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Speech Transcript

0:00  

What’s up this is Alex with brokers of choice calm and if you really want to learn how to live your life you should be listening to the time do shine today podcast

0:07  

with my man Scott Ferguson time to shine today podcast squatter to Scott Ferguson and I got my boy Alex police from broke is a choice.com. I’ve been waiting on this one to drop. Alex is a high energy guy like me, so we had a ton of fun. It was almost like a pinball or, or a ping pong kind of conversation because we’re just dropping knowledge nuggets left and right in what Alex had to say about pushing through your failures, being persistent and measuring success by the time you have to kill just truly blew my mind. So without further ado, kick back relax, break out your notebooks, because here comes my good friend Alex Felice from broke is a choice.com. Let’s level up.

0:58  

Time to shine to the varsity squad. It is Scott Ferguson. And I’m super stoked. I have a fellow military guy here, Army and Navy. So that’s okay though. But we’ll get along for today the big games in a couple months if they let it be played. But I got a fellow real estate investor that is absolutely killing it right now. Like I said, his name is Alex fleece. Total rock star was introduced to me by another podcast interview, David prey a marine that is actually killing it helping others invest in real estate. But Alex is a prior service army guy invest in residential real estate, Alex has been buying real estate since 2016. It’s now a full time investor with a portfolio of single family homes, a small apartment building and multiple ongoing flips. In 2020. He started a media company to leverage his years of photography and videography experience the rest of the time. You can find Alex reading books jack and some iron if you’re watching on YouTube, this guy’s pretty well put together he’s out there lifting weights or he’s publishing his advice to next advice to the next investors at broke is a choice calm, which is a frickin fantastic URL. Kudos to him for grabbing it. And so I’ll come on introduce introduce yourself to the time to shine today squad. But first, what’s your favorite color? And why?

2:15  

Pink?

2:16  

Pink? My man? What’s going on with I mean, it’s in your color wheel. But what’s up with pink? Why do you like it?

2:24  

Because most guys can’t wear it. And so I just wanted to do it. Say I can do things you because it limits most men by by their mentality.

2:33  

Oh yeah. I rock pink all the time. I’m in here in South Florida. You know, just north of Miami. So there’s a lot of pink that’s going around on the dudes and I rock I have that skin tone so I can pull it right now. Let’s get to the origins you man you did some time the army did some combat. You know, let’s start there and kind of work it up into being a rock star real estate investor. Yeah, I

2:52  

did. I did four years in army. I did two tours overseas. That was a form form, formidable experience. You know, I was a timid kid, a very timid kid, like a lot of people join the army didn’t have much ambition didn’t have much. I didn’t think much of myself. And that really is a very limiting factor. You don’t think you can do it? You can’t it’s an army helped out pretty good. You know, I went from like, Hey, I really need some help to Hey, you guys are slowing me down in about four years, which is a which is a good thing got out turns out that they were not slowing me down that much. I was quite arrogant and not that talented. So I had a bit of a slow start in life. It wasn’t till about 30. And a little bit

3:32  

that I realized that my talents or my arrogance far exceeded my ability. And so I had to have a little coming to Jesus meeting with myself get some humility, get some make some sacrifice, get some work ethic and things really turned things around. It’s amazing what happens when you actually really try and life and have some some reference to where you really are instead of just thinking oh, I’m I’m gonna be awesome because I think it’s like that’s not really how it works. You got to put some freakin labor in. And so 31 I turn it around, I started getting my stuff together start to learn about finance, because I was always broke broke my whole life for no reason other than just mismanaging money and engaging in consumerism. So learned about money when got a degree in finance, because I figured if I want money, learn about money, go be around money. So I got a degree in finance started learning about personal finance started learning about real estate and 1013 started buying foreclosures. I was working a job I hated and I couldn’t afford to quit like so many. And so I said, Man, I’m gonna buy my freedom,

4:35  

right? And

4:36  

rentals allowed me to buy my freedom. And I realized Real Estate’s a very good vehicle, but it’s not like a, you know, I don’t want it on my gravestone, right, like, it’s a good vehicle for wealth, but it’s not my passion project and turns out as a guy who for 30 years again, I’ve called myself not that creative. Turns out I am kind of creative. I just I couldn’t find Because I don’t want to be a starving artist so once I fixed the money problem real estate now I’m opening as you said, a media company, photo and video. And that’s going that’s, you know, it’s a process but it’s it’s ramping up pretty quickly.

5:13  

Who do you serve with the photo video?

