Turning Setbacks into Freedom: The Power of Resilience and Real Estate with Anson Young
Key Takeaways
- Adversity can be the foundation for financial and personal freedom when paired with determination and adaptability.
- Simplicity, consistency, and focus create lasting success more effectively than chasing every opportunity.
- True wealth comes from purpose, peace of mind, and the willingness to lead with value before expecting returns.
United States Real Estate Investor®
The REI Agent with Anson Young
https://youtu.be/AoHsBhXD804
United States Real Estate Investor®
Value-rich, The REI Agent podcast takes a holistic approach to life through real estate.
Hosted by Mattias Clymer, an agent and investor, alongside his wife Erica Clymer, a licensed therapist, the show features guests who strive to live bold and fulfilled lives through business and real estate investing.
You are personally invited to witness inspiring conversations with agents and investors who share their journeys, strategies, and wisdom.
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Finding Purpose Through Reinvention
In this powerful episode of The REI Agent Podcast, Mattias welcomed real estate investor, agent, and author Anson Young, whose journey from unexpected career loss to lasting financial freedom demonstrates how setbacks can become the foundation of success.
From the moment he picked up Rich Dad Poor Dad, Anson’s path shifted from routine employment to passionate entrepreneurship, proving that life’s hardest moments often spark the most transformative growth.
From Layoffs to Legacy
When Anson faced unemployment during the dot-com collapse, he refused to let someone else define his worth or dictate his income.
That defining moment became the fuel for a new mission to build independence through real estate investing. He dove headfirst into the industry, learning through meetups, mistakes, and late-night research sessions while bartending to make ends meet.
His first live-in flip became not just a home, but a symbol of possibility, a tangible reminder that determination and resourcefulness can change a life forever.
Building Knowledge, Confidence, and Momentum
Returning to Colorado during the housing crash, Anson immersed himself in valuation work, completing hundreds of broker price opinions.
Those countless hours studying property data gave him a deep understanding of how to recognize real value, even in chaotic markets.
His early struggles turned into invaluable expertise that would later fuel his investing business and shape his disciplined approach to growth.
Expanding Horizons Beyond Borders
Anson’s evolution from a local investor to an out-of-state strategist revealed his confidence in systems, data, and trust.
By building remote teams of agents, contractors, and property managers, he showed that success in real estate comes from relationships and accountability, not proximity.
His philosophy centered on making decisions based on verifiable data, local partnerships, and clear communication, principles that allowed him to operate successfully in markets he never physically visited.
The Power of Action and Simplicity
Throughout the conversation, Anson emphasized that waiting for perfect conditions is the fastest way to miss opportunity.
Rather than chasing every strategy or trend, he focused on mastering one approach at a time. That laser focus helped him scale sustainably while avoiding distraction.
His story serves as a testament that consistency, not complexity, creates wealth.
Writing the Next Chapter
Anson’s connection with BiggerPockets led to his first book, Finding and Funding Great Deals, a project born out of years of experience and a drive to help others replicate his process.
The book guided readers from identifying profitable deals to closing transactions, encouraging them to take practical steps toward freedom.
His writing became an extension of his mission to simplify success and empower others to take control of their financial destinies.
Wealth with Purpose and Perspective
Rather than chasing luxury, Anson prioritized freedom and peace of mind. He built his career with humility, choosing sustainability over showmanship.
His philosophy focused on serving others, helping clients and investors first without expecting anything in return.
That value-first mindset created trust, relationships, and opportunities that far outlasted any single transaction.
Lessons in Adaptability
Anson’s years in real estate taught him that the market rewards adaptability.
Whether shifting from foreclosures to short sales or adjusting to higher interest rates, he learned to pivot before circumstances forced his hand.
His insights on leading with value, remaining humble, and staying ready for change made his journey both inspiring and deeply human.
Philosophy for the Mind and Spirit
Anson’s commitment to personal growth extends beyond business. His study of stoicism transformed how he approached challenges, focusing on self-control and perspective rather than reaction.
By mastering his mindset, he found clarity and calm in an increasingly chaotic world. His approach to life and investing proves that emotional balance is as vital to success as financial literacy.
The True Meaning of Freedom
Freedom, for Anson, is not defined by possessions or profits but by peace, flexibility, and impact.
His story is a reminder that real wealth lies in self-reliance, generosity, and living with intention.
His path from hardship to harmony embodies the spirit of The REI Agent Podcast: using real estate as a vehicle not just for income, but for a fulfilled, purpose-driven life.
Living Boldly and Building Wisely
Anson’s journey reflects what The REI Agent stands for, helping people live well through the power of ownership, balance, and resilience.
His message challenges every listener to take that first step, trust the process, and build a life defined by growth, service, and self-belief.
