Unlocking Real Estate Wealth: Adam King’s Top 5 Investment Strategies

Dylan Silver (00:01.272)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. I’m your host Dylan Silver and today on the show I have real estate investor flipper and agent out of California Adam King. Adam, welcome to the show.

Adam King (00:15.463)
Thank you for having me, Dylan.

Dylan Silver (00:17.43)
It’s a pleasure. I always start off at the top of the show by asking folks how they got into the real estate space. So Adam, how did you get into real estate?

Adam King (00:27.005)
Well, a long time ago, my dad was a flipper and I helped him from 2006 to 2018, know, rehabbing homes and such. He retired. I was working professional at the time, so I got out of the space. 2023, I decided that I didn’t want to be doing blue collar work anymore. I was a UPS driver for over a decade and, you know, I just figured

I like talking about real estate. I was already investing in real estate on multiple properties already. Might as well just, you know, be an agent because it’s the easiest job in the world, right? I was wrong there for sure. Especially 2023 and 2024 being very rough years for most agents.

Dylan Silver (01:09.774)
you

Dylan Silver (01:15.916)
You know, when I think about the, going back into your earlier profession, UPS, most people don’t know this. This is, in many cases, very, very hard work. Which side were you on at UPS? Were you in the courier side, or which side were you on?

Adam King (01:32.167)
was a delivery driver. had my own route over here in Point Loma, San Diego. it was a great job. Loved it. Great pay, great benefits. Horrible on the knees, the back, the shoulders, and the, you know, working 60-hour weeks is not good for family life either.

Dylan Silver (01:34.669)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (01:44.237)
Brutal.

Dylan Silver (01:48.362)
No, mean, many people may not understand just, I was briefly, briefly a driver, not for UPS, right, but for a different, and I couldn’t handle the workload. It wasn’t so much like the heaviness of the packages is you had to get a certain number of routes done or a certain number of packages delivered, and it’s like you’re going like no break. I’m like, how are people even doing this?

Adam King (02:15.133)
Yeah, and that is the reason I decided to make the shift to this profession. I had a very, very solid 2024. So I’m doing OK.

Dylan Silver (02:27.692)
When we talk about going from one field to another, a lot of times there’s a lot of uncertainty, maybe fear. You maybe had some of that as well, maybe somewhat less, because family was in the business. Let’s talk about that transition, going from working full time to then doing something else relatively different full time.

Adam King (02:49.051)
Yeah, you know, I had a lot of kind of superficial experience as far as like the real tour side of things. So I knew, you know, I’d purchased homes before, gone through escrows and all of that. you know, flipping homes in 2018 is nothing like it is now. So, you know, it’s much harder to find deals. It is much trickier, especially, you know.

dealing with the fluctuations in the market as far as pricing on stuff goes, it’s harder to underwrite these deals for myself, but, you know, I try to stay educated on everything and really just…

Dylan Silver (03:21.454)
Yeah.

Adam King (03:28.593)
Go with the flow would be a way to put it. I am in control of my own destiny now versus showing up to a nine to five is kind of to answer the question.

Dylan Silver (03:37.484)
You know, I feel you there, Adam. When I think about one of the upsides of real estate, it’s you have the ability to make your own destiny, right? To secure your own destiny. At the same point in time, some people find that very challenging. And as a new realtor myself, I’m in, when I went to real estate school two, three months ago, in class with lot of other people who were like, OK, I’m going to get my first listing. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes it doesn’t happen. You were going in with the perspective as an investor and as someone who’s done flips

before, what was your experience like getting your real estate license and what was the concept in your head? Were you thinking, well, I’m gonna transition completely to be in a realtor or are you thinking, I’m gonna have this in my back pocket and I’m really gonna still push heavy with the fix and flips?

Adam King (04:21.735)
You know, I’ll be honest, when I got my license, I did not intend to do any fix and flips at all. was, you know, because that is a very cost intensive and, you know, just time intensive thing. would, you know, would start off getting my license. I wanted to help first time home buyers because I knew that I liked the thought of how much wealth you can build through real estate. And I just kind of, because of how analytical I am, I kind of got into the track of working with more investors and then

I was working with a person who ended up now as my partner in working on these flips. And I’m very fortunate that it worked out well for me. But yeah, was just, I kind of like I said, I go with the flow and it just kind of lucked into working with majority of investors and working towards doing more flips for myself now, even though that wasn’t the intent when I got my license.

