant Warrington (34:07.254) Like I thought four homes I'll buy and I'll be financially free. This is gonna be, we'll be able to quit our jobs. That's not what happens. It's not how real estate works. So I tell people start where you can, just realize you need to level up. If you have maybe more capital, if you have partners you can invest with that someone has time, there's just so many other things or you own a few single family rentals, then level up. Take the next step and get out of the single family rental rat race. But start where you can is what I always say. Frank Hereda (34:39.414) Yeah, I would say the same thing. Um, it's funny because you have so much. I don't want to say conflicting information out there, but I think it's, it's not that it's conflicting. It's because nowadays I believe that with social media, it's so, it's so accessible. So I can hear your opinion. I can hear so-and-so's opinion and everybody's opinion is different from somebody else's opinion. Right. And so it's interesting. And I think you're right. You gravitate towards what you think interests you, which is what you did. Grant Warrington (34:55.693) Mm-hmm. Grant Warrington (35:01.311) Yeah, yeah. Frank Hereda (35:08.682) multifamily interested you and so you went there. But yeah, I think that's, I think that's good advice. It's good advice. Grant Warrington (35:16.19) And I think people too, if you're starting, you don't have a lot of money. Maybe you're just starting out like here. So here's what my wife and I did. I'm 48 and here's what we're doing. We just bought our first property in Florida. So step one, move to Florida. Step two, buy property in Florida. Right. So now we moved in, we just moved in this house a couple of weeks ago, but guess what we're doing? This is not our forever home. This is going to be a rental. So that's how we looked at it. This will be a rental or we're going to use this. to either do, we'll take a HELOC out on it and then turn it into a rental. We'll be able to use that capital. But the question is, how can we use this property to move forward in our real estate investing? And that's what people don't do and they need to. So, you know, people will struggle. They'll buy that big house, right? And then they'll be poor with their payments, right? Because they can barely afford their payments. And then the taxes will go up the next year when they uncap. And then their escrow account goes up and they're like, what the hell happened? People don't understand taxes. I'll, I can talk about that in a minute. Um, but you know, we bought this with the intent. Okay. This is going to be our step. We could also sell it and transition that money into something else. And that's what you need to do. Buy a duplex, live in one side, run out the other. You could buy a home, rent out if you're young and rent out some of your rooms. There's so many different things you can do by a small property. Frank Hereda (36:16.311) Yeah. Grant Warrington (36:40.33) Right. And it just, people need to realize that and look at it that way. Like this is an investment. I'm not buying a home. I want to buy this as an investment. And, um, and, and that's what you can do really to get started living it for a year, put as little down as you can. And then, um, you know, after a year, you could go out and buy another, buy another house. And now you have two, right. Rent out the other one. Um, yeah. Frank Hereda (37:02.722) Yeah. The house hacking, right? The three and a half percent down and live in one side. It's funny though, because you, I'm in agreement with you, but then you got Grant Cardone, who I think is great, but he's like, rent, don't buy, don't buy, don't buy your home. Right? So again, there's a conflict there or at least different, difference of opinion. I'm with you on the owning, but you got a lot of people out there now saying, don't buy a home rent. Grant Warrington (37:09.279) Yeah, it's Grant Warrington (37:16.438) My whole boy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Frank Hereda (37:30.582) And so it's just interesting to see what everybody thinks. Grant Warrington (37:32.498) Yeah. Well, you know, again, and it's, it's probably different stages for different people, everybody's, everybody's life is different, but, and this is probably way off, but let's say you have a mortgage for 2,500 or you could rent for 1,500. Like rent, that's a no brainer rent because then you can use that Delta, right? To, to put that away and start investing. So Frank Hereda (37:39.243) I agree. Frank Hereda (37:51.246) Yeah, sure. Yeah. Grant Warrington (38:00.454) You know, you, you gotta do whatever you can. What, what makes sense, um, to, to get moving forward, you know, Frank Hereda (38:07.242) I think what you said was smart though, because it is research. A lot of people, they just don't take the time to learn and understand like, okay, why would I rent versus buy? They just go rent and then they never really look at it because they're so busy with their daily life. And I think that's a big part of it. Grant Warrington (38:10.561) Mm-hmm. Grant Warrington (38:18.721) Yeah. Grant