The Power of Mentorship: David’s Path to Financial Freedom in Real Estate

Stephen Schmidt (00:02.415)
Welcome back to the show where we interview the nation’s leading real estate entrepreneurs. It’s your host, Stephen Schmidt, and I’ve got a real treat for you here today. Who says that you can’t do real estate when you’re young? Who says you can’t do it when you’re old? I got an outlier here in the house today. He’s got an absolutely phenomenal story from college station, Texas. got David Schmiediche in the house and we’re going to be talking about how real estate can be for the young and hungry as well as the seasoned and strategic. So

We’re going to go into his strategies and we’re going to go into how he went from buying eight units at 19 years old and now has 14 total units on top of being a real estate agent there in the great state of Texas. Before we get into that, just remember at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, and real estate entrepreneurs, two to five X their businesses, which allows them to build the businesses they’ve always wanted in order to live the lives they’ve always dreamed of. That being said, Dave, welcome to the show today, brother.

David Schmiediche (00:31.49)
Yeah

David Schmiediche (01:02.299)
Thank you so much for having me,

Stephen Schmidt (01:04.292)
Man, I’m excited for this conversation. We actually in our pre pre-show conversation, like I know we’re already going to be friends for a long time. Because we had on record, that is the longest pre-show conversation I’ve had with anybody so far. Usually it’s five minutes long. But I looked at David as about 16 minutes, 15, 16 minutes, which usually I mean, even a long one like 10 minutes, man, like I’ll roll with some people, but

David Schmiediche (01:06.966)
side for it too.

David Schmiediche (01:14.666)
Yeah

David Schmiediche (01:21.422)
How long was ours? Do you remember?

David Schmiediche (01:28.765)
wow.

Stephen Schmidt (01:33.836)
You and there’s one other guy I interviewed a couple weeks ago that we went about close to the same time I think yours holds the record, but it’s always fun when that happens. I looked at him I said dude if we don’t hit record we’re gonna be talking all night before we record a show I have nothing to talk about so david Tell us tell us what got you into this business. Tell us a little bit more about yourself What got you into real estate and how you got to where you’re at now man 24 years old and almost have as many units as you are old

David Schmiediche (01:40.611)
You

David Schmiediche (01:45.805)
Yeah.

David Schmiediche (02:01.486)
Yeah, so when I was in high school, I learned a lot about investing in the stock market, kind of like 401Ks, IRAs, and just stuff like that. And so that was just the world that I was in. And so my father had taught me a lot about that. And then as I was going through high school, I was still trying to learn as much as I could. And it just seems like the best option or the next step was to go from investing in the stock market to investing in real estate.

And so this was, I think when I was 17 years old, I was trying to figure out a way to do this. And, you know, after a bunch of research and everything, I figured out it’s very hard to do that as a 17 year old. And so I decided to go get my real estate license just to be in the industry and learn about real estate. That way, hopefully early on, I wanted to do it by the time I was 18 or 19 or 20, get my first deal underneath my belt.

Stephen Schmidt (02:54.159)
100%. And so when you were 19, you did get your first deal under your belt. like with that deal, how did that come about? How’d you find that property? And then, and then, and then what set the fire in you once you got that first one to keep growing from there.

David Schmiediche (03:10.158)
Yeah, so the first deal, there was a, I guess a mentor or coach is kind of the best way of putting it. He was a real estate agent who coached other agents, but he also invested himself. And so I kind of worked onto him for a couple of months. I mean, he had a lot of success with direct mail marketing. So he was like, Hey, you should do direct mail marketing and get in contact with a lot of these multifamily owners and then try to sell those to buyers that I already had lined up looking for deals.

And so we did the direct to my marketing and ironically enough, the very first person that reached out on that direct to my marketing, they were interested in selling their place and got the contact information and started writing numbers on it. And I was talking to my coach and I was like, honestly, I don’t want to sell this to anyone. Like I want to, I want to buy this one myself. And it was two four plexes right next to each other. So I think eight, this was 19 year old me at the time. I was like, I didn’t have any money to do that at all.

