Rachel Richards

Rachel Richards retired at age 27 thanks to real estate. Whether you’re looking to retire or hit a short-term financial goal, you won’t want to miss today’s podcast. In this interview, Rachel shares the secret to accomplishing any goal and offers financial tips that will help you achieve that next milestone. Rachel also talks syndication, discusses how to reduce the cost of divorce, and more.

Episode 197 talks about navigating divorce as an entrepreneur, featuring Rachel Richards of Money Honey Rachel Inc. Listen now! At the age of 27, Rachel Richards quit her job and retired. She is now living off $20,000 per month in passive income. Rachel is the bestselling author of “Money Honey” and “Passive Income, Aggressive Retirement.” She built a real estate portfolio of 38 rental units by the age of 26.She is a former financial advisor, and has been featured in CNN and Business Insider. By making the topic of money management fun, entertaining, and simple for her 250,000+ millennial followers, Rachel has helped thousands of millennials work their way out of financial despair.You can follow Rachel on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Download Rachel's Free Passive Income Starter Kit today!For full episode show notes, visit here. Listen to Rachel's 1st episode "How To Create Passive Income" here.Loving episode 197? Leave us a review if you’re listening on Apple podcasts and be sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube!Until next time, stay empowered, stay inspired and #staypoderosa ✨Get our exclusive Yo Quiero Dinero® merchandise available now!WANT TO KICKSTART YOUR FINANCIAL JOURNEY?Download our FREE 14-page guide covering all the topics you need to start making your dinero moves. Visit here. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/YoQuieroDinero. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rachel Richards was cruising along financially, building a business and social media following, when her life and finances took a sudden turn. We talk about the ups and downs of divorce, valuing a business, and revealing to friends and social media supporters the reality of a marriage that was ready to end. Can you financially plan for this possibly devastating white swan event? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 169 talks about how to create passive income, featuring Rachel Richards of Money Honey Rachel Inc. Listen now!At the age of 27, Rachel Richards quit her job and retired. She is now living off $20,000 per month in passive income. Rachel is the bestselling author of “Money Honey” and “Passive Income, Aggressive Retirement.” She built a real estate portfolio of 38 rental units by the age of 26.She is a former financial advisor, and has been featured in CNN and Business Insider. By making the topic of money management fun, entertaining, and simple for her 250,000+ millennial followers, Rachel has helped thousands of millennials work their way out of financial despair.Download Rachel's Free Passive Income Starter Kit today!For full episode show notes, visit here.Loving this episode? Leave us a review if you’re listening on Apple podcasts and be sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube!Until next time, stay empowered, stay inspired and #staypoderosa ✨WANT TO KICKSTART YOUR FINANCIAL JOURNEY?Download our FREE 14-page guide covering all the topics you need to start making your dinero moves. Visit here. From money mindset, to budget basics, we've got you covered. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/YoQuieroDinero. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's episode features Rachel Richards from Money Honey Rachel. At the age of 27, Rachel Richards quit her job as a financial advisor to pursue financial independence and currently generates $20,000 per month in passive income. Rachel is the bestselling author of “Money Honey” and “Passive Income, Aggressive Retirement.” She built a real estate portfolio of 38 rental units by the age of 26. Although she has an impressive portfolio, Rachel is not a "trust fund baby" and never even made 6-figures working in a W2 job. Rachel shares her story with us and mentions some of the ways that everyday folks can get into real estate investing. Surprisingly, it's easier than a lot of people imagine! Connect with Rachel:  @moneyhoneyrachel on Instagram  @moneyhoneyrachel on TikTok moneyhoneyrachel.com Free Passive Income Starter Kit Referenced in this episode:  Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki The Hands Off Investor by Brian Burke If you're interested in talking with Haley in further depth about your financial situation, schedule a free consultation here to see if financial coaching is right for you. Schedule free consultation here We want talk with YOU about your highs and your lows so we can normalize conversations about money with normal people. If you are interested in chatting with us and telling your story, or asking us questions, please reach out! Send us an email haley@priceofavocadotoast.com or reach out on Instagram @priceofavocadotoast Do you have a question for us or suggestions for future episodes? Check out our website, linktr.ee/thepriceofavocadotoast, where you can leave us feedback regarding what YOU want to hear more of! You can also email us at haley@priceofavocadotoast.com Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook Music and producing done by Bearcatshark. Follow @bearcatshark on Instagram! Music available on all streaming platforms. 

