How To Become A Millionaire Through Property Investing with Michael Dominguez

00:00 In this episode of the Team Super Dad podcast, I find out how property investing or real estate investing for our American friends can make you a millionaire. You're going to love this chat with Dad and author of Armchair Real Estate Millionaire Michael Dominguez. Rolfy. Welcome to Team Super Dad. Real dads creating their best lives ever. More time, more money, more fun. You are not alone. You're on Team Super Dad. Welcome, dads, friends, family, Team Super Dad members.

00:38 It is good to have you back on the Team Super Dad podcast. My name's Jolly Jensen, of course, founder and creator of Team Super Dad and the Hero Academy program. We are a irresistible community of men, modern men creating the life of our dreams, not the life that we feel stuck in. And it is great to have you here on the podcast. However you have come to find us, it's great to have you on board. And if you're listening, again, if you're a subscriber, then it is brilliant to have you here, as always. For anyone who regularly listens, you'll know we missed this week's wrap-up.

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03:22 So be sure to come and register for that. So yeah, back to today's episode. Michael Dominguez is a property investor from the States. And actually, hold tight because I dropped this clanger right at the start of the conversation. He's not from the States. Double clanger. He's Canadian, man. He's Canadian. Same twang, slightly softer. You've got to watch out for that. You know, if you pay attention, it's kind of obvious when someone's Canadian. And if you just walk straight into their American, then some Canadians don't appreciate it. Let me tell you that. So be careful. Get it sorted. Thankfully, Michael was okay with me saying he was from America.

04:04 But he's actually from Toronto. The cool thing about Michael is he's just an everyday guy like yourself and I. His property investing journey didn't really start until he was in his 40s. And, you know, he says himself, it was kind of by accident. He tried other ways to make money and it hadn't really gone that well. And then he found himself as a real estate investor or a realtor, as they call them over there, an estate agent. But that led him to becoming a property investor. He's now into his 60s. I think he said he's 60. And he's pretty much retired by choice.

04:44 He's financially free and he lives the life that he wants on his terms, which ultimately is what we're all up for. And Michael's just written a book. It's how we came to have him on the show. I don't always have people on that have written a book because some of them either booking. isn't really that relevant. And B, when I go and have a listen to some of the other podcasts they've done, they're crap. They're boring. Michael was not. So it's good to have him on. Just real down-to-earth guy. And he's made his money through diligently learning, buying property. He says, you'll see share his tips, you know, good properties for good people in good neighborhoods.

05:27 So listen in. I hope you get a good value out of this. It's what we do at Team Super Dad. It's all about making money, being fit, having a family that works and having fun as well. Bloody hell, more than anything, it's about having fun. So enjoy this episode, and I will see you on the other side. Hey, Michael, good to have you with us today. How's it going? I'm really happy to be here. Thank you. Brilliant. Obviously, as I said, real estate and property investing. You're joining us from America. Whereabouts in the States are you? Actually, I'm from around Toronto, Canada. Oh, he's done that awful thing that people do. Sorry.

06:11 Sorry. So to all our Canadian friends, family, Team Super Dad members, welcome. And so you are Canadian, yeah? I am Canadian, yes. Live up near Toronto. Wow. Are you anywhere near the real crazy heat earlier this summer? No, no, that was more in the West Coast. We had like, you know, our typical 26, 28 degrees Celsius type days, but nothing like what was being reported at West Coast. You'll be happy to hear if you like to see other people having less of a fun time as you. You'll be happy to hear that it has pretty much rained all summer here in Britain.

06:54 Hey, you know what? I'd rather be anywhere than I need to get away and travel again. You know, I was in a British Isles tour two, three years ago and thinking, oh, I'm going to go back again and again. And no one's traveled anywhere in the last couple of years. No, exactly. And let's hope we can get back to some kind of normality. I've got friends and family in Chicago and I've got family in France. So yeah, I'm missing everyone for sure. Well, today, Michael, we are going to be talking about property investing or real estate investing. You've just got a book out, Armchair Real Estate Investor. I think you're going to millionaire.

07:36 Yeah. Millionaire, armchair real estate millionaire. Brilliant. And completely transparent with my listeners as I am. Your PR company or your publisher or who was it that reached out to me? Yeah, the PR, yes. PR company. So, yeah, and I get lots of those. So, you know, not all of the people don't even check out who they're sending it to half the time. But your guys did. And, you know, I said to them, okay, well, does this apply to the UK? And you came back with loads of examples of different ways that it did apply. And

08:17 I kind of feel like the wonderful thing about property is wherever we go, it's there. That's a good way of describing it. Absolutely. And, you know, it's one of these things that I really didn't, I didn't understand. I was always a wannabe entrepreneur for all of my teenage, from teenage years to the time I was in my 40s. And, you know, I tried and pretty much failed in almost everything I did. And honestly, the act of purchasing cash flow generating real estate has just literally changed my life. Nothing short of that. That's amazing. And I know that the Team Super Dad members are excited to hear about that.

