Real Estate Strategies: Buy & Hold, 1031 Exchanges, and Scaling with Teams

Maurice Watkins (00:00)
I like to go off of

the 1 % rule. So if a house costs $100,000, I want at least $1,000 in rent, right? If it costs $200,000, I want $2,000 in rent. So I mainly look for areas where I can get that 1 % rule,

I get the house, I buy and hold,

The only way I get rid of that house is if I do the 1031 tax exchange.

I don’t want to

to

get hit with the depreciation

I do what you call cost segregation that allows me not to pay taxes on my active income because I’m a real estate professional.

those are, and 1031 Tax Exchange everything and trade up all the time.

the world is really a monopoly game. You just gotta figure out how to get on the board.

Michelle Kesil (02:09)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Investor Fuel podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. Today I’ve joined by someone that I’m looking forward to chatting with, Maurice Watkins, who’s been making serious moves in the real estate investing space. So really glad to have you here on the show today, Maurice. I think the, yeah, you’re welcome. I think the listeners are going to get a lot out of how you

Maurice Watkins (02:30)
Thank you for having me.

Michelle Kesil (02:39)
Really, I like to approach teaching people about investing and growing your own business. And yeah, we have a lot to dive into today.

Maurice Watkins (02:47)
I look forward to it.

Michelle Kesil (02:49)
Awesome. So just first off, for those who are not familiar with you and your world, can you give a short version of what you’re up to these days?

Maurice Watkins (02:58)
Well these days what I’m doing is, you know, right now I just flew down to Louisiana. I got here a couple days ago and buying a fourplex down here. Right now I feel like it’s a buyer’s market and there’s deals all over the place because people are worried about rates and people don’t realize when the rates go up the prices go down. So right now I’ve been just looking all over the country for different properties to invest in and you know once the rates do go down the prices that go up I continue to make money, you know, so that’s what I’ve been up to is buying property.

Michelle Kesil (03:25)
Awesome. How did you get started on this journey?

Maurice Watkins (03:29)
I was listening to, I don’t know if it was a podcast or a radio station, I was listening to this guy named Tariq Nasheed back in 2000.

think it’s 14 or 15. And a few of my friends told me, hey, man, you really need to get in real estate. I think you can do this. And he said, hey, man, everybody needs to have a real estate license. And I was like, you know what? I don’t even have a house. So I bought a little condo in California as my first investment property. But I actually lived there. But I anticipated it going up. At some point, it doubled, maybe four or five years later. And I was like, man, I need to start doing this. And so that’s what prompted the real estate investing career.

Michelle Kesil (04:07)
Amazing. And like, how did you go from just that’s something that you learned about to becoming successful in it? Like, what did that kind of scaling pattern look like for you?

Maurice Watkins (04:19)
The way I learned is I’m an avid reader. ⁓ I would read myself dizzy. Once these e-books came out on the phone, I was like jackpot. I got something to do instead of watch TV. So I was like, okay, let me start with Robert K. Asaki. Let me take it down to, you know, watch some, you know, listen to Dave Ramsey on YouTube. Let me listen to Grant Caudone. Let me listen to all the greats that ever bought real estate and buy every real estate book that I can and learn as much as I can about the subject because I was already actively selling real estate and doing mortgages. But I noticed a lot of realtors didn’t know what they were talking about. And I was like, man, I don’t want to be that guy.

that’s not the subject matter expert because I come from a teaching background. taught at the Marine Corps University, I taught at University of Phoenix, I taught at National and I always learned to make sure you know your subject through and through

so that’s how I took the real estate and real estate investing and made sure I knew everything there is to know about it or at least heard of it and be able to you know study the craft and it’s still a journey.

Michelle Kesil (05:58)
Amazing and what has been like the key to keeping your business running smoothly?