At the age of 27, Rachel, a former Financial Advisor, quit her job and retired.  She is now living off over $15,000 per month in passive income.  Rachel has made a name for herself in the personal finance realm. She is the bestselling author of Money Honey and Passive Income, Aggressive Retirement. She has been featured on the Penny Hoarder and the New York Times and contracted to speak at colleges. She is a former financial advisor, and a real estate investor with almost 40 rental units.  Her valuable lessons have helped thousands of female millennials work their way out of financial despair. She has successfully done what no one has done before: made the topic of money management fun, entertaining, and simple.

Have you ever been enticed by a business that sounded too good to be true? Many are convinced that that is exactly what multi-level marketing or MLM's are. We discuss these notorious entities with Jen Smith, Rachel Richards, and Ken George. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At age 27, former financial advisor Rachel Richards quit her job and retired. She now lives off $15,000 per month in passive income. Rachel Richards is the best-selling author of “Money Honey: A Simple 7-Step Guide for Getting Your Financial $h*t Together.” She is an entrepreneur, professional speaker, and investor. In her newest book, "Passive Income, Aggressive Retirement," Rachel dives deep into the topic of passive income and financial independence. She explains why building self-sustaining income streams is so brilliant. She outlines 28 different passive income models and how to start creating them. For most of us, retiring at 27 sounds like a dream, and while it may seem unattainable, it’s certainly not impossible, as we learn from Rachel. In today’s episode, she sheds light on how real estate played a key role in achieving financial freedom. We learn about her real estate journey so far, the metrics she focuses on, and how she ensures that a property will ultimately be a worthwhile investment. Although the rental income she makes from properties is now passive, Rachel does not sugar coat the effort it took to get her into this position. Episode Links: https://theshorttermshop.com/ https://www.instagram.com/moneyhoneyrachel/ https://www.moneyhoneyrachel.com/ --- Transcript Before we jump into the episode, here's a quick disclaimer about our content. The Remote Real Estate Investor podcast is for informational purposes only, and is not intended as investment advice. The views, opinions and strategies of both the hosts and the guests are their own and should not be considered as guidance from Roofstock. Make sure to always run your own numbers, make your own independent decisions and seek investment advice from licensed professionals. Michael: Hey everyone, coach Michael here from the Roofstock Academy just wanted to let everyone know we had Avery Carl on our show a while back and she was talking to us about short term rentals and she was actually kind enough to host me on her show as well. Theshorttermshop.com you can find that anywhere you get your podcasts, and I did an episode with her and it's titled dig your well before you're thirsty. We're talking a little bit about my story and some of my coaching background. So definitely go check that out. We want to support her show as well. You'll find the link in the description right below. Let's get back to the episode Michael: What’s going on everyone? Welcome to another episode of the Remote Real Estate Investor. I'm Michael Albaum and today with me I have a very special returning guest Rachel Richards of money, honey and today Rachel's talking to us about syndications and also her thoughts, predictions, and where we are in today's market. So let's get into it. Rachel Richards, thanks so much for coming back with me and hanging out. I really appreciate you taking the time. Rachel: Yeah. Thanks for having me again. This is so fun. Michael: Oh, my pleasure. You're one of the really fun one. So we're happy to have you back and so excited to hear and chat with you today, because we're talking about syndications and the current market conditions. So definitely, definitely excited to hear from you. For maybe our listeners that aren't familiar with what syndications are, can you just give us a quick two second definition? What is it, how do they work? Rachel: Absolutely! Real Estate syndications are one of my favorite things to talk about right now. So let's say there is a $10 million apartment complex, and an investor wants to buy it but she can't afford it, she can form something called a syndication. This allows her to raise money from private investors, people like you and me. So we can pool our money together to buy this large piece of real estate that otherwise we all might not be able to buy. So we can pull our money together, buy this piece of real estate, the cool thing is we are not lending our money to this syndication or to the syndicator. So we're not earning interest, we're actually part equity owners in this syndication, which means we are entitled to a share of the profits. So and the other cool thing is we're limited partners, we are very passive investors. Once we do the due diligence, and we find this indication, and we analyze it and we send in our money. That's all we do. We're not managing tenants, we're not overseeing renovations or day to day operations, you just sit back and you collect a monthly or quarterly cash flow distribution and if the property's ever refinanced or sold, you get to share profits at that point as well, in addition to all the tax benefits you would normally get by owning real estate. So I'm super excited about them. It's one of my favorite ways to invest in real estate and one of the most passive ways I have found to own rental property. Michael: Yeah, really sounds like it and so it sounds like you kind of meets all the definition of criteria of true mailbox money. Rachel: Absolutely. It's definitely actual mailbox money. Michael: That's awesome. All right, so let's dive a little bit deeper and talk