08:58 And one of the things that appealed to me when chatting to Lauren, you know, I've been to those events, you know, a millionaire maker event, right? I've broken boards on stage. That's the good thing about those events. The bad thing about those events is run to the back of the room because they've got you all jacked up on promises of being a millionaire. They've got you all jacked up, then you run to the back of the room and then you get out your credit card and spend money that you don't have. I literally went home to my fiancé like Jack and the bloody bean stalk. They said, I've got these beans. That was it. She said, how was your day? I said, it was bloody amazing.

09:39 I've just spent £4,000. And she did not think that was quite so amazing. Yeah, it's, you know, and that's the thing that's so amazing about this industry is that you don't necessarily need to spend tens of thousands of dollars. or pounds in order to get ahead, but there is some base knowledge and investing smarter. I can tell you when I first got started in this industry, I purchased what I was told was the right stuff to do. And so, when I got a little bit of education, it really did set me in the right direction. So, I'm looking forward to chatting about that for sure. Yeah, yeah. And I put in the blurb for our conversation today. So, we're live on most of the socials.

10:21 And if you're watching, then welcome. Good to have you here. Please feel free to check in. We can see comments from most platforms. And you can say a little hello. You can ask a question. If I can do two things at once, which apparently men can't do, ask a question like this with a little smiley. I can share that and just illustrate how people can do that. If you're listening on the podcast, well, then sorry, you can't do that. But by all means, you can bring your questions over to the Team Super Dad group or to message me. And Michael and I will be keeping in touch. So you won't be left alone out there.

11:00 And in fact, let's get this up front because people always leave it till the end of the podcast and people don't always like listen to the end of the podcast. Where can people come and get a copy of the book? Where can people come and connect with you? Let's get that up there now so people don't worry about that. Absolutely. Again, the book is called Armchair Real Estate Millionaire and nice and simple. It's armchairrealestate millionaire.com is our is our website. And you can reach out to me at info at armchairrealestate millionaire.com. And honestly, simple as Amazon is as great a place as anything to purchase the book. It's about $25 Canadian, $20 US. I don't know what the pound rate would be.

11:44 It's about $16.99 in pounds. There you go. And so, yeah, it's, and yeah, we'll talk more about the book itself, but it's not designed for someone that's hoping to buy a hundred or a thousand properties or anything like that. As little as two or three properties when purchased correctly is essentially a side hustle that can truly change your life. Doing it properly and leveraging correctly, you can actually become a millionaire through just as few as two or three properties in the right market. Yeah. And when I was kind of checking you out and I listened to a couple of podcasts that you've been on and just liked the

12:29 ease of which you chat about it. And, you know, I think it's important when all these opportunities that people just read launched a book come around to have them on your podcast. It can seem like a little bit of a parade show, you know, but not all those conversations end up being much value. But I know this one will be because so many people ask about property investing, real estate investing. And there's just an avalanche of it on YouTube, on Facebook, those kind of events that I was speaking to. So, and I think that for all the people that want to do it, that can put some people off because it's overwhelming.

13:08 So I think there's two camps that people fall into is the first question, if people go, oh, surely it's too late to get into property investing. They've already decided before they even get the answer to that question, whether they're going to do it or not. And then there's the second group, and I probably fall into this second group where there's so much information out there. You think, I don't know where to start. Someone says it's really easy. Someone says I need a load of money. Someone says, join my group. Someone says, go for it and do buy to rent, do for business property. You just go, oh, I think I'm just going to carry on doing my job. And as you just alluded to there, you said it can be quite easy. You can start quite small and it can turn into

13:50 nice money. And that's either for retirement, it's a side hustle or a main source of income. Is it now your main source of income now? It's never really been designed to be my main source of income. I was a realtor and I guess I still am a realtor, but I'm not very active anymore. And real estate has allowed me to build enough wealth. What I've always done for real estate is it was never meant to be a cash flow play for me early on. It was meant to be a wealth generator. And so what I would do is I would refinance many of my properties as they appreciated in value and I forced the appreciation.

14:29 And then I use that money to buy another one and another one. And for 10 straight years, I bought one investment property essentially. And it sounds like a crazy ask to do that, you know, when you're looking to buy your first one. But, you know, things start falling into place pretty quickly in an appreciating market. And so as a result, my cash flow is never incredible because every time I reach. refinanced it, that would increase my debt load, which would lower the cash flow. But what it did do is as these properties appreciated, it added like a million, two million, five million dollars to my net worth as a result of these properties.

15:06 It's been quite a run. Yeah, there's I live in the southeast of the UK, and about must be 20 years ago now, they built a high-speed rail link, which is part of the channel tunnel to Paris and stuff, which connected up these coastal towns with London by a high-speed train, like 45 minutes an hour. So, they not too long ago, literally three or four weeks ago, they had this property which became the most expensive two-up, two-down in the country because she'd bought it for 70,000 or something 10, 12 years ago, and now it's worth a million pounds

15:51 because it's on the perfect street in this now regenerated area that's all, if it's not Airbnb, it's it's uh um traders and and and London, they they call them DFLs down from London. What's it what's an EFL? A D, the DFL, okay, down from Londoners, oh, down from London, okay, all right. They basically buy this property somewhere on the coast, you know, and it's their it's either their weekend retreat or they've decided to escape London and now they're living there because they can get back to work within 45 minutes.

