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Rich Dad Radio Show: In-Your-Face Advice on Investing, Personal Finance, & Starting a Business"This Real Estate Hack Made Me $17K/Month – FAST!"
Rich Dad Radio Show: In-Your-Face Advice on Investing, Personal Finance, & Starting a Business"This Real Estate Hack Made Me $17K/Month – FAST!"
"This Real Estate Hack Made Me $17K/Month – FAST!"
Update: 2025-01-30
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👉 Get Your Free Copy of "How to Buy Your First Investment Property" - https://bit.ly/3NJLquO
From tragedy to triumph—Chris Singleton’s journey is nothing short of inspiring. In this episode of The Rich Dad Real Estate Show, we dive deep into how Chris turned a heartbreaking event into fuel for success. After losing his mother in a tragic event, he made a commitment to create financial security for himself and his family.
Chris didn’t just build wealth—he did it strategically by buying real estate in cash, growing his portfolio to 20+ properties while generating $17,000/month in passive income. He shares why he took the all-cash route, how he identifies profitable deals, and the mindset shifts that helped him scale.
But this episode isn’t just about real estate—it’s about resilience, community, and financial independence. Chris discusses the importance of building relationships with tenants, self-managing properties, and the lessons he learned from his mentors (including insights from Rich Dad Poor Dad).
If you’ve ever thought about getting into real estate but felt like the timing wasn’t right, this episode will change your perspective.
From tragedy to triumph—Chris Singleton’s journey is nothing short of inspiring. In this episode of The Rich Dad Real Estate Show, we dive deep into how Chris turned a heartbreaking event into fuel for success. After losing his mother in a tragic event, he made a commitment to create financial security for himself and his family.
Chris didn’t just build wealth—he did it strategically by buying real estate in cash, growing his portfolio to 20+ properties while generating $17,000/month in passive income. He shares why he took the all-cash route, how he identifies profitable deals, and the mindset shifts that helped him scale.
But this episode isn’t just about real estate—it’s about resilience, community, and financial independence. Chris discusses the importance of building relationships with tenants, self-managing properties, and the lessons he learned from his mentors (including insights from Rich Dad Poor Dad).
If you’ve ever thought about getting into real estate but felt like the timing wasn’t right, this episode will change your perspective.
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Transcript
00:00:00
Welcome to the Rich Dad Real Estate Show, where we talk about the good news and bad news.
00:00:03
The real estate hosted by yours truly, Jiren Sustard.
00:00:07
I want you guys to go on to the show notes before we start today and download my free ebook
00:00:11
"How to Buy Your First Investment Properties", written by myself and Robert Kiyosaki.
00:00:15
And we want to take you guys step by step through what you need to do to be able to get
00:00:19
started and real estate.
00:00:20
Or maybe you're starting.
00:00:21
You've got a few properties, but you need help scaling.
00:00:24
This is going to give you the blueprint that you need to get it done.
00:00:26
And so go on to the show notes, click on the link, download the free ebook today.
00:00:30
I am super excited to introduce you guys to the guest Chris Singleton, who's with me today.
00:00:34
Chris has a powerful story, one of the most powerful stories I have ever heard.
00:00:39
And he's also a fantastic real estate investor.
00:00:41
And then most importantly, he is a Charleston Southern Buckingeer graduate.
00:00:47
And so am I.
00:00:48
So we both played in the same baseball program for the same coach.
00:00:51
In different times, I think Chris came in the year I graduated, but it's not often that
00:00:55
you get to see two Charleston Southern bugs on a big platform like this, getting to share
00:00:59
our story with the world.
00:01:00
So Chris, I want to thank you for taking time to be on today.
00:01:03
Absolutely, man.
00:01:04
I'm so grateful to be hooking up with you and seeing all that you're doing.
00:01:08
So I'm proud of you, man.
00:01:10
Yeah.
00:01:11
Same to you, man.
00:01:12
You have turned one of the most horrific stories in our nation of all time into one of
00:01:18
the most life-changing, inspirational, powerful messages of all time.
00:01:25
And so we're going to get into real estate because you have done well for yourself.
00:01:30
And then you were smart enough to say, Hey, I've worked hard.
00:01:34
I've been able to help a lot of people.
00:01:35
I've got compensated for it.
00:01:37
Now I'm going to go stored in the greatest asset known to man.
00:01:40
And so we're going to break down the strategies for that.
00:01:42
But I would be remiss to not ask you to share your story first, because again, I believe
00:01:48
it's going to have more of an impact on folks than the real estate knowledge, which we'll
00:01:51
share as we get to the latter part of this episode.
00:01:54
Yeah, man.
00:01:55
Well, if people don't know about the event that he's talking about, there was a massacre that
00:02:00
happened at my church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015.
