WS907: Real Estate Investing for Working Professionals with Rodney Robinson

EPISODE 907 

[INTRODUCTION]

0:00:00.0 ANNOUNCER Welcome to the Real Estate Syndication Show. Whether you are a seasoned investor or building a new real estate business, this is the show for you. Whitney Sewell talks to top experts in the business. Our goal is to help you master real estate syndication. 

And now your host, Whitney Sewell.

[INTERVIEW]

0:00:24.4 Whitney Sewell: This is your daily real estate syndication show. I’m your host to Whitney Sewell. Today, our guest is Rodney Robinson. Welcome to the show, Rodney. 

0:00:32.0 Rodney Robinson: Thank you, Whitney. Glad to be here. 

0:00:34.0 WS: Yeah, Rodney is a full-time business professional who is growing a Florida-based real estate investment portfolio. He manages his personal rentals while growing in multi-family investment business at Robinson Capital, where he seeks to help others learn to invest in real estate and in multi-family opportunities. Rodney, welcome the show. Give us a little bit about your focus right now in real estate and… Let’s jump in.

0:00:56.7 RR: So my focus is actually very transitional at this point, I started the way a lot of others may start or at least envision for real estate investing. My target, the audience are people just like me that are what I call working professionals, we’ve been through the regimen of college and getting our job, and we started making money and we maybe appreciate the idea of our money working harder than us, so I went through that journey just like everyone else, I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and so many other real estate books, but I think it started with the mindset for me, so what ended up happening was after some getting through our personal financial goals and things like that, we bought our first rental property in 2019, and then our second property was the house that we were living in that we knew from the beginning, which would be… It would be a rental. And then after that, I said, I’m no longer interested in single-family homes. It was a lot of work, I was self-managing until recently, and I decided that we were gonna do something a little bit different. I gotta think about this multi-family. 

There has to be a way to get into this thing. And I listen to a podcast, I attended a conference, and basically my eyes were opened up for my personal needs and goals, families, objectives. It just made more sense to do more and less time to achieve your financial goals. So where I am is a building, like you said, a real estate, multi-family business investment business, and in the process, I’m learning and I’m educating others on my blog with regards to what we’re doing and other options for them, so that hopefully they can get money to work harder for them.

0:02:26.6 WS: Nice, no doubt about it. Those things you mentioned, just like the mindset shift and personal financial goals, some of the things that I wanna talk about. You talked about sort of this mindset for you, and I think so much does start with mindset. It’s so important. We talk about it all the time on the show. What was that, that change for you? What was that mindset piece that changed for you and said, Okay, we need to focus… We need to do something different. Or go against the grain. 

0:02:49.2 RR: That’s a great question. I think what happened was, I got exactly what I wanted. So when I started my career, I said, I wanna go to the top. I wanted to continue to grow. They envision becoming a Manager or Senior Manager or Director, VP, and something I didn’t calculate in that goal setting was the time it would take from my family and the responsibility and the pressure, and summary how much I had to work to get that sort of income and basically, the life that I was looking to have, and I think a lot of the listeners, they could resonate. 

So I did, I went through that path, I became a manager and a senior manager, and I was in a place where I managed the team of 40 people, and it’s great, but I realized that if for some reason I didn’t do a good enough job, or I didn’t meet expectations. The ramifications of that were tough, potentially for your career, for your ability to be able to provide for other people, so I definitely love the income, but when it comes to as hard as I needed to work for it and then to eventually maintain that level of living it changed for me and I realized that after listening to others podcasts and webinars and becoming connected with others, that there’s a way to do this where there’s not so much pressure on your earned income and what you have to do to be able to maintain it, and like I said, I think Rich Dad, Poor Dad was kind of like a catalyst and then opened the flood gates for more mindset shifts in the future.