16:29 Well, and there's no question that that commuting has has um has always been around, but um, towns like that were really just too far from the big city until uh mass transit started to happen. And, you know, whether you're you're listening from uh from the UK or from the United States or whatever, uh, paying attention to major changes to the transit system um is is like getting that insider information and you know this using that example where you know had these had you known that the transit was going to come in 15 years ago and picked up that property for 70,000 pounds and oh by the way I doubt if she put in 70,000 pounds she probably put down uh 20 down so she probably put down 14,000 pounds and has turned that into a million now that's an exceptional ratio

17:19 even if that's a quarter million yeah do you know what I think I exaggerated I think it's actually 600,000 which is but still like even if it was a quarter million that's that's that's that's an okay ROI let me tell you that's that's a good return so so let's let's I want to I want this to be of real value for people today um there's some core concepts to your journey which anyone can kind of emulate really I put in the blurb um knowledge consistency network with with intelligent people um and if if we can get across to people today uh some of the ways to get started some of the um stupid things that uh that perhaps first timers first timers can avoid and then i dare say there's some value that you can add because you've gone from not just dabbling in

18:12 it to it actually being as you said armchair millionaire so that we can make it of uh of value to some people that perhaps may have one or one or two properties uh anyway are you a family man michael you i i have a um now a 24 year old son and uh actually if if it's okay i'd love to share a little bit of my backstory i normally don't share all of that but uh being a team super dad um uh fan i i thought i'd uh i've been waiting to share this story with you uh i did share a little bit of this in my book but um much like many of you i uh you know i was as a teenager i had you know aspirations as a matter of fact i was a bit of a snarky

18:52 kid where i uh when people asked me what i wanted to do for a living i would say i want to be a millionaire so like which you know again i didn't want to be a fireman or policeman i want to be a millionaire so you know my 20s come and go and uh i i meet a girl i get a job i finish school um have a child get a promotion get another promotion and before you know it i'm stuck in middle management and or upper middle management and my 20s go by yeah yeah yeah oh it's i yeah my i was a territory but same idea and uh and 20s go by and i'm in my mid 30s and i'm coming close to 40 and um um

19:30 and you know i'm now recently divorced uh i've got a you know a young well i guess a getting about 10 12 year old child um i'm still in the same middle management or upper middle management business i was was. My net worth is essentially mil, and I'm closing in on 40. I'm saying, how the hell did that happen? Like, how did that happen? And so, you know, I was able to find a new girl and start to turn my life around. And we had an opportunity to purchase an investment or a house here. And I decided at that time to become a realtor and started the journey towards real estate.

20:12 It was more of an accident as much as anything else. And it just started snowballing from there. And I always had those queer aspirations. I always had those wealth aspirations. But everything I'd ever tried prior to that really didn't amount to a hell of a lot. And then all of a sudden, I just fell into real estate. And I was that C and D student that all of a sudden became the leader for real estate investing in my region. So it was pretty cool. Yeah, you've got, you know, they call it awards and recognized by your peers for how effective you are at this. And it's not just about having a trophy and stuff. It's actually nice to get that peer acknowledgement, but

20:58 it's testimony to the success that's available for just everyday people. Yeah. Yeah, it really is. And, you know, if I could give any advice is if you are recently divorced, if you're looking for another spouse, find somebody who has more wealth than you. There's a tip for you today. So you can take it. And, you know, and so instead of me supporting my wife, it was the other way around for a little while. And it allowed me to spur on and move forward and get going. So that was a great start. I'm joking a little bit, by the way, guys, but just sharing. No, it's speaking for someone who's divorced and in a happy relationship at present.

21:44 The pressures that were on that search in late 20s and 30s is now off. And so I, plus, I've got the experience of being divorced and having lived in a painful marriage, not just as much down to me as it was her, but we weren't compatible. And I can see now that making the right choice about a wife or partner, when the pressure's off about children and marriage and life expectations, you can actually start to tune into values, ambitions, what are your motivators? And you actually start to tune into: are we really compatible?

22:28 And I hope for many people who are going around and creating those second relationships, second marriages, they are more careful and diligent in both being honest about themselves, but also honest about what they want. Well said. Honestly, I went in with a mindset almost stealth-like, where I had certain, like I, I was a number, a chart maker, and so they needed to have the certain qualifications for me to move forward. There was a girl who was just a gorgeous knockout who was reaching out to me, but she worked part-time at a Kentucky Fried Chicken.

23:10 And unfortunately, she didn't meet my criteria. So, you know, looks as nice, but having somebody who is someone who could be a partner in your life is probably a little more important. Yeah, absolutely. We do. We've got a whole other sessions on that. So it'd be great to, you can come and join us on those as well. But what was the first purchase? How do you want to take this? Do you want to go through the journey or the first one? Or have you got? Yeah, well, a little bit. Honestly, I'm not going to lie to you guys. I didn't have this millionaire mindset when I bought my first property.