For more content and episodes, visit reiagent.com.
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Contact Anson Young
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Mentioned References
- Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
- Finding and Funding Great Deals by Anson Young
- The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday
- Shift by Gary Keller
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Transcript
Welcome back to the REI Agent. I'm here with Anson Young. Anson, thanks so much for joining us.
Yeah, thanks for having me. This is awesome. Yeah, stoked for this conversation for sure.
We were talking a little bit about you being based out of Denver and talking about skiing a little bit, but it's a passion of mine. But tell me, give us a bird's eye view of what you do and then we can kind of dig into your story. Yeah, sure.
I mean, obviously I'm a licensed real estate agent, which is why I'm here. But I've actually been investing longer than I've had my license. And so what I kind of do now is I have a handful of clients that I help, maybe do 12 to 18 transactions a year with my license, but I'm kind of mostly focused on my investment business.
And we can get into what that all entails and unpack it. But yeah, like as a split, it's probably 70-30, 60-40, somewhere around there. And yeah, there's not a lot of agents who do invest, which is sad, but hopefully through shows like yours, we can get more to get in there.
Yeah, it's kind of interesting, right? I mean, I think it's, yeah, I guess it's such an easy thing to understand. Maybe it's the horror stories people, I know a lot of people are scared to do it and there's horror stories about bad tenants.
And then we come across that as well as agents and when we see the results of a bad tenant, but it's not all bad, it's a really good thing. And as agents, you really get some awesome benefits for investing in real estate with tax depreciation, et cetera, accelerated depreciation. But what got you started into real estate?
And also, you're an author as well, right? Yeah, I am. So yeah, what got me started was like everybody in the kind of dot-com boom, I got laid off from IT.
This was like 2003-ish and I didn't like that feeling of somebody else telling me that I can't get money anymore. And so, I was in a little transition period, I've been married for two years and I bartended, I kind of bounced around just trying to make some money and try to figure things out. I loved bartending because I get to talk to people and just hang out, not very sustainable.
I quickly found out after about a year or two, I couldn't imagine being like 50 and still bartending, so I knew I needed to do something different. And so, at the same time, my wife and I decided, since we were in this kind of transition, we'd move down to Arizona for a couple years to be closer to my brother, who they just had their first kid. So it was like, I'm not fully employed, let's go down there and see what that's about.
And on the way, like right before I left, a good friend of mine, Paul, handed me Rich Dad, Poor Dad. So I have like the most basic origin story for an investor. Yeah, it was through Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
But I read that book on the way down there, like literally when it was kind of my wife's turn to drive the U-Haul, I'm reading this thing and it's blowing my mind. And I was like, how do you get two mortgages? Who's gonna lend you money for two mortgages?
That's crazy. You know, obviously like, and so I read that on the way down there, I figured new city, new opportunity, new everything. And so I had a choice to either double down on IT, go get some more certifications.
I had a mentor lined up to get me through like a lot of the hardcore Cisco stuff on the hardware networking side. And I had this other opportunity of like, let's figure out real estate. And so I actually like, I started down the IT path again, and I got about halfway through kind of the first certification.
And I was just like, I can't do this. Like, I don't wanna be in a cubicle for the rest of my 30 years or 40 years or whatever. I just can't do it.
And so I literally just dropped out of that and I just started going to every real estate investor meetup I could find and every cashflow one-on-one game, like totally dating myself like back in the day, but like just trying to get around as much real estate as I could while I was just barred bartending at night and try to learn everything I could about real estate during the day. And so that was kind of my journey from like employee to laid off to trying to figure out this new thing. Well, you know, it's amazing.
You talk about that being like a bad thing or whatever, the rich dad, poor dad, but I mean, that book has changed so many people's lives. It is crazy how often that comes up. And it's just this paradigm shift.
It's just this breakthrough people get when they read this book where they just have not been experienced in this world. And especially coming from your position where you were, quote unquote, in the safe job, you probably went through school. You probably, this is the future.
You're gonna be in demand forever. And then you realize that you are not in control. And then all of a sudden your whole world can change.
And in that context, I mean, you're then reading this book that talks about kind of taking your own life and your own control and then like, creating your own wealth and your own opportunities. And I can see why that would really speak to you. Now, you're also married, you said, right?
So was this, did she have to read this book as well? I mean, when you started going back into the IT, was that like the safe, smart choice that both of you were deciding? Did you get her on board at some point to switch and go out of that field?
I mean, that's a great question. I don't think enough people ask those kind of things of like how your partner's affected through these kind of things. We were young enough to where we could take risks.
And, you know, rent was super cheap and our expenses were super low. And so, you know, taking these kinds of risks, I was making more than enough bartending. So like, there's no real pressure there.
