Real Estate Success and Systems with Ola Dantis

Transcript:

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

investors, people, duplex, real estate, success, talking, temperament, deal, multifamily, day, money, bought, question, apartment, folks, learned, flip, big, life, bit

SPEAKERS

Taylor , Ola Dantis

Ola Dantis 00:00

Usually daddy doesn't want that. So, I go ahead and play with that, right. But I have my investors after tend to write, I have my podcast, I have my business job, you know. So at the end of the day, I think I was in the park, you know, play with my daughter on the swings and there was a lady next to me and we got talking. You know, she was like, she's a psychologist and we're talking to get time to read. I was like, I wake up before the world wakes up.

Taylor 00:23

Welcome to passive wealth strategies for busy professionals. I'm your host, Tabor load. I got a great interview for you today with my friend, Ola. danfoss hola is an immigrant's busy professional, a successful real estate investor. And we're going to talk about finding success in the USA with passive income as an immigrant, his journey, what he's up to now, all that great stuff, really excited to talk to him. He's got a fantastic story, great history, and he's been very successful so far, and he is the host of the dwell in podcast there'll be a link in the show notes for anyone. That is interested in checking that out. Hola. Thanks for joining us today. Taylor.

Ola Dantis 01:07

Shout out for the dwelling show. Thank you so much, Matt, for having me on your show. I'm super glad to be on your show. Thank you.

Taylor 01:15

I'm excited to have you here. And you're calling in from Baltimore, Maryland, although it sounds like you, you might be moving here in the near future. And, you know, from Baltimore, you know, from both from both?

Ola Dantis 01:29

Yes. As

Taylor 01:30

folks might guess, from the sound of your voice, where are you from? Tell us about your history, how you got to where you are now in Baltimore, and then moving on to the future.

Ola Dantis 01:39

Absolutely, absolutely. So I was born in Nigeria, lived in the UK for a bit, you know, and then now in the US, so that's kind of like the quick fast forward. But basically, my wife and I moved here to the states five years ago, you know, decided to stop in Alabama Actually, my name we kind of moved around a little bit and then Whoo, I think you know, kind of where to set it down in the United States. So we decided to either go from the west coast in California somewhere or we either stay closer to home to London on the east coast. We didn't really like New York City because it was kind of like London on steroids. So we decided to choose, you know, the DC. Yeah, Washington Metro area. So besides just pick, Columbia, Maryland eventually that's kind of what we, you know, that's what Google said was a, you know, pretty nice place to start off, you know, as when you try to make life decisions. The best person to ask the question is Google.