23:53 I was a realtor and I focused on working with investors. And so I thought to make myself more appealing to real estate investors, I said, hey, maybe I should buy one too. And I saw some of the people that were taking action and they weren't any smarter than I was. And I thought, okay. So I bought what I was told to buy. And that was sort of dilapidated buildings that were under market value in secondary and tertiary markets. And it just, it seemed to make sense because they were great values. Well, it was a royal pain in the ass because not only was the tenant profile very poor and we weren't always collecting our rents, but

24:34 even if we did fix them up, it was hard to attract nicer tenants because all of the buildings around it. it and the neighborhood around it really wasn't conducive for a premium tenant. Yeah, nice people want to live in nice places, nice neighborhoods. Really is the case. And so I ended up really an aha moment for me was I started to focus on buying. If I could buy a quality property in a quality neighborhood, I could attract quality tenants and it becomes a very easy part-time job. I could hold on to these properties for a long time. And in real estate, the real win is when you hold on to those assets for a long time.

25:15 And that led to quality profits. So it was just such an aha moment for me. And so now, fast forward to today, I'm sure that there's people in the real estate sector that have 100 or 500 properties. I've got a dozen properties. That's all I have. And but these dozen properties require less than five hours a month in activity. So it's a real part-time side hustle. And it's got me to the point where I can have so many more choices in life. At 55, I was able to semi-retire or retire if I wanted to, because the revenue that real estate has afforded me has now put me to the point where I don't need to work anymore.

25:59 And there's a what you just said there answers that question about is it too late? Have I left it too late? Have I missed the boat? It's if you're holding on to it for 10 years or more, you kind of can't miss the boat. Is there any periods in history where properties over a 10-year period have not gone up? I suppose if you looked hard, there's times where the values have sort of stagnated for a period of time. But what I want to share with you is it's not like if I ask you, what is the weather in the UK? You're going to say, well, you know, that depends on where in the UK you live. The weather in Scotland is very different than the weather in London.

26:43 It's just the way it is. It's the same in real estate. Is to say that what's the real estate market like in the UK is just, it's a false comment to even ask. Real estate is regional. And so if you invest in a quality market and a quality market, like London, let's use as an example. Actually, let's jump over to the American side, New York City. I love New York City. If you've ever been in New York, it's one of the greatest cities in the world. Problem with New York right now is it's going through a major, a major population decrease.

27:20 It was even happening prior to COVID, but even since COVID, it's dropped even more. Why that's such a big deal is that now there's simply more housing than there is people. And as a result, housing prices are starting to fall. And so I speculate that it's already happened over the last five years. New York prices are actually lower than they were five years ago. And I think five years from now, they still won't be up to the prices of 10 years ago. Comparison-wise, Toronto is one of the fastest-growing cities in North America. And so honestly, I could buy a sack of dirt and it's going to go up in value right now. It's just, it's amazing how much has gone up in value. And so using that example that you talked about, where all of a sudden these towns that used to be three, four hours away from London are now less than an hour from London, you're probably seeing an appreciation or a population increase.

28:11 And so as a result, you'll see an appreciation in value as a result of that. So it's using a little bit of intelligence. And we talk about that in our book, in the book, in terms of just doing some proper research. So the answer is absolutely property values can go up if you buy in the right type of location. Yeah. And what about you see some people saying, oh, if where you live is not the right kind of affordable things, then go to a different region and pick somewhere. So I've met people who've got properties like four or five hours away. To me, that seems kind of like, how the hell am I going to manage it if it's that far away? Is it going to come? Am I going to be wanting to spend the weekend with my kids, but actually having to drive another five, 10-hour round trip?

28:56 Does it make sense to buy property that far away from where you're based? Obviously, it's ideal to have something that's close. But if the market that you're in is just simply stagnant and is in the up in the near future is expected to be stagnant going forward. It just doesn't make sense to invest your dollars in the market near your house. So, you know, if all things are equal, absolutely invest within an hour or two of your home. But if it's not, like, at the end of the day, because you're focusing on quality real estate and I'm a big believer in having a power to. team. And your power team could include a property manager.

29:39 And that property manager does the day-to-day operations of your building. Yes, that's going to affect your cash flow a little bit. But at the end of the day, all you have to do is manage the property manager. And that may be something you only need to do once every few months to monitor and make sure everything is going well. The beautiful thing about quality real estate is you don't need to be going up to that property every other week. Some of our properties, we go up every six months. That's all we do. Yeah. Well, since my divorce, I'm still renting. I've lived here five years and I'm like a dream tenant. Yeah. Because I've spoken to my landlord. I'm not kidding. If it's more than 10 times in five years, I'll be amazed.

30:23 Yeah. So that's every six months, give or take. Yeah. There you go. So spot on. Yeah, exactly. And he must be, he went and moved in with his girlfriend and just rented this place out. So he's not like a professional landlord. So when people ask him how it's going, he must be, he must be like, it's the easiest thing I've ever done in my life. Well, and let's say he lived 10 hours away from you in terms of drive-wise. It wouldn't have affected his ability to be your landlord because like how many times you've spoken to him 10 times, you've probably seen him even less than that. Oh, yeah, totally. I've probably seen it. I think I've probably seen three times. And that question's gone out of my brain. Oh, yeah, property management and stuff.

31:08 That's, I've seen videos and I've spoken to other property inverted commerce experts. And they say when they're talking about creating the business, creating the lifestyle, then all of the little jobs that go into managing the property, let's say cleaning it or tidying it up after someone moves out, then you'd be mad to try and do all of that yourself and exhausting yourself when actually, if you build it into the calculations, then it's just part of how your business works. And then, you know, aka how your life works and designing your life how you want it to be. Yeah. And this isn't just real estate. This is in general.