I didn't like quit to do it full time and just had nothing going, which is ideal. So, you know, once she saw a result, you know, she was on board. That's, and that's like the, that's the thing.
You get your first check and it's the, you know, the culmination of all that hard work and it finally has paid off. You know, there were obviously some times where I'm out, you know, at networking events three, four nights a week. And she's like, what are we doing?
Like, what's going on? You know, and then once all that paid off, it kind of just made sense. It was like, okay, well, you can make, you know, large chunks of money.
Our first deal was a live-in flip. And so, you know, through that entire process, we got a place to live. We had our first house.
We got to fix it up. And, you know, a year later, we ended up selling it and moving it back to Colorado. So through that entire process, you know, she was there for it and supportive.
And, you know, once we sold that property and had, you know, $60,000 check, it was like, boom, like, oh, this makes sense and we can do it. Proof, yeah, exactly. There's a salary, a year's salary.
But did you make her read it? Did she read the book? No, no, I have probably like, I don't know, 300 books on this side of my office and she's just not into it.
She loves design. She's a bookkeeper, but she's not, she doesn't really care about that stuff. So she was like, I trust you.
We had, I think Erica ended up reading Rich Dad Poor Dad because so many people on this podcast were mentioning it. And so she's like, I feel like I need to read this book. Then it was kind of almost like underwhelming for her because it was like built up so much and she kind of already had this base understanding of like kind of what it was talking about.
But anyway, okay, so you guys moved back to Colorado. So you're on board, you're fully, you know, real estate's gonna be the good thing. So are you, where are you investing in Colorado?
Yeah, so at that point, and to give you a timeline, and it was the end of 2006 when we moved back to Colorado. So Arizona just started, like just started crashing. Colorado wouldn't really start crashing for another like year or so.
And so when I came back, I actually just started working for an agent. Just, I was actually doing BPOs. Like most of my time was spent doing BPOs.
And if you're not familiar, it's a broker price opinion. It's kind of a light appraisal for a bank and to value their assets before they go into foreclosure or after they're in foreclosure. So instead of paying for full appraisals, they pay an agent to go kind of do this light appraisal on it.
And so I was doing about, I was doing a ton of those, probably like 20 a week, something like that, which is a lot. But I'm so thankful for that experience now. I can kind of evaluate anything just by like looking at, looking at the comps and the data.
So after doing about 800 of those, things were getting really rocky on the retail side. So the agent I was working under is just a retail agent. And I took on some short sales, kind of learned that process and then I ended up getting my license.
It just made sense. Like that agent was just gonna let us all go because his business was all retail. So retail was kind of crashing at the time.
And so I kind of went out and I joined an REO team. So we were selling bank code foreclosures and that's when I started investing again. So it was about 2007 when we moved back.
So it's about a year gap between our first investment and our second, but that next one, the next like five were just flips, just buying REOs off of the MLS and flipping them, knowing that the value is dropping every month, pricing them right. And thankfully we were able to sell those and do just fine. And over the course from like 2007 through basically now, I've primarily been wholesaling and flipping inside of the agent, or excuse me, inside of the investor business.
And in 2022 started investing more out of state. And so we've done Denver for so long and then kind of we're chasing cashflow and cash flows a little bit better in lower appreciation markets. And so it just made sense to go out of state, but I have a lot of experience with managing remote teams through the REO process.
And I could take that and basically be totally fine doing it remotely, which is not for everybody, but I like one of these markets I've never even visited like once, it's just like, I don't need to, I don't wanna be a bottleneck in that process. And so the data's good, the people on the ground are great. We can do deals in that market without ever going out there, which is ideal.
Now you're scaring people. Tell me about, explain why that's okay, why you can do it this way and what you're looking for in a team, what you're looking for in the boots on the ground aspect, the data as far as the overall demographics of the area, et cetera. Tell me about what you're looking for.
Yeah, exactly. And it's not for everybody. It definitely is not.
Like everybody has a different risk tolerance. I found that we had been managing a remote REO operation in two markets in Colorado and then one in Arizona without ever going to see any of those properties. And so I had a few years of experience doing that.
And when I was wholesaling, there was this one deal that was maybe like 20 minutes from my house and I got it under contract with an agent that I knew. I sold it to another, actually I think it was another agent without ever going to see it. And it was like, wait, and it was just one of those light bulb moments where I was like, wait, I've been doing this for a long time remotely.
And if I could do it with a house that's 20 minutes away from my house, I could just do it like we do REO. And so as far as kind of evaluating the market, definitely there's a ton that you evaluate that goes into it, at least I do. But you're definitely looking at growth, economic growth, population growth, appreciation, rent to price ratio, crime rates.