Maurice Watkins (06:04)
man, literally working eight to 12 hours a day, you know, I mean, literally every day. It was like my life was a deployment the first three or four years. ⁓ I remember coming home, I thought, you know, I was chasing this generation of world thing cause I saw stuff and I remember coming home and three, three or four years later.

from showing houses. My wife didn’t speak, my kids didn’t speak, tell me the dog didn’t say, ruff, nothing. I just like, man, I had to give up everything. I’m thinking, I’m chasing all this wealth for you guys. And I started to lose the love that, right? And I was like, okay, I gotta find out how to balance things. And so I started hiring people, putting people in place. That way I have more time to myself. I don’t know that answered your question, but yeah.

Michelle Kesil (06:43)
Sure, yeah, definitely hiring team members is one way to keep the business running successfully. Awesome. So every operator has moments in business where things maybe get more real, maybe deals go sideways, or you have to make fast pivots. Would you mind sharing one of those moments that you have experienced? Mm-hmm.

Maurice Watkins (06:50)
Yeah. Yeah.

and investing.

Right now I’m experiencing one. I’m out here, I’m already in contract on a four plex here in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Got a really good deal on it. The guy had it at 350, I talked him down to 285. I did the home inspection yesterday. I mean, I see why he went down to 285. I mean, it’s plumbing issues, it’s electrical issues. I mean, the tenants are complaining leaks, the roof is bad. It’s just like a really horrible deal. So I’m gonna have to pivot. So right now I’m in the middle of getting all the prices for everything to get repaired. And I’m gonna ask this

guy for like 75 or $80,000 and hopefully he gives it to me because if he doesn’t I’m gonna find another deal while I’m here before I go back to California but I I encounter things like this all the time when I’m investing because I’m the type of guy I invest like online I’ll get in contract you know sight unseen and then I fly into that city and sometimes I run into a problem like this but my thing is I’m not leaving it till I find a deal so I got a one-way ticket here and I’m not leaving it till I get a deal and then my family will see me when I get back.

Michelle Kesil (08:08)
Yeah, yeah, you’re definitely determined. So what are some of those maybe more like strategic moves that help you get those deals?

Maurice Watkins (08:11)
determined.

I like to go off of a, you know, I’m sure some people just watching her to like the 1 % rule. So if a house costs $100,000, I want at least $1,000 in rent, right? If it costs $200,000, I want $2,000 in rent. So I mainly look for areas where I can get that 1 % rule, right? And you know, inside of getting that 1 % rule, once I get the house, I buy and hold, right? I’m a buy and hold guy. The only way I get rid of that house is if I do the 1031 tax exchange. And the reason I do that is because I don’t want to

to

get hit with the depreciation recapture. Depreciation recapture. So yeah, and also for me, because of the money I make in my real estate business and my mortgage business, I do what you call cost segregation that allows me not to pay taxes on my active income because I’m a real estate professional. So those are some of the strategic moves I make to not only not pay taxes, because when I was younger, I was always here that the rich don’t pay taxes. Now I understand why we don’t pay taxes because we do what we call segregation. We accelerate depreciation. We continue to buy homes and we continue

you to not to pay taxes. So those are, and 1031 Tax Exchange everything and trade up all the time. So really the world, when you talk about finances, the world is really a monopoly game. You just gotta figure out how to get on the board.

Michelle Kesil (09:32)
Yeah, that’s such important and wise advice. Definitely agree with that. So what are you most focused on solving or scaling next in your business?

Maurice Watkins (09:37)
Yeah. Yeah.

So right now I want to kind of transition. I want to make my active job real estate and mortgage. I want make that part time and I want to make investing full time and have boots on the ground so I don’t have to fly into these states, have boots on the ground

kind of do this work for me, you know, and kind of go from there. So right now I’ve been really amped up my passive income and I got it up to a level to where I think I can hire teams of boots on the ground in different cities and states that I fly into and, you know, create a blueprint on exactly what I’m looking for.

And that way I can kind of invest from home and do everything from home, have property managers in place, have home inspectors in place, and have everything in place that way the business operates without me moving around so much.

Michelle Kesil (11:04)
Yeah, that’s big. I love that. What are you doing in order to implement that next step?

Maurice Watkins (11:06)
Yeah.

Look, I haven’t. I just figured it out as I’m on the phone with Chitalkity.

Michelle Kesil (11:18)
Love it. Love the honesty.