5:16  

So I have a few little different niches, I do these lifestyle sheets, right, interact with people, I’m a people person through and through, like, off the charts, extrovert wrote, you

5:27  

know, magnet, you bring people right to you, you know, that’s why why not interview, you know, all that, you know.

5:34  

So, you know, the conferences, you go to conferences, I started going to conferences, and I lug around this big camera, I can’t help myself, this guy that I’m using right here, I look around this big camera for no reason. Nobody hired me. Nobody pays me I just like it. And then I go my blog, and I’ll post like 180 photos, and 4000 words. And it’s like, this is what I did for the last three days on this conference. And nobody asked me to do it. Nobody paid me to do it. But I’m the only one on planet earth that can do it. Mm hmm. Right. And then so people started perking up and they’re like, Hey,

6:05  

we want you to we want to pay you

6:06  

to come to these conferences and do that thing. And then I also started doing promotional material for multifamily syndicators to help them raise money for big projects, drone work, sponsor, conversation interviews, and so Dude, I mixed my real estate I mix my photography in like a super niche like nobody else. Love it.

6:25  

I love it. So what do you think makes a great real estate investor Alex?

6:32  

Being investing when the market cycle is favorable for investors?

6:38  

Like Okay,

6:39  

let me tell you this real estate’s not that hard. In fact, especially residential real estate, real estate, it’s actually incredibly simple and kind of easy. You got to make sure you get good deals, but it’s not that difficult of a process. What most people think mess up is, you know, they’re overpaying at the top of the market. That’s what gets you if you buy a good deal. If you’re patient. If you’re deliberate, and it’s part of a holistic strategy, and you don’t get caught up in mania, basically play the long game, real estate works. Make sure you

7:10  

do mentor people that come in or do you have a program that’s set up to help people start investing in real estate.

7:17  

I have on my website, you can video chat with me, I write everything on my website visitors that come for free. I don’t collect I collect email addresses, but not really, I don’t have any coaching or paid memberships, anything like that. I don’t sell any courses. But I do have a video chat service that you can chat with me on Thursday nights for real estate investors. But that’s free. But if booked

7:38  

every month. Oh, that’s awesome. Everyone wants a piece of the fleece. That’s awesome. So if I so if you’re if someone comes to you, they’re like Alex, man, like, I want to really invest in real estate, you’re like, Okay, I’m gonna help. You know, I’m gonna, I’m gonna kind of walk you through you see that you may be a little bit younger than you want to help them. Is there any good question that you wish they would ask you, but never do?

8:05  

A bro, how much you helping yourself first?

8:08  

Okay, well,

8:09  

I mean, people want help. And, you know, I’m a very big believer of self responsibility. It’s my core tenant, core value, self responsibility. So you come help me, I will help you. But like, my rule is nobody can help you more than you help yourself. Like, nobody’s gonna care about your success more than you. Not your wife, not your dad, not your kids. Nobody cares about your success more than you. So if you’re whatever you’re not doing, nobody else is going to be able to pick the slack up. Some people come to me like, I want to do this. I really look at them. And I’m like, What are you doing for yourself? Because that’s my limit. I will not do more for you than you.

8:45  

Love it. That makes sense. Absolutely, man. Yeah, you have to start that what you mentioned earlier about, you took responsibility. I mean, like I talked to the squad out there. If you’re listening people, you know, obviously, responsibility is the ability to respond. And that’s exactly what Alex did is he responded to his situation, and started leveling up. And you’ll also take people on the journey with them, if they are ready in wanting to help themselves as well. You’ve got to, you know, change starts with change, right? You know, you want to say you’re going to change, but you got to change too, you know, so that’s awesome. Thank you for saying that man. And so told me about a fail, man, tell me about a property that you invested in and it just didn’t pan out for you and you’re in where you might have did it differently?