0:04:13.5 WS: So what do you see in most people now that are even… You can still speak about yourself, just that you talked about Rich Dad, Poor Dad, there’s other things, of course, that have helped you to take that mindset shift, but what really helped you to take that leap? It’s just hard to fight against everything you’ve been taught or most of us, the way you’re raised and ingrained in certain ways that money should be handled and that’s usually not by people who are wealthy, and so how did you take that shift and continue to go against the grain even maybe you can incorporate, with your family on board as well…

0:04:42.7 RR: Oh yeah, I love that. I think what happened… A short answer is, I decided to leap. But I’ll explain to you what happened. I’m glad you mentioned family. So today, my wife and I had… We have four children and they’re under the age of 7…

0:04:55.0 WS: Congratulations, 

0:04:56.0 RR: Thank you. Thank you. We have seven-year-old, a five-year-olds, who just turned five yesterday, and then twins, two-year-old twins, and we had the last twins in 2018 at the end of the year, and I realized that there’s even more pressure, the pressure that I described earlier for someone like me, a single-income family, to have one stream of income coming in and 50 streams of expenses, and I decided that I always envision being a real estate investor, but when I look at my goals, what I’m doing today doesn’t align with it, so what really had to happen was for me to simply take action, you know. 

So many people talk about analysis paralysis. For me, I didn’t realize that I was paralyzed. I thought I just needed more education, but at some point it took me to do something, I actually heard a podcast where the person speaking was saying, You need to think more along the lines of not just your five-year and 10 year, what are you planning on doing over the next 60 days. So I went to my wife and I said, hey, you know how we’ve always wanted to invest in real estate, I realized that we’re not gonna get there without being serious about it, this is my fault. 

I basically showed to the plan that I put together and I was on it, there was almost a little tear in my eye ’cause I was like, you know, I feel like now, recognizing that we had twins, three-month twins, if we don’t do this, then it may not ever happen for us, so that’s when we bought our first rental property and maybe 30 to 45 days later.

0:06:28.1 WS: Wow, 30 to 45 days later after that conversation… 

0:06:31.0 RR: From that point. Correct.

0:06:32.5 WS: Yeah. Yeah, you took some action. No doubt about it. Well, can I ask what her response was?

0:06:36.8 RR: She said, okay, but I think it was a nervous response and to be fair, I was also nervous… 

0:06:41.0 WS: Sure, rightfully so. 

0:06:43.0 RR: I did not expect for her to feel any differently than I did, and even now as I continue my journey, there are things that make me nervous all the time, but what I realized was not to be emotional, try to use facts and data and your knowledge and ask questions, and then maybe you don’t get yourself in a place where it’s too scary or overwhelming it, I figure, even now as I reach into newer and bigger things, when I feel that way, there’s something that must be missing, maybe I’m not prepared. I don’t have the education, I haven’t talked to someone who’s knowledgeable enough, so in that time we did that, so her response was nervousness, and I’m not gonna say it was a painless process, and we have five each other the first time, but when we did get that first rent checked a few months later, not a few months, maybe it didn’t take us long to fix it up and get someone in there, and when we got that first red check, it felt great, so we started to see how the concept can work.

0:07:34.9 WS: Nice, okay, so… And then you wanted bigger things, right, we’ll move forward a little bit. You wanted to get into a larger multi-family or larger deals, tell me about that mind set transition a little bit, and let’s talk quickly about how you’re scaling your syndication business now…

0:07:48.6 RR: That’s good. So within six months, we decided to buy a house for ourselves, the house that we were in became our second rental. That worked very well, it was relatively smooth, it was only a few weeks, it took us to fix some things up and get someone else into that rental, and then tenants started calling me.

0:08:06.6 WS: No way… 

0:08:07.6 RR: I have a background in leasing, when I was in college, I was a leasing agent at a student housing complex in Orlando, and there were quite a few students, and we put together leases, we showed places. From the beginning, I knew that I could do a decent job of being a landlord and managing myself. I did it for two reasons. I did it so that I can learn and appreciate what it takes to be a landlord, and what I also wanted to do was make sure I understood what I wanted in a property manager, but then I realized after tenants started calling me, even though I only spend after a few months of this happened, even though only spend maybe a few hours, maybe an hour, two hours a month, managing my rentals… 

Within that time, it’s very frustrating because I’m not doing things that I feel are the most value add, and then I realized that if I’m gonna buy another single family home, it might be more of this, so what is it going to take for me to scale the business, I appreciate what I have now, some income, some appreciation happening to our properties and our growing market, but not be so in it like I am. And I said, I don’t wanna do this again, I wanna get better. Just like I’ve heard a lot of people say they wouldn’t repeat their first deal, but they wouldn’t change anything about having done their first deal, because otherwise they wouldn’t be where they are now, and that’s pretty much where I am, so I didn’t wanna do that again. I wanted to do more with the same amount of time or less for the same result.

