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Show Summary
In this conversation, Andre “Talks” Green shares his extensive experience in the real estate industry, discussing his journey from a novice to an expert with over 15 years in various roles. He emphasizes the importance of community, mentorship, and building relationships in achieving success. Andre also delves into his investment philosophy, focusing on cash flow over the number of properties owned, and the significance of access to opportunities in the investment world. He shares insights on navigating challenges in real estate and his future goals of educating and empowering his community.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Andre Green (00:00)
over the years, I learned that as long as I don’t quit,it’s not over, right? You’re gonna face obstacles and challenges, you have to have your why as to why you wanna keep going. It’s gotta be bigger than all the pain you’re going through. And when you’ve identified that you’re really working for a real reason, all you’re to do is figure out the puzzle. So that’s one of the things that I’ve gotten through a lot of the issues, because there’s no easy years when it comes to being a real estate investor, right? You might have some easy months, but it’s not easy years. It’s always gonna happen.
Quentin Edmonds (00:28)
Get homeAndre Green (00:29)
Yeah, that’s what I learned over the years that you got it. You got to want it. You have to want it. You got to work for it. And you also have to prepare yourself,Quentin Edmonds (02:09)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. Excited to be here today. Excited about my guest. Listen, this gentleman has a lot of years of experience and by his own admission, he’s done everything. And maybe one, maybe two things that he hasn’t done in real estate, but he’s done it all. ⁓ To prove that fact, I was asking him questions and he was kind of looking at me like, I’m not just saying that. No, he didn’t look at me like that, but still this gentleman has done it all. It’s no tricking them.Anything you can he can talk to you about anything you need to talk about yes expertise in or experience in it And so I am excited and she’ll do she want to and excited for y’all to hear Mr Andre Talks Green. Mr. Andre. How you doing today, sir? Man doing good sir doing good. I’m gonna be honest with you man. I kind of want to dive in I want you to tell the people what your main focus is these days
Andre Green (02:52)
Good Q, how are you doing man?Quentin Edmonds (03:02)
Listen, man, if you want to give us a little bit of an origin story of how you got into real estate, we love origin stories. And then man, tell them where you at. Tell them where you coming from, brother. And so what part of the world you in. And so I appreciate you, man. You got the floor.Andre Green (03:15)
Appreciate it, appreciate it. So like you said, my name is Andre Green, also known as Andre Talks Green. I am born and raised in New York City. So I’m Queens through and through. I got into real estate about 2004, right? So I’ve been in over 20 years now and I’ve been active in it ever since. It’s kind of those things I kind of fell into and I had a passion for it when I was in college and I met the right people, had the right mentors and they taught me.the real game, right? It wasn’t just about making a quick buck. They taught me how finance works. And the more I got into it, the more I loved it. To the point where I am now, which I’ll give you a quick short story, but it’s been a full circle for me and a great journey. But I’ve done it all, like you mentioned, right? So I’ve had every job in real estate except for maybe one or two. I never did title work and I’ve never been an appraiser, but I’ve done everything else. So loan officer, mortgage broker, real estate broker, underwriter.
commercial property manager, residential property manager, office buildings, apartment buildings, townhouses. I have a lot of experience, right? I’m an active landlord right now. I own and operate a property management company. And I’ve been doing property management, which is the bulk of my experience for over 12 years, right? And at a high level, because we’re talking about New York City property management, not the mom and pop. So I’ve worked for large companies for an extended period of time.
So, you know, I’ve covered a lot of ground over this time, but what really got me into it and where I got to stick was what I realized as maybe a 19 year old was that the people that I saw with the fancy cars and the nice watches and the great clothes were people that owned things, right? They owned the business, they owned real estate, they owned their income. And what I thought would have been the easy thing was, okay, you can be a salesperson to make money.
That’s a great way to make an income.
But if you’re trying to build wealth, you’ve got to own the thing that you’re in. You to own your home. You got to own the assets. And that’s what I, when I worked at the bank, I had an amazing mentor that hired me and taught me the real game. Cause real estate at a bank level is completely different from everything else. Yeah. But when I learned that, you know, you can refinance a $50 million building and not pay taxes, my mind was blown, right? It was like, well, what, how’s this work?
So I definitely learned the game in and out from originating a mortgage loan and learning how the secondary markets affect the real estate interest rates, 10 year treasury yields and all that stuff. And then when I got to the bank, it was like more of like, this is how you structure leases and do tenant relations. So the point where I’m like, okay, I learned a lot here, but what else is out there for me? So I left there and I went and started doing property management for an owner developer that had about…
5,000 units in Manhattan. We managed apartments in Manhattan. They had 20,000 total, but my team did 5,000 in our unit. And it was there that I realized that you can’t really make money forever unless you own something, own the asset. And that was what put me on a track of I need to start buying property. So this was around 2014 when I got that job.
