Discover the Power: Qualified Opportunity Zones for Lasting Wealth Growth

Brett McCollum (00:00.837)
All right, guys, welcome back to the show. I’m your host, Brett McCollum, and I’m here today with Bert Tucker. Today we’re going to be talking about qualified opportunity zones. Before we do, guys, at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, and real estate entrepreneurs to 5x their businesses to allow them to build the businesses they’ve always wanted and live the lives they’ve always dreamed of. Without further ado, Bert, how are you,

Bert Tucker (00:24.039)
Great. Thanks for having me today. Glad to be here.

Brett McCollum (00:25.941)
Man, I’m excited to have you, dude. This is great. I got to know you a little bit before the show and I think your story’s awesome and I cannot wait for everybody to hear it. I wanna let you tell the story. So if you don’t mind, can you do me a favor? Rewind, back up a bit, give some context, some history. Who is Burt Tucker?

Bert Tucker (00:45.611)
Well, I grew up in Salem, about 30 minutes north of Boston. Went and played college football for a year and then took out a student loan at 11.5 % and said, probably don’t need to go in this direction with a phys ed. And long story short, ended up at University of Texas because in 1990, was $26 a credit hour for in-state tuition. So I was in three days later.

Brett McCollum (00:46.59)
you

Brett McCollum (01:09.301)
Wow.

Bert Tucker (01:11.661)
Was a pre-med biology major and was actually living in a two-door mercury topaz Paying my way through school and that got a little little difficult little harder times But then my girlfriend at the time told my old man who had packed up and moved when I graduated excited through all the sisters I was the youngest he moved her a small town in rural Maine and his Response was hey peck ahead. I know I wasn’t the best but once you move up here, you can stay here finish school

and just get your degree. So I took 84 credits in two years, coached high school football and basketball, and then fell into a college basketball job at $2,500 for that first season. And just kind of took it from there. Went to Western Kentucky, University of Georgia. And when recruiting a kid and dealing with his handler, which is funny with now what we’re dealing with in college sports,

Brett McCollum (02:06.346)
Yep.

Bert Tucker (02:06.829)
One handler wanted $40,000 just to have access to talk to this one player. And I said, this is Kuka. This was 2003, summer of 2000. And so just decided to get out. Everything that’s happening in college sports now, I saw this coming 20 years ago. So I was out like the fat kid in dodgeball and started a business training kids in basketball. It primarily like fifth grade through high school. And then my

Brett McCollum (02:12.991)
This was when?

Bert Tucker (02:36.117)
We were cannibalized by our own success where…

The manipulative suburban controlling dad started stealing and copying the business and paying off local high school coaches. So as I saw that bell curve starting to happen, I got into real estate and just started buying the cheapest houses and a great zip code in Cumming, Georgia, 40 miles north of downtown Atlanta. And stayed in basketball long enough to pay off those properties and just sort of figured it out.

got them paid off so I five of those, no mortgages, just bring the rentals in. And a couple years later, took out a HELOC to purchase my next door neighbor’s house on Lake Lanier in Cumming, Georgia. So he came over, wanted 400 grand for his house. I took out a HELOC, bought his house cash, put it on Facebook Marketplace.

for 300 grand more than I just paid for it. And two weekends later, I had a guy who was actually a friend of mine hit me up and bought it. So took the proceeds from that after researching, wasn’t real attractive with 1031 exchange because you have to put your initial principle, which was my HELOC essentially, and the capital gains into the next deal. And I didn’t want to do that. So did some research, came across qualified opportunity zones, which were

Brett McCollum (03:52.19)
Right.

Bert Tucker (04:02.631)
I think are the greatest tax incentive program for private people in the history of mankind and hardly anyone is doing it because I think it’s, you know, it’s got a stain because was part of the 2017 Trump tax cuts. And basically there are 8,000 plus recognized zones across America in all 50 states and they are economically underdeveloped areas. so we researched that.

We, my girl wanted no pie to Florida. Georgia’s already hot enough and humid. So we went to Littleton, New Hampshire and nice little small town near, near skiing and snowmobiling and things like that. Hiking of course. And we bought 18 acres. We subdivided into five lots. We built a small cabin on one of the five acre flats and we do Airbnb with that. And so, and then from there I had one connection to where

Now I’m doing house flips, new construction builds. In our most recent deal we built, we bought a lot, we subdivided it. We built a duplex on one half and we sold it as two separate individual condos, which had never been done in the town. And so…

Brett McCollum (05:12.469)
Mm-hmm.

