#255: How Entrepreneurs Start Passive Real Estate Investing | Ian Noble

Speaker A: Not every sale happens at the register. Before AT&T business Wireless, checking out customers on our mobile POS systems took too long. Basically a, uh, staring contest where everyone loses. It's crazy what people will say during an awkward silence. Now transactions are done before the silence takes hold. That means I can focus on the task at hand and make an extra sale or two. Sometimes I do miss the bonding time. Sometimes.

Speaker B: AT&T business Wireless connecting changes everything.

Speaker C: There's something special about getting an email, uh, quarterly or monthly, depending on your investment, saying you just got $1,400. And if you start to do that year after year, then you can come to a point to where you're like, okay, I'm comfortable. Maybe I can walk away from my job.

Speaker B: Hey, Disruptors, are you loving these insider conversations? Well, follow us now on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcast, get every new episode instantly. Your follow shapes what we create. We listen to your feedback and this helps us bring you more of what you love. Stay connected and follow now.

Speaker D: Your business generates income, but when you stop working, does the money stop too? Ian Noble scaled a 14 location business, sold it, and now helps entrepreneurs put their capital to work through passive real estate investing without becoming a landlord. This episode is your roadmap.

Speaker B: Ian, welcome to the podcast.

Speaker C: Thanks for having me on.

Speaker B: So you are a real estate investor, correct?

Speaker C: That's right.

Speaker B: And when I was looking at some information about you prior to the episode, I noticed that at some point you decided to go from making active income to passive income with real estate. What really brought about that change?

Speaker C: I've been an active investor since, since 2014. And honestly, I didn't know there was a different way. I just thought, you gotta buy stuff yourself, run it yourself, and fast forward about 10 years. When I sold my business, I had little children and I didn't want to keep trying to build real estate, build one at a time. And so passive real estate was just an avenue for me to fit my lifestyle with having more time for the kids. And once, uh, I got involved and once I got over the hurdle of, you have to trust people in passive real estate investing much more than you would in any other way of investing. Because if you're buying property yourself and you're managing it yourself, you trust yourself, right? And you know that you're not going to cheat yourself. And all of these things that come along with when you're putting your money in dollars with somebody else. So that was the hardest thing for me. Getting into the making that transition from active to passive was the trust, the team and how to vet those sponsors, operators, the people that are actually running the deals.

Speaker B: Because you built a 14 location business with 90 employees at some point, right?

Speaker C: Yes. Yeah, I was at heart, I'm an entrepreneur and I grew up, say I grew up in the family business. My dad had a dry cleaning company growing up. I was present and I was around and I would go to the office with him, but I didn't have an active role. And after getting out of College, it was 2009 and it was tough to find a job. I was an economics major, so it's a generalist major. Right. I wasn't specializing in anything and my dad, he was burned out from the business and so he said, come try it. Like you own it, you don't and you can buy it someday. But, uh, let's give this a shot. You're going to learn a lot. And yeah, my whole adult life is working, running a small business. I was an owner, operator, very heavily involved. That was probably the curse that led me to want to get out of it. I was burnt out. And so now I know over the years I can look back and say that there's a better way to do it. Um, but I was very much the center of everything because I didn't know how to do it any differently. So I see other businesses now that are successful in how they run it and how to avoid burnout. And I think it's partnerships putting the right people in place, not putting yourself at the center of every process. These are the things that you don't know when you're 21 years old and you start, start working with a big group of people.

Speaker B: And so I, um, want to take a step back and just give the viewers some terminology because when we say passive real estate investment, how is that different than being a landlord or flipping houses just at a very elementary.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, great question. So an active investor is somebody that's essentially doing it themselves. That's the majority of real estate owners. You go and you buy a property yourself, you rent it out, you can have, you can still have realtors help you. Let's say if you're listing for a rental, but you're doing the day to day. Now the passive terminology is mainly generally for like bigger projects. So you're investing money with somebody, they're pooling money together and then they're buying bigger projects and they have teams that run it. So it takes you out of the equation. You're just really on the front end to provide money and you'll get ownership, you get the tax benefits. So all of the good things that real estate provides, yet you're not having to deal with the tenants or leaky toilets or turnover. All the stuff that drives people crazy in the, uh. Cause I do both and it is difficult. Everybody has stories that make them want to get out of the business. And so that was, that is the key difference. You're either you're doing it yourself or in passive, you are then putting your dollars in advance with a team and you're letting them run the entire operation. You don't have a say in the day to day of how they're running that business.