You're looking for our other investors buying in this market or in these areas of this market. How are flips doing? How strong is the rental market, vacancy, all of that good stuff.
And we evaluated probably 50 markets and narrowed it down to a top 10. And those top 10 were probably so close that you could just throw a dart and hit one and it would be the same as any of the others. And so we committed to one to start and branched out now into three markets out of state.
And so, and to your other question of like, what are you looking for, building a team and having people on the ground, my first person that I go to is an agent. Being an agent for so long, I'm gonna go find a good agent who knows the area, who knows kind of what's going on on the investor side and really creating a partnership with that agent. Because we generate leads from the top down and a lot of those people just want retail prices for their home.
So we're not just doing this one way trade of information like gimme, gimme, gimme. We're trying to give value to that agent first, giving them leads, letting them close some deals. And then when we do ask for some BPOs or some comparative market analysis, they're totally fine reciprocating because we've actually provided that value first.
But yeah, agent, contractor, property manager, the contractor and property manager are usually referrals from said agent or other investors that we've networked with. And then my secret weapon is somebody on the ground who's not incentivized at all by the transaction. So it's a third party.
Think of a task rabbit or a task type service. Somebody who's gonna go out there who has no attachment to the deal. They don't care if I close it.
They don't care if I burn it down for insurance money. They don't care what I do with it. They're getting paid to go take pictures and do a video walkthrough.
So that I can keep my agent, my property manager and my contractor all accountable while I'm sitting 2,500 miles away in my office. And so they go through on a weekly basis and they'll take pictures of the projects that are under rehab or if they're being turned over, we'll send them through there too. So we know where the projects are at and if the contractor's telling us one thing and the pictures and video are telling us something else, we at least have accountability there.
So that's kind of the team on the ground. Smart. That's really smart.
I love it. I talk about writing a book myself. So I talk about how the differences in investing in an appreciation heavy market and really general would probably be the coasts, right?
Where the Midwest would be more cashflow heavy. And yeah, it's just, I think there's a lot of wisdom into what you're doing because you can, if you're getting started and you don't have a ton of cash, you can do a live in flip, live in house hack, that kind of stuff and build up some equity through taking advantage of lower down payment in an appreciation heavy area. And you can bounce around if you're young and flexible, you can bounce around in different houses and kind of build a portfolio that way.
But at some point you can take a look at your equity, your return on equity and decide if maybe you should move some of that into a more cashflow heavy market. And I think keeping your options open, keeping your brain open to those kinds of things is really smart and you just laid out perfectly how that is not that scary, it's not that crazy to do. So I love that.
Take me through your book that you wrote because we shouldn't gloss over that. And when did that happen? So between 2015 and 2016 is when I wrote that book.
Basically, I've been a BiggerPockets user since year one, so since 2005. And learning that they're based out of Denver, when I moved back to Denver in 2006, 2007, I basically just started hanging out at their office. I was just kind of that guy who was just, kind of like when I started in real estate, I'm just hanging out with other investors just trying to learn as much as possible.
I'd go down and visit their office when they had like three employees. And so, getting to know the founders and all the employees that have been over the years has been great. A lot of them are good friends of mine.
And it was just one day, I got approached about like, hey, when are you gonna write a book for us? And I had like no, I had honestly no intention to write a book. I'd been writing articles for their website and blog.
I'd probably written maybe 20 or 30. Yeah, their blog at the time. I wrote 20, 30 at the time.
And they were like, when are you gonna write a book? And they didn't have any of their publishing side set up at the time. They were just starting to hire their first person on that side.
And I was like, I've never thought about it, and I went home and I was like, if I don't do this, I'm gonna regret it every day that I didn't take this opportunity and do it. And so, I wrote kind of an outline, submitted that. They approved, they were like, write us a chapter.
We already know what your writing style's like. Write us a chapter and we'll see if we wanna green light it. I got so excited, I wrote two chapters, sent that over and they were like, yep, you're good to go.
We'll have someone draft up a contract and send it over. And yeah, it was basically just that and we brainstormed some ideas for it. And I was kind of off to the races.
It took me longer than I expected because I was doing, obviously, full-time agent and investor around that. But trying to do, yeah. Not to drop, not dropping names by any means, but I'm on a shared Google Drive spreadsheet with Brandon who was writing the, I think it was the blue rental book at the time.
And we would just keep each other accountable on, we're trying to do 1,000 words a day. So, he would enter how many words he got in that day and I'd enter mine. And I would be busy and so mine would have like a week of blanks and then he would be consistent.