Bert Tucker (05:22.719)
We set a record for the highest price per square foot of new construction in the town, while at the same time being the lowest priced new construction in the state of New Hampshire. So I think we hit the wheelhouse. And so that went tremendously successful and now we’re on to a few more projects, qualified opportunity zones. I don’t know how much detail you want me to go into those. If you want me ask questions, you want me just to roll with it and explain.

Brett McCollum (05:35.157)
Yeah.

Brett McCollum (05:49.331)
Yeah, let’s back up a little bit. And I definitely want to get to that. So you grew up just north of Boston, you said, you know, and I can still hear a little bit of the Bostonian accent there from time to time on some words. How did you and it

You went from college football ultimately to a basketball career. How did you get, before we got there, how did you get out to Texas though? Because you grew up in the Northeast, so how did you make your way out to Texas?

Bert Tucker (06:20.148)
So just blanket, just blunt honesty, not looking for a sympathy or a cheerleading squad here. My mother walked when I was 11, but was in the same town. So when a month after high school graduation, my father packed up the house and said, all right, peck ahead, my job is done, I’m out of here, because I was the youngest of four. So I lived in my car in Methuen, Massachusetts in the parking lot of Gold’s Gym while delivering pizzas.

Brett McCollum (06:39.198)
Okay?

Bert Tucker (06:48.555)
So I could still eat there. could shower from 5.30 in the morning to 11 o’clock at night. And I did that for the month before I went away to go play college football. So then I was transferring schools. So was going to live with my mother after my freshman year of college. That summer I was driving for limo service. There was me, the guy transferring in, whoever got the starting quarterback.

Brett McCollum (06:57.493)
Howa.

Bert Tucker (07:12.241)
would get the money, essentially. six days before football started, she said, you remind me too much of your father. I can’t handle it mentally. You can’t stay here. And so coincidentally, I got a call that night from a kid that I grew up with, and he was in Austin, Texas. And he told me about how the University of Texas was $26 a credit hour. I packed my two-door Mercury Topaz, and I was there three days later.

Got there at two o’clock on a Wednesday, had a job by five o’clock, waiting tables at a Chinese restaurant.

Brett McCollum (07:46.261)
There you go. Yeah, wow.

Bert Tucker (07:48.4)
And so everyone’s got a story. Everyone has hardships. And, but I believe in, teach attitude, effort, accountability and performance are the four things that will really dictate one’s life. And you’re always going to be thrown a curve ball and you’ve got to be able to just, you know, make chicken salad out of chicken poop. And the people that can do that, you know, again and again are super successful. It’s a simple recipe.

Brett McCollum (08:19.733)
Yeah, have a, albeit not quite the same. I love these, I’m not looking for sympathy and all that. I can relate though. I’ve lived in a car. My parents, long story short, it’s a long story, won’t get into all of it right now, but I mean, my dad, my brother and I, for six months in a car with our dog, I have an older adopted brother, found out that we were living in a house, 15 by the way, so you’re old enough at 15 to know that this isn’t normal.

And yeah, mean, yeah, I can, know what it feels like to wake up and get to the gym before everybody else gets there, because they just opened the door so you could shower and get ready for school, you know, and do it all over again, you know, and yeah, it’s a tough, it’s a tough, it’s tough, you know, and the feeling of, I mean, we don’t have to go super deep into this side of it, but like when parents, you know, nobody can hurt you like your own parents and family.

Bert Tucker (08:58.034)
Yeah.

Brett McCollum (09:16.487)
You know, lived that, seen that from my, both of my parents for that matter, side of it. And it’s a tough journey, you know, but I do believe that at the same time, like as hard as that is, and it is real. I mean, it’s absolutely real. It’s a tough thing for psychologically to go through. But I also look back on it and I see that in your face. It’s like, you know what, the thing that was meant to break me shapes me into who I am. And I get to be a

blessing to all for you all these kids that you’ve been able to mentor and be a part of their lives and as a coach what a responsibility and a blessing you have to be that steady presence in their life.