0:09:34.1 WS: Wanna do less for the same result… No doubt about it. Alright, so what do you envision your business… Say you’re from now and tell me how you plan to achieve it.

0:09:43.8 RR: So I envision our business having done our first syndication, multi-family syndication in the market that I’ve identified, partnering with another general partner, someone who’s gotten some experience, perhaps over the next few months, I’ll be able to be a limited partner, a passive investor myself, and my first department deal, I think that’s moving in the right direction, and I think I’ll be able to get some really good experience with regards to what it takes to be in a passive investor and also be a great syndicator. 

My daughter was, she’s 7… She told me what it takes to drive a car… I said, it’s one thing to know how to drive a car. It’s another thing to do it. And then I started thinking about this situation. I’m like, I think I’ll be a great syndicator once I learn what it takes to be a great passive investor and make great passive investments and also syndicate great deals for passive investors. So that’s a big thing for me. I’ve done some things in the process that I’m also telling others about because what I really love about the journey is you get to share it with others so that they don’t already know the outcome, they’re just watching you do it, it’s documented. 

That’s why I have my blog. In the blog, I’m talking about the mindset change, I’m talking about what I’m doing now, which is looking at markets… I’m sharing some of that information. I have people on the show and not the show of the blog that I’ve maybe interviewed. And then what I’m also doing is I’m talking about how I just rolled over my 401k, that’s not being used because I’m not with the company, it’s growing with the whatever asset fund that’s in it into a qualified retirement plan or giving something that can help others realize that they may have the funds to be able to be a passive investor, even if they don’t have many thousands in their bank account.

0:11:29.1 WS: Nice. Now, education is a key component, no doubt about it, and it’s thing you’re doing that through blogs, you’re doing that through, you’re sharing what you’re learning and what’s happening and helping educate many others along the way, and so tell us about how you chose that thought leadership platform. It’s a blog as opposed to a podcast or YouTube channel or… There’s so many avenues. Right, but how did you choose that?

0:11:52.8 RR: Yeah, the short answer is, there’s something for everybody, just like there’s a medium for everyone to listen to, there’s a medium through which I can communicate to who I believe are my audience members. That’s most convenient for me. So I chose multi-family because of the lifestyle that I want, and I choose blogging at this time for the lifestyle that I have, I’m a busy work and professional, I think the As greatest podcasts are… I listen to them myself, I listen less because I don’t drive to work anymore, I work remotely, and I figured there might be people like me who could quickly read a five-minute article and learn a few things versus listen to a podcast that might be an hour or 30 minutes. 

I’m probably missing some people at this point, but it works for me, I’m able… I wanted to do something that I was able to do consistently that could reach people just like me, and that I can use a skill that I have, which I think is writing and communicating a message through writing so that other people can benefit. I do think in the future, we’ll get to a podcast, I just wanna have good systems in place to where I keep that up because it’s not an easy thing, as you know…

0:12:57.8 WS: Oh no, it’s easy. I’m kidding. So Rodney, if you could tell your younger self, say 10 years ago is something to do differently as far as real estate specifically, what would that be? 

0:13:10.2 RR: I’d say be brave. So I’m constantly pushing my… Now that I’m a little older than I was a few years ago, I don’t think it’s just like years passing by, I just think it’s… I’m looking at my children and everything that I’m trying to tell them, I should be listening to myself, be brave, go play with that kid on the playground, you put yourself out there. If they don’t like you there, that’ll accept you, and that’s the way that I need to be… I’m transitioning myself into recognizing that not everyone’s going to agree with my content or the approach or the strategies, or that real estate is a great asset class. 