Speaker B: And so basically you are a private lender.

Speaker C: Yeah, you could call it that. You're a private lender because at the beginning it's the investment dollars that help that deal get done. And there are certain roles and capacities in which people could play to where they act as a partner, whether it's strategy or advising. But now I look at it differently, like we're partners because when you own something with somebody and when you're a passive investor, you do own something, I'll make up a number. Let's say a hundred thousand dollars buys 1% of that property or that portfolio. You're a 1% owner, so you have, you have profit splits, you get tax returns. All of the things that, that an owner would get to begin with. You're getting it as a passive investor. But yeah, you can look at it in the beginning portion of that process as being a lender, you're helping get the deal done and you're helping the operator raise money so that they can go acquire the properties.

Speaker B: And that's such a good distinction because there are people that maybe want to be in the real estate business and they may not have a strong credit history or they don't know how to package a deal to take it to a bank. When you first got into passive real estate investment, how did other investors approach you and what did they show you to let you know that, hey, this is a great deal.

Speaker C: I first discovered it out of a personal problem. So when I had sold my business, there was, you sell your business and you have a year where your income is going to be higher than normal. And so my first thought was, what can I do to help reduce some of the taxes that I'm about to pay? Because, you know, it's the old saying, it doesn't matter what you earn, it's what you keep. So if a lot of it goes to taxes, then, you know, that's you could do that and that's certainly an option. But if there are other opportunities out there, I'm the type of person that will look for things that can grow wealth, reduce taxes at the same time. And so when I first started looking, I sold my business in October of 2023. And the next two months I had dove pretty heavily into looking at operators and researching them. So you, to answer your question, you are presented with opportunities, you're able to as a passive investor, you first you go through an analysis stage where you're looking at what they're projecting, what they're offering, who's behind it. Uh, but it really comes down to trust. And that's honestly what led me to my first passive investment because I'm now in the business of helping people do this. But before I was not, I started off just as somebody that was going to put my own money somewhere. And the main obstacle is trust and learning. Does that person have a good record? Are they gonna scam me? Is this a bunch of crap like all these things that you want to make sure that you're making a wise decision. And again that, that whole concept of giving to somebody else to let them run it how they want it can be difficult. But when you see and find a good team then it's really eye opening to where the average person says I don't want to be a landlord, I don't want to mess with that. But I like the idea of real estate. That's when passive investing is a good fit for that style of person.

Speaker B: And so you mentioned team a couple of times. Who is on your team or who do you consider to be players on these teams to make the transaction go well.

Speaker C: One benefit of being the uh, passive investor is real estate is a full time job. And these teams, when I say these, become your partner essentially because you're giving them money to get the deal done and to work the deal. The role of each person is defined by how are they going to, to m your point, get this deal done. So it starts with they have relationships with brokers, they go put the their letter of intent or uh, which is generally usually saying hey, I would like to buy this property. And that happens maybe before a purchase sale agreement happens, but the team itself and who you're trying to work with is important because if you get deals all the time, uh, where they'll give you certain projections and they'll say you're going to earn 9% or you're going to, when we sell, you're going to two and a Half times your money. But all that, when it, when you look at it, they all start to blur together and look the same. So you just need to spend a heavy amount of time really vetting that person, asking questions. And I've learned a lot along the way. Honestly, when I first got started, I didn't know quite a bit of what you needed to ask. What are the good questions to assess? Because there are too many people out there on a smaller scale that think real estate's risky. I'm going to give somebody, my neighbor said he's going to flip a home and we're gonna double our money. And then people lose their money. And it's awful because, like, to a certain, at a certain level, real estate can be risky. So I'm just looking for larger projects, bigger teams, more experience to where all your eggs are not in one basket. It's not in one house. It might be spread amongst 150 units, but you're writing one check and then it's. That's your safety net as it's spread out amongst all those. Those units.