9:28  

Yeah, I’ve been really lucky with real estate. I make a lot of small failures. You know, we use this term, you know, failures, like Dude, I haven’t gotten like there’s nothing is ever gonna knock me out for good, right? Because I like doing it. So you can’t tell me to stop doing something I like doing I’m gonna do it anyway. So failure is one of the things I make small mistakes all day and there’s always going to be a better investors. So last year, I bought a 24 unit I wrote I have a 4000 word, blog on my website, like all the mistakes I made, not the winds, right because the winds are easy. I you know, You don’t learn from wins you learn from mistakes so absolutely you know a lot of we went in under capitalized we bought too small of a deal just split that I just finished about the close you know too long on it probably over proved a

10:12  

little bit of that man more than by sheer times

10:17  

yeah no this is look nice

10:18  

you start putting your own taste into something when really you just need to whitewash it that’s what my my mentor should be like Fergie just whitewash the thing and flip it because that’s what we want to do and be like, Oh, the look great with this. Sometimes you get caught in that emotion right? That’s what So what? financing How do you finance your deals? So

10:40  

I played the long game again, you know, people call me a rockstar real estate investor when in reality I believe I’m incredibly conservative. So people how do you find your deal? I’m like, I saved for five years learning about real estate before I bought anything so I could pay for in cash because I didn’t take the risk of debt when I was new. Okay, so sacrifice bro sacrifice most people just they have to have it right now and they’re willing to pay any amount of debt for it and like debt is due I do risk analysis for small business loans. The underwriter that’s how I used to do so like I see the debt side often, okay, um, and you know, people will take risk of Ruin, meaning if this messes up, they could actually go bankrupt, they do that all the time, for no reason. So I paid for with cash. And then I got what I did is I create 25% equity in the deal. And then they go get a 75% loan, I get 100% of my cash back. Luckily, I did that it. I did that eight times. Yeah. They do. They all have. They’re all about 65% LTV or lower they all cash flow, and I have nothing in any of them. It’s pure profit. Love it, you ever bring in private money out. So I started bringing in private money because in 2019, we bought a small apartment complexes, but a million dollar deal, I had to bring in other investors for that. So we brought in some money. And then Lately, I’ve been doing flips because I were at the top of the market. And I don’t want to buy a skinny deal, and then hold it for 30 years. That’s insane to me. So I’ve been flipping them, it’s a little bit harder to do because the margins are thin for some reason. But if it’s a million a 10 grand, I want to get rid of it as fast as possible. I don’t want to that’s not the golden goose. Right, okay. And I don’t want to pay for these deals. And my system in place that I have for rehab is bro like, so sick. So my team, my partner. So yeah, I’ve been having other people come in. And we, we buy and flip deals, I cut them off a piece. And it’s so

12:31  

beautiful. And I love that you even prophesied that we’re at the top of the market. So if listeners, if you’re not versed in real estate investing, like he, sometimes you’re gonna buy for maybe even a little bit more than what you would be comfortable buying, but you want us to see the opportunity in the flip. So he gets rid of them quicker instead of holding it for 30 years, which he’s not going to make much more than what he’s at. You know, he lives in the Carolinas, which you know, down here in South Florida we call them halfbacks because people will come to South Florida to live and then they go halfway back home. And they actually put down roots in the Carolinas you know, so I’m sure he gets a lot a lot of action down there. So we’re going to get on our you’ve heard of Back to the Future right with Marty McFly. Course. Okay, let’s get in our DeLorean bro. Let’s go back. So you’ve had some mistakes and your fail forwards and stuff in your life. But let’s go back to the 22 year old Alex. What kind of knowledge nuggets that’s what we call them here time center we got knowledge nuggets are you dropping on that Alex maybe helped him shorten his learning curve level up and blast through.

13:28  

I didn’t start reading books until I was in my 30s and I don’t read that many real estate books. And I only read some business books. I read mostly history and economics and a lot of philosophy. This has changed my life more than almost anything I’ve ever done. And it’s cheap. You know, books, especially 100 year old books. Yeah, ultra cheap 30 $500 a year on books. You are like grinding bro and and I didn’t do that till I was 30 and it’s changed my life. And it’s it’s the trajectory is accelerating because I The more I learned the more difficult books I can read. The more I outcompete people who just cannot touch the books that I read. So I would I would do that. I would say Hey, I’ll go read books. Go read everything I love. And it’s so easy.

14:16  

Yeah. You know, they say not all readers are leaders. But all leaders are readers no matter what every single person that I know, that levels up and crushes it all read, you know, we pass around books to each other all the time by each other books. My circle of peeps. So you said what you said philosophers you, you go with the stoics at all?

14:36  

Not really. I have read. I’ve read meditations. I’ve read stoic books, but you know, there’s this guy named Friedrich Nietzsche. And

14:46  

a stoic kind of an evil boss dude, he’s a fucking boss.