00:02:06
So a mother manual, Amy church, my home church that grew up in, there was a self-proclaimed
00:02:11
white supremacist came to our church.
00:02:14
He filed over 70 bullets into our church, over 50 of those bullets entered bodies in our
00:02:19
church.
00:02:20
And this guy took nine lives and his mission was he wanted to start a racial war in this
00:02:25
country.
00:02:27
And my hero, my biggest fan, Jeremy, my mom was killed in that shooting.
00:02:33
And you know, although I speak about it a lot, man, you know, just thinking about that was
00:02:38
my everything.
00:02:40
And she was taken away.
00:02:41
And I'm so grateful that I had 18 years of my mom.
00:02:45
But on the second hand, it's like, man, I have three kids.
00:02:49
Now they don't have my mom to be grandma to them.
00:02:52
And so after my mom was killed, I actually forgave my mother's killer.
00:02:56
And I'm a believer, man, I feel like God placed it on my heart.
00:03:00
And I forgave my mother's killer and not that everything is sunshine and rainbows when
00:03:04
I think about them.
00:03:05
But now I've been able to move forward in my life and try to be the opposite of this guy.
00:03:09
So following her death, you know, I started to just share about how we can be united in
00:03:14
our country and our world.
00:03:16
And I start the right children's books about love and unity.
00:03:19
And I'm grateful that God has blessed that thus far.
00:03:23
But that's my story, man.
00:03:24
I lost my hero in a very tragic way.
00:03:26
And I said, you know what?
00:03:27
I'm gonna make my mom proud by being the opposite of this killer.
00:03:31
That's what I've done in my life.
00:03:32
And I'm grateful that I've been able to do it thus far.
00:03:35
Man, yeah, one of the most horrific things we were talking before the show, I, you know,
00:03:41
you're from Charleston.
00:03:42
I lived in Charleston for years, going to school there.
00:03:45
And it's a day I'll never forget.
00:03:46
You know, I wasn't at the university any longer.
00:03:49
But I was still very connected with the university.
00:03:52
We had the same coach.
00:03:54
And it was just one of those you said, I believe I was living in Florida.
00:03:58
I think I was either West Palm or Jackson about the time.
00:04:00
And I just remember sitting there, like, dear God, what in the world is going to?
00:04:05
Because Charleston, man, you know, they call Philadelphia the city of brotherly love.
00:04:09
But Charleston is just a melting pot of people from all ethnicities all over the world.
00:04:16
And they all get along for the most part.
00:04:19
It's a fantastic and there's, you know, there, there's still plenty of problems, you know,
00:04:23
in the south and all across the world.
00:04:25
No doubt.
00:04:26
We can't dismiss that.
00:04:27
But Charleston's a fantastic city.
00:04:28
And so for that to have you see it happen in other places and you're like, you know, that,
00:04:33
that's awful.
00:04:34
It never happened where I live because we all, you know, love each other.
00:04:37
And then it happens.
00:04:38
You're just blown away.
00:04:39
And I, you know, one of the things I remember and it was probably a whirlwind, I would imagine
00:04:43
for you was, and I'd like to know what this was like.
00:04:48
You know, maybe other people who they're facing hard things in life for their going to.
00:04:51
If you hadn't faced something hard in life, you're going to know as it going to be to the
00:04:54
extent that Chris did, I pray to God not.
00:04:57
But we are going to face things and one thing I remember is the community coming together.
00:05:02
And again, you were probably just in a whirlwind like, what is going on?
00:05:06
This doesn't even seem real.
00:05:07
I just remember, you know, Coach Slate being there for you, Coach Kenney being there for
00:05:10
you, your team, the Charleston community.
00:05:12
And then there's people, you know, you grew up there who I would imagine were just there
00:05:16
and took you into their arms to help you get through this along with the grace of the
00:05:22
good Lord.
00:05:23
Yeah, man.
00:05:24
I feel like a lot of times athletes, you know, we have teammates, but, you know, for me,
00:05:31
I had like brothers.
00:05:32
I had people that I'd gone through so much with, you know, from being 150 pounds and stuff
00:05:37
in my face and working out with every day and, you know, being good in high school and
00:05:42
you get to college like, man, am I even good anymore?
00:05:44
Like I had just a group of people that were around me who I thought were family.
00:05:48
So when crap at the fan, like I had brothers to go to.
00:05:53
And this is one reason why I will make my kids play some type of sport because I feel like
00:05:58
it teaches discipline, it teaches hard work.
00:06:01
But you also have a group of people like I have teammates from when I was six, seven years
00:06:05
old that I am still friends with today.
00:06:08
And when the worst of the worst happened to me, I had people that I could go to.
00:06:13
And so that's that the community of Charleston was definitely there for me.
00:06:17
That's one reason why I won't move.