Quentin Edmonds (06:44)
Hmm.Andre Green (07:09)
In 2017, I started buying rentals on my own, right? So I had to figure out what market works for me because being from New York and being a property manager, I had all the nightmare stories. And our laws here are very tenant friendly and I didn’t want to own in New York. So I’m like, well, where can I go? I ended up landing on the Philadelphia, the mid Atlantic region. So Philadelphia, Delaware, Southern Jersey market. And I started buying townhouses down there.I got lucky, not gonna lie, right? I can say I’m a genius and I picked the perfect time to go out and start buying. I didn’t, I just got lucky. I was looking around the time when the market was low and it was 2017 going to 2018. And as everybody knows, 2020, the market exploded, right? All the values went up. So I was in early and I just kept buying and I was being consistent. And I realized that, know, growing isn’t always the goal.
Quentin Edmonds (07:58)
Mmm.Andre Green (07:59)
The properties I accumulated, the more work I had to do. The bigger the property management headaches became. Then I started to kind of look at my lifestyle. I was well, is this what I really want to do? I want to manage people every day. Because that’s what property management is. Managing people every day. I’m like, no, I don’t like it. I don’t want to do this every day. So what’s next? And that led me into ⁓ mortgage lending in the sense that I’m now buying mortgage notes and selling properties and holding the notes on them.right? And broker knows because I’m dealing with the paper. And I love that side of the investment business. That’s the side of the business that I absolutely love to the point where I went out and I got my licenses to be a financial advisor, to teach my community and teach my friends and my family. This is what we can do with the money once we start to accumulate the wealth, right? Because I know a lot of old landlords. I know a lot of tired landlords. After a while, you don’t want to do it anymore. So what’s next? How do you continue to maintain the cash flow?
Quentin Edmonds (08:46)
Mm-hmm.Andre Green (08:52)
but still have some protection of your money and keep it moving because money loves speed, as everybody likes to say. So that’s where I got to. And while I was on my journey, decided to open an insurance brokerage to kind of aid in my property management because insurance is a big ticket item for all of us investors. How do we minimize the expense but maximize our coverage? you know, there’s a lot of pieces to it, but the short version isTook me while to get here, but I’m here now, right? So, and over the years, just throw this in there, I actually wrote a book called The Long Distance Millionaire.
Quentin Edmonds (09:21)
Yeah.Hmm.
Andre Green (09:28)
that right here for you. So that’s the website information when we’re done talking. But that book is a summation of my 20 years of experience in real estate. And it has a workbook that you can get with it that gives you letters and checklists and ⁓ automations and programs. Everything you need to do for property management is in there. The mindset of what type of investor you want to be and then the practical steps.to get to that point where you’re financially free.
Quentin Edmonds (10:35)
Man, you see me pause and I’m like, man, I told you give me the origin story, but you said you want the story, here you go the story. Man, that was brilliant. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for walking us through your journey, letting us know where you are now, but where you came from to get to where you are now. And I have a saying, I’ve been saying it religiously now, that destiny has no wasted moments.Andre Green (10:42)
version.Quentin Edmonds (10:58)
I mean, like as you go through every destination of your life, every stop, you pick up skills, you pick up resilience, you pick up consistency, whatever. And so, I want to know if you can put language to the things, the inner skills, those tools that have made you kind of who you are today, that makes you the businessman, that makes you the man you are today. Like what has destinyWhat have you picked up as destiny has transpired for you?
Andre Green (11:28)
That’s a great question. And you put it very eloquently because I’m a 100 % believer in, you you go through everything for a reason. So, I mean, starting off as a kid, I was always in the sports. I’m very athletic, but I was always undersized, right? I’m the smallest kid on the team in every sport, football, baseball, basketball, track, soccer, all of it. I’m the little one.football and basketball especially, because those were like my two passions, being the smallest guy, I’m going to take the most amount of abuse. And that grit and resiliency is what I learned at a young age and teamwork. I learned those two things at the very, at the same exact time. You’re to have people knock you down and then people around you, the ones going to kind of pick you up. But no matter what they do, you have to still want to get up and keep going. Right. So
Quentin Edmonds (11:59)
Mmm.Andre Green (12:15)
over the years, I learned that as long as I don’t quit,it’s not over, right? You’re gonna face obstacles and challenges, you have to have your why as to why you wanna keep going. It’s gotta be bigger than all the pain you’re going through. And when you’ve identified that you’re really working for a real reason, all you’re to do is figure out the puzzle. So that’s one of the things that I’ve gotten through a lot of the issues, because there’s no easy years when it comes to being a real estate investor, right? You might have some easy months, but it’s not easy years. It’s always gonna happen.