14:50  

Yeah, kind of a hostile guy. And I really, really resonate with him. I’ve read his books now. Yeah, and, uh, you know, I I saw I like him preferably but there’s a lot

15:03  

due for learn a lot for a businessman Alex pickup Seneca man, the dude was like this. He like own half of Rome but nobody even knew he did. And he put all these things he wasn’t an emperor. He wasn’t like a he was just this dude that would write and now you know, they hung him eventually but he was you got to read because it will resonate with you, you and me are a lot of like, you will love Seneca just pick up anything. It’s kind of like it’s super easy reading. He doesn’t try to get deep like meditations like Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus, and stuff like that, pick up Seneca just trust me. You’ll love it.

15:35  

You read? Have you recommend it? If you recommend it, I will read it Do not doubt me doing everything,

15:40  

do it like no man. But hey,

15:42  

can I add to that real quick? I’m so sorry. There’s something that’s really important about books too, right? You can have more resources than me financially, you can have more experienced than me, you can have more time on this earth than me. But But books are the great equalizer because I feel very confident that I can sit at any table on planet earth and go toe to toe brainpower with anybody. You might have more money than me, but there’s few people who read more than me. And and and so if you read books, it gives you a competitive edge sure to sit at tables, that you may otherwise not deserve to sit at absolute pleasure. So books, bro.

16:19  

Yes, love it. I love it. And we can put that in the show notes, books, books, books. So how do you want that dash of yours? Remember that little line between your incarnation date and your expiration date? How do you want Alex’s dashing because you kind of preface this with a gravestone and stuff like that you didn’t want to be real sick. How do you want that dash? Remember brother?

16:39  

I don’t know starving artists. I think you’re

16:43  

a frickin go giver, man. I think that you get, you know, the scroll through the posts that you have on brokers of choice. You’re giving stuff for free and you’re doing it with personal experience. You know, you’re not just doing an out there and saying Oh, guess what this is what regurgitating stuff and regurgitating is okay, but you’ve lived it. I really do think you’re living legacy, man. I’m not trying to blow smoke up your ass. I mean, but But seriously, dude, you’re bringing it. So no, I appreciate it. I appreciate it. So well.

17:10  

Thank you. I am a hyper individualist. I don’t much I don’t repurpose content. I don’t share means everything I do. I

17:17  

don’t. It’s all your shop, man. It’s awesome. That’s fantastic. So what’s the now let’s go this route. If you were to lose everything that you’ve ever built today, what is the first thing you would do to rebuild it? Brother?

17:36  

You can’t take my knowledge. Right, right. Right. That’s the most valuable thing. I mean, I probably I

17:44  

like the only thing the only thing I have that you could take that um, that would really hurt I mean money but money is not that hard to make. Right? It’s hard to make. So I honestly the first thing I do is go buy a camera. I see everything from my camera.

18:00  

love it love and get back to work man get back to serving people and putting the content out there. I love it. I love that. So what’s the big the big thing Alex wants to accomplish man?

18:12  

Bro, I want to get a space. Okay. I want to get a space that was 10 years old.

18:19  

And now I never thought was possible. But now you know you got Blue Origin you got Virgin Galactic he got some of these people. I think within the next 15 years there’ll be an option for civilians to go to space that’s incredibly expensive. Yeah,

18:31  

it’s gonna be right

18:33  

you could you can do low Earth orbit right now with on on Virgin Galactic for 200 grand. Wow.

18:39  

I didn’t even know that. Can you really? I said, Yeah. We got out there doing things you got obviously who you just said Branson. You got Bezos, right. Ilan musk. All those billionaires are thrown in Iran. I love I love what they’re doing. I love progress, man. So

18:53  

yeah, that’s

18:56  

loving. Three things that Alex can’t live without

19:00  

my camera.

19:01  

I knew that was gonna be one dude. Camera. my bookshelf, man.

19:05  

I can’t go without books.

19:06  

Got it. Got it. And the gym? Got it. Excellent.

19:10  

You know what, if you actually I didn’t think I didn’t know that question in advance. But it’s funny. Like, you know, people. The things that are most valuable to me are the things that helped me improve the most and ironically enough for all cheap, like, you don’t need a lot of money in this world to really do. Self grow and to be happy, like camera is probably the most expensive thing I have and you don’t need a lot of cameras to take good pictures. I happen to have a lot of camera because I have nothing else to spend my money on your job. Yeah, books, books and the gym. And you’re going to create about lit bro you have you have the keys to a successful productive life.

19:45  

Love it. What’s your definition of a life well lived.