Warrington (38:22.366) Yeah, yeah, exactly. And we, you know, we rented downtown, right? We moved here. We bought this house. Now we need landscaping, right? Well, this, we have a sprinkler system. Well, we get to update that. You got to pay to water the lawn if we decide to go that route. But here's the thing we did, right? We're like, this is going to be a rental. We're, we're not going to do all that because we don't want to pay for sprinkler, you know, to pay for a sprinkler system for a tenant. Because that's just something else we have to fix. Frank Hereda (38:44.098) Mm-hmm. Frank Hereda (38:50.958) That's a good point. Grant Warrington (38:51.078) So we were leaving it as is in Florida. It's very common what we have going on. Um, so it's just, it's just stuff like that, but it's those things you don't think about, right? Like, Oh, now we need, um, homeowners insurance. Now we have to pay property taxes. Now we have to, so you really, it's expensive to own a home. So you need to really put those together and go, you know, am I better off renting or am I better off buying? But what's going to get you. Frank Hereda (39:08.006) It's expensive. Grant Warrington (39:18.774) moving forward the quickest. And again, don't take your advice from people that don't have what you want. So take advice from people like Frank that have done this, that know what they're talking about. Don't take advice from your mom, your dad, your sister, your best friend that don't have shit and don't own rentals, right? Or your uncle that owned rentals way back and told you don't do it because I got screwed because he didn't screen properly. He didn't treat it like a business, right? Frank Hereda (39:38.182) That's right. Frank Hereda (39:45.691) Mm-hmm. Grant Warrington (39:47.862) That's why. So that's why I always tell people we've had knock on wood, we, one eviction almost went full cycle. So we've had zero evictions in 10 years go full cycle. Why? Because we treat it like a business. We have rules in place. We screen everyone the same, but extremely well. And that's why we've been successful with it. So if you don't do that, you're setting yourself up for failure. Frank Hereda (40:13.026) Yeah, I think treating it like a business is a big piece of good advice. Um, and, and taking that route from the beginning, but you're right. You hear, I heard that growing up too. Oh, it toilets in the middle of the night and people damaging your unit. And it's like, that's all, you know, cause it's all you hear until you go research it on your own. Grant Warrington (40:24.15) Mm-hmm. Yep. Grant Warrington (40:32.542) Yep. And I got to, um, if people go to my Instagram at Grant Warrington, you can click the link in my bio and there's a free tenant screening checklist in there. And those are the 10 steps that we use to screen tenants. Um, that's a great resource, especially even if you're going to hire a property management company, you want to know what goes on behind the scenes. Um, and if you're going to do it yourself, it's, it's just phenomenal as well. So I highly recommend that. Okay. Yeah. Frank Hereda (40:58.69) I'll put links to that in the description of the video. Grant Warrington (41:02.738) I can give you the email address for that too, for the link. Frank Hereda (41:05.142) Okay. You brought up a really good point though, and it's probably one of the biggest, if not the biggest reason, investors invest and that's tax breaks, uh, and, and taxes in general. And I don't think anyone understands the benefits of investing in property and, uh, and the tax benefits. Talk a little bit about that. Talk a little bit about why you think that's such a big deal. Grant Warrington (41:33.674) Well, for us, it's because we pay zero in taxes. We get money back. It's the depreciation. We get to write off all of that against our income. And it's just huge, especially when you get into the apartment space, right? That's amazing. There's cost segregation, and I'm not a cost segregation expert, but. Frank Hereda (41:53.476) Yeah. Grant Warrington (42:00.678) Um, that allows you to, you can write off, let's say 27 and a half years, you can write off all your depreciation. You can take it over time with cost segregation and bonus depreciation. Now that they're offering, um, you can shrink that 27 and a half years down to year one, and you can take a huge chunk. Like it might be a hundred percent, um, in year one. Frank Hereda (42:24.826) I think it's 100. We've done a couple of them. I think it's 100. If I'm not mistaken, I'm not an expert either. But I think it is 100. But the point is, you get to take it all, a lot of it in year one. Grant Warrington (42:31.294) Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, so think about that. So money, the time value of money is huge. So a dollar today is worth more today than it is in 27 and a half years. It's not gonna be, it'll be worth 10 cents then, right? So, yeah, exactly. So if you can take, or imagine now you can depreciate all that money over 27 and a half years, or you can shrink it down and take that depreciation in year one, I mean. Frank