Quentin Edmonds (12:44)
Get homeAndre Green (12:45)
Yeah, that’s what I learned over the years that you got it. You got to want it. You have to want it. You got to work for it. And you also have to prepare yourself,which is why I have the licenses and the experience. And I’m always looking for the next thing that’s going to add that tool to my tube belt.
Quentin Edmonds (13:00)
Got you. Yeah. Man, I love it. So with similarly, you saw what you the smallest guy. I basketball all through high school. I was always the shortest guy, but the biggest guy. So I’ve always was playing basketball like at five, nine, 240, 250 pounds. But like you learn how to adapt. You learn how to box out.Use position, you know how to think better, right? You know how to get the ball out quicker before a trap come, right? Because you’re not the quickest, right? So you can, know how to make quicker decisions. And so I love how you use things from where you was younger to where you are now. And I think if business owners pay attention, they will be able to synthesize that. Like. Kind of like who I’ve always been. I’m kind of bringing it to who I am now. You know what saying? And you would, it makes you unlock your superpower, but then also makes you get curious about, Hey.
What could I be doing better? Where can I get help in different things like that? And so, and I love how you said there may be easy months, but there’s no easy years. And so if you don’t mind, man, tell me some of the adversity you had to bump up against as you was growing. I told you man, 20 minutes, man. We’re doing a podcast in 20 minutes.
Andre Green (14:07)
which one do you want?give you the most relatable ones to start with. Financing is a big piece. As a real estate investor, we all know that we need money for the deals. And for the most part, we’re always using bank financing for the bulk of it. We might have to come up with our 15%, 20%, or whatever it is, 5 % depending on how you’re trying to structure your deal. But financing is a big piece. So one of my acquisitions, I was buying a small portfolio from a Southern, a tired landlord.
Everything was in place. My credit was right. I had my down payment money. I had all my tax returns done. I sent everything into the bank. They told me yes 15 times. They called me two weeks before closing and told me that they can’t do the deal anymore. I’m like, well, why? What happened? They’re like, well, because of your tax returns, mind you now, I had a W-2 job for the majority of my investing career. So this is
27, no, 2019. They were like, your income is fine. Your property’s all cashflow. So I’m like, so what’s the problem? They go, oh, your tax return, your business shows a loss because you’re doing depreciation and all this other stuff. we have to give you, we have to reduce your amount of income based on your tax return. So that left me in the lurch. I got two weeks to close and now I gotta raise $250,000. But I did it.
Quentin Edmonds (15:04)
Mm.Andre Green (16:07)
So, right, that’s the part about that resilience, right? And your team around you. So I have to reach out to my network to go and raise the money. And now that taught me a brand new skill because I never needed to do that before. So now I have to have my P &Ls and my performers and I have to do a presentation to the hardest person to sell is your friends and family. That’s the hardest person to sell. A stranger will buy from you before your mom will. And your mom won’t help you and she still won’t buy.Quentin Edmonds (16:27)
Come on, yeah.Andre Green (16:35)
This is what it is. But I got the Friends and Family money together and we raised the money and I closed on it and then gave everybody their money back as a part of the plan because that’s the big piece, right? I want to build that trust for the future, which came full circle a couple of years later. I had an apartment building that came up, went back to some of the same Friends and Family. Hey, we got an opportunity here. But this time it’s not just to lend me the money. Let’s all get in on a deal with some equity and own the building together, which we did. So financing.And you can cross all your t’s and dot all your i’s and things will still fall apart on you. So you’ve got to be prepared for worst case scenario in everything. And don’t punch the numbers because that’s something that I see a lot of my students do, a lot of people that I know do. They’re trying to make the numbers work the deal instead of the deal working the numbers.
Quentin Edmonds (17:18)
Yeah, yeah. No, man, appreciate that. Thank you for sharing. I like to say, you know, thank you for the gift of your vulnerability, right? Like you telling this stuff, you ain’t have to tell us, but you did. I know when people relate to vulnerability because a lot of people, some are scared to say what they’re actually going through. And so I appreciate you saying that because I think that’s going to hit some people straight where they need to hit and it’s going to encourage them. And so let me ask you this, man, what is the next real goal?Like what are you looking to solve or scale next?