And so the way that ended up working is I started talking to some people and I found a private investor who was willing to partner with me on the deal. And he was like, hey, I want to support you through this. I’ll be the money essentially and you’ll be the boots on the ground. And so I was running the operation. And that was a, we had the mindset from the very beginning that, this is going to be a short term thing. want you, he was saying, I want you to buy me out in a year or two, at most like three. And I was like, great, gets my foot in the door. I love it. And so we ended up buying that deal together.

And then a year later, I ended up buying him out of that purchase. So when I was 20 years old.

Stephen Schmidt (04:40.847)
100 % man, that’s cool. So you owned eight, that was a property where you had two fourplexes? Did I hear that right?

David Schmiediche (04:48.525)
Yes, sir.

Stephen Schmidt (04:49.507)
So you went straight into multifamily, man. That’s risky, I love that. So now.

David Schmiediche (04:52.526)
Better for worse.

It’s kind of funny because I guess my lack of knowledge was probably my best helper at that point because I had no idea what I was getting into. A lot of people, they want to buy a single family home and kind of learn the basics at first. was, guess, cocky, maybe the best word for it, but I was like, I’ll figure it out. Give me everything. I’ll learn as I go. For better or for worse, that’s what ended up happening.

Stephen Schmidt (05:07.033)
Mmm.

David Schmiediche (05:24.834)
learned really quickly the right things to do and the wrong things to do.

Stephen Schmidt (05:28.143)
Sometimes the best time to do that is when you’re young man before you start believing things that ain’t true about the world though, you know what saying? Like man, how many people, you know, get stuck in a rut and then they end up at, you know, 25, 26 and then they just won’t take action because they just think everything’s going to crash and burn because of their experience, right? So I mean, in a way like dude, good on you. You, you, I don’t want to say you got lucky, but you did it at the right time. You know, a hundred percent, man.

David Schmiediche (05:32.269)
You

Yeah.

David Schmiediche (05:52.238)
You

I got blessed. Yeah, I mean, the luck in that was that I had no idea what I was doing. yeah.

Stephen Schmidt (06:01.273)
For sure. Yeah. I’m one of those people that believes in luck and blessings.

David Schmiediche (06:06.67)
Perfect.

Stephen Schmidt (06:08.399)
I love it, man. So now you have from eight. Now you’ve got 14 units. You’ve also been an agent. How much of your business is on the agency side helping people buy sell homes? Are you a residential real like residential retail agent or like what do you do on the investing side now? What’s kind of that split for you in terms of your business?

David Schmiediche (06:32.686)
It’s funny enough, when I filed my taxes for 2024, the income I got from my agent sales business and the income I got from my investment business, it was split directly down the middle, 50-50. So yeah, it was kind of funny how that worked out. I don’t know if it was to the pity, but it was a bit like, you know, just a little bit. So, and which is funny because I got into real estate as an agent because I wanted to learn the business so I could invest. And so the idea has always been,

Stephen Schmidt (06:42.807)
No kidding. To the penny. I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding.

David Schmiediche (07:00.898)
be an agent to learn the ropes, to start getting investment properties, be a full-time agent and part-time investor, and I wanna flip those. So I wanna be a full-time investor and a part-time agent. So we’re, I guess, like halfway there, if that’s how that math ends up mapping out. So I just started ranting.

Stephen Schmidt (07:16.215)
Yeah. Well, it’s because you found out you’re like, as an agent, I sell other people’s real estate as an investor. I’m actually in the real estate business.

David Schmiediche (07:26.35)
Yep. but what was the initial question you asked on that? can’t remember. Perfect.

Stephen Schmidt (07:29.101)
Love it, man. I have no idea. I have no clue. It had something to do with what’s the split, like how much of your focus is on investing, how much of your focus is on being a realtor. And what do you do on the realtor side? I think that was the other, it was kind of a two pronged question there.

David Schmiediche (07:42.476)
Yes, yes, yes, yes.