Dylan Silver (05:04.534)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (05:19.811)
Now working with investors is an interesting niche in

as being a realtor or really in the real estate space in general, Investors have a certain kind of aura and way of going about things. when I mentioned this before, hop into the podcast, when I was in real estate school a couple months ago and going through and they said, talking about wholesalers, not necessarily in the best light. And I tend to think that before people can be doing a fix and flips in many cases, or before they have a short term rental, a lot of investors maybe started out building that nest egg as wholesalers. So it’s kind of like a natural progression. And so

So now that I have my real estate license and I’m seeing how most realtors operate, it’s typically not working so much with investors but more working with people who are not that, right? And so it’s a totally different lingo, totally different communication style. And so when you were building your business and networking with investors, it must have helped in large part that you had done lots of deals yourself or had done some deals yourself and were able to speak their lingo.

effectively.

Adam King (06:26.215)
Yeah, so I try to keep myself educated. read a lot of books, lately I’ve been reading books like how to be a first time real estate investor so then I can use those communication techniques when I’m talking to them because I really want to like build this bedrock of education when we’re doing it because there’s so many ways to lose money in real estate and I want to prevent that for both myself and for my clients.

I’ve never done a wholesale myself personally. The way I see it in the industry is like I want to work with investors moving forward. Whereas a wholesaler is typically going to, you are the salesperson, you are, you know, they’re on the opposite side of it. Whereas me and the investor are moving forward together. Not that we’re not in the same, like not that we’re not, you know, have to be partners in all this, right? But, you know,

The wholesaler, the deal is done as soon as the contract is signed. That’s when I take over and that’s when I make sure that everything goes smoothly and that we, you know, are making money, right? Which is very hard in today’s market with crazy interest rates and, you know, everything going on.

Dylan Silver (07:29.326)
It’s time.

Dylan Silver (07:42.926)
Pivoting a bit here, Adam, so in working with investors, are investors coming to you and asking you, you know, I’m looking to turn a profit on certain deals, are there strategies that you can show me, are there properties that you can show me, or are they coming to you, you know, with a property in mind already and thinking, hey, what do you think about this, or is it a mix of both?

Adam King (08:02.877)
It’s a mix of both a lot of investors come to me with the cash flow idea. I Hear that probably ten times a week at least Hi, I’m new to investing. I want cash flow and I have to be honest again. I gotta say I start with education This is Southern, California cash flow doesn’t really exist in that sense, especially today’s interest rates but when you factor in the internal rate of return on some of these properties where one of the

highest appreciating markets in the country. We have some of the best rental rates. Now again, not relative to the actual cost of the property, unfortunately. But when you’re factoring the internal rate of return here, we can turn a massive profit over a longer scale relative to some of the typical cash flow markets, Cleveland, all the Midwest cities. I always think of Cleveland because that’s like the number one thing everyone says, Cleveland.

Dylan Silver (08:57.198)
Sure.

Dylan Silver (09:01.782)
It’s interesting right because you think well where should I be investing in a lot of these places you mentioned Cleveland. I don’t have any personal experience but I have a guest on the show in Detroit right and so like wow these you know Detroit Cleveland you wouldn’t necessarily think about it but yeah there there apparently some of these strategies which are working elsewhere working there. But you to your point Adam it is getting more and more challenging. You’re in California I’m here in Dallas.

to cashflow a lot of these situations. And for flippers especially, if you’re looking, I can speak for Dallas, if folks are looking to fix and flip distressed property, there’s more risk there now than ever before.

Adam King (09:44.315)
Yeah, you know as the markets are softening, I’m seeing some more opportunities come up but it’s you a lot of the major metropolitan areas are now buyers markets which is very hard for flippers because homes are just gonna sit for you know, for weeks if not months. Whereas if a regular home seller, they get to just live there. They’re just paying their mortgage going about their day. Every day that my property sits, I’m losing you know, hundreds of dollars effectively.