Speaker B: And when we talk about the different types of projects, there are different asset classes. Some people invest in multifamily homes, some people single family. I believe you focus on mobile home parks.

Speaker C: Yes, there are two. I focus on private lending and mobile home parks. And I'll quickly give the distinction between the two. These mobile home parks, that's now they're called manufactured housing communities, but back in the day they were mobile home parks and people still know them as that. Um, I chose that asset class because generally I like to say they've flown under the radar for years. Sometimes there's a stigma with mobile home parks or manufactured housing communities that maybe it's low end or I've heard people say trashy or why would you invest in that? But those people that say that don't know that mobile home parks can be very nice. Like every asset class, apartments, single family homes, they can be run down. So when. And we're not going and looking for these rundown communities. These are places where families live and the grass is cut and there's not a bunch of junk in the yard. Like, they're very nice communities, all scattered throughout the US I chose mobile home parks because for me, I felt that it solves an affordable housing crisis that we're having. Things are getting more and more expensive. It's difficult to buy a home for a lot of people. And even we often stack these up compared to apartments. Some of these opportunities, let's say a two bedroom apartment costs $1,100 or $1,200 at the mobile home park. You can, a, the person can own their mobile home and so there's some pride of ownership. And then B, they may just pay what's called lot rent, essentially like the dirt that their, their home is sitting on and that might be $500 in some areas. In the south, you're from Mississippi, you can have $250 is your lot rent. And so where else can somebody go and live for that? And so number one, I like it for that. It's also capped by supply. So some municipalities or like local city governments don't want a bunch of mobile home parks popping up, but they're not opposed to new multifamily and new apartments coming there. So your supply is restricted. And so I feel as an investor there's a little bit more safety there. Those are what drew me towards it. I'm not shooting for the stars on these big high returns. I'm the opposite kind of guy. Low risk, lower returns, but still good, healthy returns is what I look for. So that's why I like mobile home parks. And then on the private lending side that's much different because when I first got involved with that as a passive investor, it was there are funds out there and each fund has its own purpose. Some of them use the money to go help apartment uh, complexes that aren't doing well, they're in a tough spot. You could be like the finance between what their cash flow is and what their payment would be if they're struggling and they need to raise more money. So there's that angle. There's others to where you're providing loans to people that fix and flip homes, but big portfolios of them. That was one that I was first attracted to. And that's nice because then you know exactly what you're getting. There's, it's a structure like you're going to get 8% or 9% and, and whatever dollar amount you put in, that's what's coming and it comes every month. So there's two different approaches that I like to take because sometimes with ownership you've got ups and downs, whereas private lending is almost like a loan and there are fixed terms and you're going to get paid every month the rate that you're expected to be paid. So I like to do both to balance the risk and the cash flow as well.

Speaker B: And so let's address the elephant in the room because there are people that may be viewing this. Oh My gosh, that sounds great, but I don't know if I have enough money to get started. Is there a floor in terms of m, how much you need before you can get started with passive real estate investing?

Speaker C: Yeah, that's a great question. And yes, there is yes and no on the yes side. It depends on how the operator has structured their business. So there's something called a 506C. And a 506C is when they're publicly marketing it. Let's say they put it on their website, on Instagram, on LinkedIn, wherever they throw their message to. When you see that, yes, there's criteria from two stances. Number one, usually they'll have a minimum investment amount. 25,000 is generally the smallest. You see a lot of 50,000. Sometimes people say their minimum is 100,000 and you can't get in without putting that dollar amount. But with the way that they're publicly advertising that fund, people have to be what's called an accredited investor. And so those style funds, the way when they set up their business and they advertise it publicly, they can only accept money from accredited, uh, investors. And so the definition of that as it stands today is it's if you're single and you're filing, you know, you're a single filer for your taxes, it's 200,000 in income. If you're married and filed jointly, it's $300,000. Or you can qualify by net worth if you have a million dollars of net worth, but that's outside of your primary residence. So if your home is worth 500,000 and it's paid off, but you live in it, and then you have $500,000 in the bank or through your, uh, IRAs or 401ks, that doesn't count because you can't include the value of your own home. So that is one way, and I think my assessment of it is that's regulated by the sec. And the sec, essentially, I would imagine, put those rules into place to help people from getting scammed. You don't want somebody I mentioned a flipper earlier saying, hey, let's go double your money. How much money do you, okay, this is my last $20,000. Here we go, let's double up. And then you hear these sad stories where these people lose their hard earned money. So I think that's their way of protecting and putting a, uh, rule to where someone needs to be financially savvy. And the way that they determine that is based on income level. Now, if you're not an accredited investor. It doesn't mean you can't invest in real estate passively. There's Another type called 506B. 506B is generally friends and family where you have a previous relationship with them. You're not going to see it blasted all over the Internet. But if you're, let's say you're part of a forum or a group or a newsletter or these individuals and think of it as like friends and family, then there's less restrictions on somebody having to be an accredited investor. Two ways to do it and generally for people to get involved. I would say as a number, 25,000 is generally like the minimum dollar amount regardless of how the fund is structured, that these sponsors or operators will allow people to come in just cause there's legal cost and a lot of operation on the backside. And in the future too you're gonna get tax returns and K1s and updates. So they don't want, they want to make sure that they're not doing it for someone maybe that put in a thousand dollars. Cause then it's not economical for the person running that business to do that every year.