Ola Dantis 02:38

So we got a we got a nice apartment there. You know, we were living pretty well. And a good job. She had a good job. We were you know, we thought life was great. The campaign ran. And then I got it. I got a phone call one day right from a friend of mine, and he called me is like, Hey, can you quickly meet me and Dubai? And I was like, Okay, like, what's what's going on day is like, well, I'm meeting some investors and trying to raise some funds. My real estate business is doing pretty well is actually based in London back home in the UK. And he's like, Hey, you know, yeah, you know, can you come and help me out with my business? Obviously, you've helped me in the past. So you know, we consultant and you know, you're really good with this stuff. So can you fly over? So obviously, I did work. Every smart man does have prayed about it, but also asked my wife. She was like, why don't you guys just do a thing called Skype or FaceTime? That usually works, you know, for the most part. It's like, well, if I go on this trip and actually learn something, maybe that could be helpful to us, right? So you know, after a few while I convinced my wife jumped on the plane to Dubai, sat in the hotel room for about two to three days and just kind of breaking down, you know, my friends business and kind of saw how well he was doing in real estate in the UK, and I was like, Oh my goodness. You know, I was helping him to kind of, you know, we strategic planning and kind of, you know, visioning and just pretty much a full blown mastermind, right. So on my way back from Dubai, I was like, Oh my goodness, I'm not starting to see that I'm just paying rent this big apartment building. They're just taking my you know, I get paid from my job and it kind of goes out and I, you know, I kind of have this. I had this epiphany of my life like, wow, this is the thing I've been feeling like, there's so much more I can do with my life. So when I go back home to the US, I basically just went into a deep dive of like reading podcast, just kind of educating myself. You know, I told my wife like, Hey, you know, that trip? It was amazing, right? I learned about real estate investing, and I think we can really replicate that success. Yeah, or basically tailor that to what we want for our, you know, for our lives and our goals. You know, for me, I'm very obsessive. So I went into full blown Learning listening. Anyway, fast forward, six months down the line, we, you know, bought our first duplex. And you know, we got under contract closed. And the next month I got my first rent check into my Bank of America. And I was like, Oh my god, I cannot believe somebody is actually giving me money to stay in our space. And you know, we have two tenants upstairs, we lived in the bottom floor was just me and my wife, you know, we were never in the house anyway, we always in our job, we always just come home at night. So it wasn't like we needed a big house with the picket fence and the American dream as you know, so to speak. So when I go that far, so strange, because like, Oh my goodness, what if I can do this 10 times when it happens when if I can do this 20 times, that means I will need my job. I was like, oh my god. So I started to have you know, that thought in my mind, and I kind of was just, you know, daydreaming like oh my god, what would my life look like if I didn't have to essentially, you know, Beyond this rat race, right? As Rich Dad Poor Dad will talk right about in his book. But then fast forward a little bit more. And the reason I'm breaking this down is you know, for whoever's listening to really, you know, plug into kind of be aware of what's really going on right? So I think about three four months down the line I said to my wife, I was like, you know what they'd like? I think I've just been like, I just have a lot of money man. Like this never happened before. There's this like this constant yet you know show you know growth of money my account that's just like we do. The same thing is happening to my account. Because obviously when we live in an apartment, you get paid from your job it goes right back out. Like you pay for this build that bill for having our own building and we just have to realize and this is really key because when you start to see changes in your life, you need to be awake, take a step back and think Whoa, okay, this is happening. What do we Next. And essentially what we what we did next was a we're going to do this, we're going to go big. And obviously, we set up our company dwalin, which you mentioned our podcast as well. And then we now start to help other folks who are like us, or maybe we want to invest in real estate, but maybe don't have the time. Maybe they're doctors or just IT professionals. And we obviously just kind of coalesce our funds and buy bigger apartment buildings and share the profits with investors. And obviously we partner with other syndicators like yourself Taylor or, you know, folks in our group, and just basically help people to get to that point in their life where they don't actually have to rely on a day job to actually, you know, get to that point of financial freedom and obviously, that number and that state is different for for everyone. And but I just thought that going from that point of force gains to the United States with you know, my wife's keep saying we had one $800 when we got Yeah, I was like I just show up because I, I felt like I had less than that which is like When we sat down in New York City, I was like, Okay, okay, cool. So you know, from 180 dollars in my pocket, you know, coming to the US not knowing what's going to happen to, you know, this point, I'm really humbled and grateful that that has happened. And now it's just kind of, you know, I'll go to help other people who might be trying to navigate the complexities of real estate investing and, and kind of helping them to build on their funds.

Taylor 08:28

That's awesome. And there's, that's a great story. And it's not just a story. It's a great history, but very, very concise. And well put, you know, I appreciate you sharing that whole experience with us. And there are a number of ways we could take this conversation First, I'd like to, to hit on you know, as you deal with these work through investors, meet new people and start getting people into real estate investing. You have that first experience as many of us have had where you get that first red check coming in. You're like, man, somebody's paying me for this thing that I own. I know, I'm making money. So have you noticed that that that first experience is important for every real estate investor, every new real estate investor getting that first little hit of success? and being like, oh, man, I could really I could really scale this.

Ola Dantis 09:22

Yeah, I mean, it's that's a really fascinating question, right? And one of my favorite quotes from Socrates and it said, wisdom is knowing that you know, nothing, right. And to kind of have that quote, right from Socrates, what I say also is, you don't know what you don't know. Right? And I'm really big on mindsets, because, you know, somebody might be listening to this and go, Wow, this kid or this guy just came from like nowhere, right? And is now buying apartments in America. I've been I was born in America and you know, I, but that's not the point. Right? You know, Jim Rome, one of my favorite You know, speakers ever talks about if you want to learn how to be if he wants to be successful and success, if you want to learn how to live or learn about nutrition, or exercise and right, or you know, so if you want to be successful, it's not so much about, you know, just sheer grit is also about this and I'm putting into my brain, it's about your mindset. And I'm big on mindset, right? There's a reason why some people are like Grant Cardone. And some people are like, you know, maybe Joe fairless, that you probably don't know him as much but doesn't want to be known as much. There's a reason why there's a spectrum of investors because the success we choose is a success that we think about right you become what you think about the most right if you think I want to be you know I want to be you will be x if I want to be a Grant Cardone, eventually you would be if you put in the necessary work to be that person, right. So we knew we wanted to be, which was wanting to have our own time. We wanted to be able to travel, right? We love traveling. And we knew real estate was one of the tools that could help us to do that. But if we didn't have the right kind of mindset and the right discipline to follow through day in and day out, I mean, look at us, right? Yes, it's seven o'clock in the morning, eastern time talking about real estate. Right? Some people have no interest whatsoever to do that. Right. And that's a choice, right? So it's not necessarily about, you know, what you think, you know, it's more important of what you don't know. Because you never know what you don't know. Until you know, right. So going back to your question is when I got that first raincheck I was like, Oh my goodness, I did not know this word existed. I did not know somebody would acth rent in into my like, it was just a new thing. You know, but then right on when we got that was like, oh, how to replicate this right? And we had to figure out way and learn a systematic way that has worked for people in the past. And we wanted to keep doing that. And it's a learning process every single day. And that's what we're trying to do and that by dwelling