And one thing I'll give him huge credit for is his consistency, which is why he can put out way more books than I can. But having a goal to at least do 500, 1,000 words a day keeps you, and that takes maybe an hour, I don't know, maybe a little bit more. But carving out that time and then being held accountable helped me get through that.
Otherwise, it probably would have taken me five or seven years. So, I was a little late on my delivery. But yeah, it was a whole, it's a whole story in itself.
But finally got it done, got it edited, did the book, the audio narration to it. You know, their job as the publishers to package it all up and go out there and sell it. So, that was how that kind of happened.
Yeah, what's the title? So, it's called Finding and Funding Great Deals. Yeah, of course.
It's Finding and Funding Great Deals. It's really about getting you from zero to the closing table. So, it's not a wholesaling book.
It's not a rental book. It's not a flip book. It's kind of all of those.
It's just about finding the best deals for the type of business that you're in, the type of marketing budget that you have, different strategies in there, all the way through, obviously, funding, like how are you gonna pay for this deal, and getting you all the way to the closing table. So, I don't care what you do with it, what you do with your property after that. Like, I'm gonna get you there.
And then, if you applied everything in the book, you would have found a good deal, know how to analyze it, know how to get financing for it, go through the closing process, and then repeating it, like basically scaling that after you're done to your next deal and your next deal. So, in a nutshell, that's what it's about. Oh, that's awesome.
And what amazing timing. You said they were like small at the time. Or they were hanging out with this up and coming, which you may not have realized they're gonna be up and coming at the time.
But yeah, what good timing. Yeah, it was good timing. It was a little bit of growing pains because we went through that first publishing hire that they had.
So, they were new to that side of the business, too. I think they published like three books or four books at the time. And so, they were new to that side and I was new to everything.
So, I was like, I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing, but you tell me what to do. Yeah, no, it's true. I am going through editing rounds and there's like this five rounds of editing.
And the first one, I think I would edit way too much because I was only supposed to focus on certain things. It's just a whole new world, basically. But it's awesome.
It is.
So, okay, so now are you retaining any of the properties you find for, I mean, you said you're moving to new markets for cash flow. When you were looking at places in Denver, were you considering doing some sort of BRRR or something like that to keep some of these properties if they were in a good location? What is your strategy for buy and hold, basically?
Yeah, in Denver, the price point's a little higher than the Midwest. So, the whole time, looking back, every investor says I should have just kept everything that I ever bought. And looking back, I definitely should have.
But I didn't have the risk tolerance for it. I was like, I could be in and out in three months versus years and years and who knows what's gonna happen. And obviously, I started my real estate career kind of during 2007, 2008, surviving through 2011, 2012.
So, I was pretty risk averse, I guess. And so, it was all just short-term projects here in Denver. And when I was finally looking into cash flow, the BRRR method is what I primarily use.
Actually, pretty much 100%. And so, in these markets, we're just looking for deals like we would on a wholesaler or a flip. So, we're basically a lead generation business that happens to deal in real estate.
And I just have multiple exit strategies for those leads. So, if they need retail price and it's not gonna work for a BRRR property, we have agents that we partner with and can sell those through. They can still get their help that they need.
If it's a deal that's okay, that doesn't work for a BRRR, we'll wholesale that to another investor. And then the ones that we obviously kind of keep the best, but the ones that work out best for BRRR, we BRRR those. So, that's the main strategy.
And if anybody's listening that isn't familiar with BRRR, this is another Pickin' Pockets term. But it's a buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat. Is that the right order of things?
Sounds good to me. So, basically, instead of realizing the profit you create through fixing up a property by selling it and getting that equity, you're just keeping that equity in the deal and getting all your cash out if you do it right. So, it can be this amazing way of kind of reusing capital.
It can be an equity line. It can be cash. I mean, it could be even hard money, right?
I mean, you could do it a number of different ways. So, yeah, it's an awesome strategy when it works. And has it been harder with the interest rates being harder to find deals that do pencil out?
Not really. I mean, even up in like our DSCR refinance would be like 8% a year or more ago. I mean, they still pencil.
It's all about buy and where you can buy it at. And if you're good at finding good deals, if you're a wholesaler and you know how to get those types of deals, then a BRRRR should pencil out as long as the rental side makes sense for that market. So, even with higher interest rates in that 8%, 8.5, it's not like super fun, but you can still make deals pencil. You can still get 75% money back out. And you can still, usually we would, there's like two levers you can pull. You can pull the, what price I'm buying at lever or the what price I'm renting at.
And then everything in the middle is not really in your control. And so, obviously you're trying to find the best deal possible, but then you're gonna underwrite it as a long-term rental to make sure it makes sense in the worst case scenario. But, what if you move that lever to midterm rental or to not really, we don't do a lot of short-term rentals, but room-by-room rental or there's a detached garage.