David Schmiediche (07:48.015)
No worries. So it’s honestly split about 50-50 right now. For the real estate side, about 90 % of our business is with investors. I specialize in multifamily, but we work with investors in all sorts of things. We do commercial properties, multifamily, leases, commercial leases, but primarily investors. We do home sales as well. It’s just not as frequent as like me and you were conversating back and forth. I just love talking to investors and so.

Naturally, that’s just kind of the clientele that I’ve collected.

Stephen Schmidt (08:19.727)
100 % man. What’s your what’s your long term strategy? I mean, if you want to be an investor, you know, full time only time, what does that look like for you? Are you going to buy and hold everything you do? You going to fix a flip? What’s like that? What’s that long term vision for David Schmiediche?

David Schmiediche (08:34.542)
Yeah, the plan from the very beginning has always been to buy and hold. And that’s just because all the big, super successful investors I’ve talked to, they’ve always said just buy and hold. So that’s just kind of what I’ve taken on and started from the very beginning. As for like fix and flips, I don’t know if it’s I just don’t know how to run numbers on fix and flip. So I’m not the right market for it. We’ve just never found good flipping opportunities.

There is one property that we ended up purchasing. We actually purchased it in April and we’re renovating it right now. That would have been a good flip, but it’s a duplex. It’s what I like buying and holding as matches the criteria of my buy box. And so I’m like, why would I, why would I sell it? So we’re just going to hold onto everything we have right now.

Stephen Schmidt (09:21.081)
for sure. Now, so about how many properties do you typically buy a year at this point? I mean, you went from like eight as like your cherry pop, right? And then you’re like, okay, I got eight. And now you’ve basically doubled that, but it’s taken five years to do so. So like, are you buying a property a year? Like, what does that strategy look like now?

David Schmiediche (09:30.754)
Yeah

David Schmiediche (09:41.913)
Yeah. So it’s funny that you asked that because all I bought the eight units at the very beginning. So like that was year one, I guess. And then I bought three duplexes, which is how I get to 14 doors. I bought those in the past nine months. And so like I didn’t buy anything for four years, I guess, three or four years. And then I was like, I’m getting back in the game. Buy everything I can, more or less. So it’s.

Stephen Schmidt (10:00.451)
Kidding.

Stephen Schmidt (10:05.707)
No kidding. What was it about it in the four years that kept you scared? I’m not, not, I’m just joshing with you, but what is it about that year?

David Schmiediche (10:12.621)
I know you’re 100 % right though. It’s because I think I was scared and that was probably my mistake investing. of the big mistakes I’ve made investing is I didn’t buy more because I bought the first property right at the beginning of COVID. And so a year of COVID happened and then prices skyrocketed up. And I was like, the numbers don’t make sense. Nothing’s cash flowing right now. I’m to wait for prices to come down. Wait two, three, four years.

Stephen Schmidt (10:17.207)
Really?

Stephen Schmidt (10:22.233)
Mmm.

David Schmiediche (10:40.578)
prices never came down, at least not in our market. And so I think after…

Stephen Schmidt (10:44.685)
I don’t think they’ve come down anywhere, brother, to be honest with you. At least not drastically.

David Schmiediche (10:50.318)
Yeah. So anyways, now it’s year four and I’m like, I’ve missed out on four years of growth in our market. And if I had just bought properties, they would be cash flowing right now. Like it wouldn’t, it wouldn’t have been something that I should have been worried about as much as I would worried about it. Um, and so I guess maybe I’m now like, since I didn’t buy anything for four years, I’m like, I have to play catch up now. And so I’m buying everything I can, but it’s actually kind of funny. The, the three duplexes

Stephen Schmidt (11:14.063)
That’s interesting.

David Schmiediche (11:17.996)
two of them just kind of like fell in our lap. It wasn’t even something we were looking for. And so like blessing and luck, whichever one you want to call it, we’ve been blessed with the last two that we bought.

Stephen Schmidt (11:29.763)
Let ask you this, because that is a long gap. And obviously we went through a very interesting season right after you purchased your eight doors. Was there a specific experience in that first deal, maybe something that went haywire that also kept you from thinking the numbers didn’t make sense? Was there a little bit of emotion involved there? Or was it just a strict, like, looking at numbers? It doesn’t make sense. What kind of, was there anything that

maybe also affected that decision other than just that.