Dylan Silver (10:12.588)
Yeah. Adam, question for you on exit strategies or strategies in general when people are acquiring these properties. You have fix and flip. You have short term rental like Airbnb. You have mid term corporate housing. You have long term. And for newer investors who are hopping into the space and they’re looking at all of these opportunities.

How can someone make a determination of which strategy is right for them and do you ever guide people along with that line of reasoning?

Adam King (10:45.565)
Absolutely. So one of the first questions I have for any investor anyone really who comes and asks me questions is What’s the end goal? Right. I a person buy a Triplex at the beginning of year. They want to own it forever They never want to sell it they’re gonna be adding on more units to this piece of land and they just It is their retirement plan. It is their estate plan. That is everything But there are a lot of people

I want a house hack, right? I want to go buy a three, four unit. Let me get in there so then we have to run the numbers. Well, what’s your exit strategy? Are we going to rent it out? Are we going to turn it into the next investment? That’s how we find what’s going to work now because it has to work now. It has to work at the beginning, has to work in the middle, has to work at the end. Because if we don’t plan for everything, what’s the saying? Failure to plan is planning to fail, right?

Dylan Silver (11:43.106)
Yeah. 100%. You know, when I think about me getting into the real estate space,

and there were so many different options. And I’m sure you’ve seen some of this, even though you came from a real estate background with family, but there’s so many different options. You can have like analysis paralysis times 50 now, especially with all the resources that are out there. So I think a lot of times people who have a job outside of this space and are looking to invest truly don’t know which one to invest in. And we talked about fix and flips. you fix and flip and it doesn’t go your way, well, now you just have a bad taste in your mouth and you

probably lost a whole bunch of money, you lost, you know, a lot of time in it as well. And so having, I would say having a mentor, having a network of people to guide you along this process, and I imagine this is where your clients value you as well, is super valuable. Otherwise, you’re just figuring it out on the fly. And there’s so much that can go wrong. And there’s so many things that can come up where you need someone to talk to and to bounce an idea off of.

Adam King (12:51.997)
Yeah, that’s where I like to add value to any of my clients. mean, if anyone wants to talk to me about real estate, I would love to have a conversation with them, even if they’re not buying a home, even if you’re investing in, you know, Biloxi, Mississippi. I don’t know anything about that market, but I can figure it out. Yeah, I just like talking about real estate and helping people through this. you know, if you want to get in this space at all, I would go…

to go to your local real estate association and talk to people. You don’t have to be realtor. If you are someone who wants to get involved in this and doesn’t necessarily have the time, there are plenty of investors out there who want private money. It helps them scale. It helps you make money on your money and learn a little bit along the way. I take in private money pretty regularly for our deals just to, you know, to make it less risk for me, get more, you know.

Get everyone involved paid. I love getting people paid. That’s the best feeling in the world to me.

Dylan Silver (13:56.098)
Fair the well. With private money, it’s potentially, I would say, a strategy which investors may not be familiar with if they’re on the outside. So if they’re looking at fix and flips, if they’re looking at getting a property for themselves, private money may actually be a better way for them to go because then they effectively have their…

their lending backed by collateral. So if something goes wrong, well, now they own the property, but it’s not the first, you know, line of defense is I have to do this whole flip myself. So I think in many cases, private money may be, like you mentioned, a better fit for some of these people.

Adam King (14:37.181)
Absolutely, it’s it’s you know, my partner and I we kind of have a minimum of about $50,000 but there’s depending on your market there’s there are probably flippers who are always looking for private money and I you know, most of them are gonna be offering 10 to 15 percent rate of return you’re gonna get You know get to say that you participated in a flip You’re gonna get to feel all that and be protected because depending on how the loan is structured you’re either in position one

or you’re in position two right behind, you know, hard money or a mortgage, right? So you are getting paid before that, before the seller is. So it’s a great way to get in safely. And the most extreme version of that is just finding flipper. If you have a ton of money, finding flippers and say, hey, I want to partner with you on deals. I have all of the cash we need, but none of the skills. Let’s do this. That is a great way for someone to get in

Dylan Silver (15:32.78)
Let’s do a deal.