Speaker B: And one thing too to consider is tax strategy. Because I know that is so crucial for business owners. How do passive real estate investments help entrepreneurs really compare to keeping all of their wealth in their operational business? Like uh, in just operating an active income business.

Speaker C: There are benefits on both sides. You talk about an entrepreneur in the running their business. I think that is the best way for somebody to gain, build wealth, have cash flow is through a successful business. Now if they're running their business and if they also invest outside of their business passively, they can obtain some additional benefits such as when they invest into a property. I'm going to use $100,000 as an example. Again, generally when you invest passively into a property, that property operator will do what's called a cost segregation study. And this all ties into the tax question that you had when you do a cost segregation study. And if you own a home and you're listening to this, you are getting what's called depreciation on your home. And it's happening automatically each year. Generally the IRS will depreciate your home over 27 and a half years. So you'll see like I'll make up a number minus 5,000 as a line item on your tax return doesn't mean your home is losing $5,000 in value. It means that it's, you know, maybe the building or the plumbing components are not worth what they Used to be. And you're getting credit for that.

Speaker E: So.

Speaker C: So when you invest in a passive real estate deal and they do a cost segregation study, you are going to get a, at the end of that year, a piece of paper called a K1 that shows a paper loss. And so if somebody puts in $100,000, depending on the year and what the tax structure set up for that particular year, you could get, it could say minus 70,000, it could say minus 85,000. And again, you didn't lose that money. It is a paper tax loss. And so what's really cool for investors that get into the passive investing space, they can use that write off in two ways. It doesn't mean that they can automatically, uh, take that minus 70,000 that it says on their K1 loss, and they can't take it and offset it against their ordinary income. So if you're a business owner and you make $300,000, you can't say, I got this piece of paper that says minus 70,000, I now made 230,000 and I want to pay less taxes on it. Because you have to be what's called a real estate professional to take advantage of that. But if you're not a real estate professional, you still get benefits because you're still going to get that piece of paper, that K1 loss that says minus 70,000. And then in the future, any gains that you get from your passive, from the passive income or from the income from that particular Property, the first 70,000 of it is going to be tax free. It opens up the door to where generally people are used to making money, paying a tax and then continuing the cycle. And you're used to getting things taken from you. And real estate is very tax advantageous to where it allows you to really see that, wow, there are other ways to make money and not have as much taken away from me. So I know it almost sounds unfair when you're outside the industry, like that's cheating. But the way I look at it is if it's tax code and it's an opportunity, why not take it? Why not use something that will benefit you and your family that is potentially in reach right in front of you? And so that's why I love it now, because I don't know of other opportunities that allow you to do that and build wealth at the same time.

Speaker B: Oh, definitely. And people don't understand the tax code can actually be your friend if you understand the tax code or you have a professional who's working with you who understands tax code because There are so many opportunities there if you take advantage of those.