00:06:18
I'll always have a house here, I should say because I, you know, I'm going to be moving
00:06:22
around a little bit.
00:06:23
I'll tell you about that a little bit more.
00:06:25
But I'll always have a house here because the city wrapped his arms around me.
00:06:30
And like you mentioned, man, sometimes people come from other places to spread hate in
00:06:36
your city.
00:06:37
And that's what happened in Charleston, right?
00:06:39
This guy wasn't from Charleston, but he knew how historic our church was in the black community.
00:06:45
And his mission was he wanted to divide us.
00:06:48
And sometimes our country still feels divided unfortunately, but I feel like a person like
00:06:52
me and you and others that are just trying to make us united.
00:06:55
We may not always think and believe the same, but we can still love one another.
00:06:59
And what I believe is the greatest country on earth.
00:07:01
100%.
00:07:02
How have you gone?
00:07:03
You know, I know the story, but it's pretty cool to see what you've done.
00:07:06
Talking about that unity and being able to take this terrible thing that happened and
00:07:10
turn it into good.
00:07:11
So you graduate college.
00:07:12
What does life look like from there and how did it evolve to where you are today, to
00:07:17
where you're able to share a message of hope and, you know, bring unity because it's
00:07:20
like you said, we're never going to be a united country united.
00:07:24
We're I hate to say never.
00:07:25
That's an unhopeful message.
00:07:27
Barring the grace of God, it's very hard to get everybody on the same page.
00:07:30
But how do we make progress?
00:07:32
It's people, individual folks like yourself going around and spreading the message of unity
00:07:38
across the world.
00:07:39
And so how did that evolve to where you are today, to where you're getting to impact thousands
00:07:42
of people all across the United States, maybe even the globe?
00:07:45
Yes.
00:07:46
So, you know, after college, I got drafted by the Chicago Cubs, man.
00:07:49
So I got drafted, played professional baseball, chased my dream.
00:07:53
You know, I got a $100,000 signing bonus, which I thought was so much money and realized
00:07:57
real quick.
00:07:58
Uncle Sam was going to take about 35% of that.
00:08:00
So I, I got my, I got my signing bonus.
00:08:04
I had my family at home, I chased my dream and I played a couple years.
00:08:09
The whole time I was playing, man, I knew that my mission was to spread this message of love
00:08:13
across our country in the world.
00:08:15
And so I was, I didn't know it was like a real career.
00:08:18
And honestly, I just knew people would ask me to speak at their youth group or their, you
00:08:22
know, kid soccer league and, you know, it evolved from doing stuff like that to doing companies
00:08:27
and now every year.
00:08:28
I do about 40 to 50 companies and then I do about 80 schools a year where I'm speaking.
00:08:33
So it just evolved just from people knowing that I'm genuine with the message.
00:08:37
And I didn't really have like a business mind behind it at first.
00:08:40
I just was like, Hey, man, I want to share this message and make my mom proud and bring
00:08:43
people together. Now I've done it in 41 to 50 states and a couple of different countries
00:08:49
around the world.
00:08:50
And I'm grateful.
00:08:51
And the message is simple, man, we, like you said, we won't always be on the same page.
00:08:56
But we can agree to disagree respectfully.
00:08:59
I think that's a beautiful thing when you can say, Hey, man, I see it as pre plus one.
00:09:02
You see it as two plus two.
00:09:04
And we met.
00:09:05
We both may be right.
00:09:06
And it's to a certain extent.
00:09:08
But I see it this way.
00:09:09
You see it that way.
00:09:10
It's okay for us to disagree as long as it's respectful, right?
00:09:14
I played baseball.
00:09:15
I never liked country music, right?
00:09:17
And but I can still love somebody that loves country music.
00:09:20
Even if I say, man, I wouldn't listen to that on my deathbed, you know what I'm saying?
00:09:23
So like, I think we can agree to disagree, but do it in a respectful manner.
00:09:28
And that's the mission that I share all across the world.
00:09:32
It's interesting to me.
00:09:33
If you put, let's say you put 10 people in a room who didn't agree on certain topics,
00:09:39
there's a very strong chance that they'd be able to get along pretty darn good.
00:09:42
But you put people on a phone on a social media, who then can voice their disagreement on
00:09:48
opinions.
00:09:49
And it gets unbelievably nasty.
00:09:50
My wife and I were having this conversation.
00:09:53
And it's sad.
00:09:54
It's our world.
00:09:55
So it's like, you can say you're complaining about or you can try to deal with it.
00:09:58
It's sad that that happens.
00:09:59
But if we, that's why I think it's so important to be engaged, we were talking about community
00:10:04
earlier in the people around you, I think it's so important to be engaged in real life
00:10:08
to people in your community who may think like you do and who may don't, because what we've,
00:10:14
what I've learned is there are tons of people that I disagree with wholeheartedly on a ton
00:10:19
of different subjects.