Hereda (42:47.79) Well, especially with what's going on today, it's like 15% less every year. Grant Warrington (43:02.922) It's just huge. And it's just something that, uh, you, you can do with single family homes, but you have to have a lot of them for it to make sense. Um, so just with these apartment buildings, it's just incredible. So if you're a high income earner, um, you can do that. Now you, uh, have to be a real estate professional to be able to take it at certain points. There's rules around it, but I believe if you're not a real estate professional, you can take it at a capital event. Like if you sell the property. Um, Frank Hereda (43:04.387) Huge. Frank Hereda (43:29.102) Well, that's, that's another, that's another, uh, deduction right there. The real estate professional, uh, design, designation. So you can get that deduction, which a lot of people don't know about, but that's another big one. Grant Warrington (43:40.19) Yes. Yeah. It's just, it's really set up, um, for landlords and for people to own property because you're providing a service, you're providing housing and the government does not do a good job of providing housing for everyone. So that's why they incentivize people to provide housing. And if you do that, we will give you these tax breaks and anybody can do it. So, um, you just gotta get started. Frank Hereda (44:05.05) How do you feel about the Florida market in general? I mean, you know, it's funny. I saw Governor DeSantis come out and talk about squatting rights recently. Love that law. What do you feel about the saturation in Florida and the investment in Florida? I mean, southeast region of the United States, everybody's moving, well, a lot of people who are moving are moving to those areas. And then the same with Texas. It's just, you can look at the data. It tells you that. Grant Warrington (44:13.742) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Frank Hereda (44:35.042) I'm just curious what you feel about the saturation in the area in Florida, because that's something you're looking to invest in, I guess, or are you going to invest outside Florida more with multifamily? How is the market for multifamily there right now? Grant Warrington (44:46.706) Yeah, we're, we're all well with, with that squatter. Um, you know, I did two YouTube videos, one with DeSantis talking about squatters at Grant Warrington on YouTube. And then I did another where this guy tells how he stole a house in Portland, Oregon, right? And I did another YouTube video on that. I happen to know that guy. Um, but those are some great videos. One's going to make you really mad, but I'll tell you what, when I woke up in the morning and I saw that DeSantis said, not in Florida, This is not gonna happen in Florida. No more squatters rights. I'm like, dude, finally I live in a place where I can get a win. In Michigan, I guarantee they'd be passing laws to help squatters out because they need representation. So I'm like, I'm so happy to live in a state where there's wins. Democrats, Republicans came together and said, this is bull crap. This should not be happening. Frank Hereda (45:25.674) Ugh. Frank Hereda (45:29.334) Absolutely. Grant Warrington (45:44.542) So why in hell a hundred percent, but you know, in other states, they'd fight with each other about something, but here they came together and said, we need to stop this. So I give credit to the governor, to Democrats, Republicans, all coming together. I do not understand why New York and California cannot step up because they, they do things because they want to be voted back into office. Frank Hereda (45:44.738) Well, it affects everybody. It doesn't matter which side of the aisle you're on. Grant Warrington (46:09.59) This is a no brainer. I don't see anybody saying, Hey, these squatters need more, right? They need to be able to take people's homes. I don't, I just don't understand why these other States cannot pass this law and for the Sanis to take the lead to. And, uh, and sign this, like I I'm just so happy finally to get a win here. And this is for all homeowners and landlords. I'm just, I'm so pumped. Frank Hereda (46:16.003) It's crazy. Frank Hereda (46:30.446) Absolutely. I think it helps you from an investor's standpoint. A lot of people are going to want to buy in Florida because of that, I believe. Grant Warrington (46:35.554) Yeah, a hundred percent. And, and you know, we're not, we want to develop and I think we do want to develop here. We love Florida, St. We live in St. Pete. It's amazing. And, uh, I think somebody was told me the other day, they're like, uh, you pay for sunshine and it's the truth. You know what I mean? Yeah. It costs more to live here. You, you pay for the sunshine. It's blue. And, and I, wherever anybody's watching this today, look outside your window. Mine's blue, not a cloud in the sky. The sun's out. And, uh, it's going to be 75 here. It's you know, what first week in April. Frank Hereda (47:09.122) Oh, you can't. We're the same here in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, but we're a little cooler right now, about high 60s. Grant Warrington (47:13.842) Yeah. But again, it's, you know, you, you pay for the sunshine, but people are moving here. I think the laws are, um, are incredible. I think they make, they, they make smart decisions. Um, just moving here, some of the different laws I've experienced are, have been just incredible. I won't, won't get into all the different ones, but it's like, wow, you, it seems you just have a little bit more freedom here. They, they make common sense laws and, um, I love it. I love the weather and I think it's a great place to be and a great place to, um, to buy property. Frank Hereda (47:51.458) Heck yeah. I think it's great. Um, you know, there's a lot of different areas too. I find it interesting. One of the things that I find most interesting about Florida, and there's a couple other States that are like this. You don't need a building license. I think a general contractor's license. I don't believe to build a home there. I don't think, and I don't think it's, I think it's the same way in Iowa and Texas. Uh, there's a multiple States, which kind of shocks me cause I, that's a big Grant Warrington (48:12.459) You know. Frank Hereda (48:21.154) That's kind of a big deal. I think I'm right. Don't anybody quote me on that, but I think that's accurate. Grant Warrington (48:22.538) So in Florida, I, yeah, in Florida, I'm not positive about that. Cause I know you need a general contractor in Florida. In, in, in Michigan, you don't. So in Michigan, we are our own general contractor, my wife and I. So we line out all the subs for when we're doing full gut rehabs. Uh, we line everybody out. Um, we do it all. Frank Hereda (48:32.472) Okay. Frank Hereda (48:35.778) Okay. Frank Hereda (48:42.199) Yeah. Grant Warrington (48:48.362) And, um, here, like you need a general contractor to do rehabs and things like that on your own, to build your own personal home. I can't comment. I I'm not positive on that in Florida, but Michigan, you don't need a GC. Like you can do it yourself. Yeah. You need to pull permits and do all that along the way. So, I mean, the city will make sure that, that that's good. Everything's getting done correctly. Frank Hereda (48:57.462) Yeah, okay, I might be wrong. I thought, yeah, yeah. So that's pretty interesting. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah. Frank Hereda (49:12.958) Yeah, yeah, for sure. So do you think you're gonna continue, you know, you have your YouTube channel, which is great, by the way, and, you know, are you bullish on, let's talk about AI for a second and your YouTube channel. Do you think AI is really going to help with your YouTube channel? Do you use AI when it comes to like video editing and things like that when you're putting out content? Do you use any of that right now or no? Grant Warrington (49:19.958) Yeah. Thanks. Grant Warrington (49:40.238) Uh, sometimes if I get stuck or if I can't explain something well, um, I will use AI to help me, excuse me, to help me explain it, um, explain, you know, and I'll put like, explain it like, um, you know, for someone that's not that smart so they can understand it, I'll put that in there, right? Cause that helps me. Frank Hereda (49:46.126) Mm-hmm. Frank Hereda (49:49.58) Yeah. Frank Hereda (49:58.27) Yeah. Grant Warrington (50:01.85) Um, so I use it for that sometimes, uh, but I don't use it a ton. Um, not, not yet. You know, a lot of, a lot of people, I'm sure use it a lot more than me, but a lot of my stuff is, um, my experiences. I like to tell people like, here's what happened to us. You know, here's a problem we found. Here's how much it costs to repair. Here's how you can avoid it. Uh, here's some contractors we use. Here's how you can find these nationwide contractors. Frank Hereda (50:06.314) Okay. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Frank Hereda (50:19.833) Mm-hmm. Grant Warrington (50:27.382) You know, we use Sherwin Williams for our flooring. A lot of people don't know that they do flooring, uh, for all of our apartment buildings, they do all the flooring for us. So I just like to educate people on things like that. And, um, I dunno, maybe AI one day will take all that over, but you know, I don't, I don't worry about it. I just do what I can do and, uh, until something changes, I guess, you know. Frank Hereda (50:50.078) Yeah. I haven't asked you yet about syndications. Tell me what your thoughts are on syndications. I'm in one now. I know a lot of people have been in syndications in the past. In the last couple years, they've become very popular. We know a lot of people that are in syndications and that do syndications. What are your thoughts on syndications and the future for syndications based on the commercial market today? Grant Warrington (50:54.303) Yeah. Grant Warrington (51:06.079) Yeah. Grant Warrington (51:12.962) Um, I think the future is still, still good for it. Um, I'm a general partner in a syndication. Uh, so that means, you know, I'm also a limited partner in the syndication. So I invested money into it. Um, and I also, I'm about this big of a general partner, um, on it. I'm also part of the asset management team, the