31:53 If you think of it, there are $10 jobs, there are $100 jobs, and there are $1,000 jobs per hour. And so like for me, a $10 an hour job is, or $10 to $25 an hour is mowing the lawn or in Canada, shoveling snow or cleaning the apartment. Those are smaller tasks. And so one of the things that's really helped me grow my net worth is through being in real estate sales. That's something that's a $1,000 an hour type task. If I can do that effectively, I can make a lot of money. The people that struggle in their business life, they're focusing so much on the minuscule tasks that take up, you know, that are worth $10 to $25 an hour that they don't have enough time to focus on the big stuff.

32:43 So one of the things that I've done over the last five to 10 years is I've made a concerted effort to actually essentially eliminate all of the $10 tasks. So we have people that shovel our driveway and mower lawn and clean our house and right down the line. And that's not even with regards to our real estate portfolio. It's just in general. And so that would be something I would advise to anyone that's really trying to get ahead is to look at everything they do on a daily and weekly basis and try to eliminate the things that other people can do at a reasonable price that's not going to change your life a heck of a lot and then focus on the stuff that can really build wealth.

33:25 Yeah. And I often say that the secrets of success are not that secret. It's just that only a few people do them. And what you've just shared there was echoed by George McGarian when I spoke to him. And it's efficiencies. And if that wasn't obvious to people, $10, $10 jobs have cost $100, if you could earn $100 in an hour or $1,000 in an hour, you're ahead by outsourcing those or paying someone else to do those. And that person's quite likely grateful for that work because that's the work they're looking for.

34:07 And it's funny, my neighbors always tease me because we've got constantly an array of people coming through the house doing little tasks. And they say, you know, how do you afford that? And I say, well, I just, you know, it's, you know, in my mind, I'm recycling money. I'm helping out the community and getting, you know, more employment out there. And oh, by the way, you know, what I've been focusing on in the last couple of years is, well, obviously, writing the book and also focusing on option trading and value investing. And of course, real estate investing and then educating. So, like, those are my $1,000 an hour jobs.

34:44 And so, if I could avoid mowing the lawn but take a course in equity investing, then I think I'll be ahead of the game. Yeah, well, continuous learning. Yeah. It's one of the values inside of Team Super Dad. And so let's talk about how people can find money. Like, you know, the idea that we're going to suddenly buy a property and invest in property. I think an obvious question that springs to people's mind that perhaps stops them from even researching and looking at how they can do it is: well, I'm never going to be able to get the monies together to do that. So I'm not even going to bother starting. What's the solution there? Yeah, there's you obviously do need a starting salary or starting

35:30 down payment. If you don't have two nickels to rub together, then you're likely not going to be able to buy with nothing down. They talk about the concept of buying with nothing down, but it's the more realistic way of doing it is to have at least enough money for a down payment. The one cool thing about real estate is that in real estate, I believe, is an unfair advantage over other wealth-building opportunities. And what I mean by that is, well, they actually just in Britain, they've just passed a law or a rule that you can buy a property with as little as 5% down and with an amortization as much as 40 years in the right situation.

36:16 So if let's say the property is a half a million pounds, it's not like you need to come up with a half a million pounds. You need to come up with perhaps as little as 5% of that, which is more like 25,000 pounds. So it's still not nothing, but we're not talking anywhere near half a million pounds either. And so I'm a huge advocate of using leveraging in order to build your long-term wealth. So if you're in a position where you've got enough money to put down as a down payment, if it has the right market fundamentals, you're certainly ahead of the game for sure. So using leveraging, using the long-term amortization, these are things that I advocate for sure.

36:57 Yeah, Grant Cardone, he often says something, I'm going to get this slightly wrong, but he says, oh, if someone gave me 900 grand to buy a house, I wouldn't buy a house. I would invest it in four houses and made that money back in however many years, basically. Yeah, and obviously Grant Cordone, he's at a whole nother level. Honestly, when I hear, I've heard Grant Cardone speak in person, and it's almost tiring. His 10X policies and his ideas and stuff like that. Like, honestly, as simple as purchasing, if I was in my 30s right now in Britain, 100% I would use house hacking as a means of building wealth.

37:45 Currently, about 31% of millennials in the UK currently own their own houses, which is well below the world average. House hacking is a term that is used for living in either one component of the house or if it was a duplex, one half of the house and then renting out the other. And, you know, it could be a matter of having a tenant in the place, you know, even if they're just renting a room, letting a room. That's a way of doing it. And what that does is it reduces the amount of money they're paying on a monthly and annual basis on their debt financing and it allows them to get into the house.

38:24 So using you as an example, if you could have purchased the place you have right now, you'd be five years ahead in terms of buying the place or in wealth. Funny story. When I was a student, I was this close to having a genius idea. But the problem was I said it in a hazy pot smoke-filled room. I said, we should take our student loans and buy a house together. And like next year, we'll all live there and it'll be brilliant, right? So everyone's laughing and calling me a dickhead, right?