Can we do a midterm rental and rent the garage out to somebody else? And so, with that, you can mitigate higher interest rates by just changing your exit strategy on long-term rental, midterm rental's great. Midterm rental, oh, this is actually kind of exciting and a good deal.
And if the interest rates go down below seven or even below six, we can refinance and this deal will make even more sense at the end of the day. But it's gotta underwrite on long-term. Like I'm not gonna say stretch.
This only works as a short-term rental. No, don't do that, don't do that, so. Right, this only works if it eventually the interest rates go down.
Don't do that either. Yeah, no, that's a terrible idea. Yeah, no, I think that's the key there is making sure it pencils out now and don't be discouraged because if it pencils out now, likely, it can only get better.
Like so, usually rents go up over time and then also if interest rates do go down low enough, then you're gonna be sitting in a much better position. So, I talk about this a lot. Like I don't think we're gonna see the rates we saw in COVID necessarily, but I had a friend that refinanced like 30 houses and he would never have been able to buy 30 houses when the interest rates were low.
So, like don't sit around and wait for interest rates to come down to do anything. Like you're not gonna, you're gonna be way worse off than somebody who, yeah, keeps buying. That makes sense.
Yeah, yeah, or you'd be waiting forever and just never do anything. That's the unfortunate truth for a lot of people. Taking action is, and you know, like I think again, base hits are great.
Like you don't need to feel like you need to take this on. Like your strategy of investing in a different market is more complex and may not be perfect for somebody getting started. You might need to get your feet wet by buying something with 20% down in your backyard, you know, in your city, and just kind of starting to make that progress.
But if you don't take any action, you won't get to a strategy like that. Because I think sometimes people, like they wanna read every single strategy that's out there, and then end up not really acting on anything. Because there's like a new strategy that might be, this is the way.
And then, you know, they don't do anything with it. Yeah, I've been there my first year when we first were analyzing my very first deal was I had a mentor that was, you know, he had like, I think I still have the binder somewhere, but it was like 10 strategies to, you know, to make money in real estate. And I'm looking through, and I think we tried to lease option that property.
We tried to what's now called wholetail that property. I was gonna put a renter in there. And then finally, you know, once I laser focused, and my wife was just like, like, why don't we just move into it and fix it?
And, you know, live in flip wasn't really a term that people knew. It just made sense. And then after that, it was like, well, what do I wanna do next?
And once I laser focused on, okay, I'm gonna find the best deals possible, and that'll give me a lot of options. I could flip them or I can wholesale them. Like once I laser focused on that, it was like all the lease option and the, you know, sub two and everything else just kind of goes away.
Now I'm laser focused on this. And I try to do that now with, you know, my out of state businesses. I'll get approached with, you know, some exciting thing that's super sexy.
And I have to go, you know, you have to say no, because I'm laser focused here. And if I divert my attention, I know how I get. And I'll, you know, I'll crash my business over here to chase something sexy over there.
And it never works for me, at least. Yeah. Well, and there is, education's great.
And learning all these strategies is great. And I think that it is helpful to have a lot of different options in your tool belt, kind of like you're talking about with like, you know, midterm rental, that kind of stuff can be really helpful. And multiple exit strategies, it's always good to think strategically like that.
But yeah, sometimes it's just the simple way is the best way to get started. So don't. Yeah, for sure.
Don't try to put stress when you're learning to walk. Yeah, I hear you. Yeah, that's awesome, man.
So you're still active in the Denver area as well, I assume. So it's just less doing like the Burr style in the Denver area. You're just more about the flips also?
Yeah, in Denver, I'm still wholesaling here and there. Just stuff that randomly comes across my desk. I'm not actively marketing in Denver anymore.
So I don't have, you know, top of funnel leads coming in. I'll still get calls off of marketing from two plus years ago, which is good. Shows that it worked over time, which is nice.
But for the most part, in Denver, I'm mainly doing my agent business. And a few, you know, scattered deals here and there. It's just not my main focus.
I'll get approached with like a flip or something. And I just know, I know a guy who will buy it. I'm not gonna take on that deal here because it'll distract me from kind of the long-term goal.
Sure, that makes sense. And that ultimately is to develop the cash flow, right? Yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah.
Building cash flow as a, you know, exit strategy so I don't have to grind every day in real estate. Yeah, yeah, it's always, you know, nice to try to get to a point where you can be 100%, like, you know, have your cash flow cover 100% of your expenses so that you're free to do whatever. And then, you know, grow that too so that you can increase your lifestyle, which is tough for a lot of people.
I mean, you know, a lot of agents getting started are gonna be tempted by, you know, wanting to show that they're successful by having a fancy car or whatever. And so, like, I think it's good to have some voices like this. Like, okay, like, try this way.