00:10:20
But guess what?
00:10:21
Every week or every day, we're hanging out with each other and working out in the gym.
00:10:24
But we're playing pickup basketball.
00:10:26
We're playing pickleball.
00:10:27
And we get along and we coexist.
00:10:29
And there's no issues.
00:10:30
But then if we were to hop on the social media thing, man, we would be able to, you know,
00:10:35
eat each other alive and it turns nasty quick and it's sad that we get that way, but I think
00:10:38
we have to stay grounded and knowing that like we're all meeting God's image.
00:10:42
We're all God's children living here on planet earth.
00:10:45
And it's our duty to love our neighbor and love God.
00:10:48
And if we do those two things, we're going to be pretty darn okay in life.
00:10:52
But the problem is there's just a lot of evil and it's sad.
00:10:56
It's really, really sad.
00:10:57
Yeah.
00:10:58
I agree, man.
00:10:59
There's just this song from, I think it's named Danny Gonke or something like that.
00:11:02
And it said it all comes down to this love God and love people.
00:11:05
So I'm loving people, even if they think in, you know, dress or listen to different music
00:11:09
or, you know, vote a different way, you know, I might not always agree with them.
00:11:13
But I can still love them.
00:11:14
Sometimes you love them at a distance, right?
00:11:15
Because I wouldn't teach my kids that, right?
00:11:18
Or I wouldn't do this personally.
00:11:20
That's not what I believe or things that I would do.
00:11:22
But I can still love them and respect them and say, hey, man, that's how you think.
00:11:26
That's how you believe a more power to your brother.
00:11:28
But listen, that's probably not what I'm going to do in my household or teach my kids.
00:11:32
But I will let them know, hey, people in this world do think differently and it doesn't mean
00:11:37
that, you know, you're always better or worse than they are or they're, you know, whatever
00:11:40
it may be.
00:11:41
But listen, that's just not the way that we do things and that's okay.
00:11:44
And I think teaching my kids that and teaching people that let's us for lack of better words
00:11:50
co-exist and a time where it feels like, man, it's got to be what I think or what you think
00:11:57
and that's it.
00:11:58
Hey, in regards to your loving at a distance, I was reading the Bible this morning.
00:12:02
I think it was in Proverbs.
00:12:03
It said be wise as a serpent, gentle as a dove.
00:12:06
Sometimes that wisdom says, I love you, but stay away.
00:12:10
We'll be right back with Chris Singleton, where we're going to talk about real estate strategy
00:12:14
and how he used the income he had to build well to the greatest asset on planet earth.
00:12:19
Donald Trump returned to office and Republicans take control of the House and Senate.
00:12:23
It's huge news, but the challenges we face as a nation are still here in four years of
00:12:29
chaos.
00:12:30
Trump has lost value inflation, run rapid, interest rates through the roof and wars rage across
00:12:35
the globe.
00:12:36
Trump has inherited an economy that's a total mass and the burden to rebuild is huge.
00:12:43
This isn't going to get fixed overnight, especially with the ongoing assault to the dollar
00:12:47
from bricks nations and our growing national debt.
00:12:50
Your savings are still vulnerable gambling with your wealth is not an option.
00:12:55
If we've learned anything is that we need to take action and protect what we've worked
00:12:59
so hard to earn.
00:13:00
That's why we've partnered with Allegiance Gold, a company we trust to help you protect
00:13:05
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00:13:06
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00:13:11
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00:13:12
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00:13:15
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00:13:21
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00:13:24
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00:13:30
or call 844-3-Robert, that's 844-376-2378.
00:13:37
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00:13:42
Donald Trump returned to office and Republicans take control of the House and Senate.
00:13:46
It's huge news, but the challenges we face as a nation are still here.
00:13:52
In four years of chaos, the dollar has lost value, inflation, run, rapid, interest rates
00:13:56
through the roof, and wars rage across the globe.
00:13:59
Trump has inherited an economy that's a total mess, and the burden to rebuild is huge.
00:14:06
This isn't going to get fixed overnight, especially with the ongoing assault to the dollar
00:14:10
from bricks nations and our growing national debt.
00:14:13
Your savings are still vulnerable, gambling with your wealth is not an option.
00:14:17
If we've learned anything, it's that we need to take action and protect what we've worked
00:14:21
so hard to earn.
00:14:23
That's why we partnered with Allegiance Gold, a company we trust that helped you protect
00:14:27
your financial future.
00:14:29
Gold and silver are time-tested ways to hedge against economic chaos.
00:14:34
They're not just investments, they're a piece of mind for your wealth.
00:14:38
When you start your investment with Allegiance Gold today, you'll get free silver as part
00:14:42
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00:14:44
Just mention Robert said to you and they'll take care of you.