39:02 But it was this close. And funnily enough, the property we ended up living in about a year after that was a guy who wasn't that much older than us and he bought it for 11 grand at auction. So not only, in my mind, we're going to flip and get a deposit together, the three of us. us would have, you know, paid for a quarter of the house just in the student loan. So, yeah, I was that close, that close to but okay, so you swung and missed there, but now that you're in your 40s, actually, and you asked the question a couple of different ways. Let me let me address this one too. Is we actually in the book, I did some success stories.

39:47 And again, the success stories were not people that bought 100 properties. It was as little as two or three. And one of the success stories was a gentleman who was in his mid-60s. And he'd had a very good, successful career as a contractor. And he'd built a lot of wealth for a lot of other people over the years. And he basically said, now is my turn. And so I think he started around 64, if memory served. And over the next five to six years, he amassed a really good increase in net worth. And his goal was not for long-term wealth for him. It was for a legacy for his family.

40:26 And, you know, unfortunately, well, the story has a bit of a sad ending: he ended up developing cancer and he passed away. But I had a chance to speak to him about a few weeks before he died. And he thanked my wife and I so much for introducing him to real estate and investing. And he just felt so good that he was leaving a legacy for his family. And so, you know, he was a guy who was in his mid-60s by the time he got started. So certainly, if you're in your 30s or 40s or even your 50s, it is by no means too late because in five to 10 years, you can make a significant difference in your net wealth. That's me. I'm in. I'm absolutely in.

41:09 I want to be a homeowner. The business, the divorce, COVID, there's been a lot of financial challenges that feel like have made that homeowner status a little bit far off, not out of reach, and it will happen. But what I can see from conversations around property investing is that the level of knowledge, even if you're not going to become a property investor, but the level of knowledge to buy a house with the mindset of a property investor is much more sensible than just going and buying a house as a

41:49 regular house buyer because there's levels to which you've used the word leverage, there's levels to which are below market value. There's a whole load of things that property investors know about and they've put into their decision-making process that normal house buyers don't. And we probably should when we're buying a house. Absolutely. As a realtor, as an investor realtor, I always use the joke, I said, you know, the best thing of working with investors is they're not emotional in their investing purchase. The worst thing about working with investors is they're not emotional when they're making their investment purchase.

42:27 So it's the same, but you're absolutely right. I use a strategic approach, even if I'm working with somebody who's looking at buying their forever home, because again, they might fall in love with something in the house. But if it doesn't make the right financial sense, I will often sway them away from buying that because, you know, honestly, even if you're buying your first home or your dream home, everything is still an investment of sorts. And what's so great about real estate is the vast majority of us around the world, we buy, as Robert Kiwasaki from Rich Dad always says, we buy do dads, we buy depreciating assets. So, you know, our car is certainly not an appreciating asset.

43:12 So, you know, I mentioned this in the book. It amazes me how many people have Land Rovers and they still have a landlord. And so that's one of the things that, you know, just buying some appreciating assets that are likely going to go up in value is certainly a good thing. And if someone's saving for a deposit for a house, like their family home, is there a time when it makes sense to buy a property that they're going to rent out or that's going to be an investment before they actually buy their family home? I've seen blog posts and videos, people saying that that kind of thing.

43:54 Don't buy a home and live in it. Rent homes. And basically that's. Yeah, Robert Kiwasaki, who, if you've not read his book, Rich Dad, is an incredible read. And just so you guys know, I am not this, you know, oh, I read this book this week and that book next week and this book and that book. I'm not one of these readers that just get up in the morning and read 100 wealth page books. That's not me. me. But make an exception for Rich Dad, Poor Dad. It's an incredible mindset shift for people. And actually, in my book, I think would be a pretty easy read as well.

44:33 Because I'm not a huge reader, I include humor and graphics and illustrations and cartoons and whatever. But anyway, so going back to renting your own home is something that Robert Kiyosaki is certainly an advocate of. And the reason for that is because, especially if you're in a market like London, for example, where the carrying cost of a home is greater than if you were renting it, then if you do the financial numbers, if let's say you could rent it, what would be a flat in London?

45:11 What would be a going price for a flat in London right now? For like a two-bedroom flat would be definitely around $1,600. Okay. So $1,600. Meanwhile, what would it be the cost to purchase that same flat? Again, different areas. And I haven't been living there a while, but yeah, I can imagine it could be easily getting towards the million. And so you can't possibly carry that property for $1,600 of interest. It would do more than that. So that would be an example where you're doing your financial numbers and you say, okay, I'm not really building wealth here. I'm actually just paying more in interest. So if I have that certain level of cash, rent where I want to live and then use that money and purchase where I want to build wealth.

45:53 So that would be the that's that's the concept that that you're referring to. Okay. Okay. Okay. And so where do people go to, you know, obviously your book, great place to go to start your knowledge, your quest for knowledge. I alluded to running to the back of the room and buying someone's weekend course. Probably not such a good idea. But there's property networking events, there's people on YouTube. What's a sensible way for someone to start to develop the knowledge required to become a property investor?

46:34 Yeah, there is an absolute crapload of local real estate investment groups. It's just, it's shocking how many there are all across the world. And these meetups are a great place to talk to other people that are actually doing what you're hoping to do. And I'm a huge believer in rubbing shoulders with people that are actually taking action. Because one of the challenges that we face in our lives, and I was guilty of this in my 20s and 30s, is all of my high school friends of mine, or even the people I was hanging around with in my 20s and 30s, none of them, like, you know, that we may have owned our own home, but none of us were real estate investors. So it took me hanging around with other people that are actually doing what I wanted to do that made a huge difference in my life.