Bert Tucker (10:01.55)
Yeah, it’s kind of like lieutenant Dan on the top of the mast during the hurricane, you know screaming at God Is this all you got is this the best best you have? Yeah, it’s unbreakable and

Brett McCollum (10:08.297)
Yeah. Yeah.

Bert Tucker (10:13.093)
You know, every day is a blessing and you know, not to get too, you know, Dr. Phil ish, but that you take that as, a gift to then be able to relate it to others. My life mantra is you don’t punish kids for the sins of adults. Right? So kids are the ones that really, you know, don’t, again, I don’t believe people deserve things. You have to earn things.

Brett McCollum (10:29.855)
That’s right.

Bert Tucker (10:41.606)
but there’s certain things that kids go through that they certainly do not deserve. But, like the old Will Smith video, it may not be your fault, but it’s your responsibility.

Brett McCollum (10:45.525)
Sure.

Brett McCollum (10:52.949)
That’s right. And that’s, I mean, I’ll be honest with you, I went through a season where, I mean, in my younger adult years where…

I blamed everybody. I blamed my parents. I blamed… What’s that?

Bert Tucker (11:06.191)
Now, I’ll it for second. do a whole, these are all, all the things we’re talking about right now are little mini lectures that I’ve done for the last 25 years. And this one is blaming others, making excuses and rationalizing one’s mediocrity is the absolute loser’s mantra. When you are stuck in that mindset, you could have all the money, the best resources, best environment, everything.

Brett McCollum (11:15.53)
Yeah.

Bert Tucker (11:34.511)
you will not get out of that hole with that phony victimization mindset. And unfortunately, right now, it started off as a narrative in our society, and now it’s become an industry.

Brett McCollum (11:46.975)
Sure. Yeah, that’s not. Yeah, think that’s I mean, man, I took me. You know, 10 years of my adult life to figure out some stuff and then, you know, for a good chunk now, the 10 years and give or take, you know, it’s been a different story. But like I blamed everything, you know, my call my brother up, you know, right now he would be the same way. I blamed everything. We went through some bad things and it was was you hit the nail on the head, by the way.

Bert Tucker (11:49.168)
Pardon me.

Bert Tucker (12:13.678)
Yeah. Grats. Push. Test you.

Brett McCollum (12:16.895)
Kids don’t deserve that, it is a responsibility to respond to it. I now have, we have four kids, my wife and I, and Bert, check this. Hi kids, you my oldest is 11, okay? And he’s at that age, and my daughter, she’s eight, she’s at this age where they’re starting to like push back more, you know? Yeah. And they’ll get mad, but she said this, or but he did this.

And if you push them right now and you ask them and you say, do I say? I’ll say response what? And they’ll say, response matters. It’s not how, what you say, it’s how you say it and it’s your response to the situation is what matters.

Bert Tucker (12:58.355)
And that’s ultimate accountability. Even if you are triggered by something else, which I’ve never heard the word triggered until about four or five years ago.

Brett McCollum (13:00.341)
100%.

Brett McCollum (13:06.483)
Yeah.

Bert Tucker (13:08.557)
Now it’s a very, you know, in our vernacular. You still have to take ownership over your response.

Brett McCollum (13:17.683)
Yeah. Yeah, it’s it’s the response. It’s it’s responding versus reacting. Yeah, yeah. So I you mentioned to like, you kind of hit a few a lot of things pretty quickly. So I don’t want to just kind of look over them too quickly here. You did a little bit of semi pro football. How long was that? See that? Was that one season or how long did you

Bert Tucker (13:24.801)
Exactly.

Bert Tucker (13:44.46)
Yeah, one season it was a expansion team right outside of Boston and it was like the replacements very similar. I drove from Austin, Texas back to Salem, New Hampshire in a plimson with no air conditioning with my buddy and his sister. An old coach found out that I was in town, hit me up before cell phones and social media hunted me down. And because I, you know, kind of lost my playing career.

Brett McCollum (13:51.733)
I love it.

Bert Tucker (14:14.928)
I had a niche and I wanted to do it. And so I still keep my residency in Texas. And so I then flew back to Austin, Texas, quit my two jobs, packed up my car and drove right back again, 36 hours. And I literally drove straight through, did not sleep at all, six stops to gas up, pee and food. The whites of my eyes were bloodshot red. I drove straight to the field and walked right into the huddle and started throwing passes.