Adam King (15:34.971)
very low risk, especially, you know, it’s very easy to track how these flippers are operating. You can just go on, you know, whatever tax records and see how many homes that they flipped. Most of the times that they flipped a lot, they have a, you know, my partner, I have a brochure with all of our before and afters and everything. So you just, you know, find somebody and get in with them. It can very, very much benefit you.

Dylan Silver (16:01.632)
It’s a huge thing and I’m surprised that I’m not aware of a way where hard money and individual fixin’ flippers can kind of unite in almost like a…

uber type fashion like i have money i need a flipper maybe something like that exists and i’m i’m not aware of it but i just thought about that as you were as you’re talking there well when i think about california and as a greater great when i was when i think about california investors i often i’m in texas right we see so many california investors here in texas and i can only speak from personal experience but it seems like maybe there’s more investors in california

Adam King (16:21.533)
There’s your million dollar idea.

Dylan Silver (16:39.308)
than anywhere else i don’t know if that’s true but it’s just anecdotally i see a lot of investors in california investing on in not just texas in many other states is there something in the water in california is everyone up on real estate and will say investing in california

Adam King (16:54.173)
Yeah, there’s money in the water. That’s the the difference right? so if you look at markets and Everything goes based off a percentage right if you’re gonna make a 10 % You know return on investment in like I said, Biloxi, Mississippi where homes are two hundred thousand dollars Versus a 10 % returning investment where homes are a million dollars in California There’s just more money to be made here and we also have the population to support it right? We’re the largest state by population You know, Texas is the second largest by size. Don’t tell them that

Dylan Silver (16:57.006)
Ha

Adam King (17:24.221)
But we I mean we I live in San Diego it’s where I do all my business This is a senior counties through over 3 million people. We are you know, just north of us is LA which is a county of 10 million people so we have You know just more people here with more money investing and it’s it’s really good when it’s good and it’s really bad when it’s bad because when there’s a a Tight market like it has been recently

Dylan Silver (17:24.75)
What?

Dylan Silver (17:48.621)
Yeah.

Adam King (17:52.551)
Too many people with too much money and not enough deals.

Dylan Silver (17:57.312)
It’s an interesting conundrum because you think about the conditions that are kind of favorable to people who are looking to…

acquire properties and maybe we’re looking at something like that now because if these properties are sitting on market for a while then you don’t have to you know make offers at full ask like you were having to do two years ago three years ago right but at the same point in time the same people who are acquiring these deals are looking to do maybe a flip so now what do you do to exit it you really do have to buy these deals right as I’m seeing up here and it’s it’s it’s tricky there’s no question that it’s

that it’s tricky. If someone was potentially a new agent and they were looking at being an agent investor, maybe with some of the experience that you have or maybe a different set of experiences, what would be your feedback to them as an aspiring agent investor?

Adam King (18:51.773)
really work your network. So a lot of my investors have come from just my network, both digitally and in person. Get a job. is the long and short of it is as an agent, you’re not going to make any money realistically upfront. It’s very hard. 74 % of agents in 2024 did zero transactions.

which means they spent money to do this, right? So if you have skills, go leverage them. mean, Uber’s easy. Go drive a car, go do something. Especially if you want to be being a real estate agent and an investor, you’re gonna be spending your evenings prospecting and going to these meetups to try to find people that you wanna talk to that want to invest with you. And you need to have money.

Dylan Silver (19:22.274)
Be an agent, yeah.

Adam King (19:48.091)
It’s just it’s it’s the unfortunate side things at least at first, right?

Dylan Silver (19:53.1)
Yeah, you do. You have to have that nest egg. I like to believe that there’s a way around it and there’s so many people that will give you opportunities with little or no money down. But you got to be very savvy in a lot of those. And I think maybe a more attainable for a lot of people is to have some type of nest egg to take one of these deals down yourself. Adam, we are coming up on time here. Where can folks go to get a hold of you?

Adam King (20:19.089)
Yeah, so I like I said, I work in San Diego, California you can go to You can call me at my phone number six one nine five six eight two six four nine You can email me at my email Adam at newtown any w to wn g r o up re comm and if you

Look me up on Google. I should show up. My name is Adam King. I love talking real estate and helping investors

Dylan Silver (20:53.952)
Adam, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.

Adam King (20:57.767)
Thank you for having me, Dylan.