47:18 So that was something I was a huge believer in. But when it comes to education and books, honestly, there's, again, there's more podcasts than you know what to do with. There are some certainly better choices than others. If you do buy my book, I actually reference a lot of the books that were influential to me to get me started in real estate investing. I'd like to think that my attitude is I'm not a get rich quick back of the room type of guy. I'm a bit of a cheerleader, of course, for wealth building, but it's a more structured, strategic approach.

47:58 And that's kind of the attitude that I've been taking. And that's just my personality type. I'm not the slick salesman type of guy. I'm more just going to give you the facts and hopefully you'll make the right decisions. And what are some of the stupid mistakes that people should watch out for in the early parts of their property investing? 100%. Honestly, the biggest mistake, Johnny, that I made and everybody else makes is they buy a property because it's cheap. And using the UK as an as an example, there are areas in, well, when I was in Scotland, it's a pretty desolate area.

48:38 Like it's beautiful, but there's not a lot of population there. I'm sure that I can go in some little village in Scotland and buy some cheap property that probably hasn't appreciated in 50 years and just be able to get it. Let's say it's a banged up home and it hasn't been updated in a century. That's not necessarily the investment that I would indulge in myself. Buying it in the scuzziest neighborhood in South London or something like that, where it's, you know, everything's falling apart and drugs and prostitutes and that's not the kind of tenant. tenant profile I want to have. We all know, if we think about the areas we know, we all know, oh, there's the good side of town, there's the bad side of town.

49:22 That's right. It's the middle, there's the middle part of town. Yeah, I'll give you a pop-century reference. I like to pretend I take my DeLorean 30 years in the future. And if that neighborhood is still a good neighborhood, then that's where I want to invest. And I don't want to invest in an area where I honestly don't know what kind of, you know, what kind of neighborhood that's going to be. I want it as simple as possible. I want it so that it's almost foolproof. And that's the kind of portfolio I have right now. Yeah. And what is it? What does it might seem like a silly question, but

50:02 I'm going to ask this question because I like it. When people, it's important for people to realize if they're thinking about their future, they're creating a goal or a vision for themselves is to actually imagine what it will be like when they've achieved that goal. Like what difference will it make to their life? Because that's where we can go to find consistent motivation for things. Having created this lifestyle where you're financially, I don't know if you're financially free, but you said you've semi-retired, so I dare say you are financially free. You have a relationship that's working for you. What has this property journey, what has becoming a property investor done for you in terms of your life and for the people around you?

50:49 Yeah, when I started in this, I did a net worth analysis. And that was one of the first tasks I was taught to do like 10, 15, well, about 15 years ago. And it was a pretty sad state of affairs, let me be honest with you. Like it was, I listed all of my expenses, all of my current values of what I had, and there wasn't a heck of a lot there. But it started me on a journey of finding ways of building wealth the way I wanted to. And so with that as a, I wouldn't say singular focus, but certainly a primary focus

51:29 of wealth building. What it's allowed me to do is it's given me a sense of freedom and choices, choices to do what I want to do versus what I have to do. I don't need to get up at seven o'clock in the morning to go to a nine-to-five job. I could sleep until 9:30 if I want to. I could choose to work on a weekend or I could choose to take a few days off and I'm okay with that. I could choose to enhance my education or I could watch a Gilligans Island rerun for a marathon for the next 12 hours. That's the kind of choice selection that it's allowed me to do.

52:10 And honestly, when I was 43, 45, I really didn't even see this coming. And it was one of these things that by doing a net worth analysis, and I could actually see the journey as it was moving forward. It's allowed my wife to be a retire about six years ago from her nine-to-five job. And she actually got her real estate license and joined my team. It's done so much for me from a networking and a friendship standpoint. The amount of friends and colleagues that I've met through this journey has, that's something I wasn't expecting. I wasn't expecting to meet as many friends. And I'd say three-quarters of the people I hang around with today have also done the same journey as me.

52:53 We've sort of rose up together and it's been kind of a cool thing. The amount of traveling I've done, there's been a lot of things. Like I've got a bucket list of activities, and my goal is to knock off as many once-in-a-lifetime experiences as I can. Oh, that's brilliant. Yeah, we do in week one of the Hero Academy, we do a net worth analysis as well as a lifestyle calculator. And in, I think it's week seven, there's a focus on bucket lists and fun and adventure. So both those things are right up there in terms of creating the life that we want, really.