00:14:47
Don't sit on the sidelines and act today, secure your wealth, go to protectwithrobert.com
00:14:53
or call 844-3-Robert.
00:14:56
That's 844-376-2378.
00:15:00
Let them help you get started, protectwithrobert.com.
00:15:04
Are you worried about your financial security?
00:15:07
In these unprecedented times, if you are, the next minute, you'd profoundly impact your
00:15:11
financial security.
00:15:13
Imagine waking up to find the economy has plunged, and your portfolio has plummeted
00:15:17
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00:15:18
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00:15:25
Where would you turn?
00:15:27
For many, this may sound like fiction, but it's a stark reality.
00:15:30
For those that have money on the line, recently America's awoke to both the Nasdaq and the
00:15:35
Dow plummeting over 1,100 points each and triggering a frenzy of sell-offs.
00:15:41
History shows us how a single event can crash the market.
00:15:44
At The.com bubble of 1999, the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 and the pandemic of 2020.
00:15:52
But today, we're facing multiple bubbles, commercial real estate, stock, bonds, and banks
00:15:57
combined with the relentless inflation, the threat of global recession, the spectra of
00:16:02
war, and you have the perfect storm.
00:16:04
The consequences could be catastrophic, plunging us into unprecedented crisis.
00:16:10
America is sliding in the age of discord, with trust in institutions collapsing, and
00:16:14
the Democratic norms unraveling the quality of life for Americans has declined.
00:16:20
Wealth is concentrated among our rich, while the median American family income stagnates,
00:16:25
creating a dangerously top-heavy social pyramid.
00:16:28
Moreover, hostile countries like Russia, China, and Iran are working to destroy the US dollar.
00:16:34
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00:16:37
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00:17:19
Welcome back to the Rich Dad Real Estate Show.
00:17:21
We're talking about the good news and bad news, a real estate with Chris Singleton, so Chris,
00:17:25
you had this horrific thing happen in life and you were able to turn it into a positive.
00:17:30
You started speaking at youth groups and then some church maybe started calling in schools
00:17:34
and then now companies and so what happened is just a story that you needed to tell to
00:17:39
unite people and give hope, turned into your lifelong mission and you're calling and so now
00:17:44
you do it full time, you travel, maybe a third of the year going around speaking and doing
00:17:50
this thing and so it's turned into a business, maybe you didn't know it was going to but it
00:17:53
is today and that's what you do for a living.
00:17:56
You've done very well for yourself being able to do this good thing, offer a lot of hope
00:18:01
to people but also provide for your family and so there came a time where you're like okay,
00:18:06
I've kind of got my finances in order.
00:18:08
Now we have a little bit more money coming in than we're spending which takes the people
00:18:12
a lot of time to get there but when you get there, I'll never forget the day I did when
00:18:15
it's like holy crap, I got money left over.
00:18:18
A lot of people end up going to buy you know a boat or this or that and they waste it.
00:18:22
You said I'm going to look at some people in my life who I've seen had success and what
00:18:26
they did is they bought real estate.
00:18:27
I'm going to give that a shot.
00:18:29
So how that unfold for you and what got you in real estate?
00:18:35
Yeah I think the first time up, my first property was in 2018 so after my mom was taking
00:18:41
away, I took my signing bonus, I took my mom's life insurance, I was able to buy a duplex
00:18:48
right?
00:18:49
I bought it for like 175 grand and the reason why I did that is because I had a coach and
00:18:53
you know the coach Kenny Wilkinson who had some properties and I said man, you know he's
00:18:59
always coaching.
00:19:00
He's never working.
00:19:01
I want to do something like that you know and so I started you know I went to YouTube University
00:19:07
I read just about every book you could think of starting with Rich Dad Poor Dad right?
00:19:11
So I read everything you could you could you could you could find when you Google books
00:19:16
on real estate and then I just I jumped I made the leap and I bought that first duplex put
00:19:22
about 25 grand into it and I made that 1% rule man.