Taylor 12:19

awesome, I love it. And you know, there's there's so much we could talk about there. You mentioned Jim Rome, and big fan as well. One of my favorite quotes of his is don't wish it were easier. Wish you were better. I like that one. Yeah, big fan of him. But, you know, there's a lot of things to this success. And we talked about this before we started recording people see the, they see what they see, but they don't see all the work behind what they see. Essentially, we're talking about the context of a podcast when you host a podcast, I host a podcast, and they don't see all the work behind it. Like you said it's 7am right now. I've been up for a couple hours already and I would bet you haven't seen yet. Yeah, yeah. And it's your work, you know, and we both for to drop the vailable a little bit, you know, we both have day jobs. So we we do that as well. And you have the extra added, you know, difficult I don't know, it's a constraint of a family if I'm not mistaken. You and your wife had a child not

Ola Dantis 13:18

right? Yes, yes. Yes. All of that is it makes it so much more. You know, a little bit challenging because now you have you know, my baby doesn't care about my apartment syndication. Like she doesn't know what that means. Yeah, she's just like, Hey, Dad, play with me right now. Like, you know, all I'm going to throw a fantabulous tantrum, right? Usually daddy doesn't want that. So, I go ahead and play with that. Right. But I have my investors after tend to write I have my podcast, I have my business job, you know. So at the end of the day, I think I was in the park, you know, playing with my daughter on the swings and there was a lady Next man, we got talking, you know, she was like, she's a psychologist, and we were talking and she's like, oh, did you get it get time to read. I was like, I wake up before the world wakes up. I wake up at four or 5am, I don't have an alarm, I will wake up at four to 5am I have a routine that I follow every day that incorporates, you know, spirituality and health. I drink a bottle of water, I drink green tea, I then meditate where I try to do that as much as I can. And then you know, I have my shake, right? kale, spinach, whatever. I put a scoop of wheatgrass. I do that every single day. Right? And the reason I'm breaking that down is success. There's two things if there's anybody listening on this conversation ago, Allah Tell me, how do I be successful in anything I want to do is two things to three courses. It's self confidence, and you know, note the additive before the confidence self, which means it's all about you. It's like how would you Ron says, If you keep waiting on somebody to come and motivate you what the guy doesn't show up, if the guy doesn't show up, so you have to, you know, motivate yourself, you have to instill confidence in in yourself, right? Without confidence. Can you, you know, persuade somebody else right to invest in your deal? Or can you persuade somebody else to invest in your business idea, whatever it is you're trying to do, right? And second thing is discipline, right? And that is just hard. It's just hard, right to be disciplined because as, as human beings intrinsically, we not built the discipline, right? We're built to go for the easier route, right? Because that's easier, right? So having the self confidence and discipline is that the two most important things for success as it is academically in scientific papers, and that's what helps people to get to success.

Taylor 15:59

So Absolutely, I mean, the big thing for me in the in the morning is you know, getting that that mindset, right and wake up early, make sure that's the first thing you do. And that's not an easy habit to build. I mean, there's all these temptations of, you know, all these distractions that can get in the way Oh, you want to, you want to get up and you want to just get right at it. Get the mentality stuff today because I got to do all these things. I have all these emails I need to handle or I've got a call coming up early today. All these things where you know, and making that habit making that that very important. It's a hard thing to do to do it every morning and have to remember the importance of getting your mind in the right place before you get started. And I think a lot of busy professionals don't realize how much extra time how much spare time so to speak. They really have that they're just spending on downtime right now where they they're watching a betania Whatever housewives reality show is on right now, you know, there's there's something to be said about having some downtime decompressing a little bit. But you have to, you have to hustle, you have to put the work in. You want to build these streams of passive income because it's not, nobody's going to do it for you. And it's not free. If it were free that everybody would do it would go away. And these these things, this, this passive wealth of passive income doesn't happen overnight, and it doesn't happen for free. What you have to do is you have to invest your time. So can you tell us a bit about things that you've got some accomplishments you've had in the multifamily space? I mean, I'm on your, your investor list, I see your deals coming across, doing some great things. Tell us a bit about your resume and some things you've learned along the way, particularly in multifamily real estate?