about, you know, what are the mechanics involved behind actually getting involved in one of these syndications? Because I think a lot of people when they hear the word syndication, or they hear 10 million or $100 million apartment complex, they think, well, not for me only for somebody else. So how does somebody get involved with participating in syndication? Rachel: The first thing to be aware of is, you really need to find a good syndicator and people refer to syndicators as different things, sponsors, operators, general partners, GPS. So all those terms mean the same thing. I've heard way a lot of horror stories about people sending in $50,000, to a syndicator. And then the syndicator running off with that money and it's truly scary. Yeah, it's very easy to get scammed and the thing is the syndicator eventually gets caught and gets thrown in jail, but investors typically can't recoup their money. So it's very scary, I don't know anyone that's personally happened to you, I've just heard about this happening online, and, and whatever. So you really need to find a trustworthy syndicator. This is a lot of money that you're sending to somebody, and you need to find an experienced and qualified professional. So let me put it this way, if you're going to spend five hours doing due diligence, make sure you spend one or two hours analyzing the deal itself, and you spend three or four hours doing the due diligence on the syndicator the person you're sending your money to. Michael: Okay. That's a great way to say it. So really, we're evaluating the person or the operator of the company much more so than the deal itself. Rachel: Absolutely. Because they're the ones who are ultimately in control of this asset. They're going to be overseeing the renovations managing the tenants. They did all the underwriting there anyone who found this deal negotiated this deal and they're going to be managing it the entire way through until you sell the property. You don't have control as a passive investor, you're not making decisions. So you need to trust that they know what they're doing. They're knowledgeable and they're going to get you the returns that they promised you. Michael: Okay and you bring up such a great point that they are the ones kind of steering the ship and they should hopefully be the one ones who are experienced, I think of myself as a semi experienced person on the spectrum definitely on the on the ladder on the lower half of the rung when compared to operators and syndicators. But if I'm evaluating a deal, and I'm seeing numbers that really don't make sense to me, or I would underwrite it differently, I mean, how scrupulous should I be underwriting their deal, if they're the operators, they're the really experienced ones doing a massive deal. Rachel: I would be very scrupulous, especially if it's your first deal that you're doing with that syndicator. So I'm the phrase verify her trust, verify, trust, but verify definitely applies here, I'm always looking at their assumptions, and then double checking. So when you are first looking at investing in a syndication, you will get a deal from a syndicator and they'll send you something called an investor deck, and it's normally a 30 or 50, page PDF presentation and shows you the property and not the pictures, the pictures, the financials and the comps and all this data and that's kind of what you have to review and to make your decision based off of, I'm going through all this data and I am asking myself, do I agree with that? Do I think that's right, do I think that's reasonable? So there's a few, there's a ton of things I look for. But here's an example: A lot of syndicators who are not as experienced might put in a really large year one rent increase, whereas more experienced syndicators will gradually increase the rents over the three or five years of the hold up the investment term. So if you see, all of a sudden they're going from, you know, they acquired it in year zero, and they're increasing the rents up to the full max amount that they are projecting right away in year one. That's not a very reasonable projection, or a reasonable assumption. So that's something to look out for. Another thing is to just double check the comps in the area, they will have their own comps of you know, here are some of the other, for example, apartment complexes in the area. Here's what they're renting for. Based on these, here's what we think ours can rent for, I would just double check those, make sure the data is accurate. Make sure it's up to date, and they're not pulling comps that are from a year ago, or they're not pulling comps that are 20 miles away, you know, just again, trust but verify. Michael: Okay, that's so good. That's so so good and I've seen a lot of the syndication, offering memorandums or pitch decks that that I've personally seen, we'll have like a deal track record, showing some of the other deals that they've done and what the returns have been and compared to what they were projecting. Is that something to expect from a syndicator? Is that something that you should have to go get on your own? Rachel: I think it's something to expect and if it's not shown, I would certainly ask for it. I am very hesitant to invest with a syndicator, who hasn't already exited multiple deals, because then it's really hard to see what has his returns actually been that he's gotten for his investors or for her investors. So what that means if somebody has exited a deal is that they've purchased the asset through the syndication, and then three or five or 10 years later, they've already sold the asset. So all their investors’ money have been returned. They know for sure what the actual return was compared to the projected return. The numbers are there, it's it's very black and white and when a syndicator send you those exit deals, it's very clear how the syndicator is doing. Now, here's the thing you want to ask them, though, is hey, are these are you showing all of your exited deals? Or are you just showing the best ones, right? Because they have a good one, they