00:19:25
I was so happy I said you know $1,000 on this side, $1,000 on that side man I'm doing this thing
00:19:31
and I got so lucky because the first one it worked out and 2019 that's when I got released
00:19:38
from playing baseball but I was already speaking and doing pretty well for myself and you know
00:19:44
making a couple hundred grand and that went up from you know couple hundred grand to about
00:19:48
half a million bucks in a year and then it started escalating to over a million a year
00:19:52
and so I got to a point where I started saying man I've got I want to buy something every
00:19:57
year that was my goal so I started buying another duplex here another single family there
00:20:02
and it just scaled in and we're at 20 20 units now and the biggest thing that we bought
00:20:09
was like a you know a small eight unit apartment that we bought and I I bought that one cash
00:20:15
so that that was probably the biggest thing that we we bought this far and yeah things have
00:20:21
been good man I've been super blessed and you know we manage our own stuff we don't have a property
00:20:26
manager and my wife enjoys it I I enjoy it it hasn't been too stressful for me because we we set people
00:20:33
up the right way and you know we we're blessed man we're blessed I love that all right so I want to
00:20:39
break a couple things down 1% role so if somebody's listening to me like what in the world is he talking
00:20:44
about what is the 1% role what were you looking for because I I live by that too and you know sometimes
00:20:51
I'd love to get better than the 1% role if it all possible but it's a great kind of baseline
00:20:56
metric for investors you mind breaking down what that means yeah and it's it's it's really hard to
00:21:01
to do nowadays in certain areas right so it some people listening might be like man you can't
00:21:08
find those anymore right and believe it or not you can still find them you just got to be very
00:21:13
creative and and maybe find something off market but essentially what I was trying to do is
00:21:18
let's say I buy something for $100,000 right I want that monthly rent to be 1% of what that $100,000
00:21:26
is which is you know a thousand bucks right so in my example I bought that duplex for 175,000 I
00:21:34
put 25,000 into it in renovations and I rented each side of the duplex out 4,000 each so I bought it
00:21:41
for all in 200,000 and each side rented at a thousand so I'm my monthly rents were 2,000 so I made
00:21:48
that 1% rule and I've still even today I'm able to do this I bought another duplex in that same area
00:21:55
actually didn't buy it for 175 anymore I bought it for like 260 or 265 but I put 60,000 into it
00:22:05
and I was able to rent out each side for 1650 now right so the rents were a thousand now they're 1650
00:22:12
and so you know from 2018 to 2024 2025 it's grown so yeah you're still able to do it it's just a
00:22:20
little bit tougher to find those deals but it still works yeah no it definitely I mean I would say
00:22:25
before the whole boom of whatever 2021, 2021, 2022 it was easier to find those 1% rules and then it
00:22:31
went absolutely nuts I mean you look at the price of housing and if you were somebody like us
00:22:37
who have been in the game I had I don't know 25 units before then and I was able to ride that wave up
00:22:43
now one thing caveat I want to say because people love to say well must have been nice you got in at
00:22:49
the right time I always come back with you can't get lucky if you don't play the game how many people
00:22:56
sit on the sidelines because it's not the perfect investing environment I'm sure you're the same way
00:23:01
as me when I started buying in 2018 it's a bad time to buy real estate 2019 you don't need
00:23:06
to buy real estate 2020 it's a pandemic don't buy all every single year dude I got five flips going
00:23:12
on right now I bought I don't know another four or five properties last year I have bought every single
00:23:18
year and it's been a good time to buy real estate for me but everybody else has said it's been a bad time
00:23:23
to buy real estate our deal is harder to find it sometimes 100% in 2021 2021 and 22 was it hard
00:23:30
to make rentals work doing the 1% rule or a burr absolutely but does that mean real estate was bad
00:23:36
no you could get creative and find rental properties that still meant the 1% rule still cash flowed
00:23:42
or you look and say okay what is the market doing so there's a saying in sports give what the game
00:23:47
or take what the game's giving you right don't try and force it and so I would say in those times
00:23:52
when real estate was going hey why what was the game giving us it was giving us flips from somebody
00:23:55
who's really into into real estate investing so if you were like man I can't find reals it make work
00:24:00
well go flip because the market's going up you're able to buy a property here you even had to do
00:24:04
hardly any work to it could hold it for a month or two and then you can sell it and make you know 20%
00:24:09
profit or something insane and so I I struggle with the you know must be nice real estate's impossible
00:24:16
now I just don't believe that because I literally buy deals all the time and then we look at pricing
00:24:22
pricing has gone up so you mentioned you know you bought it for 175 in 2018 and then same neighborhood
00:24:28
a few years later was like 265 yes pricing has 100% going up but what else is going up rents and so
00:24:36
you just made the point where you started getting a thousand bucks on each side when you started now
00:24:40
each side is giving you 1600 so now you're 32 well you now you can still hit those same metrics and
00:24:45
I think what happens to people especially investors people who maybe have have bought before but they
00:24:52
they get stuck on what prices were this is what the market was so in your mind you think that's
00:24:58
what it should be that's not what it is anymore it is what it is and so we have to zoom out and say
00:25:05