Ola Dantis 17:48

Yeah, I mean, I think usually for I get a lot of folks reach out to me, you know, via my podcast, and you know, most people that listen to this, they don't have 5000 units, you know, you know, Us, like they literally just trying to figure out how to get started. So I like to target my message towards them. And I don't want to talk about, you know, cap rates and IRAs and you know, you know, put them to sleep. So, from a from my resume perspective, I'd like to talk to the small guy, right? So the guy that is maybe in his 20s or he sent a figure out, like, how do I get started? Or maybe the guy in his 40s and he's like, Oh my god, I gotta start thinking about retirement. So what you need to do first is start small. Even Grant Cardone started small I think he had a single family thing you know, so start small, right? And then maybe you can start to partner with folks like myself or Taylor and then kind of work your way up. So in terms of my resume obviously I'd like I said I started with the duplex and then I made a mistake Yes. Oh my god. Yes, we make mistakes. Real estate investors make mistakes all the time. And my was yet my was I you know contracted a disease called shiny object syndrome. Right. I was you know doing just fine. That's a It's huge. I you know What's so funny? I knew all about it. I saw it coming and I welcome the right in. Right I was so aware and I did and and that shiny object syndrome was slipping. Right so I bought something really great understood, you know, passive income, understood how to manage properties. And then I was like, and I met this partner and he's like, oh, let's start buying properties and flipping them and making quick cash. That was like quick cash. I like the sound of quick cash, you know, let's make some quick cash. And so bought a few deals, you know, some some flip some flip deals. I mean, retrospect I shouldn't have bought in life, you never fail, you always learn. But of course, he does a price right? You have to pay a price. There's always a sacrifice. And for me, the sacrifice was a little bit of a slow down in the multifamily syndication business because I was spending my actual time going to My projects and making sure that we're on time in our milestones, making sure that we're going to get our investors the yields and the returns that we promised them. Right. So that's socked away a lot of time from actually focusing on my multifamily syndication business. And the reason I brought that up, is because it's okay to make mistakes, right? Is it okay to know that, to know that, hey, this is not something I should do, but you did it anyway. But then you actually really learn from it as opposed to learning from an abstract perspective, you actually learn and now your your, your your knowledge is so strong, and it's so deep and deeply rooted that you can never ever make that mistake again. Right? So for me, I know I'm never ever going to flip is this is never going to happen, right? Unless it's like unless it's just so easy or Bible, doubt it right. And I think for those who are starting, make sure that you figure out how you can get your feet in the door meaning you go by the duplex or quad Plex get an FHA loan which is a 3% down loan because the most objections people say to me is bad enough money you don't need that much money. I mean, I mean a lot of people say no money down I mean if you want to stop you know with a duplex you probably you know need some money you know, unless your dad or mom or somebody is giving you that initial you know downpayment so get get a duplex have a sense of what management property is like, understand your temperament with tenants, you know, people don't tell you all this stuff, right? No one told me all this stuff when I was starting right? Do you like dealing with people you might say, Oh, yes, I'm a people person. But when you get that first call from that unknown tenant who never pays on time, and they're always breaking something maybe it's like the you know, the the fast that isn't working and you get that it's working, you know, like, you need to understand your temperament what you like what you don't like, I mean, these are things I think the little guy don't understand. I was listening to taught by Les Brown on YouTube. And he said, I met a guy and the guy said, Oh, you know what, I really want to hold a restaurant. And Les Brown asked the guy, have you ever, you know, worked in a restaurant? And he said, Oh, no, I've never and he's like, Well, why don't you try and get a job in the restaurant? So the guy went in you know, during the night was he got a job in the restaurants he was working in the restaurants and then he realized that you know, the guys managing the restaurants people never showed up to work some times the the customers were horrible. The food was never good enough. You know, employees won't show up the food you know, in the fried was always there's always issues with in terms of exploration. So you realize, oh my god, I don't want to own a restaurant. I just like cooking. I just want to be a chef. You know.