I was speaking with a stop friend who basically tried to talk me out of it, and I said, hey, you know, it’s working for you if you can get 110% gains on your investments and continue to do so, and that works with your goals… Go for it. But I think that experience taught me bravery because if I believe strongly enough that real estate is a great asset class, I wanna share that, and they’re… Hopefully, if I’m reaching the right people, they’re hearing and learning and listening, but there might be some different thoughts that may not quite agree, and I think that held me back for so long is being a working professional and not wanting to disrupt things too much.

I think covid happened, and When covid happened, I saw my sister-in-law lose her job, she was living with us for a while, and it made me think one source of income so much coming out, I’m doing people around me a disservice by not sharing what I’m learning, so I just want it to be available for others, and I think bravery is what I’m teaching myself.

0:14:39.6 WS: Yeah, if you wait till you have no push back, I mean you’ll just never get it done right, or if you’re not receiving any push back from others, you’re not pushing hard enough as well all… But you have to be willing to… I try to teach my boys that too, it’s like there are gonna be people that say you can’t do it right, or it can’t be done. And I’ve had that happen so many times and not just, hopefully, obviously, depending on the most situations, but hopefully that encourages you even that much more. Tell me, Rodney, about some daily habits that you are disciplined about that have helped you achieve success…

0:15:09.0 RR: I’m glad you asked. I wrote a blog called The 4 AM mindset.

0:15:13.0 WS:  That’s early. 

0:15:14.7 RR: It’s very early. It’s something I had to do. It worked for me and I had to do it. I decided in July of 2020 that something needed to change. It was probably before that time because I was transitioning from where we are to working remotely, and it’s tough, it’s a big change on your routine, and we’re constantly going through changes with our young children that keep progressing. They’re gonna start going to bed earlier or later, and there are four different personalities, I had to do something to block off the time so that I work on this business, work on the content and have the energy to be able to just get better and grow. 

So I started getting up at 4 AM everyday during the week, Monday through Friday, most of the time I do it. Sometimes it might be 430, but I’m up at 4 AM, and a few things that I do in the morning is I pray and I write. And then I started working on the business for 45 minutes or something like that, writing content, and I do some reading on that also helps to educate me and continue to feed myself knowledge, and I get some exercise and some sort of exercise.

And what was most important is that the time wasn’t always producing the top output, but that I was doing it from the very beginning, and after about a month of doing it, it stuck with me. Now, I’m more uncomfortable not getting up at 4:00 AM being a laid out naturally than I am sleeping in bed in… 

0:16:37.8 WS: Nice. What’s the key to getting up so early?

0:16:40.0 RR: I think I just needed to desire it, I needed to want it badly enough, and I said, Rodney… Do you wanna do this? And I obviously said yes, I said, prove it to yourself and to those around you, and start getting up at 4 AM. My wife, she would laugh if she heard this, but she’d complain if I’m not helping with the kids, so I have to beat that. I have to be in our own children, by getting up. So for me, 5:30 wouldn’t cut it. It had to be 4 o’clock, and now I look back and I think about what the discipline… 

Which wasn’t always the best thing for me. I’m not always, in other areas of my life, the best and most disciplined person, and I said, let’s make a change and develop discipline starting with how I get up at what time I get up every day, Monday through Friday, I’m committed to doing that. And then I started being disciplined in other areas, building the business, my habits, health habits, and things like that, and coincidentally, my wife started getting up early too…

0:17:35.2 WS: That’s interesting. So a similar thing happened to us a few years back, I don’t know, I started getting up early, things started to change, I used to get up early and then you kinda get out of the habit and you come back to it, but… Yeah, having that structured morning routine just has changed everything for me personally, and my wife as well, started getting up early and loves getting up early. She loves it as much as I do. To have that time in the morning just to get your mind right? 

Pray and write or read all those things that are important, just to get your day started correctly, and it’s interesting, you say you have to desire it… No doubt about it, it’s not easy to get up that early, can’t say I make it every morning, but if somebody said one time it’s like, it’s as simple as you really not have enough self-discipline to get out of the bed. I think about it like that, I’m like, Okay, do you really think you have enough discipline to operate a business, but you can’t even get out of the bed in the morning? I’m like, okay, I really need to think about my attitude, getting out of bed and just make it happen.