syndication, uh, the debt is really crushing us right now in that syndication, we had a bridge loan on it. Um, The bank is now working with us. The good news is we have all dug in, all our GPs. We all, like there's three main GPs. And a lot of times in syndications, you figure out fast when problems happen, who you're working with. Well, these three main GPs could tell everyone, we're making the rules, we're making the decisions. We don't need to listen to any of you. And they don't even need to talk to us. But they said, listen, guys, let's all get together. Every GP, we don't care what you own. We want all of our decision. Let's, let's make the best decisions. Let's protect this capital. Um, so I'm very excited about that. The bank has decided to work with us. Very excited about that. The deals, the building is running well. It's just the debt. When that debt increases past a certain threshold, it just crushes you. So, so we're happy about that. And, um, I tell people. Frank Hereda (52:27.99) and you Grant Warrington (52:37.926) I always tell people, and this is what I've told these guys, this is gonna be your story, dude. So you better be very fricking careful because in a couple of years, people are gonna say, what happened to you in 2023 and 24? What'd you do? And you're gonna have to fricking tell people. So you better be a man now and do what's right because this is gonna be your story. So I wanna be able to tell people, this is what I did. Frank Hereda (53:01.05) Very good advice. Grant Warrington (53:06.266) I will, I'm going to protect our investors. Who cares about our money? And I'm, I'm going to be proud to tell this story in a few years. And there's going to be people that are, are doing the wrong things and they're going to have to tell that story. And I'm going to want people to say, and especially my investors to say, uh, we're proud of what Grant did. So that that's what my advice is. You're always going to be in a story. And I tell people all the time, you're going to be a part of my story and I'm going to be part of yours and I'm going to make sure that I do what's right. Um, that way I can hold my head up high, no matter what happens. Frank Hereda (53:45.046) I love that advice. You know, it's funny, you, we've, like I said, we've shared some similarities in the past, but you know, going through your bankruptcy and then being in that position now, not that you're, it's that big of a situation, but you know, knowing what possibilities are gives you that clarity in that moment. And you never know why things happen to you. We don't know why things happen to us in our past, right? Grant Warrington (54:12.235) Yeah. Frank Hereda (54:13.738) and sometimes that's when it plays out. I think that's very good advice, and that's really important. Good for you guys. Have you ever read The Hands Off Investor? Grant Warrington (54:17.906) Yeah. Thanks. Yep. It, uh, yeah, I have. Yeah. That's an excellent book. Excellent book. Yes. I have it right over here or behind me, actually. Frank Hereda (54:25.266) Okay. Yeah, good book. Yeah. Good book for anybody that has questions about syndications. Um, but, uh, yeah, that's it. That was, that was pretty hot, hot topic for awhile. I mean, it still is, but, um, it's a great, it's a great vehicle for people that want to get into real estate. They just have to do it right. So. Grant Warrington (54:37.399) Yeah. Grant Warrington (54:45.518) Correct. It gives you the questions to ask. Again, when we started with this debt, it was a good situation. It's just the market turned and that's what's happening now with a lot of people. I would encourage people, don't just invest with people because you're friends with them, because you know them. A lot of these people that are doing syndications now, you ask them, well, what happened to you in 2008? Frank Hereda (54:54.159) Yeah. Grant Warrington (55:13.222) And they say, well, I wasn't around. We weren't doing this in 2008. So like these three GPS I'm with, I said, well, what did, how did you, have you guys ever been through this in the past? And they said, no, grant, we haven't, you know, we started in 14 or whenever it was. They have 5,000 units. They have a ton of units, 6,500 units. But, um, they were like, no, we haven't been through. I said, okay, great. So now we're all on the level playing field. Right. So no one can tell me, um, you know, it, no, we're all the equal now because we're all going through it together. And luckily we got a good team where they're like, you're right. Let's all, let's all brainstorm and do the best we can. And in the future now, you know, if we decide to raise capital again, I'm going to be able to say, here's what happened. Yes. I was involved in a syndication that went bad. Here's what we did. Here's how we came out of it. Here's how we returned investor capital. So I will have that story to tell. The thing with me going forward, I want to, if I'm going to raise capital again, I told you I have a small part of the GP. Luckily, I have a main voice. I have a very big voice in this because I'm part of the asset management team. They know