David Schmiediche (12:03.278)
So the first deal was, it wasn’t like a steal of a deal. It was a pretty good deal, especially for a first deal. And we got blessed or lucky, whichever one you want to call it, that not a lot went wrong on it. Lucky and blessed, but not a lot went wrong on it. Like there was definitely a learning curve on it. But I mean, most of the tenants paid, our numbers ended up almost to the T being exactly what we anticipated on it.

Stephen Schmidt (12:15.192)
Lucky and blessed.

David Schmiediche (12:30.542)
Part of the reason that I probably didn’t purchase some, which I didn’t talk about earlier, is our plan, I guess our business model is a better way putting it, is we buy properties that need renovations, and then we go in there and we renovate the units, and then we charge higher rents on it. Kind of a burn method, we just don’t refinance at the end of it, or we haven’t as of yet. So when I bought those eight units, I mean, it takes $15,000 to renovate one of these units, $20,000, depending on…

Stephen Schmidt (12:47.631)
Hmm.

David Schmiediche (12:59.266)
What type of contractor you use on that? 20,000 times eight, that’s a lot of money. And so most of the other money we had for down payments and everything was going to renovating the building. So that was kind of where we were investing at the time instead of buying more real estate, which is renovating our current ones.

Stephen Schmidt (13:01.423)
Sure.

Stephen Schmidt (13:16.431)
Okay, so there was a little bit of a process there where you were still coming to spend some extra dollars, maybe some of that cash flow to actually get it to where you wanted it to be in order to where once it was done, then you’re good to go for the foreseeable future at least.

David Schmiediche (13:33.038)
Yep. And so that’s, that’s like the big question is would it have been better to spend the money on the renovations and get the return there or to just spend what’s 20 times 8, 16, 160 thousand dollars and just buy another property or two with that. And honestly, I don’t know what the right decision would have been on it. So.

Stephen Schmidt (13:49.369)
Yeah. Yeah.

I think the right decision is the one you made because otherwise you don’t know what else could have happened. You know what I’m saying? Didn’t seem like it was a bit, didn’t seem like it worked out not in your favor so far, right?

David Schmiediche (13:55.532)
Yeah

That’s 100 % true.

David Schmiediche (14:04.682)
Like I said, the Lord of the Blasts doesn’t multitate, so it’s been really good so far.

Stephen Schmidt (14:09.261)
that man I love that so let me ask you this people have a tendency when they get into real estate to get into real estate and their version of getting into real estate is I’m gonna learn everything I possibly can before I take any action right and so you got people in real estate that have been in it for five years going to all the events and everything else and reading all the books and listening to all the tapes and they ain’t ever done a deal so like

David Schmiediche (14:38.305)
Yeah

Stephen Schmidt (14:39.531)
Obviously, you know that taking action is so important, but for somebody that’s like scared to get started, what advice would you give to them? Other than just do it.

David Schmiediche (14:50.156)
Man, just do it. that’s like I was trying to think what’s a different way of giving advice besides just do it. Yeah, analysis by paralysis is definitely a thing. And it honestly probably plays out more in my life than you would anticipate. I think again, I blessed at 19 buying the first deal because I didn’t realize what I was getting into. Now looking at deals, think analysis by paralysis actually slows me down more than it should. But

Stephen Schmidt (14:54.883)
practical, some practical advice.

David Schmiediche (15:19.702)
the one of the biggest mistakes I see people make, which is kind of tied to what you’re just talking about, is they want their first deal to be perfect. And they’re like, the first deal has to be like five stars best deal ever. And so they keep waiting for that perfect deal to come. And actually, most investors, not all investors, but most investors we see their first deal is kind of average. Like it’s a good deal. It was found on market, which is nothing wrong with on market deals.

and the returns are just kind of average, but they start learning through that first deal, they start learning the right things to do, they start getting more connections with wholesalers or a real estate agent like us who can bring them off market deals, how to finance the deals, they start making all those connections and figure out the ways to do it better for the next deal. So that answer is just kind of go and do it, don’t anticipate your first property to be the best deal. If you find something that’s good,

even like better than good, jump on it. You’ll learn in the process.