53:32 We get one time around on this crazy rock, and most people can enjoy it. My dad always says to me, Son, are you having enough fun? You know, it's, and, and, you know, it's so easy to settle in and be a be a renter because it's less work for five years. And I'm going to take a shot at you, Johnny, is that, you know, it's worth taking a look to see if there are opportunities to start building wealth through real estate. I'm not saying it's brainless. There are, it's, you know, especially if you're involving tenants, you are running a business. It's, uh, you have to treat it like a business, but this is a business that. you know it's not like you're driving for Uber Eats or you're building scrunchies for the for the local kids, you're you're building something that can turn you into a millionaire, and even if it doesn't, if it just gives you a little bit of freedom, just one or two properties can truly change your life, yeah, mega,

54:25 mega. Wow, Michael, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing uh that. Do you want to hold up the book again for our viewers? Not good for our podcast listeners, yeah. So, I'm going to do a shameless promotion here for anyone who's looking. Uh, it's a blue book called oh, there it is, our chair real estate millionaire. Um, and if you're if you're sitting there anyway, you might as well build your wealth. Um, it's it's a um it's meant to be lighthearted, but at the same time, it's full of facts and and and uh and it motivates you to move forward, it gives you a call to action.

55:03 And uh, I really think it's something that if you're you're looking to try to find a way of getting ahead, that's uh it's a it's a good good strategy that won't necessarily take over your life. It's real estate is meant to fund your life, not run your life, as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, brilliant. Yeah, I've read the excerpts that I was sent. Um, I listened to a lot of audio books. I was looking at my, I was doing my bookkeeping last night, and Audible told me I'd had my account since 2009. Okay, so uh, so given that I've got one credit at the moment, that means there's nine times 12. Yeah, it's a lot of it in there, and I've listened to pretty much all of them. And good for you, that's something we all need to take on board.

55:48 Like, if you know, at least be reading six books a year at the very least, one every couple of months, you should be able to do that. And I enjoyed the excerpts from your book because they were accessible, they felt like real life, it wasn't hard going, um, and it felt really relatable. So, so yeah, it was great to get you on and meet you in person. Yeah, and even if you are in a position where you don't have a lot of funds right now, that that doesn't stop you from working on your education and to move forward. Um, and you know, using partners and joint ventures, and um, there are ways to move forward, even if your income level is pretty low right now and uh or your net worth level is low.

56:31 So, you know, don't just give up and raise your hands and say, Oh, well, I guess I tried, uh, because you know, there are there are certainly things you can do, you know, even joining this group, for example, and starting to learn. You know, if they're talking about net worth analysis, just because your net worth really sucks today doesn't mean it will suck in five years. So, let's start making it what happened. As painful as it is to get that number, you know, zero or less than zero, you're way ahead of people that don't know that number because they're avoiding it, they're hiding from it, they're trying to ignore the fact that it's a crap number. It's, you know, they say where energy, where attention goes, energy flows.

57:11 And when it's not until we put the microscope on our finances, and when we start to read books, start to listen to podcasts, start to learn more about what it is to be fit and healthy, what it is to manage our money, what it is to grow our money, what it is to foster strong relationships, to find the partner of our dreams, to reconnect with our parents. You know, like we're not born with this knowledge, so bloody well go out there and get it because that's where the secret of having the life that you want is going to come from. Well said, brilliant. Uh, Michael, I'm going to put up your website address one more time there, armchairrealestate millionaire.com.

57:56 Uh, books available on Amazon and all other good uh bookshops and some crap ones as well. Yep, uh, I'll play the I'll play the outro and we'll say goodbye the other side. Hold tight that was brilliant. I loved the conversation with Michael. Uh, like I said at the beginning, a real down-to-earth guy who's done something that any of us can do. And I've read excerpts from his book, very approachable book. Um, and he reassures me it is uh relevant for all parts of the world. Um, so so get involved with that. I don't make any money from that, you know, it's just a another good guy out there in the world.

58:41 And um, if you listen to the Stuart Roberts podcast a couple of weeks ago, I just finishing listening to his book, Visibility, and I loved it. It was, it was bloody brilliant. I didn't even, Stuart, I've reached out to myself. I didn't, I didn't, his guys didn't approach me because of the book. Uh, I saw him talking in a, in a dad group. If you come across anyone inside of any of the dad groups. groups that you're in and you feel like they might be a great guest for team super dad maybe you've listened to someone else's podcast and you think we should get them on the team super dad podcast then let me know uh come over to teamsuperdad.com forward slash group and uh and come into the community let me know who uh who you think should come on the podcast maybe you are that person maybe you want to come on

59:24 the podcast and by all means it would be great to find out what you want to share and talk to you about that as i mentioned at the beginning of the show we've got the happy dad five-day happy dad challenge running again in a couple of weeks so be sure to come over and register for that uh teamsuperdad.com forward slash happy dad challenge and you know it's already the middle of all well say middle of august 10th of august so we're well well into the second half of the year and really is time to pull up some trees in your life i'm on day 49 no day 52

1:00:04 day 52 of exercising every day it has become an amazing experience just a 15 minute workout every day and now i started looking at well what else could i be that rigorous rigorous with myself about every day and am i making sales calls every day am i following up with team super dad members every day and checking in on them like what is something that you could be doing every day or four or five times a week that would make a difference maybe it's quality time with your wife or kids how about that so uh i'm gonna go because you've probably got places to be thanks so much for listening in be sure to subscribe to the podcast share this with friends family other dads that you know spread the word so we can keep building the team super dad message helping men around the world create the life they want the life of their dreams and not the life they feel stuck in

1:00:58 take care team super dad out this has been team super dad find us at teamsuperdad.com join the program and create the best life ever for you and your children you are not alone you're on team super dad