Brett McCollum (14:39.891)
yeah.

Brett McCollum (14:45.215)
Wow.

Bert Tucker (14:45.407)
and great experience. So glad I did it and

Brett McCollum (14:50.675)
Yeah, I mean, because it’s always the thing that leads to the thing, you know? Like, that’s how you look at life. It’s like, this wouldn’t have happened if I had not done this, and so on and so forth. And then eventually it leads you into coaching, you know? And what was that first use that you mentioned that first season? It’s $2,500.

And I know, remember, pre-show, you kind of touched on, you had two jobs lined up. It was the coaching or this other gig that was a lot more lucrative. What was the thing that made you go no basketball is my lane?

Bert Tucker (15:25.136)
So my girlfriend from high school whose family kind of took me in junior senior year of high school

Larry Keeber flew me to Ohio to meet his boss in Columbus, where the plant was, and we talked for hours touring the building, talking about polymers and all this nonsense that I could care less about. kind of bluntly and somewhat arrogantly, I guess I would say, or naive, was, you know, I didn’t go to college for this. I have no interest in this. What’s the pay? What’s the benefits? And basically told me that we’ll start you out for six months.

you know, just get your feet wet, then eventually if you do well and we think you’re gonna do fine, we’ll put you out in the Northwest selling highway road reflectors and pharmaceutical vials. know, who, what 12 year old lays their head on the pillow at night dreaming about that opportunity, right? But then he said, you should be making in six months, 150 grand, vested stock options, a whole deal. And my jaw almost hit the floor. And so that night went to the bar to go.

you know, catch an NBA game on TV or something. And I met an old guy sitting there with my ginger ale. And he told me about how he and his wife always wanted to open a flower shop. They never did. And she just recently died of cancer and like a bulls**t, it just hit me. I only have four thousand dollars of student loan debt on my books right now. If I don’t go do this now, I’ll always wonder what if.

And if someone’s willing to offer me 150 grand at 23 years old, I gotta believe I can go back and make that money later in life. So as I flew back, I started thinking of all my ways I’m gonna negotiate with this head coach at St. Joseph’s College on Sebago Lake in Maine and strong arm him into giving me more money than the $2,500 stipend. Well, about 30 seconds into my persuasive argument, he said, listen, I got about 100 guys that want this job.

Bert Tucker (17:26.539)
You’re the guy I want. If you don’t take it now, I’m hanging up on you.

So I said, no, no, no, it’s okay. I’ll take the job. And I took the job for 2,500 bucks. And I just did every odd job you could find. I stacked wood that fall. I shoveled driveways in the winter time. I substitute taught at an elementary school and just made it work. That and I recruited because I could get a value meal and a free tank of gas every time I recruited. So I would do substitute teaching, get out of school like 1 32 o’clock, jump in the car, drive.

all the way down to New York City, go see a kid play a high school game, turn around, drive all the way back at like 2.30, three o’clock in the morning, then get back up and go to school again at seven o’clock the next morning. But you gotta do to get what you wanna get.

Brett McCollum (18:11.327)
Do it again.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. And then that parlays you into other opportunities. When was your first, sorry, eventually you led yourself, mentioned in Division I athletics. when did that happen? How long were you working in the basketball field before you got to those opportunities?

Bert Tucker (18:41.328)
Yeah, so so at the end of that season the $2,500 was paid to me But now there was you know, more money coming in So I get rid of my apartment put my stuff in storage jumped in my car and I hooked up camps working At Clemson University was the first one like the third week in May and I was lined up working 13 straight weeks from South Carolina, Virginia

Rhode Island, New York City, Jersey, Maine, and Massachusetts. And I was basically living out of dorm rooms going from camp to camp to camp. While at Clemson, Rick Barnes was the head coach at that time. And his assistant said, hey, you’re a college coach, right? Do you mind working with a guy getting some shots up during lunchtime? Well, okay, sure. But I’m a six foot funny talking white guy from New England.