that what, you know, some of the things I've been able to do. and the properties we manage ourselves. So luckily I have a very big voice, my wife and I both in that. And, but going forward, I want more of a role. If I'm raising capital, I wanna be the one that makes the decisions. I will not raise capital on a smaller level because, again, luckily this turned out well, but I can only imagine. I have friends that have raised some money and are part of the, you know, you have to be involved in the deal. You can't just raise money and get paid for it. It's illegal. So, but I've had friends that raised money are involved in the deal and the lead GP has gone dark on them. So to me, I'm like, I'll never be in that situation because we have our money, our friends' money in this deal. And again, luckily, thank goodness we got such a great team. We knew that getting into it. Grant Warrington (57:23.606) But, you know, I've learned a lot of lessons through this, and we're gonna do every single thing we can to make sure that we return that investor capital. Frank Hereda (57:33.562) Good man. Good advice. Um, so just to make sure everybody has it. It's been a good conversation. Um, tell me where everybody can find you, uh, where they can find anything that, you know, courses, anything at all. Grant Warrington (57:47.21) Yeah, so at Grant Warrington on Instagram, and anybody listening to this can DM me if you got a question. I can't respond back with a book. I get a lot of people that DM. I respond to everybody. It's me, so imagine, you know, but if you have a question and I can help you out with something, I'll answer you. So I'm going to help you there. So at Grant Warrington on Instagram, I have a bunch of videos on YouTube at Grant Warrington. And if you're interested in coaching, you know, me coaching you, me helping you buy your first apartment building, it's, um, apartment buying blueprint.com and you can go there. Um, and I'll tell you what, for me coaching you, um, the, the price when this comes out, I'm not sure where the price will be. The price isn't going to stay the same for awhile, but Frank Hereda (58:36.762) Hehehehe Grant Warrington (58:37.354) me coaching with you and this video training for the price, it is an absolute no-brainer. I wanted to give the most value, I think the value on it's like almost $25,000 in value. And I just raised it to, I believe it's at $5,000 now if this came out. And it's just incredible. The amount of value you get and the time with me, my time's $500 an hour. to coach. So I coach people for six months. So I think that's $12,000 worth of value in coaching, just the coaching alone, not all the other free stuff I give in bonuses. So I'm really proud of it. As you can see, I'm, it helps guys like me that didn't know what the hell to do when I got started. So that's why I built Frank Hereda (59:26.914) Well, I think from a business coach, a real estate coach, and a real estate investor, I would let you coach me if I wanted, you know, like that would be, so that, you're right, the value is unbelievable. Why would you not get a mentor or a coach in something that they're already successful in that you wanna do? So. Grant Warrington (59:50.218) Yeah. And I, and I liked this one more thing in the beginning. I couldn't afford any of that. Um, so I just didn't have the money, but now I've spent over $50,000. I know you have two in it, probably more in coaching in go abundance. We're both members of go abundance. Um, you know, I put that on a credit card. I pay it monthly. Um, it's just the value there. So you, Frank Hereda (59:56.73) Yeah. Grant Warrington (01:00:17.758) You need to keep in mind, just like I tell people, you always need to level up. You need to keep in mind, if you're like, man, I'm dead broke and I can't afford anything, then that's fine, do as much as you can, but you need to keep in mind, one day I need to level up. I need to get around more successful people. I need to pay people for their time. Ryan Pineda, I paid him five grand to golf with him because his time was so valuable and it catapulted me probably two years ahead. just that conversation with them. So keep that in the back of your mind. Maybe if you're listening, you can't afford it now, but one day you have to get into these kinds of groups and get around these kinds of people that are doing huge things. The people I surround myself now, Frank, just like you, they're multimillionaires doing big things. And... they wanna help me, just like Grant Cardone reaching out to me and saying, man, you know, doing a two minute video with me, it's incredible. If you go to apar you can see that two minute clip on there. It's incredible, man, you know? Frank Hereda (01:01:16.11) That's so cool. But I mean, you think about it. Um, and you're right. We spend a ton of money. I know you do. I know I do. And, and it's to be around people that are doing more than you that you can learn from and level up, like you said, and you can't do it in the beginning, no problem. Then someone could go to your YouTube channel and consume your content and then until they can write and get