Speaker C: Yeah, you're absolutely right. Find a CPA that, if you work with a cpa, you know, you want to be asking these questions. Am I doing everything right? Is there an opportunity that I'm not missing to maybe something that will benefit us from growing wealth and reducing our taxes? You should be asking these questions normally because a lot of CPAs just file taxes. And so if you find that sweet spot of somebody that can help you keep more even when you earn more, that's great. But you want to keep more, too, and why not take advantage of it if the opportunity is there?

Speaker B: And so speaking of asking questions, due diligence, it looks a little bit different with real estate syndication or some of your mobile home park deals. What are some of the key questions that you would recommend? Just a couple that people ask before they enter some of these deals.

Speaker C: That's a great question. So, yes, they look much different from what. When I first started in real estate, it was like you could write a. I bought a rental property back in 2014, and it was $104,000. And I remember knowing what my mortgage was, how much it would rent for, and what insurance was. And I was like, I'm good. Uh, this is. I'll buy this thing. So it gets much more in depth when you get into syndications, which is the act of pooling money together to go invest. When you're going to ask a question, there are. I think you should start with track record. You should ask them, have you done this before? Have you had successes? Have you had failures? I certainly would ask again before diving into all the numbers. I really want to know the people, because it could look great on paper. And then if you start talking to somebody that is the person in line that you're going to be investing your money with and you don't like them, don't do it. There's no deal that's worth that. Because we mentioned earlier, are we a private lender or are we a partner? And I view it like, if you're buying property, this is going to be a partnership to where you're going to have to hear from them in the future. So, number one, if you don't like them, don't invest with them. And you should ask these questions, ask about their failures. If they haven't failed you. Really. There are some people in the industry that haven't had a failure. Not many, but it's almost better to have someone who has had failure, because you all know in your Personal life, that's the best way to learn. I've had failures. And you want to be able to take away the goods and the bads and the don't do's from whatever you've failed in and then learn from m it. So yeah, number one, what are your failures? What is the. Who's the team running it? And I make everything in the beginning about the actual person themselves. Get on the Internet, search their name and type in scam after their name, type in fraud, type in lawsuit. You want to know everything that's happening with the person that you're about to give money to. And then once you pass that threshold, then it's really talking about the most important thing to me is not what they projected because you all know you're not going to put something lower than expected on projections. Sometimes people like to say we went low, but we're going to outperform and show you that we're doing better later. But a lot of generally speaking, they're going to have the best numbers on this, this pamphlet that you're looking at or this information deck that are going to make you want to pull the trigger and invest with them. So you want to talk about the downside. What does it take for that plan to work? What does a bad year look like and how does that affect me? What would happen if a key player in your organization got sick or ill? Just basic questions that you could apply to any business because real estate is a business. And then again as the passive investor, it's not like these things make money by themselves. There is somebody working very hard on the back end who is active and running the day to day. And that is, I guess, the appeal to a passive investor. Because we don't want to do that. You don't want to do that. And just making sure that someone's going to be in the trenches for you and has your money in the best interest. Because you want to make sure, how is my money safe? It's one thing if you don't earn the return that's promised. Let's say it's a slower year. There could be a massive weather storm that hits in college or Covid. Remember in Covid there was moratoriums on rent and people weren't paying. These things did happen. And if you're an investor, you're looking at it differently. If you're an individual, you might think, hey, that's really nice, I get some rent relief. But if you're an investor, that's your money that's not working. Anymore. So just ask a lot of questions and, uh, I'll keep it because I could go on for an hour, but you said just a few, so I'll stop right there. And those would be the most important ones.

Speaker B: And how long should an entrepreneur consider, like, having their money tied up? Once you, like, start on one deal, is the expectation 90 days, 12 months, 2 years, or does that vary by deal? And how do you make those decisions?