that no one’s gonna listen to. So I made everything numeric where they had to either make a time or make a certain number in a certain time. And then I would barter pushups. like back then, my thing was I was doing 500 pushups a day. So I’d say, okay, if you make this, I’ll do 50 pushups. If you don’t make it, you owe me 25. And I would do it to where they made the pushups so they could see me do the pushups. And that was a way of building trust and, and,

camaraderie there. Well anyway, so then a couple days later Barnes comes to me and says, who’s the Tucker guy? You’re the Tucker guy? I’m like, yeah. He’s, want to tell me what the F you’re doing with my players? And I’m like, whoa, coach, slow down, bro. I go, just, you know, and he goes, I started showing him the numbers, everything. He goes, well, all I know is this, my guys love you. They won’t stop talking about you and they keep coming to the workouts. So I want you to cancel the rest of your schedule and stay here and work my guys out. So that was kind of like my big break in the business.

And then later that summer, got bumped up to the school that I was at, St. Joe’s in Maine. So I got, I became the full-time assistant making 23 grand a year. And I thought I hit the lottery. Yeah. From 2,500 to 23 grand. That year I, uh, I banked $11,000 that year after taxes. And, um, the following year I got a head coaching job in Boston at a junior college. And that was like the white shadow.

Brett McCollum (20:42.057)
Yep, of course.

Bert Tucker (21:01.554)
I mean, the first year I inherited a program that had kids that get kicked out of school for guns, drugs, beating up women, you name it. and so my second year I recruited non-traditional Juco kids. brought in kids that were really, had really good grades. So they actually got money as well. because I only had one and a half scholarships. I was competing in a league that had 10 full scholarships. And so I had to be creative to find a way to solve the problem. And so brought in a great group of kids.

We finished third in the nation. We had the highest GPA in the history of the program and I got fired a week later for difference of philosophy. Won’t go into too many details. Basically the guy that fired me ultimately went to jail for kiddie porn and the school is now bankrupt and went out of business. Like I said, when I was 27, this is what’s going to happen because they had nothing to They were trying to be something that they weren’t. And that’s, think, a word right now in our society that resonates.

tremendously across classes, races, genders, doesn’t matter, authenticity. We’re looking for authenticity because we’ve been bombarded with so much fluff, if you will. And so, anyway, I jumped in my car, I drove, I wanted to be at a Division I school in the South that had either big time football or had a chance of winning their league every year and going to the NCAA tournament.

Brett McCollum (22:07.445)
Mm-hmm.

Brett McCollum (22:14.069)
Mm-hmm.

Bert Tucker (22:28.743)
and a former Clemson, two Clemson assistants now we’re at Western Kentucky. And so I was out looking for a job and I hooked on at Western Kentucky. We ended up going to three NCAA tournaments. And then my boss there ended up getting the head job at UGA Georgia. We came over in 03. And just as I, as I moved up the, the chain in the business, I got further and further away from what I truly enjoyed, which was teaching and being on the court.

and just be so much money driven, it took me away from truly what it was all about. So that’s when I walked away and created a business to where now I spent all of my time working with 50 kids in a gym and having that much of a larger audience to even have an impact with. 13 players, had 350 players to work with every spring and fall and then with summer camps.

Brett McCollum (22:58.933)
That’s right.

Brett McCollum (23:20.937)
Right.

Brett McCollum (23:28.831)
Yeah, very cool. then you, all right, so then you’re doing that suburban dads get silly and dumb and do all their thing. And then you ultimately laying yourself into real estate. You flip the neighbor’s house, so to speak, right? That you bought.

I really want to spend this next because that was really I loved that whole story with the coaching background and I’m a baseball player played a little bit of post college ball this you know they’re near near to my heart we can we could probably spend all of our time talking about this stuff because I love it you know yeah but our audience probably doesn’t want us to talk all about you know sports so

Bert Tucker (24:04.809)
Sure.

Brett McCollum (24:15.623)
Opportunity zones, qualified opportunity zones. Can you go into some high level on that? We’ll start with what they are, like let’s give it a clear definition if you can, and then some basic applications of what you can do within it.

Bert Tucker (24:25.314)
Yeah.

Bert Tucker (24:29.985)
So as part of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, qualified opportunity zones are underdeveloped economic areas. They could be inner city. They could be very rural. I don’t know exactly who determined the zones or the qualifications of the zones within all 50 states, but there are roughly a little over 8,000 of those recognized zones across America.