might only just show you the good ones. So one of the best questions I ask any syndicator when I'm sort of interviewing them or screening them is hey, what's the worst deal to date that you've ever done? And how did the returns compared to what you projected? What happened? What did you learn and what are you going to change going forward? Michael: Oh, that's so good. That's so good and when you're interviewing and screening these folks, are you actually getting the main operational team? Are you getting their sales kind of inbound leads person that's going to tell you what you want to hear? I mean, how far up the food chain so to speak can you get with these some of these folks. Rachel: You get the main syndicator you get the head honcho, so I'm not I'm never I'm never delegated or relegated to somebody, that's the sales person or the investor relations person. I'm talking to the main syndicator the main sponsors putting together the deal, and that's always who you should expect to talk to. So basically, I go in anytime that you are introduced to a syndicator or you meet a syndicator, they should always be asking to have a call with you or to have a zoom with you have some type of initial 15 to 20 minute conversation. I feel like it's a red flag if they don't, first of all, a lot of them are required to have some type of preexisting relationship with you before advertising their deals to you. That's an SEC regulation for a lot of not all the time but most of the time, so keep that in mind. If they're not requesting an initial phone consultation, I think it's a red flag and even if they're not required to, it's nice to know that somebody wants to get to know you. They want to get to know your goals and they're giving you an opportunity to get to know them as well and to get to ask them about their experience and their history and what kind of syndications they do. So I think that's a really positive thing when they make the effort to set up a phone consultation with you. Michael: Oh, that sounds so good as well to keep an eye out for all these great like red herrings kind of gotcha. things to look out for, I think is great. Rachel: Yeah, it’s lot of them. Michael: It's, it sounds like there's a lot of them. Yeah and so what types of because I've seen that there are syndications for all kinds of different deals multifamily, industrial, self-storage, what kind of syndications are you investing in, it gets you excited. Rachel: There's so many there are multifamily mobile homes, self-storage, industrial, office, you could kind of syndicate anything, I think, I don't think anything's off limits. The ones that I personally invest in or multifamily, because I'm very familiar with him having on so many multiple multifamily rentals myself, I had a portfolio of 38 doors at one point, by the time I was 26. So being able to analyze those and trust but verify those, it comes very naturally to me. Also, mobile home parks, I think are such a great opportunity right now. It's a supply and demand thing. There's a limited amount of mobile home parks in the US and they're not allowing anyone to create more mobile home parks. But affordable housing is very much needed. So I think mobile home parks is a really great opportunity and then self-storage, I think is a great place to be in because it's another supply and demand issue where there is not enough self-storage for people and people just continue to need a place to store their stuff. I have a self-storage unit, so Michael: I do too. Rachel: Yeah, it's like oh, my gosh, we've just been on the road and traveling since May. So it's killing us. They raised our rates by $30 a month and it's like, what what can we do, you know… Michael: You don't really have much of a choice. Rachel: You can literally just raise rates on you. So anyways, I think it's a really awesome investment opportunity. So I'm looking to get into that and one of my more unique syndication investments that I'm in is a laundromat in California, which is totally random. But I love that because when you don't have tenants, same thing with self-storage, there's no evictions that you have to go through. So there's no you know, landlord tenant rights issues and that's probably one of the only ways that I would want to invest in California is knowing that I'm not going to have landlord rights being restricted. So with a laundromat, there's no tenants, and it's actually been one of the best performing syndications I've invested in so far. Michael: Really? Rachel: Yeah. Michael: Yeah, that's wild. So are you participating in like so the syndication owns the land or the physical building and the business are or they're leasing to a business? Rachel: Yeah, they own the property on the business. Michael: Okay. Oh, interesting. Rachel: Yeah, it's super interesting. So my cash on cash return. I just looked actually this morning. My cash on cash return on that one so far has been 22%. Yeah. Michael: Holy smokes! Rachel: I know. Michael: And what about rejecting? Rachel: I think about the same, so. Michael: But wow. I guess I've heard are like big businesses. Rachel: Yeah, it's crazy. That one, I was started in November 2020. So so far, it's been amazing. Michael: Nicely done. That's awesome. Good for you. But yeah, I'm talking back to the self-storage thing. I remember walking in, like, looking around thinking, there's no people here. But there, everyone's paying rent, like all of these units with locks in them are paying rent. It's incredible. No pipes to fix No tenant repair calls to worry about. So I'm like, I think it's a really interesting opportunity. So we were talking about at the beginning of the show how syndications really are the definition and embody so much of what people are searching for in terms of passive income or mailbox money. So it's passive investment, we get a lot of the tax benefits. We get a lot of the upside potential on the exit whenever that happens. But one of the things that we have with direct ownership, as you're very familiar, is loan pay down or leverage and so is there a way