okay I mean they're not going to play because it's too hard or you can say if I don't play this game
00:25:11
I'm robbing from my future self because here's one thing I can tell you based on data real estate is
00:25:16
going to go like this over time so today you may buy something that isn't a grand slam oh well
00:25:23
buy a single right and baseball turns buy something that's okay because you know what's going to happen
00:25:28
over time it's going to go like this tenets are going to pay down your debt or pay you back and cash
00:25:34
flow over time and then rents are going to get higher every year and your returns are only going to
00:25:37
get better so that's my diet drive for the day it just frustrates me when I know what people say
00:25:42
man it must be nice to buy but I'm buy I got five deals going right now and I'm I've got three
00:25:48
meetings on Thursday to go look at other properties there's deals to be done stop making excuses and
00:25:53
go do them and I mean that with love I agree I agree you got to be in the game like you mentioned
00:25:58
and you know you're gonna look back in five years if you don't you know five years from now you're
00:26:03
gonna look back and say man I should at least bought something back then you know so now stay in the
00:26:07
game I'm always hunting you know you're always hunting so I love it nonstop so you guys you probably
00:26:15
really I want to talk I want to have this conversation because our brand the Rich Dad brand
00:26:21
is huge on debt okay for real estate if unless anything has changed that wasn't the way you went about it
00:26:29
and so I'd love to have a conversation on how you went about building your portfolio
00:26:35
and if to this day it's still mainly cash why you went that route what you like about it and then
00:26:42
what maybe you would do different yes so what the one of the reasons why I bought and have bought
00:26:48
in cash is because I was able to do so most people can't do that so that's you know that's a big
00:26:55
reason most people don't do it because they can't right I was very lucky and blessed that I could do
00:26:59
that and also I had this number in my mind right so even today right I you know I spend about 25
00:27:06
grand spend slash give about 25 grand a month and so like that's my number and my real estate my net
00:27:13
is only about 17 so I'm still not I'm still not at the number that I want to be at because we spend
00:27:19
more money than I thought we would you know how that goes when you got kids and they got school and
00:27:23
all this stuff right and you got vacations and you know how it goes right so I've always thought okay
00:27:29
I want to get to a certain number and if I'm making a lot of cash and I'm my cash flow can if I buy
00:27:36
this and it gives me more cash flow because I buy it cash I was going to do that more recently I've
00:27:41
been buying cash because you know I make the numbers work a little better when I buy cash right and
00:27:46
so interest rates are 6.5 percent but I can buy this and you know I can do this and I make my cash
00:27:54
flow way more by just buying it cash I'm going to do that if I can now I won't say that it's always
00:28:00
been the best thing for growth because you know you look back on some things that I bought and I could
00:28:05
have got 4 percent interest rates and I'm like man you know I spent 250,000 or 500,000 on properties
00:28:13
and those couple of years and I'm like man I could have I could have stretched that out way more
00:28:17
and so when you talk about growth I think death death is definitely very important now I've
00:28:25
I started doing real estate because I lost my my first house that after mom was killed that got
00:28:31
4 closed on right and there was an investor that came in and you know he bought it and he was
00:28:36
nice enough to give us our our washing machine out of that house because he just saw the name
00:28:41
singleton and he realized you know whose house that was and so there was some there was some some
00:28:46
trauma and some scarcity mindset stuff going on that I wanted to know hey we own this right
00:28:52
you know nobody can take this from us because we're gonna pay our taxes every year we're gonna
00:28:56
have insurance on it but we don't have a mortgage on this thing and I always thought 10 grand a month
00:29:02
net was like oh man I could do whatever I wanted until I started realizing you know the lifestyle
00:29:07
that I was living was way more than 10 grand a month that I wanted to live and so that was another
00:29:11
part of the reason why I wanted to get to a set number and even now I want to get to a set number
00:29:16
because I I've realized in my life from just working in that there's no difference in me personally
00:29:23
and my quality of life from making you know half a million bucks to make it over like 1.2 million
00:29:29
bucks there's no quality of like change for me I don't live in you know Seattle I don't live in
00:29:34
Miami I don't live in these different places I live in Charleston which is a very nice city
00:29:40
but I don't have to you know spend 50 grand a month to live the way that I want to so that's kind
00:29:46
of why I have that number but I'm not opposed to debt man I'm not opposed to debt at all
00:29:51
I will still buy stuff with debt from the numbers work and I plan on doing that
00:29:55
I think there's more than one way to skin a cat and I gotta be careful because I I don't want to be a
00:30:00
hypocrite because I may I buy with debt and so I love it but it was like the conversation we
00:30:05
are having earlier it's like you can disagree with people on things and still get along and I'm
00:30:09
not even saying I disagree that binding cash is right when you go people go through different things
00:30:14
in life and they have these and they have different experiences and so that shapes who we are
00:30:21
and I didn't have the experience of losing my home I can't even imagine and so if I had been through
00:30:28