Maurice Watkins (11:18)
I just figured I’m like, man, that’s

actually a good idea. I think I’m gonna start doing that instead of coming down here losing all that time with my family. know, so, so yeah. Down here, I’ve already got a team here in Baton Rouge. I just want to always want to at least see and talk to tenants whenever I buy multifamily. If I’m buying a single family home, those are pretty simple. But when I’m buying multifamily, you know, four or more, buying some apartment complexes, I always want to have boots on the ground because it pitches a one thing. And then even if I have somebody else out here to come look at it for me, they’re not going to see what I see with the eyes that I have.

So I want to have boots on the ground for those big projects. So, but yeah, so whenever I have to do like a single family project, it’s pretty easy to implement somebody because I do it in Michigan all the time. I have a home inspector I use out there. He knows exactly what I’m looking for. And if what I’m looking for isn’t there, he tells me, Maurice, this is not the deal we want.

Michelle Kesil (12:08)
Amazing. when you, what are you most focused on? Is it single? Is it multifamily? Like what’s your focus?

Maurice Watkins (12:17)
I’m pretty diverse. I’m focused on a deal. Whatever the best deal is, that’s what I’m focused on, if I can get a deal, whether it’s multifamily or single-family deal. I like single-family because single-family, when you get renters that move in there, a lot of them are going to stay there 20, 30, 40 years. I exceed my lifetime. And multifamily, I like multifamily because you’re always going to have somebody that’s actually living there. It’s a good thing. The bad thing is…

Michelle Kesil (12:20)
Yeah.

Maurice Watkins (12:43)
⁓ They’re always gonna have the neighbors right next door to them that’s living there and sometimes they don’t like each other. So that’s the only thing I don’t like about multifamilies, everybody doesn’t get along. Whereas with single family homes, I don’t have to worry about that.

Michelle Kesil (12:55)
Yeah, that makes sense. So I know that you shared with me that you really value educating people. Can you share a little bit more about how you educate people and what you educate people on?

Maurice Watkins (13:10)
Yeah, so basically what I do is, ⁓ you know, since I’m a retired Marine, I used to be able to like go on the bases and teach classes to literally thousands of veterans at a time, both Marines and sailors. So now what we do is I teach classes like ⁓ right off the base. I have a couple of classrooms that I use right off the base. I run my ads on different social media platforms and I pack the house out and I teach them all how to use the VA loan. I teach civilians how to use the FHA loan, the conventional loan. And that’s really how I

make my bread and butter is teaching them and teaching them how to be investors as well because I’ve got classes on how to be an investor as well. ⁓ those are things that I sell. My actual class is to invest, but my other real estate classes on how to get in the game, I do those classes pro bono.

Michelle Kesil (13:58)
That’s amazing. So do you do these classes online or in person?

Maurice Watkins (14:02)
I do them both. basically, let’s say I have 100 people sign up for a class. When I actually go to the class, I might have 30 people show up, right? 30 % of them will show up. But for some reason, I’m getting a better showing online, because I do a class on Friday, and then I do a Zoom meeting on Monday. And on Monday, my Zoom meeting is filled with people, and I just educate from there.

Michelle Kesil (14:24)
amazing what are some of those educational tips that maybe you can share with the listeners.

Maurice Watkins (14:30)
⁓ You know, well, it depends on what market we’re in. Right now the market we’re in is a buyer’s market. pretty much, know, buyers are getting everything in the kit and caboodle. getting refrigerators, washers, dryers. They’re getting all their clothes and clothes covered. They don’t have to pay their realtor right now because the sellers are paying their realtor because these people are just sitting on these houses. So right now I’m kind of teaching them how to negotiate that. I also teach realtors too because I got a team of realtors that work under me. So I kind of teach them how to negotiate ⁓ best for the buyers. And when I’m representing the sellers, of course

I’m dealing with

with somebody like me on the other side. I’m teaching people how to deal with people like me on the other side when you’re representing your sellers as well. So yeah, it’s kind of where I’m at right now.