Speaker C: That's a great question. Yes, it varies by deal. Generally, if it's property that you're going to buy, the industry standard is about five years. So you have to know if you're going to put in money, don't think. If you need that money back in one year, don't do it. You can find another investment that has a shorter lifespan. So generally speaking, five years on the property, unless it's a development deal where somebody has land and they're going to build and sell off right when the project's complete, those might be a little bit sooner, but those have more risk involved. There's no cash flow along the way, and you're just looking for that big payday at the end. Uh, on the flip side, if you're a business owner and you're sitting on cash in your checking account, that's earning zero in the bank, that's when I would advise the private lending side. So a lot of people, uh, today we have a record high in the money market account space, and people are earning. It was 4%. Feds just dropped the rate, and I think that'll continue to go lower. But historically speaking, there's a massive amount of money sitting in money market accounts earning just a few percent. So if you're a business owner and you have a chunk of cash in your checking account or in a money market account, there are options out there that will allow you to place money and earn about double the return with keeping minimal risk. And that is liquid, meaning it's not tied up for a year, like a CD or certificate deposit or something like that could be. So it's out there. You just need to know, when would I need this money? How much do I need to access today? And then just putting what's comfortable, whatever dollar amount is comfortable that you don't need to access right away. That's my advice on that. But do put it to work. Because money sitting in a checking account doesn't do any good for anybody except for your bank. They're taking that money out and lending and they're earning money on it. So everybody's Doing it. Why not let it benefit you? It's your money.

Speaker B: Exactly. And I know that you focus on cash flow rather than appreciation for your investments. Why do you think monthly cash flow is better for entrepreneurs compared to other investment goals?

Speaker C: I, uh, think that if you're an entrepreneur, you probably, you're used to looking at your life through cash flow. You might run your profit and loss statement. And cash flow is crucial to your business. And so when I get into real estate investments, I want cash flow from day one, even if it's minimal. I want to know that the operation's already working. I think that if you can get into a deal and it is already cash flowing on the first day, then you know, okay, there's some, maybe some longevity to this. I think that it mitigates some of the risk versus, again, we're gonna build something, then we're gonna fill it up, then we're gonna do this. It's all this, if. And then. And I think for me, the number one thing is, okay, I need to preserve my own money. I don't. It's okay. Again, I mentioned earlier, it's okay to not gain what you think you're gonna gain, but the ultimate goal is you don't wanna lose it because that's your hard earned money. And so that's why cash flow is important to me. I look for things that don't look like they're shooting for the stars. And, uh, you mentioned earlier in underwriting, sometimes you'll see underwriting that has projections the first year, like a new operator will take over. And they said we're going to increase revenue by 40% and our expenses are going to go down by 30%. And that's a lot to sometimes, uh, that's my job now is to look at that and poke holes in it and say, I don't think so because you're getting a little too aggressive. And that's how I look at everything now. Because with when I bring deals to people in my network, my own money's going into it first. So they don't even see the deal until number one. I've done all the vetting, I've done all the underwriting. And then I can look at it and say, all right, this is good for me. I trust that it fits my criteria. Now we can bring more people along for the opportunity.

Speaker B: What are some of the tools that you use to vet some of these deals? Because I know that, um, way back in yonder year we had calculators, we had spreadsheets, but now There are apps for everything and we have AI that you can just feed information into it, get data back. What are some of the tools that you use to help vet these deals?

Speaker C: I would say Microsoft Excel is still the king of underwriting. There's new software that's coming out to help people, but generally speaking, you look at that and an operator that is first presenting their deal will have an Excel underwriting model. You then will get to look at it and all of them look different. That's another challenge as well. When you're looking at people, you might have a model that's written one way and I might have created my own that looks different. And so they get very complex as they, uh. Especially in the world of passive investing, if you're buying these large properties and there's a lot of units, there are things in there that you would never put into a single family home. If you're going to buy, buy one for a rental. Sensitivity analysis, cap rate, exit projections. Ah, I say these things out loud because I don't. I did not consider them when I was actively investing into single family homes. It just wasn't again, it was back of napkin. Hey, this is my payment. This is something we can all understand. Excel is the best tool that I use. And then you don't want to outsource it. There are companies out there that can help you. I think in the beginning it might be helpful to do that. But either train yourself or educate yourself or maybe do your best. And then there are third parties that can come in there that have nothing to do with the deal and have them look at it and say, this is how I'm seeing it. Have I missed anything? Because yes, there's an expense that comes to that. But, uh, if you have $100,000 that you're about to put into something and it's a couple hundred bucks for someone to take a look at something, I think that is worth the investment. Because again, number one rule should be protect your initial capital that you're putting into these deals.