something like that and then I get in a position to where I have good income coming in and I can go
00:30:33
and not owe anybody a dime and then increase my cash flow significantly look you can't fault
00:30:42
somebody for doing that and so the fact that you went straight with a cash flow mindset you're
00:30:46
trying to hit that number and you're able to do it you know I I say kudos to you I've done it
00:30:52
the totally different way and most people have to guys it's not if you can if you have a very high
00:30:58
income and you want to do it like Chris go for it but a lot of us we have to go to where we use debt
00:31:04
and then what happens is interesting Chris that you started this way is what happens to a lot of
00:31:09
investors is they buy properties using debt they accumulate as they should you build up that
00:31:15
portfolio and then there comes a time to where they start optimizing that portfolio for higher cash flow
00:31:22
because with debt you're going to get hit on the cash flow side right and it's just going to
00:31:26
happen and so there comes a point where you're going to eliminate some of that debt to increase your
00:31:32
cash flow over time you just did it right away and hey I'm never going to say anybody who's got
00:31:38
$17,000 a month in cash flow coming in for properties they didn't do anything wrong he just did a
00:31:44
different and that is an absolute amazing way to do it hey I would say you did miss out on some
00:31:50
3% interest rates back there in 2018 I got some but I missed out on a lot too yeah I got my personal
00:31:57
house is like 2.9 and now I went back and I was looking at my rent roll the other day and I was like
00:32:02
hey some of these commercial loans I was sitting at like 4.2 3.9 and I got them I was smart enough
00:32:09
I don't know why I'm not always wise but I was this time there was a lot of work with a lot of lenders
00:32:15
but there was a lender at the time they were doing 20-year fixed so no balloon and so obviously a 30-year
00:32:22
would have been a little bit of a cash flow but I was like bro I could get on like 4.2 on a 20-year fixed
00:32:27
and this paid off and a lot of my portfolios on that I said hey that's a w a one question I do
00:32:34
want to ask and then we'll wrap this up and you can you can wrap it fire these off from
00:32:39
self-managing standpoint I don't self-manage anymore I've my property managers handled my stuff
00:32:44
for a really long time give us your top 3-5 tips on if somebody is going to buy real estate and manage it
00:32:50
themselves how do you guys do that and do it efficiently number one we have different softwares
00:32:57
in place so it's pretty much automated and I'm sure you guys recommend certain things so I won't
00:33:04
mention what everything that I have but so that's that's the first thing the second is the lines of
00:33:09
communication with your chinnets we let them know up front hey this is something that we do that
00:33:14
will pay for our kids college that we'll hand down to our kids so as long as you respect our properties
00:33:19
we will always respect you there won't be a month that you don't have AC or you don't have heat
00:33:23
there won't be a leak that's there for a week right we will fix things immediately because we
00:33:27
respect you now just make sure you respect our property as well and we have very low turnover
00:33:33
because of that relationship we built with our tenants right we shake hands we talk to them you
00:33:39
know I've been learning Portuguese and I speak a little Spanish so it doesn't matter who's in there
00:33:43
right I'll try to talk to them and they they know that hey yes I own the building but if they have
00:33:48
a problem they can talk to me or my wife it's been good it's been good now I've only had to do
00:33:54
one kind of eviction and even in that situation right they were still like hey I'm sorry you know
00:34:00
we haven't been the best tenants they knew it and it's like hey I can't let you stay here for nothing
00:34:04
so just just be up front with with your tenants from the get go and let them know that it's an
00:34:10
investment and you're not as wealthy as they may think but even if you were like they have to respect
00:34:18
your property because you're going to respect them so that's been huge the systems have been huge
00:34:23
and having a plan you know we have a plan for every single one of our units and that's
00:34:30
helped us out as well with our time management and what we're going to do with those properties
00:34:33
love it Chris thank you for being on the show today man I always love seeing you chat with you
00:34:41
hearing your story and then you're absolutely crushing on real estate 20 plus properties you
00:34:46
almost don't make cash a bunch of cash flow coming in man you guys are absolutely doing you got a
00:34:51
bunch of beautiful kids you live in half the year in Brazil we talked you're going to be able to
00:34:56
live in Brazil some it's like who gets to go live in Brazil you live in Charleston the other
00:34:59
greatest city I mean man how can you clone yourself and give that other soul to me I just want to
00:35:05
hop in and live part of your life with you but thanks so much man your story's powerful appreciate
00:35:09
you being on and if anybody has any questions they want to follow you get to know you more where can
00:35:14
they find you at yeah my social media is c singleton underscore two so just type in Chris singleton
00:35:21
verified on most of the socials and if you want to bring me in and share my heart about loving unity
00:35:26
you can find me there as well or chris singleton.com Chris thanks man I appreciate you sharing
00:35:31
your story and I'll talk to you soon God bless thank you for tuning in to the rich dad real estate show
00:35:37
today again go down to the show notes grab that free ebook so you can learn how to escape the rat race
00:35:41
through financial freedom and I'll see you next week this podcast is the presentation of rich
00:35:47
dad media network
00:35:50
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