Michelle Kesil (15:52)
That’s amazing. I love that. So what inspired you to start educating people?

Maurice Watkins (15:58)
I come from Louisiana and it’s a Louisiana education, right? So for me, when I came from down here and I realized how far behind I was when I got to California, I had to be in my 20s. And I read every book and went to every school I could go to, picked up my graduate degrees, a couple of bachelor degrees. And I was like, man, I don’t want people to experience what I experienced. So any piece of advice that I can give them on whether it’s real estate or even if it’s life, I’m giving it out. So it just, my former life influenced my future life.

which is for most people, they go through a lot and then they say, hey, you know what, I want to find a way to give back to the game, if you will, and help others.

Michelle Kesil (16:38)
Yeah, I love that. That’s true service right there. Absolutely. So what’s like the next real goal that you have?

Maurice Watkins (16:42)
Yeah, that’s the name of the game.

The next goal I have, like I said, transition out of this real estate and mortgage business, but I do it like part-time and just really be full-time teaching people this at a high level in big auditoriums like I did in the military and continue to just scale my business and create passive income. know, I had a passive income goal when I started back in 2018, but that passive income goal was so small compared to the people who I’m in a room with now. And I’m like,

Well, I think so small, so I’m thinking a whole lot bigger now and I really want to scale into hotels and apartments.

hotels, apartments, and as many single-family homes as I can buy. I’m 49 years old. I feel like I still got some time. And also be able to teach my kids this and pass this down to them while not spoiling them either. Because I think a lot of people get spoiled with generational wealth. We talk about that all the time, but we don’t talk about imputing the information into our kids. That way when you pass on, they don’t mess everything up. And they have to start back from square one like you did. So right now, I’m just focusing on the kids and also focusing on the charity teaching that I’m doing.

Michelle Kesil (17:57)
Amazing. Why do you want to expand into hotels?

Maurice Watkins (18:02)
I just want to see how far I can go. I mean, I feel like I’m living inside of a dream right now. I would have never thought, you know, I’m here in my Airbnb in Baton Rouge. I’ll be here until Friday or Saturday. However long I need to be to get an escrow on another property. But I really feel like I’m living inside of a dream. And I’m like, man, how far can my mind expand and how far can I take this? So I’m just really excited because I just never thought that I could do it. You know, when you grow up, if you grow up in an impoverished environment, you think that things aren’t possible.

And as I move every day and move around this world, I’m looking on the internet, I’m learning, I’m learning from different social media platforms. I was like, well, how far can I take it? How far can I go? I don’t mind working. I don’t mind working.

Michelle Kesil (18:44)
Yeah, absolutely. That mindset will take you so far is the like mindset something that you help people in your education programs.

Maurice Watkins (18:55)
I’ve said it again, I’m sorry.

Michelle Kesil (18:56)
⁓ Is mindset something that you also work with when you’re educating people?

Maurice Watkins (19:00)
yeah,

yeah, that’s funny. got a friend of mine that has a book that he made labeled mindset. But yeah, I mean, that’s where it starts at, right? You know, it’s got to start with your brain, got to start with your mind and how you think, you know, and ⁓

not just about money, not just about skilling, just about life in general. But mindset is everything. And, you know, I would say along with that is discipline because you can think all day, but if you don’t have the ability to act, you’re in trouble. You know, you can read as much as you want to read, but if you don’t have the ability to apply, you’re just reading books. You just learn it. You’re just a smart person that’s sitting there. So you got to be active and have the discipline, which I feel like I got from my military time, the discipline and the consistency to keep going to get up every day and do it no matter what. It’s kind of like going to the gym no matter what you got to get up.

and you gotta go do it. Otherwise there’ll be no results. So yeah, definitely mindset, discipline, and consistency.

Michelle Kesil (19:47)
Yeah, absolutely. think those are such valuable pillars that people need if they’re wanting to progress in this space.

Maurice Watkins (19:57)
Definitely. Yeah, if you don’t have that, don’t even waste your time.

Michelle Kesil (20:00)
Yeah, so when it comes to growing your business and building relationships, what do you feel has made the biggest difference for you?