Stephen Schmidt (16:23.631)
And I think having a You bet well as practical though I think having a mentor is I think one of the things that you flushed out in there if having partner finding finding relationships, right? Those are so important when you’re getting started because you can go at it alone It’s kind of like that old African proverb says right if you want to go fast go alone If you want to go far go together, right?

David Schmiediche (16:25.762)
Which is just a long way of saying just do it.

David Schmiediche (16:47.968)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Stephen Schmidt (16:50.509)
And ultimately having somebody that’s more seasoned than you, this is one of the things that I’ve consistently heard from people that are all the way to, you know, huge portfolios, right? And what they always say is, is they’re always like, look, give a little bit of the meat away that’s on the bone in the beginning to get the experience. If you’ve got to be the Aaron boy, if you’ve got to this, if you’ve got to that, if you got to take less on a deal.

to get somebody else that has the experience and you watch what they do so that way you know what mistakes to avoid. It’s worth you making five or 10 grand less on a deal than if you were to make that and then lose it all anyways.

David Schmiediche (17:25.742)
100%.

David Schmiediche (17:30.702)
100%. I mean, you were just talking about that person that they’ve been in the business for five years, but they haven’t actually bought their first deal yet. They’re just going to all the seminars. If you just look at the appreciation they’re missing out on from those five years, if they have bought their first deal, even if it wasn’t a super great deal, it was just like an average deal. It’s like you would have made way more than 10 grand in five years.

Stephen Schmidt (17:50.96)
Cause cause you’ve got that and then you’ve got the literal opposite flip side of that coin like my friend Casey who he got started six years ago and he’s got a hundred and twenty million dollar portfolio now. Right. And it’s like well the only difference is he took action. You know what I mean. Looked at his numbers a little harder. You know. So it’s like telling you what man that paralysis of analysis killed more dreams I think than laziness in my opinion.

David Schmiediche (18:02.584)
Yeah.

David Schmiediche (18:07.852)
Yep.

David Schmiediche (18:11.234)
Hehehehe

David Schmiediche (18:18.146)
Yeah, I could actually get behind that statement. I’ve never heard that before, but I can agree with that.

Stephen Schmidt (18:21.135)
That’s a good short. I just came up with it. I hope my team turns that into a short clip I can use. It probably won’t, but that’s okay. So let me ask you this, man. What does the long-term vision look like for you? When will you feel like you’ve just made it?

David Schmiediche (18:26.574)
Hahaha

David Schmiediche (18:44.526)
Mm hmm. That’s a great question. So I talked about having mentors and coaches, I recently interviewed a guy here in my local market that has almost 1000 doors or right around 1000 doors. And I kind of asked him the question, I was like, why are you still doing this? Like, why are you still investing? You have 1000 doors, he we met up at

his place and he was showing me like all these he had like six sport cars there and all these things and I was like you’ve you’ve made it dude like you don’t need another deal and he was just like I really love the game like the investing game and so to him it was like that was his enjoyment he got fulfillment through doing that but it really like it starts it starts making me think like when is when is the end going to be the end because I had a goal back in high school when I was like 18 or 19 first starting out

Stephen Schmidt (19:14.947)
Nice.

Stephen Schmidt (19:21.613)
Mmm.

David Schmiediche (19:37.965)
I was like, when I get here, I would have made it. And I’m very close to getting there right now. And I’m like, that’s not enough for me to support my family. I need the goal to be further out. But then the question is, once I make that goal, is that goal going to be enough for me? Or is it something that is going to keep me in pushback? And so that’s a great question. The short answer is I initially got into real estate because I wanted to find a way to provide for my family and protect my family financially.

And whenever I have enough passive income coming in to probably do that, and I know what the number is in my head, as of right now, that is what I’m saying the goal is, but we will.