started that way and learn to get to the point to where they can invest, which is what we've done, right? And we still have a long, I still have a long way to go, but you know, there's always another level. And that just means another mastermind, another group of people that's doing things that you wanna do, and it's just the next step. Grant Warrington (01:01:48.332) 100%. Yeah, me too. Grant Warrington (01:01:59.466) Yeah. So, and I want to talk about this before I joined abundance. Um, I, I dragged my feet for a, uh, for a month, I'm sorry, for a year. And I'm just like, ah, I can't afford it. I can't afford it. And then I, there was an apartment, uh, apartment association of Michigan mastermind, and it was at an airport in Michigan, right? All these guys that owned apartments. Um, we're meeting in this airport. So I talked to my mentor that I worked for that the director of operations for his property management company. He's like eight years younger than me, by the way. And I said, Hey man, are you going to go to this? It's it's, um, Pontiac, Michigan and an airport. He says, yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to ride my, I'm going to take my helicopter. Do you want to ride my helicopter with me? And I'm like, yeah, buddy. So, and this is how his life's changed, right? Through investing. Frank Hereda (01:02:51.996) Yeah. Grant Warrington (01:02:53.45) So I meet him, I meet him, we jump in his helicopter, we fly up there, incredible experience, we land, everybody comes out of the hangar looking at us. It was amazing. Well, the thing was that we were looking at guys' jets there. One guy, his family owned 40,000 units, another guy 20,000 units, and another guy 3,000 apartment units. And they had their jets in there, they let us get inside them, walk around. It was an amazing experience. And one of the guys that owned 3500 units, I'll never forget. He said, how many units, uh, you and your wife? I said, yeah. He said, how many units do you own? And I was like, Oh my gosh. You know, he owns 3,500. I know who he is. He doesn't know who I am, but, uh, I said, we own, I'm embarrassed, man. I, we own, uh, 41. He goes, good for you. Good for you, man. Frank Hereda (01:03:35.462) Hehehehe Grant Warrington (01:03:47.754) He goes, keep going. He goes, this is the best way I have found to make money. Great job. And I was like, my gosh, I don't have people like this in my life. I don't know people that own jet. I'm blue collar, man. And the people surrounding me are construction workers and the same thing. And here I am around these people that are encouraging me, that are doing these kinds of things. And I'm like, that's it. That next day I joined GoBundance. I'm like, I have to be around people that are... doing bigger things than me at higher levels. And things when you surround yourself with people, you just get pulled up by it. It's it's incredible. And that's why that's why I did it. I'm like, I need this in my life. I need this. So it's been great. Frank Hereda (01:04:25.451) Absolutely. Frank Hereda (01:04:32.086) It's so important. And you can read any success book, and it talks about, you are some of the five closest people around you. And that's just flat out the truth. So if you hang around five people who are broke, you'll be broke. And if you hang around five people who are always pushing themselves, then you will too. Grant Warrington (01:04:40.366) 100%. Yep. Grant Warrington (01:04:45.888) 100 percent. And I always say you are the 10 people you hang out, you, you're the 10 people on social media you associate with. So look at the 10 accounts you're associating with. And if those are negative, they're not about real estate investing or some other path forward, quit following those accounts. The other thing on Instagram, hit your, uh, the little magnifying glass, the search and look at what is in your search. If it's all chicks and bikinis. and all negative stuff that isn't moving you forward, you can change it. Start following positive accounts and you can change your whole feed. When people say, oh, social media is so bad, mine isn't, mine's great. Mine is positive things, mine's real estate related. It's, I don't follow negative stuff. I don't follow the news, politics, none of that. So social media is an awesome tool. Yeah, you're just using it wrong. Use it right. Frank Hereda (01:05:30.319) Yeah. Frank Hereda (01:05:40.454) Great advice. Very true. That's right. That's so true. It's very true. It's funny. Good advice, man. Good advice. I've enjoyed this. We're gonna have to do part two, man. We're gonna have to do part two. I've enjoyed it. So I appreciate it, and I know everyone's gonna go to your social media links, and hopefully they send it for your class, and they do some coaching. And... Grant Warrington (01:05:46.934) You know? Yeah. Grant Warrington (01:05:53.154) Thanks. Grant Warrington (01:05:56.651) Yeah, hell yeah man. Frank Hereda (01:06:09.646) I think it's great. So thanks for being here, buddy. And until next time, everybody, we'll catch you next time. All right, buddy. Grant Warrington (01:06:16.526) Thanks, Frank.