Try to limit your expenses at the beginning. Build up some portfolio. You know, get some rentals if you wanna have that fancy lease to pay for it before you go for it.
And then you'll be sleeping a little bit better when things get a little slow, when things get a little lean in the sales business. Yeah, they will, don't worry. Like, I feel bad for those agents who started off in, you know, 2017 or something.
And yeah, COVID was like a slight hit, but then, like, obviously things just kept going crazy through 2021. And like, they probably just thought everything was so easy where I started in 2007 and it felt like the sky was falling every day. And that gave me a mentality of, you know, like, I have to, like, grit this thing out.
And when times were good, it was always just like, well, when's that shoe gonna drop? Because I know it is. So maybe I'm a little traumatized from that process, but I feel like that, in my personal ethos, is basically like, I have no, like, extravagant expenses at all.
I'm never gonna be the guy who buys a Lamborghini or anything more than like a, you know, a nice Toyota 4Runner or something. Like, I'm never just gonna be that guy. I'm not gonna have a boat.
I'm not gonna, like, buy a plane. I'm just not that guy. I don't care.
So I'm not here to make a bazillion dollars. I'm here to, like, help people. And like you said, sleep okay at night to where I don't have to worry about, you know, market shifts or being laid off or anything like that.
Yeah, I love it. It's good, it's good advice, good way to live. And I agree.
I started in 2014. So a little bit before what you're talking about. And it was definitely slow at the time.
So it was a good time to build up a business organically. And it, yeah, it has to be really hard if you start when things were like just hot, hot. Because you might've been so busy right off the bat and overwhelmed that you maybe didn't have the systems in place to follow up with aid, your clients and all that stuff.
But that doesn't mean you can't make it, keep at it, just know it's different. No, yeah, you can. Yeah, and there's, right around there, I'll have to check in when it was published, but there's a book called, from Gary Keller, called Shift.
And it was like right around, I wanna say 2011, 2012. And that was like, that was when REOs were dying out and short sales were pretty rampant. And we had basically shifted our business from REO to short sale.
And after reading that book, I was like, man, if you're not changing inside of the business to react to the market, or even before the market, where that was their only business and they burned a bunch of bridges by just being a jerk REO agent, like a lot of them were back in the day. Then once the market shifted back over to retail, they were just screwed. Like they went from 20 assignments a week from their banks to like one a month, you know?
And so they all let their staff go, they all let their offices go, and it was like them trying to get down back in the trenches two years too late on the retail side, which they hadn't done for five or six years. So that's still, I think, a great book to read on how you can change your business inside of the shifting market. It's a great, great thing to point out.
And I think I've heard a lot of people talking about like, you know, there's opportunities in kind of every market but it's really what you're saying is paying attention to it and understanding where things are going, trying to move with it to shift, right? But that's great. I'm curious if you have a golden nugget for our listeners.
Yeah, so I mean, I was thinking about this when you sent over kind of your questions and I think right in line with what I was just talking about is basically not only being aware of what's going on in the market and being able to react to it. Thankfully, I think I read that like right when short sales like started dropping off and I knew that I had to like jump off, otherwise I was just gonna get stuck like those guys. What I did inside of that is this ethos of kind of leading with value.
And so when I was going back into kind of like the retail space, focusing more on investing that was outside of short sales and REO, now I had to go back into kind of off market, direct to seller, was basically like letting them know what the benefits are, leading with the value first inside of all of the communications and interactions I had with clients and potential leads. And with that kind of like I'm gonna help you first and not expect like anything on the backside, that helped my business so much and I continue to do it through networking, people that I meet, all the hobbies I have. I don't go out there and be like, I'm a real estate agent.
If you wanna sell your house, sell it through me. I don't even mention that I just say I'm in real estate. Like if they wanna pry, we can talk about investing or whatever.
I don't want every interaction to be them feeling like I'm gonna try to sell them or I'm there to like get their business or whatever. So I've helped a lot of those people when tax assessments come, how to fight your tax assessment. And I have no, I set that out to clients, to friends, to people who aren't even in my client database.
It was just people I know through Boy Scouts or through things that my son was involved in. And I was just like, hey, if you wanna fight your property taxes, here's some education and here's how to do it and here's the success rate. It's not 100% but if you do these things, there's a pretty good likelihood that you'll get it knocked down.
And doing that kind of stuff with no reciprocity or expecting anything back, that's huge. That helps me sleep at night. So I'm not always having to worry about selling.
But it does come back in organic ways. Whether it's like a referral or like, hey, my uncle has this house that he's lived in for 30 years and you're the first person I thought of. I didn't have to go hard sell that person.