Stephen Schmidt (20:05.167)
Hmm.

Stephen Schmidt (20:14.283)
What’s the number? What’s the number? You don’t have to share it if it’s personal. You can tell me after the show if you don’t feel comfortable saying it.

David Schmiediche (20:23.662)
I can do it. It is… Man, I almost like don’t want to do it. That’s right. $200,000 coming in a year. I think that would be enough to… a year. To support my family.

Stephen Schmidt (20:32.589)
A year? Passively? Okay, alright. I can get behind that.

David Schmiediche (20:39.086)
Are you thinking that number is low or high?

Stephen Schmidt (20:42.271)
Thought that was way lower than what I was expecting when you said a year I was like, I was hoping you were gonna say a month, but that’s okay We can work on that mindset stuff later

David Schmiediche (20:45.432)
Yeah.

David Schmiediche (20:48.853)
$200,000 a month. See, that’s what I’m like. By the time I actually get to $200,000 a year, it’s like my mindset maybe I need to have $200,000 a month. for me, the way I’m looking at it right now, being able to support my family, $200,000 would be more than enough for them to not have to work if they didn’t have to work.

Stephen Schmidt (20:58.969)
Yeah, well.

Stephen Schmidt (21:05.103)
100 % and and here’s the thing man 200 grand I mean if you’re just talking you and your wife I mean if you’re talking like retiring your mom buying your data, you know all that kind of stuff Okay, you need to make more money, right? But you know if you’re talking like dude you and your wife bro like the average person doesn’t make that but Here’s the other thing that I’ve also learned if you look at the statistics over the last 30 years, right? the the average salary has only gone up and

David Schmiediche (21:17.14)
That’s the thing, yeah.

David Schmiediche (21:21.943)
Yeah

Stephen Schmidt (21:33.092)
The internet don’t attack me for this. Okay. I’m not teaching anybody anything here. Maybe my master on I don’t care. It’s just what I heard. It’s what I verified my sources might have been wrong. 27 % increase in salaries, 140 % increase in the cost of a home in the last 30 years. Right? So when you look at that and you’re you’re on that, you’re we’re in the same generation. What’s cool about this is I don’t usually interview anybody under 30. So this is awesome. cause we’re in the same boat, man. Like it’s you and me.

David Schmiediche (21:49.217)
Yep.

David Schmiediche (21:57.388)
Yeah

Stephen Schmidt (22:02.287)
versus a 78 year old retirement, which is what it’ll be by the time we get there for the average person that goes to college has the whole plan, right? So when you look at that, when we were kids, man, I don’t know if it was like this for you, but for me, you my dad wasn’t like rich, did well, like well to do middle class, like professional working in the marketplace. My mom stayed home. It was amazing, right? But like making a hundred grand a year, that was like the benchmark.

So then when I turned 18, I’m like, man, all I gotta do is make a hundred grand a year and I’ll have made it. You know what I mean? And now I look at the math and I’m like, oh, I’m gonna make like a quarter of a million dollars a year just to provide the same lifestyle that my dad provided our family when we were kids. You know what I mean? And at 28, I’ve got the same amount of kids that my dad had at 40. So it’s like, it’s pretty amazing how that works. Anyways.

David Schmiediche (22:33.368)
Yeah

David Schmiediche (22:47.116)
and break even.

David Schmiediche (22:58.912)
Yeah

Stephen Schmidt (23:02.487)
I want to get back to it because I’m taking too much of your spotlight here. yeah, go on. No, not at all, dude. When you start your podcast, I’ll come on for free, though. 50 cents. I’m just kidding. 50 cents booking. No, really. Tell me this, man. So you’ve got that you’ve got that income goal. Where did we start before we got off on that? I’m sorry. I just like interrupted you and went on a tangent.

David Schmiediche (23:06.028)
No, you’re good. This is great. I’m loving listening to you. I should be interviewing you.

David Schmiediche (23:14.712)
Okay.

David Schmiediche (23:29.62)
Man, I don’t know. That was five minutes ago. I don’t remember that.