to really utilize leverage in a these types of syndication? Can I go to a bank and say, hey, I'm going to go invest in this deal can you give me a loan for it? How does that work? Rachel: You know, that's a good question. I have never tried to do that. So my answer is that I'm not sure. I would have to get back to you on that. Michael: Totally. Rachel: Um, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I think it depends on the bank, you might be able to do with the hard money lender. That's a that's an interesting concept to look at. But, you know, one thing I do want to say about syndications, we've talked about a lot of the positives and I don't want to make it sound like it's this amazing thing. Michael: The silver bullet. Rachel: Yeah, like, oh, everything's perfect. There's a lot of cons as well, there's a lot of drawbacks to syndications and I'll list a couple of them. But just like with any investment, there is risk involved, right? Anytime you invest in something, whether it's the stock market or your own rental property or, or anything, you could lose your money. So it's the same thing with this, you could lose your money. And I also think it's a little riskier to because you're trusting another person, right? It's not like you're relying on yourself, you're relying on another person. So, so there's risk. Also, another con is, I don't really think it's for beginners, this when you invest in a syndication as a limited partner, this isn't something that's for beginners, you really need to have a lot of knowledge and it's better if you have experience to it's better if you've already invested in your own rental properties, because you'll be able to do better due diligence, and you'll be able to do better analysis. Another con that we've already talked about, you have less control, you're not making decisions, which is both a pro and a con, right. You want to be a passive investor, but you have less control over how things are going. If things start to go downhill, there's not much you can do about it. If you notice the management is sliding and people aren't doing a good job, there's not much you can personally do about it. And then the last con for investing in syndications as a limited partner, is that you have to be eligible to do so. So a lot of these syndications require you to be an accredited investor and a lot of them have minimums of 25 or 50, or $100,000, to invest. Now, when I was starting out as an investor, I was not an accredited investor and I by no means had that amount of money I started off basically broke, I had $10,000 that I scraped and scraped together, not an accredited investor. So there's no way I could have done syndication starting out. But later on in my journey, this is something I've been able to enjoy doing now that I have more money. So I think it's a strategy that you can be intentional about and think about when in my journey, can I start implementing this as a really passive stream of income. Michael: Love it, love it, you know, I'm just about getting there myself. I'm, I'm gotten to the point where okay, my portfolio size, I'm kind of done with the whole buying and managing and owning thing. I'm ready to let someone else do it now and it sounds like this is the next logical progression. Rachel: So exciting. Michael: Thrilled. So Rachel, what's been your worst syndication that you've invested in? Rachel: Um, I think I haven't looked at all of the numbers on all of them. But I'm pretty sure it's this one multifamily property in Louisville, Kentucky, which I'm so I'm so upset about I know cuz it's my hometown. It's my hometown and so I felt like I should have done, I should have known and I should have been able to do the due diligence. So here's what I think went wrong is that this was my second syndication I invested in and even though I have background in multifamily, I still wasn't, yeah, in Louisville, Kentucky, right. So embarrassing. That that didn't matter so much, because I still wasn't as well versed in what questions to ask the syndicator you know, what should I be looking for? How do I fact check that they know what they're doing and this was a new syndicator. And I also just wasn't aware of how do I check that they're experienced? How do I check that, you know, I wasn't asking things like I've already talked about in the interview. So I was just kind of going with it. Even though I thought maybe the deal looked good. I wasn't doing the due diligence on the sponsor. So and then it quickly became apparent that things were like the closing, I think was delayed, and I wasn't getting communication from them for a while and I was like, What's going on, and then their reporting was, was not up to par. So when you get reports from your syndicator, it should be detailed financial reports, right? They should be like, here's what we projected, all these different numbers. Here's what you're getting, here's your distribution, here's how it compares. So you should clearly be able to see, are they giving me what they told me that they would get me in terms of a cash flow number. The reports from the sponsor were like, hey, we were able to trim the landscaping back and we repainted the outside, and it was kind of like, I don't need to know the operational stuff you all are doing, I want to know my results as an investor. So it was that kind of stuff and I was like this is kind of weird. But again, it came back to me just being a little bit inexperienced as a investor into syndications and not knowing the right questions to ask. So and I'm not losing money, I haven't lost money. I think so far the cash on cash return has been about 8%. So by no means is it performing badly. I mean, that's that's the worst one return. Yeah, that's that's not including any potential profits for from a refinance or sale. That's just the cash flow. So I'm in good shape. But yeah, I mean, there was definitely some things that I learned from doing that deal. Michael: Okay. Okay. Well, that's great. Thanks for sharing and it sounds like on that one. I mean, if you had had a