Ola Dantis 22:45

So you know, kind of dipping your toe into real estate by by something small. could give you a real idea of you actually really liked it. Because guess what they actually people in the world that don't like real estate. I made them all All the time, right like Bitcoin or crypto or whatever the heck it is or stock. So maybe you don't like real estate, right? So give it a shot. Start from the beginning. And that's kind of what helped me as well. And then, you know, we kind of worked our way up, I did the development projects, I realized it wasn't my temperament. I didn't like flip them because I feel like I'm a little bit of a perfectionist. So I want to be there every single day, making sure that the driver got delivered at the right time and make sure the contract it was just too much. And then the city came. I didn't really like the city because they always like filling you on stuff, or it's like two inches as far as like, Oh, you guys, you are nice. I could tell that this is not naturally for me. Right? I could manage tenants. I'm pretty good with processes. So that was fine, but flipping No. So obviously we went back into the drawing board. And then now we just live literally, last week closed on a 160 unit in Houston, Texas. Super excited. About this building, we've got about 11.5 million, we've got some of our investors involved, we actually coalesce with another group. And then so we raised some funds for that. We literally just got it, you know, and then we just kind of waiting to see what's going to happen. Now, we're going to obviously start going and making our value adds and obviously staff, you know, dispersing, you know, money to our investors in a few months here, so really excited about that. But I kind of wanted to bring folks from, you know, this is not just some guy that just fell out the sky. Now he's buying apartments in Texas, it doesn't work that way. It's literally a long game. I'm literally playing this game to the day I die. Like I would never stop invest in real estate and I've made that commitment, not to myself, but to my family, to my friends on my Facebook on my Instagram. This is what I do. So and the reason I'm saying these things is for those thinking, I don't really get it. Eat whatever you want to do. Do you have to have a long term view? There is no get rich quick scheme. It doesn't exist. It does not exist, right? So you check out a book called The Richest Man in Babylon, there's certain laws and rules of life, anytime somebody tells you is a guaranteed investment, you know, we're going to make money two months run, right? get rich quick schemes don't exist. So that's for me, it's a long term game with constantly you know, looking for investors, working with investors, helping them to get to where they want to get to financial freedom, and you know, kind of just just seeing how we can help and change lives.

Taylor 25:38

I like I love it. I shouldn't say I like it. Um, you know, there's a there's a lot in there. And I want to comment on you mentioned, shiny object syndrome. And that's a that goes back to what we talked about mentality and mindset. And so many successful investors. I would say even most successful investors had to deal with shiny objects. syndrome at one point or another, you know, when you spend so much time in these real estate investing worlds either you know hosting a podcast or hosting a going to networking events or hosting a networking event, just meeting all these people who are successful in real estate, you're going to find that there are a billion niches in real estate where you can make money and people are making money and doing well. Like, you know, flipping is a very is a broad one that most people are familiar with. But you're going to meet people who are doing well, it sounds like they've got it all figured out. And many of them do, many of them haven't completely figured out whatever their thing and yeah, once you pick a strategy that you're going to pursue, you have to stick with it until you really figure out whether or not it works for you. Whether or not you like it before you move on to the next one. And that's a huge one. That's a big one for me personally, was you're dealing with that shiny object syndrome some. Every day I remind myself that no shiny objects and from this is what we're committed. Just to stay on that track and you know personally I learned that from but some very successful investors like yourself and Paul Moore and and others that I, you know, have gotten to know that if they're further along in the in the process than I am and they still have to remind themselves about shiny object syndrome. So that's a very important one. Now, as far as you know doing deals out in the market and what you're looking for me and you're in the multifamily space, you mentioned a deal that y'all just closed although by the time this posted, it'll be be a couple months past. And Rob's going to be on the on the show as well. So for for anyone interested in know Rob Beardsley going to be on the show, but what are you looking for out there today in the multifamily space, what kind of deals Do you like asset classes, locations, so forth? What are you looking for?

Ola Dantis 27:51

So above 100 units, we really like the Texas market. There's also some noise in the Florida market in the Florida market right now as well. So that's kind of what we're looking for, you know, be class value add assets, obviously, as you know, you know, caps are being compressed in the Texas market, especially DFW, I was, you know, talking to a lot of property owners and investment firms that own apartments in in Texas. So, you know, I've thought about, you know, just over $40 million worth of deals in that market. So I, I know that market and fairly well, so we signed to move to other parts of Texas and parts of Florida, Jacksonville is a big one, as well. So we we kind of like this assets. And then we just kind of look into, you know, get a deal that makes sense that that pencils out, and investors are going to be excited about As you already know, you know, investors like what they like regardless of you know, how much you pitch the deal. So, that's kind of what we're looking for right now.