Speaker B: And so when you are vetting a deal, just personally, do you have some deal breakers like, hey, I'm not going to do a deal with less than X amount of return. I'm not going to do a deal that has these, has this criteria. What are some of those things for you?

Speaker C: I have a checklist that's pretty lengthy now that I'll use. But so once I get beyond. And the checklist is mainly just questions or criteria that I need to know, is this a safe bet for me because again, I mentioned earlier, I'm a low risk person. A lot of people think the returns that I'm comfortable with are boring. The stock market's been doing really well. If I'm excited about 8% and they're like, I made 20 in the stock market last year, look, that's great. I would advise people to be in the stock market as well. I'm not a real estate only type of person. You need to spread it out and diversify. But generally speaking, yeah, uh, if it's, I don't want a 6% return. I would say 7 through 12 is healthy for me. In fact, when I see deals that are 14%, 15%, there's a lot that has to go right for that to happen. And I'm usually cautious sometimes that, ah, you want to go at it to where you think right from the get go. That's not accurate. And how can I disprove it? Work your way backwards and be a skeptic. When you're investing, say that won't work and then work your way backwards and as things piece together and you say, okay, that actually does make sense. That's the right approach. Versus the paper said I was going to get 14%. So that's what's going to happen. And that's a dangerous way to invest your money.

Speaker B: So now, because I know you love all the viewers and listeners at the Playback Faster podcast, you have a gift for them. Is that correct?

Speaker C: Yes. Yeah. So I have created a passive income cheat sheet and it helps people that are interested in this whole space. It's got, it's, I think six pages, it's a PDF, but it's, you know, it's not a boring read and it's going to have good questions for you to ask if you're ever to get into any deal with somebody or just to see what it looks like or what happens when I join a network. Because a lot of people don't know. I wish I would have known this stuff 10 years ago. So that's why I made this cheat sheet. We'll include it in the show notes and beyond that, we'll also put my website on there. It's run steadyinvestments.com and I'm also available on LinkedIn. Just search Ian Noble. Somebody recently told me there's somebody with pink hair out there with my name. So I'm not that one. I'm, um, Ian Noble one or something like that. But yeah, that's the best way to get in touch with me is through the website. And. Or reaching out. Yeah. Go to the website.

Speaker B: Go to the website now before you get out of here. If you had one piece of advice to share with entrepreneurs on how to play big faster in passive real estate investing, what would that advice be?

Speaker C: I would say to entrepreneurs, do a good job of taking action. So I think it's part of. It's part of our ability. I say our, because I identify as an entrepreneur as well, to take action and to just start. There are so many people that sit on the sidelines and say, now's not the right time. Interest rates are high. And when you talk about real estate specifically, if you were to go back 10 years ago and ask somebody, are they glad they did it? I can promise you, 10 years ago, people felt that it was expensive, and 10 years before that. So don't wait. Time is something that levels everybody's playing field. And we only have so much time in life. So just start. One passive investment will not change your life. It will change your mindset, though. So you'll start to look at, how can I start earning when I'm not at work? Because we're so used to, like, trading our time for money. So I'm telling you, there's something special about getting an email, uh, quarterly or monthly, depending on your investment, saying, you just got, uh, $1,400. You just got two grand. And if you start to do that year after year, then you can come to a point to where like, okay, I'm comfortable. Maybe I can walk away from my job. And it gives you options. So take action, do something and put your money to work. Give every dollar a job that you're sitting on because it's losing money effectively if it's not invested into anything.

Speaker B: Thank you so much for joining us. And, uh, maybe next time we'll get your double gainer, the pink hair Ian on here as well.

Speaker C: Yeah, I'm sure he's a nice guy.

Speaker D: Yes.

Speaker B: And look for those of you who are viewing this or listening, wherever you listen to your podcast, if you've enjoyed this conversation, please connect with Ian on his website and also leave us a comment on YouTube and tell us your best takeaway. We love your comments and we want to get you more information like this. And until next time, play big faster. And for those who may be watching or listening, if you enjoyed this conversation, please follow us on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast and you'll get more great conversations like these. Until next time, play big faster.

Speaker C: Thanks for listening to this episode and remember to play big faster.

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