different operator, I mean, it doesn't sound like it's an asset issue. It sounds like maybe it's a more of an operator issue. Rachel: Yeah. And he is experienced as a real estate investor, just not a syndicator, so… Michael: So one doesn't necessarily translate well into the other. Rachel: Exactly, exactly and I'm not gonna like bad mouth him, I think he's been, you know, really trying to make this work and really trying to do a good job, he just doesn't have the experience as a syndicator and that's not always a red flag. But what he should have probably done is partnered with a much more experienced syndicator that could have really partnered and teamed up with him on this deal and showing them the ropes. That's what I've seen other new syndicators do at least for their first few deals, so… Michael: Okay, okay, awesome. Well, this has been super helpful and informative. But I want to switch gears here and I want to get what's going on inside your brain in terms of market insights. Where do you think we're going? How long it's going to take us to get there and what are you doing in the current market cycle and conditions where we find ourselves today? Rachel: This is my favorite question, Michael. Because everyone's asking me this and, you know, a lot of people are really hesitant and really afraid to buy real estate in this market. So the reason I love getting asked this question is because I love this market. Michael: What? Rachel: Yeah, I love this market. I think it's one of the best markets to invest in real estate and there's a lot of reasons why and I'm personally investing in real estate right now as well and buying property in Denver, Colorado, which I personally think is one of the toughest markets. Everyone's using Colorado, the I mean, I know the housing market is just crazy everywhere. But the appreciation and the competitive. The competition here is just through the roof. So I say that because I'm putting my money where my mouth is, I guess, and I’m doing it. I'm doing it. So yeah, I get the uncertainty though I get the hesitation, I get that times are a little bit volatile. So but I appreciate being asked this question. So I think there's four things that the market has going for it right now that makes it a great time to invest. So first of all, there's a lot of confusion about whether we're in a bubble and I, what I want to say, what I want to preface this with saying is that I'm not an economist, please take this with a grain of salt. I'm not going to just pretend like I know, I have a crystal ball and I know everything because I don't. But I don't think we're in a bubble, I think bubbles are driven by greed and fear and nothing. Bubbles are just driven by a lot of nothingness and they don't make sense, right? And that's why they pop and then prices fall. What we're in right now, I believe to be a supply and demand issue. So there's a lot of graphs out there, if you look at the US housing starts by decade over the past few decades, like the number of construction, the new houses being built. It's shocking. I've done some Instagram posts about it. But the houses being built, like if there were this is a silly number. But if there were 100 house 100,000 houses being built per decade, for the 80s 90s 2000s. Then in 2010, it dropped down to like 50,000, which that number is not right. But it went down to half basically. Michael: Yeah, yeah. Rachel: I have no idea why I don't know why and what happened. But the fact that our housing construction dropped down to half in the last decade is alarming and because of that, that explains the entire housing crisis right now, that explains why the market is so high. There's not enough houses, it's a seller's market, this explains our entire problem and the thing is, that's not going to go away anytime soon. It's going to take years to catch up and to build enough houses where people finally have enough homes again, population is still increasing, maybe like very, very, very slowly. It's almost flatlining now, but it is still increasing and it's just a supply and demand problem. There's not enough houses to meet to meet up with demand. So that's what I think now. Could we have a market correction? Absolutely. But I don't think we're in a bubble. So that's my thoughts on that. I think that 2022 is going to be another year of real a lot of housing growth, maybe not as much as last year, but I just don't think this is going to stop. So, so that's reason number one. Michael: I love that insight in that take. Rachel: Yeah, um, reason number two, that I think it's a great year to invest is because inflation is creeping up. More it was slowly at first and now it's more quickly and erases slightly alarming. Yeah. I think the last report from December was 7%, that's 7%. I don't remember the last time it was that high. Michael: I heard this is the the biggest, the most severe, it's been in over 40 years. Rachel: Well, that explains it. I'm 29. So this is the highest inflation has been in my lifetime. Yeah, but that's a weird thing to say and with inflation, the best place to keep your money is in real assets, things like land and real estate. So that one that's easy to explain, I think, real estate's a great place to put your money right now, certainly not cash, I have too much in cash, I'm trying to figure out where, where to put it. So that's why I want to get more invested in real estate this year. So inflation is another reason. Also interest rates, interest rates were so low for so long, they don't have anywhere to go but up and as we are now seeing interest rates are starting to rise. My husband and I are under contract on an investment property in Denver, Colorado and it was like every week, our lender kept telling us you need to get your loan application in, we need to lock these interest rates because they're literally going up every single week and we'd already missed out on a couple percentage points because we couldn't get stuff in or we couldn't get stuff done, like within a week or two, you're like, oh, my gosh, interest rates are just