Taylor 28:56

Absolutely. And, you know, I I invest actively and passively and as a passive investor in an active investor. I know what I like. Eight, we need to know what we like So usually, I don't know. I don't like being pitched too hard by by the sponsors and Exactly. So yeah, absolutely. What is the best investment you've ever made? Oh, man,

Ola Dantis 29:19

that is such a good question. Oh man, I think I'll go with a very fast one because I feel like that was like, in the Eureka moment, opening Pandora's box like oh my gosh, I think the bear the very, very first one was the best one. You know, the duplex in Baltimore. I know there's some connotations with Baltimore but it's in a classic area. And Baltimore is a beautiful city. We have a very, very unique setting in Baltimore, but we were able to get this duplex from a couple that used to live there when they were younger to that we've got under contract about you know, 240 know we still own that duplex to this Day, ice has flows pretty well. We like property a lot, because we, you know, lived in the, you know, sideout family in that it's just a really nice property we still wanted to today.

Taylor 30:13

Awesome. And that's very much along the lines of most of the answers I get on the show and ask that question. Usually they have something to do with mindset or education, not necessarily numbers related. Now yours is a particular investment that you're making a return on that you made a return on, but the context of your answer was opening up your mind telling you these possibilities so very much along the lines of the the typical answer, I get to that question. So I certainly appreciate that. On the other side of that, what is the worst investment you've ever made?

Ola Dantis 30:50

Oh, my goodness, that is such a tough question.

Ola Dantis 30:55

That is a tough question. For me, I would say How about we say like my second flip? And I don't think, and this is a fascinating question to me, because I heard somewhere that real estate, if you wait enough, or if you wait long enough, you will, you will always be fine. Right? So I'll say my Yeah, you would always be fine. So my second flip. It wasn't a it's not a failure to own Institute today, because I didn't flip it. I held it. Right. I still own a property. And I would say it was a failure because of the stress associated with it. Right. I mean, I'm someone myself, you know, what you mean? Like, what was the stress? I mean, I have a list will give you one. Like we were, you know, during the flip, the city came and they shut us down for a month and somebody might go, what's the big deal? I'll spend $3,000 a month alone. So Emily, the city shut us down a day. I know for the Folks, when about clipping, we got to stop work order. So there's a red sign on the door saying stop work, right. So it was just a very long process. It was just a very tough flip. Usually our flips and got out there not the fanciest office in HGTV, we got everything out. So beautiful blip, but it was just so much stress, right? And I realized talking to you know, I was speaking to one of the contractors when it was like if I kept doing this if I kept flipping like for the rest for the rest of my life, I don't think I'll make it to 40 because the temperament of a flipper is just so much like you have to Oh, the flows are coming today or Home Depot just send an email but they had the wrong size of the toilets are wrong looking at our return. I'm like, Oh my god, like, how much am I making? Like it's just a lot for me. I mean, you've got amazing flippers you know, we do great work. That's what they do. They've got a machine in place, but the real Reality is, you know, muzzleloading get all the franchising business in one year. I mean, I did a few flips, you know. So it takes time series to get to that point, right? on of course, you can get a mentor that you pay, and they can give you a shippable system and then you can have that I didn't have that we just add a partner, we just kind of were trying to figure it out as we're going right. So that made it so much more painful. So for me, I think that was a tough one, not a failure because I never fail. I learned and I still own that property. And you know what's funny? It's a big house. It's a 2500 square feet. You know, it's a massive house and we ripped everything out, literally tore it down to the studs. And now I have four guys young professionals that I think they're all in their 20s and my rent is up. This is like $3,000 and I've refinance out of that crazy, you know, hard money loan that I was using to Flip it so it's a failure guys. So for anyone listening and go, Oh, I don't want to feel that's one failure story. I don't know. Don't Don't think that way because I learned so much I can build a house from scratch now. I know how it works, but it's not a fun thing. I didn't enjoy the process. I don't think it was good for my health. I didn't think it was good for my mindset and spirituality. You know, it just wasn't just good. Overall, I had to buy my partner out during that it was just tough, you know? But I still own the properties. I love my wife and I lived in a briefly we are my my baby has a big yacht. It's beautiful. I had nest everywhere. I think you said a video right? It's just a beautiful it's just a beautiful house, you know, so big for us because we're minimalist, but, you know, we rented out we get we get $3,000 a month. It's fantastic. You know, so yes, I'm making more money, but it's never just about money. Money is important though. But it's never just about the money. It's just you know, does the accumulation of cholesterol in my heart during the time of slipping a does that equate to the three grand I'm getting every month I mean you gotta think about these things you know it's not just about the money it's about what is it what is it doing to my health? What is it into my family? What is it into my spirituality? What is it doing to my mindset? You have to be aware of this thing and not just go you know with the flow one of my favorite quotes ever stop going with the flow and stop paddling towards your goals. Right started against stop going with the flow that paddling towards your goals.