And like you said, desire, it makes the decision and say, hey, this is what’s best, then maybe that’s not for everybody, but what I find for most people I interview, one of the habits that are so common is being up early and making it happen early, but anyway, I appreciate you sharing that Rodney, so important. Tell me the number one thing that’s contributed to your success…

0:18:47.2 RR: I actually think it’s that 4 AM routine. So it’s not just that I got disciplined, but I believe in myself. So out of 4 AM, out of the 4 AM routine that I put together Monday through Friday, I’ve been able to write blog posts for all of 2021 and more, I’ve been able to put blog posts together for not just Monday now, but also Wednesday. That was a new thing since I had all of the posts written for the year, I’ve been able to learn new things and put more timely content together, more market research, and I look back and I think of that and I’m very thankful, but now it causes me to push to the next level, that’s network better. 

Let’s get to know people better. Let’s reach out to brokers, let’s talk to people that didn’t know that real estate is an option for them, and they don’t have to be like the Property Brothers or someone on HTTV to be a real estate investor. They can be a normal person that’s doing what they’re loving every day, are doing what they’re highly skilled at, engineers, doctors, lawyers, project managers, program managers, and be able to get some exposure to that out of their wealth building.

So I think that was the biggest thing for me, just being able to start and look back and see the results, see what was able to be built from just only 45 minutes Monday through Friday, and how that compound it.

0:20:01.0 WS: It’s the small consistent steps. I’ve said it numerous times over the past numerous shows, but the small, consistent steps, and I’m a prime example of that, or our business, is the small consistent steps, it’s not that one big leap that you think’s coming at some point, that doesn’t happen until there’s been thousands of small leaps. Right? That’s very well said. Rodney, how do you like to give back?

0:20:22.5 RR: So there are two ways that I get, I seek to give back. I believe that I’m already doing it. Number one, I just wanna do it on a larger level in the future is the education that I just described for others just like me, and then secondly, with the wealth building that I’m doing with our business, Robinson Capital, I want to support missions and causes that are bigger than me, on a bigger level, so we do it with our personal finances, we tie their church, we support missions that we think are very important, helping people in other places that may not have access to certain resources and knowledge and just imagine even a small percentage off of a large profit or large sums of wealth, to be able to do that, that’s pretty much the big picture for me, I think that these are my talents. And with what I get from it, that’s what I’m able to contribute back. So it’s education and it’s also helping others that need it the most.

0:21:17.5 WS: Rodney, I appreciate that, and just appreciate your time today in just sharing with us to see your journey… I like hearing just to the stories about the family as well, but making these big shifts, not only is it a mindset shift for you, but what I’ve learned… To me, it’s a mindset shift for the whole family, right? Especially the spouse, or especially in the children eventually as well, this is gonna affect them forever, right. It’s gonna change everything for one way or the other, but hopefully obviously for the better for the children also, but it is a big shift and I just appreciate you being transparent and sharing about some of that, and even just getting down to you… It’s all your ship platform, your blog, how important it is to be up early and how those consistent steps have helped you in a big way, and so just grateful for that, tell the listeners how they can get in touch with you, learn more about you… 

0:22:00.0 RR: Thanks Whitney. Anyone interested can get in touch with me through my blog, which is rodneyrobinsonII.com, that’s rodneyrobinsonII.com. There’s a new blog post talking about my journey, talking about Robinson Capital, different things I’m thinking about in terms of mindset, and I also have for any new subscriber, the 10 lessons that I learned in real estate from my first few years of doing it is something that I’m giving away and I look forward to producing more content to help others.

[OUTRO]

0:22:29.2 ANNOUNCER: Thank you for listening to the Real Estate Syndication Show, brought to you by Life Bridge Capital. Life Bridge Capital works with investors nationwide to invest in real estate while also donating 50% of its profits to assist parents who are committing to adoption. Life Bridge Capital, making a difference one investor and one child at a time. Connect online at www.LifeBridgeCapital.com for free material and videos to further your success.

[END]