Brett McCollum (24:58.174)
Right.

Bert Tucker (24:58.376)
The idea was to take capital gains, ideally, was a way to take capital gains from anything. Didn’t have to be real estate. Could be gold, gold, silver, could be stocks, could be anything. And you interject that money into real estate and there were certain qualifications that came with it. So we actually took a

a small course with a law firm that had had we didn’t get in until 2022 it started in 2017 so at the time in 2017 if you you could defer your capital gains tax to 2026 so you really have nine years to defer those and if you did it in 2020 2017

Brett McCollum (25:47.093)
Hmm.

Bert Tucker (25:54.834)
you’d only be taxed at 10%.

Brett McCollum (25:58.697)
Wow.

Bert Tucker (25:59.175)
I’m sorry, you got 10 % off. In 2018, you got 5 % off your tax responsibility. Again, it wasn’t due until 2026, but they would cut your capital gains tax down. Again, to get this program started and get the ball rolling. The last time I checked, which was last week, $85 billion have been privately invested in these zones since 2017. So it’s a great opportunity.

Brett McCollum (26:26.058)
Hmm.

Bert Tucker (26:29.702)
And so there was an app where you could look at the map and there were bubbles of where the zones were located. And so we just took a flight up to Boston, drove around northern New Hampshire, and we kind of looked at the opportunities that were in those zones. And so the way it worked out is if you buy a structure, let’s say you buy a property that has a structure.

Brett McCollum (26:42.835)
Right.

Bert Tucker (26:52.135)
The appraisal on the structure versus the appraisal on the land then have to double the value of the structure over the next 30 months. He bought up property for $100,000. $75,000 was devoted to the structure. $25,000 was devoted to the value of the land. You have to invest.

Brett McCollum (26:58.11)
Right?

Brett McCollum (27:06.343)
Okay.

Brett McCollum (27:16.767)
Mm-hmm.

Bert Tucker (27:19.783)
an additional $75,000 over the next 30 months to keep your eligibility in the program. But then here’s the kicker. You can’t sell anything for 10 years. You have to stay vested for a decade. But at the end of that 10 years, whatever you sold that property for, you would pay zero capital gains from your initial $100,000 that you invested.

Brett McCollum (27:32.189)
Right.

Brett McCollum (27:45.929)
Wow. Yeah. so for the, I mean, if you’re a buy and hold investor of any kind in like huge, yeah, massive.

Bert Tucker (27:55.959)
Better let me add this to it. If you buy raw land all you have to do is invest $1 over the next 30 months.

to remain qualified. So that we, again, because, you know, do you buy an existing structure? But if you do, you’ve got to invest that amount of appraised value over those, you know, next two and a half years. like, so we bought raw land, and then we just built a small little cabin, and we’re qualified with it. It’s basically a one bedroom cabin.

Brett McCollum (28:08.447)
Wow.

Bert Tucker (28:33.947)
We’ve had it now for two full years since it was completed and we’ve done $30,000 a year each year on that one little thing. So it’s a great revenue stream and

Brett McCollum (28:45.673)
But so on the land piece, you can theoretically, you buy it and just put a dollar on it and it qualifies at that point.

Bert Tucker (28:54.224)
That’s it? Yes.

Brett McCollum (28:56.757)
That’s a nice little move right there, isn’t it?

Bert Tucker (29:01.222)
Well, think about this. If you literally just put a dollar into it, it still even works for someone that wants to flip land. Now you’ve got to hold on to it though for 10 years. And if that value goes up, you still get that benefit. Now, I personally, feel like if you can add more value, you might as well add more value to that land as the true benefits of the program.

Brett McCollum (29:11.86)
Yeah.

Brett McCollum (29:23.678)
Sure.

Brett McCollum (29:28.213)
Right. That’s pretty cool. Yeah, because we don’t, I’ll be honest with you Bert, not a lot of people are on my show talking about things like this and certainly not specifically on opportunity zones. Today’s market, 2025, where things are at, where we’re going. How do I, how does anybody, how do you leverage opportunity zones in today’s market? What would you say?