rising really fast. So you know, it's a really great time to invest. So you can get that little interest rate locked in. It's your we're not in the times of refinancing anymore, like we were in the last few years where you could refinance into a lower rate going forward, now's the time to buy real estate and lock in a low interest rate and get that low mortgage payment. So that's the third thing and then the final reason, I think it's a great time to invest in real estate is because this is my personal strategy. I do not invest for appreciation, I invest for cash flow and if you invest for cash flow, it does not matter if the market goes up or down. If the market goes down, and your property's already cash flowing, it will continue to cash flow. However, if you invest for appreciation, and the market goes down, you are you're going to lose money, you have lost money and I'm scared for a lot of investors who are trying to ride the high of the market going up and they're just investing for appreciation, because that's really risky, I think that. We all saw what happened in 2007 and 2008, investors were doing the exact same thing. And then the market crashed, people lost money. They were foreclosed on landlords lost money. It was a disaster. But if you invest for cash flow, that's never going to happen. So there's that saying, you know, you you buy, you make money when you buy, not when you sell and there's another quote that I'll share, which is don't and this goes for all the reasons why now's a great time to invest. Don't wait to buy real estate, buy real estate and wait. Michael: Ah, that's a good one. Rachel: There we go, mic drop. Michael: Rachel. Oh, that is really good, that is really good. Well, I love so much of what you just shared. But I have a follow up question for you. If you're investing for cash flow, how the hell are you doing that in Denver, Colorado? Rachel: Good question, okay. If you are in a market like Denver, or California or an expensive market or a competitive market, my advice to you is you have to be creative. You have to look at a potential property very creatively, you're likely not going to meet the 1% rule. If you're just going to look at a property and rent it out to a long term tenant, which the 1% rule states that the monthly rent should be 1% of the list price. So a $500,000 property should bring in $5,000 a month in rent. Okay, now that's just a guideline that I use to determine if a property is overpriced or underpriced. It's not a black and white roll, but I post about it sometimes on Instagram or whatever and then people are like, you're kidding, right? I'm not gonna find a 1%... Michael: This doesn't exist. Rachel: Exactly yeah, this doesn't exist in California like that. You're joking and I'm like, well, it does if you do two things if you are creative, and if you look for off market deals. So what I, what I mean when I say… Michael: Another mic drop. Rachel: Yeah, thank you. When I say be creative, I mean look at it through another lens. So can you build an accessory dwelling unit an ADU on the property? Does the zoning allow for that where you could actually build a tiny home or another unit that you could rent out thereby increasing your cash flow would that be allowed? Could you convert a single family into a duplex? Could you convert a duplex into a triplex? Could you add on another unit by just making building another wall or making a very simple switch? So these are ways you can increase your cash flow. One of my favorite methods that I personally have done and I'm doing again, is the rent by the room method. Michael: Yes. Rachel: Yes, if the zoning allows for it, if the city allows for it, if the HOA allows for, you have to check all these different things. But you can make any poor or good property into a cash cow by renting it out by the room. So take a single family house, four bedrooms, two baths, instead of just putting one tenant in there, or one family in there, or whatever, rented out by the room and put four tenants in there and now you've doubled your cash flow and now you meet the 1% rule. This is how people are doing it in Denver and you can house hack and do it this way and you can live in one room and rent out the other rooms and now you have a 5% down payment and now you have a cash on cash ROI, that's 30%. Or you don't have to live there and you rent out by the room. I mean, it's I get so excited because if you think outside the box, you can find a way to buy a cash flowing property in any market, I promise you that, so… Michael: That's so good. Rachel: Thank you that yeah, that's the first tip and then the second tip, and this is something that I specialize in and that I teach is you have to get off the MLS, and get off Zillow, and get off the couch. You have to go, you have to go out there and find off market deals because everyone right now is doing what's easy, right? Everyone who wants to invest in us, in real estate is working with an agent, they're looking at deals on the MLS, they're looking at deals on Zillow and they're sitting on the comfort of their home waiting for something to come up. That's what everyone else is doing and the market is so competitive, and it's so saturated, that you're just not going to find a good deal that way. You have to be willing to do what others are not if you're going to find a good deal right now and that means doing things like getting probate leads, and getting Pre Foreclosure leads and driving for dollars and putting up bandit signs and there's a ton of other methods that you can use to find off market deals. And again, it comes down to being creative and going and spending the extra time and effort and getting off the MLS so that you can find the hidden gems. Michael: I think that's so good for people to hear. Because I think I do think so many people look at the MLS and equate that with the market, what the real estate market is doing and you're so right like competition is fierce. There's a lot of owner occupants out there that are getting lower interest rates that it can afford to