Stephen Schmidt (23:31.735)
Hmm. We were talking. Wow. It’s like 90 seconds. So so you’ve got you want to get to 200 grand a year in passive income. That’s for you and your wife. What. So is that like when you get there. Do you. Will you have made it at that point. Would you in this state that you’re in now do you think that will be. You’ll feel like you’ve made it.

David Schmiediche (23:59.727)
Like as of right now, yes, but also when I was 18, what? I’m sorry, what was question?

Stephen Schmidt (24:02.861)
So how does life change for you?

Stephen Schmidt (24:07.343)
How does life change for you? It’s the follow up. I don’t mean to cut you off, but it’s a follow up. How does life change for you when you have that at that point? How does life change?

David Schmiediche (24:16.462)
Yeah. It’s the not having to work. The financial security for me and my wife that we won’t have to work if we don’t want to for whatever reason. So I don’t want my wife to have to wake up on a Monday morning just coming back from something. It’s like we need to provide food for our kids or whatever it is. So that’s how it would change it. It’s just the mentality of not having to work. The financial freedom that it buys.

Stephen Schmidt (24:21.903)
Mmm.

Stephen Schmidt (24:42.447)
love that man yeah I get it dude cuz ultimately that’s what we become entrepreneurs for in the first place right so we can have freedom you know it’s like I told my wife I’m like there’s no way I’m there’s no way I’m gonna I’m gonna ever get into a situation unless it’s just like a season you know like I never want to wake up and watch you get pretty to go work for another dude to come home and give me sweatpants and baggy t-shirts at night like why does there something seem a little off to you about that

David Schmiediche (24:50.547)
Mm-hmm. Yep, financial freedom.

David Schmiediche (25:11.596)
Yeah. So, not fully understand.

Stephen Schmidt (25:12.431)
You know what I’m saying? She loves it too. man, so you’re also, I mean, obviously you’re a believer. mean, we’ve had that conversation sort of. I mean, I can just tell by talking to you. So what is the impact? I think a big thing that kind of separates folks that have kind of a little bit of a religious background, whatever you want to call it, I’m just going to call it that for.

David Schmiediche (25:27.886)
Thank you.

Stephen Schmidt (25:38.896)
you time sake for people. That way we can argue on the internet later. A lot of people that are in that phase though, or in that group, or that culture, whatever you want to call it, their impact is a real big thing for us, right? So like, what does the impact play for you that goes beyond just you and your wife?

David Schmiediche (25:43.361)
You

David Schmiediche (25:59.917)
That is what has been my prayer for the past couple of, I don’t know how long, but it’s been my prayer for a long time that the Lord would open the show exactly how that impact is supposed to play out. So like I have ideas in my head on like just being able to give money and support like different things, like whatever it is I feel like the Lord is wanting us to help in those situations. But I don’t know exactly how it’s gonna play out.

Stephen Schmidt (26:05.54)
Mm.

David Schmiediche (26:29.142)
And so that’s something I’ve been praying a lot for recently, just, show me exactly how you want me to grow your kingdom with the blessings that you provided us, and the future blessings that I’m hoping he will provide for us down the road. So.

Stephen Schmidt (26:41.551)
So let me ask you this, you got 200 grand a year coming in, boom, it’s tomorrow, what are you doing with your time then?

David Schmiediche (26:46.862)
As of right now, if we have kids, or if it’s tomorrow, we don’t have kids yet, if we had kids, it would be spending most of the time for my kids and my wife. So she’s told me she wants to travel the world.

Stephen Schmidt (27:02.799)
man, you’re in trouble. I love how you said that the way he said that folks is just like any man about to get married She’s told me she wants to travel the world And you have you have thoughts about that I love it that’s amazing if

David Schmiediche (27:06.231)
Hehehehe

man. No, I love it. I want to travel too. My father actually came from Germany. so he, yeah, him and my grandfather have traveled the world more or less. And so it’s like, I would love to travel it as well. Right now.

Stephen Schmidt (27:21.539)
No kidding.

Stephen Schmidt (27:26.381)
Yeah. So are you second generation German?