Taylor 35:38

man you are a quotes machine. My I love it. Writers gonna have a great time with this one. That's awesome. That's, again, going back to you spent enough time in this real estate investing community. You're going to meet people who are flippers that are making boatloads of money. They have it all systematized. Get there And they love it. And it's a great fit for them. I'm sure we both you know, we both know Jay Scott, and folks out there, he's got a lot of great books. Right flipper, he's one of the thought leaders in the in this space, very good at very experienced makes a lot of money doing it. And that's right for him. It's not right for everybody, you know. And that goes to be said about anything, you know, your day job, I'm sure, yeah, I can think of a particular day job that I had professional job after getting out of college. And I hated it. But I colleagues, it loved them. It was just the wrong fit for me. And there are certain investments that are wrong for some of us, and that's fine and the investments that are right for all of us, really, but you got to find what the investment is. That's right for you. And that's, it takes time to get there. But, you know, some of those lessons are learned the hard way. So definitely

36:51

share that with us.

Ola Dantis 36:52

Yeah, I want to quickly piggyback on that. And you know, what's so fascinating is when you do find what you like, problems associated to that particular strategy that Jen, you end up picking the question now is do you have the right temperament for those problems? Right people think like oh, okay, I'm gonna go do this kind of real estate and life will be fantastic no

Ola Dantis 37:19

problems with that too. But the problems that come with that pesticide you don't mind so you it's not a problem to you it's a it's a it's an issue to fix you like oh, yeah, send it to me. I love it. You You want your isn't working? Yeah, I'll do it all. You know, I want to speak to investors because I love things people buy real estate. Oh, I love Investor Relations. Let's do it. Right. There are some guys in our, you know, in our group, and it's all they do is raise money. They're never asset managers. They never do any of that all they do is raise capital. So you just have to understand that whatever it is that you choose. There will be problems there will be issues, but understanding where you are deeply and making sure that you can manage Those you know, issues I your temperament is at peace and your soul is at peace and you happy with what you're doing? Nice.

Taylor 38:08

I love it. So last question. My favorite one, what is the most important lesson you've learned in real estate investing?

Ola Dantis 38:18

You got some really good questions Taylor. Then I tried that is a good one. Yeah, that is a good one, actually. And I'm saying so good, because I'm not prepared for it. So I'm gonna have to pull something out of my marriage. My hat. I think for me in real estate, the the most the biggest thing I've learned is, you don't know what you don't know. Right? And one of one of I'm reading a book called meditations Marcus rellis. A book. It's, yeah, brilliant book. And it talks about like, you know, the soul every is deprived of truth?

Ola Dantis 39:03

Sounds like wow. Right.

Ola Dantis 39:06

And most of us go around with our brains thinking I know everything. I'm 30 something years old. I'm 50 I know everything. But in this game, you know, just being humble. And, you know, for us to refrain from any kind of ostentatious display of like, look at me. I mean, we have this a lot. Now with the proliferation of social media, and some of us at some point in time we fall for it, but you know, I'm not trying to train myself to refrain from such behavior, but look at me, I've got, you know, the biggest amazing I'm like, amazing, I take down apartments and, and he has this like, you know, good and bad, but I think my style and what I think is good for society and community and the world as a whole is having a benevolent disposition. You know, just which has just been nice as much as you can, and making sure that what we're putting out isn't in any way adversely affecting the universe and other people, you know, through, especially through our social media channels, like, Oh, look at me, my life is great, I don't cry. I don't, you know, everything just works out for me, like everything I touch turns to gold. And, you know, in the process, not saying the truth and not making people understand the full picture of you as a person. So for me, in real estate, it's just making sure that I know that I don't know anything, right. And that keeps me in check that, you know, refuse my wisdom, time and my passion time. And it gives me that, you know, constant disposition to be nice as much as I can. And to be frank as well. You know, not just to, you know, folks I deal with in the business but also with my wife, my kid, my family, my friends.

Ola Dantis 41:00

I just tried to be a good, round person.

Ola Dantis 41:06

That's what I've learned. Yeah.