pay more with lower down payments and you're competing with them and so you've got to you've got to get creative, I love that. Did you see the SNL skit talking about millennials and Zillow? Rachel: No! Michael: Oh, it's so good. Rachel: What is it? Michael: It is basically like every millennial late at night watch, like getting online going. Looking at Zillow, like gets poured like oh, look at this 320, it's amazing. Like every millennial. Rachel: That's so true. Well, one of my favorite pastimes is going on Zillow and looking at homes I can't afford so. Michael: Yes, I think a lot of us do the same. We're all kind of sick in the head like that. Rachel: Yeah, like, Oh, that $10 million waterfront property in California. Beautiful! Michael: Yeah. Maybe one day maybe? Rachel: My price range, yeah Michael: Awesome. Well, Rachel, thank you so much for chatting with me again today. I really appreciate you coming on. If people want to get in touch with you have more questions have follow ups. Where's the best place for them to reach out? Rachel: Thank you so much. Yeah, my Instagram is always great. So you can follow me @moneyhoneyrachel  both of my books money, honey and passive income, aggressive retirement are available on Amazon. And lastly, Michael, what I'd love to do for your listeners is if anyone wants to download my passive income starter kit, I will give that for free, so yeah… Michael: Amazing, thank you so much. Rachel: Absolutely. So you can go to www.moneyhoneyrachel.com/passiveincome to download that. Michael: Okay and we'll post that definitely in the show notes below as well for anyone listening to this. Awesome, Rachel. Thank you again, always a pleasure to see you and look forward to keeping in touch, I can't wait to hear how this rent by the room goes for you. Rachel: Thank you. Thanks for having me on again. It's so nice to hear to talk to you. Michael: Thanks, take care, talk soon. All right well, that was our episode a big thank you to Rachel again for coming on and spending some time with me. Super interesting perspective on where we are in the markets really great insights on syndications and how to get involved if that's something you're interested in. I definitely can't wait to hear from Rachel going forward on how her rent by the room in Denver is going out in the Midwest out in Denver, Colorado. If you enjoy the episode, feel free to leave us a rating review. Those are super helpful for us. We'd love to hear from you all and as always, we look forward to seeing the next one. Happy investing!

Today I'm joined by Rachel Richards, author of Money Honey and Passive Income, Aggressive Retirement. In this interview we talk about: -How she wrote & published her first book by reading "Published." (and why she recommends it to every aspiring author) -How she's making $4,000 - $10,000/month in passive income from royalties on her book -How to stand out in a crowded book market -Why you don’t need a big platform to successfully launch a book -How Rachel accidentally built a launch team using social media -Using 1-1 outreach and texting to sell books and generate reviews -How Rachel accidentally went viral on TikTok (and how to sell books using TikTok) This was a value packed & actionable episode. Don't miss it! P.S. Download the audiobook of Chandler's brand new book "Published." (the book that helped Rachael with her books) here: publishedbook.com/audibleWatch the free training: https://selfpublishing.com/freetrainingSchedule a no-cost call with our team: https://selfpublishing.com/schedule

On this episode of the Passive Income Attorney podcast, Seth is joined by Rachel Richards as they talk about educating millennials on how to work their way out of financial despair, given the lack of financial education in the current system. Rachel is a former financial advisor who quit her job and retired at 27 by turning to passive income. She shares her journey, including her books, Money Honey” and “Passive Income, Aggressive Retirement.” Enjoy the episode! “Don’t be a control freak; just accept you’re gonna make mistakes, and that’s a part of it.” HIGHLIGHTS: Here’s a breakdown of what to expect in this episode: Motivation to learn financial independence and real estate investing in high school Wrongs of being a financial advisor, as told by Rachel Real estate investing as a plan B after quitting from being a financial advisor Passively investing in syndications versus direct ownership of single-family or duplex properties How to figure out your best investment strategy towards financial freedom What pushed Rachel to write her book And so much more! ABOUT | RACHEL RICHARDS: At the age of 27, Rachel Richards quit her job and retired, living off $15,000 per month in passive income. Rachel is the bestselling author of “Money Honey” and “Passive Income, Aggressive Retirement.” She is a former financial advisor and a real estate investor with almost 40 rental units. By making the topic of money management fun, entertaining, and simple, Rachel has helped thousands of millennials work their way out of financial despair. FIND | RACHEL RICHARDS: Passive Income Starter Kit: www.moneyhoneyrachel.com/bonus Instagram: www.instagram.com/moneyhoneyrachel Website: www.moneyhoneyrachel.com CONNECT | SETH BRADLEY: Get Started | Download The Freedom Blueprint: http://www.attorneybydesign.com Subscribe and Leave a Rating and Review: Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-passive-income-attorney-podcast/id1543049208 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5a0Qp9G2x337nZCDWoVgoO?si=MKn01_t8Tfu0JBZCnagrCw Join EPIC | The Esquire Passive Investor Club: https://passiveincomeattorney.com/join-the-passive-income/ Join | The Passive Income Attorneys Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/passiveincomeattorneys Follow Us: Website:  https://passiveincomeattorney.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethpaulbradley/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/passiveincomeattorney Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passiveincomeattorney/