19:50  

I caught this guy Nassim Taleb all the time. He says success is only measured by the amount of time you have to

19:54  

kill. While writing that down. You’re gonna have to give me a second

19:59  

Yeah. I don’t know. But I resonate with that I want to spend every day waking up doing whatever I feel like doing and saying no to everything. I don’t feel like doing all of it.

20:09  

That’s fantastic. that’s a that’s a baller statement, man. So as we wind things down just a little bit. Alex, we like to do our leveling up lightning round. So you and I could talk for 1520 minutes, and every single one of them, but I need answers in five seconds or less, no explanations, and all of them can be answered that way. You’re ready. Okay, awesome. Let’s level up. What’s the best leveling up advice you’ve ever received?

20:37  

respond, don’t react.

20:39  

Love it. share one of your personal habits that contributes to your success.

20:45  

Read an hour a day every day, meditate.

20:48  

Hello. Other than broke as a choice calm and obviously time to shine today. Calm shameless plug. What other websites do you like to go to to kind of level up BiggerPockets love it. Pick a great site. Great site.

21:01  

I just started making a video series for bigger pockets. You can go check it out on YouTube. It’s been a quick experience.

21:06  

Awesome. We will put those that in the show notes. It’s actually in in the thing that you sent over to us our intake form so I’ll definitely be in the show notes. So not what you’re reading now. Not what the flavor of the month is, but I’m in my doldrums feel like shit. Be like Fergie read this.

21:25  

Fountainhead, Iran

21:26  

the onramp baby who’s john Galt, although that’s actually Atlas Shrugged, but still fantastic. So what’s your most commonly used emoji brother?

21:39  

The the little purple devil sign?

21:41  

Right. All right.

21:44  

So actually, I’m

21:44  

an agent of chaos, bro.

21:46  

I love it.

21:47  

I love it. What’s your favorite charity and organization like to give your time and or money to?

21:54  

I gotta be honest, I couldn’t be better about this. Um, I spent a lot of time given everything I know to people. I don’t participate any formal.

22:03  

But that’s fine. You’re giving a lot of your time you’re living legacy, brother. So last question is kind of hard. And you can kind of expand on a little bit. But what is the best decade of music 6070s 80s 90s

22:18  

The Beatles are the best band that’s ever lived.

22:20  

I love it. You got the 60s, early 70s. Beautiful, beautiful. So how can we find your brother?

22:27  

is a choice.com brokers of choice.com broker is a choice.com

22:31  

is a choice.com. People love it. Look. Yeah, leave us with one last Knowledge Nugget that you want us to take with us internalize and take action on.

22:44  

Oh,

22:44  

I say this. I have this thing. I tell people all the time. Try hard and everything you do every day until your last dying breath.

22:50  

Oh, yeah. Hell yeah. And squad. My man Alex just learned earned his varsity letter here. He was a timid kid. He realized that his arrogance was exceeding his humility. So he checked himself before he wrecked himself. He took responsibility. Again, it’s a ability to respond. You know, he will remind you to invest when the market is favorable. And even when it’s not favorable. Make sure you’re surrounding the people that will help guide you, you know, how much are you helping yourself first, if you’re going to go to someone like Alex or even me, we’re going to want to make sure that you are ready to make the change to make the change. So you’ve got to help yourself. When he fails, he fails forward. You know, he’s a conservative real estate investor, but he plays the numbers the right way. So pretty much every deal he touches will work out one way or another. He’s a living legacy. And he will remind us that success is only measured by the time you have to kill which is boss, that’s baller. He will also tell you to respond and don’t react into work in progress to your dying breath. In man, Alex, thank you so so much for coming on. You’re a rock star. You’re leveling up your house leveling up your wealth. You’re humble. You’re hungry. Thank you so much for coming on. Time to shine today, brother. Look forward to having that back.

24:02  

Your height man. I love it.

24:04  

Dude. Thank you

24:05  

Love it. Love it. Talk soon, man. Hey, thanks so much for listening to this episode of time to shine today podcast. Proudly brought to you by southern New Jersey real estate real estate excellence who can be reached at 561-249-7266 and online at www dot Sutter and nugent.com. If you’re a business owner or professional who would like to be interviewed on time to shine today, please visit time to shine today.com slash gust. If you liked this episode, please subscribe on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts. There’s a link in the show notes to our website. Also there you will see a recommended resources. We hope that you will support our show by supporting them. If you like what you’ve been listening to, it’d be great if you could just give us a five star rating and tell your friends how to subscribe while you’re at it. I’m your host, Scott Ferguson. And until next time, let’s level up. It’s our time Time to shine.

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