David Schmiediche (27:31.438)
Second generation American German, yeah. So he, I guess I’m technically first generation, because he came here from Germany when he was 18 to go to Texas A And then I was the first one in my family that was born in America, with me and my sister. Yeah.

Stephen Schmidt (27:34.863)
No kidding.

Stephen Schmidt (27:44.121)
Wow.

Stephen Schmidt (27:47.496)
awesome that’s super cool continue with what you were saying prior to that

David Schmiediche (27:52.559)
I don’t remember what I was saying prior to that. Travel the world? Yeah, we really are bad at that. I would love to travel the world, I just don’t have the time yet.

Stephen Schmidt (27:54.669)
or bad at that, know. Traveling the world. Your father has been all over the world.

Stephen Schmidt (28:04.121)
So is that what you would be doing right now is if you had all that passive income, you’d be traveling all over right now? Is that what you guys would be doing?

David Schmiediche (28:10.414)
I would definitely be traveling a lot more than I currently am. Yeah, so part of me is like, know just doing traveling for me nonstop, like if I was just 365 days out of the year I was traveling it, I would not be able to take it, but I would definitely be traveling a lot more than I currently am.

Stephen Schmidt (28:13.678)
Hmm.

Stephen Schmidt (28:30.223)
Well David, we’ve reached that point where if I don’t stop us, we’re gonna continue talking for another three hours. So, let me ask you one last kind of deep question and then I’ll let you allow people to connect with you and however that makes the most sense. if you had to go back to the beginning and you were able, not start over now, but you were able to go back to the beginning.

David Schmiediche (28:36.588)
Yeah.

David Schmiediche (28:43.202)
Okay.

Stephen Schmidt (28:57.741)
With all the knowledge, all the wins, all the lessons, all the failures, et cetera, that you’ve gained over the last few years, what would you do different and what would you do the same?

David Schmiediche (29:06.83)
The thing that I would do the same is I would take action on it like we were talking about. Don’t do the analysis by paralysis. There is wisdom in being smart and making decisions, but there comes a point where you’ve learned as much book knowledge as you can. You need to take action in order to go further. So what I would do differently…

It would probably be not to chase the shiny objects, I guess is the best way of putting it. I found my niche. My niche is small multifamily, know, 1970, 1980 builds, buy the property, renovate the inside, get tennis in there, paying a higher rent. That is, that’s my bread and butter. love that. I did Airbnb for a little bit. It didn’t work out. It was honestly, for me, it was a waste of money. I know you can make a ton of money in Airbnb. It just wasn’t for me.

And I did it because everyone else was telling me about the successes they were having with Airbnb and I was like, I need to jump on this train. It’s the next new thing. I should have just stuck to small multifamily.

Stephen Schmidt (30:08.335)
Mmm, great advice. Well, thanks for coming on the show today, brother. Had a really good time with our interview here. You’re most welcome, my friend. We’ll maybe have to have you on for a part two here at some point. But if anyone wants to learn more about you, David, or what you’re working on, where should they go for that?

David Schmiediche (30:13.848)
Absolutely, thanks for having me.

David Schmiediche (30:21.005)
Sounds good to me.

David Schmiediche (30:27.07)
I think I’m providing my phone number and my, my email, so you can always reach me at those. we also have an Instagram, we’re starting to do social media marketing now. so David underscore invests is our Instagram.

Stephen Schmidt (30:40.697)
Say that again? David

David Schmiediche (30:42.444)
David underscore invests.

Stephen Schmidt (30:47.191)
invest. You’re saying that

David Schmiediche (30:49.356)
with an S.

Stephen Schmidt (30:51.651)
okay. There you go. Well, you heard it here first folks. That’s how you can connect with him for more We’re not gonna give your phone number out or else you have seven million people calling you because it’s gonna be the greatest show on the internet here at some point But but go connect them on Instagram follow along for more and hope everyone I hope you enjoyed today’s David. Thanks again for being there

David Schmiediche (30:53.133)
Hehehehe

David Schmiediche (31:00.558)
Perfect, no worries.