I just had to lead with value and be a normal person. And it's helped in my agent business and my investor business immensely. Whether through networking or actual just deals.
So like, yeah, shift and lead with value. No, I love that. That's so true.
And I think you talk about, you mentioned a good example of that kind of in the investing space where you're making partnerships with agents that are in these markets and you're able to provide them leads through what the marketing you're doing. And so it is, that's a very value forward proposition you can go to an agent with. And yeah, I love it.
It's a great way to do business. So then the next question would be if, we already mentioned Rich Dad, Poor Dad, but you said you have 300 books beside you. So what would be a fundamental book you think everybody should read or maybe one that you just currently really enjoy?
Yeah, I always go back to, and I even pulled it out for you, but Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday. It's my favorite book of all time. I reread it every year.
I have about seven or eight copies back there that I just give out. It's probably my most gifted book. And people are probably pretty annoyed that they've gotten one from me unless they've read it and they understand.
But it's definitely, next to Rich Dad, Poor Dad, I guess, it's been like the next transformational book that I've ever read. And it's just given me a toolkit for dealing with life and dealing with people. And just, it kind of boils hardcore down into like, I can only change myself and how I react to things.
I can't change anything outside of that. And so if somebody's super mad and they're yelling at me, like, I can choose to react to that. I could choose to get offended, or I can basically choose not to and not have it affect me and not have it hurt my feelings or whatever that is.
I can't change the news. I can't change what's going on in the country. I can't change what's going on across the world.
I can only change what's inside my skull and that's about it. I can't choose if my wife decides to leave me or something like that. Or if a bus hits my uncle or something like that, I can't change those things.
But I can change how I basically react to it and how I can turn that into growth. I can turn that into opportunity. I can turn that into ways to provide value and add service to people.
But it definitely helped me with a lot of just worrying about external things that I can't change. Now I don't have to worry about that stuff. It doesn't affect me nearly as much as it used to.
So in a nutshell, that's about it. But stoicism's basically changed the way that I think about a lot of things. And this was my gateway drug to that.
So that's my favorite book. I love it. I love it.
And I think it's so true that, I think people spend a lot of times consumed and focused on things they have no control over. And I think politics is probably one of the big ones, especially with how we have social media and all this stuff kind of geared towards just making us very angry. And like, why do you want that?
But people are just like pressing that dopamine button or whatever they're getting, like the rat with the cocaine or whatever it is stars themselves. And it's like, you have no control over this. You might make a very thoughtful post on Facebook, but it's just gonna piss the other side off more.
It's not gonna help anything. So let's just, there was a distinct moment for me where I just, I had that, I wanna focus 90% of my energy on what I can control. And try to let the rest go.
And it's such a game changer. I love it. It is, yeah.
It frees up so much room in your head. And honestly, a lot of social media, I'm not on as actively as I used to be. Just for my own health.
I had logged on and I was cleaning up some of my Instagram. And I had just done an internal story to friends. And it was just random.
It was just some song I was listening to or something. But I got a couple texts that were like, man, we haven't seen you in forever. I hope everything's good.
Good to see you back. And I'm like, I'm not back to stay. I'm gonna post stuff for brand stuff that I'm doing.
Or updates to family or stuff like that. But I've been so much healthier without going onto Facebook or Instagram like I used to. And so yeah, my ethos is, or my theory is humanity wasn't ready for the internet or social media.
And it's so true. We just were not ready for that much information or twisting of information or whatever that looks like. It's just, it's insane.
So where you can, cut back and claim back parts of your sanity, for sure. Yeah, go out and get some sunshine. Yeah, touch some grass if you can.
That's awesome. So where would be a good place for people? You said you do some branding still on social media.
I imagine people would pick up your book on BiggerPockets or maybe Amazon as well. Where can people find you? Yeah, for sure.
Instagram's a decent place. I'm starting to do some more stuff over there. So that handles at Young Anson.
I also have a real estate focused podcast on the investor side where I talk to investors about their process and their, basically their wins, their fails, getting through to the story of the deals that they're doing and how that's changed them. And you can find that at PropertySquadHQ.com. And yeah, you can reach out there.
You can reach out on Instagram. You can find me on BiggerPockets. Still am on there and get messages through there all the time.
So yeah, definitely hit me up if you have any questions or anything that you need from me, for sure. Perfect. Well, I wanna say quickly, I think we had a little bit of technical issues.
I think we might've had a bit of a delay. So if anybody's still listening to this, just explain that quick. But yeah, thanks so much for being on the show.
It's been a really, it's an honor, it's a pleasure. So I really appreciate it and let's stay in touch. Yeah, thank you so much.
This is great. Awesome.
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