Taylor 41:07

Yeah. You that. That's fantastic. I mean, there's a lot a lot there. And I think there is a lot in the specially the multifamily space right now but there's a lot out there that you folks saying that well in in a month and a half, I bought a billion apartment units and now I'm making a quadrillion dollars a year passively. And, you know, it's great. But folks that we, you know, you and I know a coaching program or in you know, old and I hold on, I have the same coach, very, very humble guy and he's bought hundreds, hundreds of thousands of units, hundreds of millions of dollars a real estate with passive investors and he's a humble t if he knows he's always willing to listen and he's not out there bragging and he's always watching what he's putting out there in the world and in a positive way and being positive and not Being one of those guys that tells you you can make a you know, 100 billion dollars next week by bringing in. I mean, really,

Ola Dantis 42:10

I'm so sorry time. Yeah, I'm so sorry to interject, but I'm just like, it's a very interesting conversation that we should have. Because I mean, we closed on this Houston deal. And tomorrow, like, you know, I want to post it on Facebook. But then, you know, like, I don't want people to think like, Oh, I'm like this billionaire billionaire guy. Like, no, I'm just a part of a group that closed on this deal. But it's not like you're minimizing your success, but then I feel like the world. I really generally believed it is. investors want you to want you to show that growth that are like, yeah, American dream. I'm awesome. I raised 11 million by myself without a Saudi Prince and I'm buying apartments. I feel like the world wants to see that and then you as a person you're thinking well do I want my friends that have A day job to feel and they got a few horrible I got a few good is it gonna be aspirational is going to inspire them to do better. And I don't know about somebody like me, maybe I'm overly overly self aware in my not pushing out what the other guys are doing. So maybe that's how they've been successful. So let me push it out. So so I'm not saying like I have it all figured out is just you start to think, is this the right thing to do? Should I do it? Should I not? You know, you have all these questions and sometimes like, Okay, I'm going to do it, but I'm going to do it gracefully. And make sure that, you know, I'm putting the right picture out there and I'm not over playing my path, in the in, you know, in the, in this situation.

Taylor 43:45

Really, I like that a lot. And you know, I've got two questions for you or a question for you and a question for the audience. Where can folks get in touch with you?

Ola Dantis 43:56

Yes. So first and foremost, my podcast. Darling show it's growing now will be imminent, we like really hit some numbers that we've never seen since inception of the show. So you know, check out the show on iTunes. And if you want a free amazon gift card, I think we're going to do them in increments of either 25 or $50. Give us a review, right on the dwelling show on iTunes, if you're watching this right now or listening to my advice, and then send a screenshot to my email, which is all at dwell in calm and the dwelling is d w, e, l l y n n.com. So that's Oh la, send me your screenshot of the review and then I'll basically get a gift card out to you we're going to put you in the raffle. But also, you know, my website, invest with Allah. So that's invest with all la calm. If you guys want to know about the deals that we're looking at, we're looking at some deals in some, you know, obviously, apartment buildings. So if you want to get involved You know, reach out, let me know. Check me on Instagram to I'm on Instagram. I'm not as prolific as I used to be. But check me out and let's get to know each other.

Taylor 45:09

Awesome. So everything that you mentioned that all the links will be in the show notes and blog posts associated with this episode. Now my question for the audience now that we have your contact information out there for the audience, what do you think about Ola said at the end about putting your success out there in a tasteful manner and whether or not it's it's appropriate and where that is? And whether or not do you think it should be a maybe a little bit more out there? maybe be a little bit bit more braggadocious about his successes. Maybe you should be I don't know. I'm not opposed to it. But I want I'd like I'd like to hear your opinion. Oh, yeah. I'm hoping you'd be interested in any in the audience's opinion. Absolutely. Great. Yeah. And then definitely let me know what you hear. Because it is a fine line to walk. But you know, people who folks who are out there that are willing to be Inspired, I think appreciate hearing about other successes. But there is a fine line to walk between being a bit of a braggart. And, you know, being inspirational and showing that others can achieve level of success, levels of success. They didn't dream up. So thank you for joining us today.

Ola Dantis 46:21

My absolute pleasure. Thank you so much.

Taylor 46:24

A lot of fun and everyone out there listening. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for listening to passive wealth strategies for busy professionals. You're enjoying the show, please leave us a rating and review on iTunes to big help. Go check out all this show, the dwelling, dwelling podcast, enjoy that leave him a rating and review. It's a big help for podcasters thanks, you almost no time to do it. And it helps get the word out there. More folks. So thank you for listening today. I hope you have a great week and we'll talk to you on the next one.