Bert Tucker (29:52.806)
Well, listen, I’m just a simple regular dude. So I’m sure there are many other manifestations out there that smarter people than me would be able to figure out. And I also believe in just sort of stay in your lane. Do what you’re comfortable with. Do what you have a firm grasp on. do with what Britney Spears, oops, I did it again. If you do something that’s successful,

Don’t try to do DBA too much. Just stick with what you’re good at. And that’s okay. So for me personally, I met one local guy who helped me build my cabin. he’s a jack of all trades. So as soon as we finished the cabin, about a month later, there was a rundown house that I saw on Zillow while walking, doing my four miles down here in Georgia.

And I called him up and said, listen, I need you to go take a look at this rat trap that’s over here on Patriots Drive. And he said, hey, I grew up on Patriots Drive. I know that house. And he called me back a couple hours later and said, yeah, this thing is junk, but he goes, it’s a great street. I said, well, okay, that’s good to hear because I think this is a great play. It was a 1950 Sears catalog kit house. It was built with two by threes framing. Okay. And it was a three bed, one bath.

with a one car garage. We turned the one car garage and I had to fight him on this. He didn’t understand how to add bedrooms and bathrooms and a four bed two bath would be exponentially more valuable than just a remodeled three bed one bath. And so we set a record with that price. He didn’t think we could get 300 grand for the house. We ended up getting 355 and did not even have to list it. That was from just talking to neighbors. Anyway, from that he said,

Brett McCollum (31:39.753)
Mm-hmm.

Bert Tucker (31:43.717)
Do you think we could do this again? And I said, bro, you are way too talented to have to work for anybody else. He was a mechanic. He sold all his tools. He sold his lift, everything. And then we did the duplex deal where we bought the land subdivided and then built the duplex. So it’s also partly helping others, right? So I said, you give me, what’s your goal? He gave me a number. Well, we,

Brett McCollum (32:01.929)
Mm-hmm.

Brett McCollum (32:09.045)
next

Bert Tucker (32:13.667)
We’ve gone way beyond that goal in the first year. And so it’s been a good partnership. But now I’ve got him to understand the value of these opportunity zones. And we’re just going to put some cash in his pockets. We can breathe a little bit, have some security. You and I probably both know that cash in the bank, even though cash is king, you don’t want cash in the bank with inflation and so on and so forth. You want it to put it to work. And that’s what

Brett McCollum (32:16.341)
Yeah.

Bert Tucker (32:42.885)
I’m working on with him right now is let’s do the short term. Let’s get some cash, but let’s start thinking long term so we can get you that number of passive income where you don’t have to work because I’m 54. He’s 43 and you know, five nine 280 to 90 whatever he is. We’re gonna have he’s gonna have to make that transition pretty soon. You know, but this other

There’s other, I’ve heard stories out there of people doing non-profits so they can take money in to then put into the qualified opportunity zones. But again, you’ve to wait the 10 years.

Brett McCollum (33:23.411)
Yeah, you gotta have some vision. Yeah. Yeah, I win this one. Yeah, really good. Man, this has been good, man. I appreciate you doing this, sharing your insight, you’re, you know, on that and shedding light on that. If people want to connect with you, maybe learn a little bit more, something like that, what would you, what do you think the best way for that to happen would be?

Bert Tucker (33:26.062)
Discipline.

Bert Tucker (33:46.241)
You’ve got my phone number. don’t know what you put out there as far as part of the podcast with that. They can contact me directly. They can go to our website, tucker-reality.com. Yes is an I in reality because when I incorporated to protect my created the LLC for my rental houses, the Secretary of State in Georgia misspelled it and put an I in there and then wanted to charge me 300 bucks to remove the I.

It was like, And then I learned that when I got my license, you can’t use realty unless you’re a broker. So it was meant to be. Again, Docker-reality.com.

Brett McCollum (34:20.671)
There you go.

I like it. Yeah, well we’ll get that in the show notes. mean guys, really cool subject matter to learn more about. Reach out, follow along, that sort of thing. yeah, Bert, man, this has been great. Thanks for being here with me.

Bert Tucker (34:36.119)
Thank you for the opportunity. Great meeting you. And if I can be of service, just give me a holler.

Brett McCollum (34:42.069)
You’re awesome, I appreciate that. Guys, thank you as well for spending your time with us. We will see each of you on the next episode. Take care everybody.