Maurice Watkins (20:11)
Building relationships? mean, think for me, as far as you mean, what do I have in me to do that? ⁓

Michelle Kesil (20:17)
Like, are there specific strategies or tools or tips that have made the biggest difference for you when it comes to building that network?

Maurice Watkins (20:27)
I think what happened for me is, I used to be a Marine Corps recruiter. I was one of the best in the state of Michigan, right? At least for the Marines, I can’t speak about the other branches and I would get these trophies every year or whatever the case may be. But what I found when I was out there, we had something called the delayed entry program. And inside of that delayed entry program, the people that I would put in the military, they would come back and tell everybody about me and tell everybody about the Marine Corps. So the realtors that work with me and the loan officers that work with me,

I don’t have to recruit, they just go tell people about me and people come. So I haven’t did any actively, active recruiting. And I might say, hey man, you you guys know three or four people you you want to bring on. Okay. I’ll give you such, such percentage of this and a go find them. Right. I don’t have to actively get out there and do it. So the strategy I use is just being a good person. take you a long way. Just be a good person.

Michelle Kesil (21:15)
Yeah, absolutely. Are there any sort of networking strategies that you use when it comes to growing the real estate business?

Maurice Watkins (21:25)
No, that’s my networking strategy, using my agents to do it for me. Yeah, so they call it OPM and OPT, other people’s money and other people’s time. So yeah, so I don’t go out there and I mean, maybe I do a Facebook post if I need like an assistant or something like, hey, I’m looking for a real estate assistant or I’m looking for two real to fill in on this space. And as soon as I do it, people are in my inbox, you so I never really had problems recruiting anybody ⁓ or growing or anything like that.

Michelle Kesil (21:29)
Yeah.

You

Amazing. Yeah, mean, however you build relationships in this space is important.

Maurice Watkins (22:00)
Yeah, true.

Michelle Kesil (22:02)
Awesome. Is there any sort of advice that you can offer for maybe people that are just starting out on their investing journey?

Maurice Watkins (22:11)
Stay focused, stay focused because a lot of everybody want to be investors but everybody don’t, know, people don’t want to study, people don’t want to learn, people don’t want to take courses, people don’t want to, you know, pay a hundred dollars to go, you know, take a class somewhere or take a class online. Stay focused, continue to educate yourself, stay consistent and work on your business every day.

at least at a minimum Monday through Friday, work on your business. You if you go to work nine to five, from five to nine, you should be working on your side hustle, or six to nine or whatever it is, you know. ⁓ And, you know, find your time with your family, carve that time in, create a calendar, and figure out what your day looks like, and follow that to the tee. Do not go off of line with that. I did that for about six years. Make that calendar, do exactly what you put on your calendar, and you look up three to five years later, you’re say, wow, it actually worked.

Yeah, because you worked on you. You spent all this time building other people’s business, but you never spend time on focusing on your own business, right? So I would say continue to build other people’s business for now. Learn the game, whatever game that is that they’re doing, if that’s what you want to do. But focus on your own, but do better on your own than you’re doing on theirs. That’s what I would say. Otherwise, you’re going to be under them for the rest of your life.

Michelle Kesil (23:23)
I love that.

Yeah, I love that. So true. Thank you so much. before we wrap up here, if someone wants to reach out, connect with you,

or learn more, what’s the best place that they can find you?

Maurice Watkins (23:38)
So a few different ways. So my phone number is 760-207-8719. That’s direct. If you want to contact me, it’s Maurice the number two, Watkins at gmail.com. Or you can go to my website at thewarriorsgroup.com, thewarriorsgrp.com and you can find me.

Michelle Kesil (23:57)
Perfect. Well, listen, I really appreciate your time, your story and perspective. We need more people in this space doing things in this right way. So thank you again for being here.

Maurice Watkins (24:08)
No problem, I appreciate your time.

Michelle Kesil (24:10)
Awesome. And for those of you that are tuning into the show, if you got value from this, make sure that you’ve subscribed. We have more conversations coming with operators just like Maurice, who are building real businesses. And we’ll see you all on the next episode.