Andre Green (17:48)
So in terms of solving, ⁓ my philosophy on investing has changed quite a bit from when I first started out. Because in the beginning, it was grow as fast as I can, buy as many units as possible, and just have the most. And then I learned as I got more experienced, I’ve been investing on my own for about 10 years now, is that doors doesn’t equal cash flow. I want cash flow. I don’t want a lot of doors.So if that means scaling back the portfolio, selling some of the assets that have some really good appreciation and equity in them, and clearing off the debt for the stuff that you can now own free and clear that have much better cashflow because you don’t have the big mortgages on them anymore. That’s the obstacle that I’m kind of navigating right now of, well, how do I clean up all of the debt across the portfolio and minimize it as much as possible? Keep what I have to keep in terms of the debt?
but then cashflow as much as possible, right? So that’s part one. And then the other part is kind of educating my community on how do we invest together, right? You can do it by yourself, because I’ve traveled quite a far away alone, but there’s an old proverb, if you want to go far, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. And I’m at that point in my investing career where I’m looking to bring some people along for this.
these next opportunities and these next properties in multiple different ways. We’re talking about buying physical assets. We’re talking about raising money to invest into mortgages and other syndications, right? Because I’m an investor, right? Investing doesn’t mean I’m doing all the work all the time. It means I’m putting my money to work for me. So where are those opportunities? How can we protect ourselves, mitigate our risk, and still get some of that mailbox money, right? Because who wants to go to work every day? I want to go to the beach with my feet up in my tie.
Quentin Edmonds (19:38)
That part. That part. That part. Absolutely. Man, time and freedom gives you a lot of margin. Like when you got time and you got freedom, you can put things into perspective. But man, when you constantly hitting the ground, constantly have the grind, those margins, it ain’t no margin. I’ve got one thing. I’m not sleeping. I’m barely eating. I’m working. But when you got that time and freedom, man, yeah, you can make margin for vacation, sleep, leisure.Andre Green (19:39)
Yeah.Quentin Edmonds (20:07)
golf, all kinds of things, you know? So I hear you, man. I hear you. And it seems like that’s opportunity. You want to be able to present to other people like, listen, let’s get this time and freedom back. Like that’s, that’s, that’s what we want back. ⁓ and so I love it, man. And I love how you want to empower other people. So I want to put a bow on when we talk about other people. want you to tell me about relationship building a little bit. What is your mindset when it comes to relationships?It seems like they’re important to you. seems like you value them, but I want to hear from you. What’s the premium that you put on relationships?
Andre Green (20:40)
it’s prices. There’s no dollar amount you could put on a good relationship, right? Everyone can have a relationship. There doesn’t need some good relationship. So I pride myself on providing value first, right? I’m the guy that, like I said, I’ve got all the experience. I know how to do it. I’ve made a bunch of money. But my first question to people that I meet at events or just in general is, how can I help you? Because I know that if I can help you do something that you didn’t think could get done,Quentin Edmonds (21:03)
Mm.Andre Green (21:07)
If I need help, you’re going to reciprocate. I might not need it, but giving, I’m a go-giver, right? I’m giving is more important to me than receiving because I want to make sure I can help people, right? And, you know, I’ve taken my lumps over the years. There’s no investor that’s been in the game for more than maybe two, three years, five years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years that hasn’t got punched in the face a few times, right? Mike Tyson’s favorite quote, everybody got a plan until they get punched in the face.What do you do when it happens? And for me, I realized that being able to rely on my network and my relationships is what gets you through when you run into a wall and then, whoa, I didn’t expect this. I didn’t plan for this. How do I navigate the space? And you gotta sometimes turn to some mentors, turn to some friends, and you’re get different things from different people. But being able to not be in that hole by yourself, trying to figure it out, is probably one of the, because your mental space is the most valuable rules that you have.
Quentin Edmonds (22:02)
So.Andre Green (22:02)
Absolutely.You’ve got places to turn and get you out of that rut and helping other people always lends to new creativity and new opportunities. So I always give first and ask later in that situation. But relationships are the most important thing in real estate. Not in real estate, in life. real estate, it shows up in different ways, but in any business. Because I’ve gotten deals from people I just knew and passed it. Because hey, Andre’s a cool guy.
Hey, I got a deal over here. Does this look like it’s something that you want? I got a board of building that way. And it’s just from having good relationships and always trying to help people, that’s all.
Quentin Edmonds (22:34)
Yeah.I love it, man. I love how you said you’ll give and then come back to you. It’s an old proverb, old scripture that says, give and it will be given back to you. Press down, shaken together and run it over. So that means you give is going to come back, but not just come back, it’ll come back in abundance. I think you have proven that. Like you have given me example after example that you gave and that came back running over. You know what I’m saying? So I appreciate you, Listen, Andre, if someone wanted to
Reach out to you, connect to you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing. How can they get in contact with you?
Andre Green (23:09)
Oh,it’s very, easy. Check me on all the socials. All of them are normally the same. So it’s at Andre Talks Green. So it’s Andre underscore talks, underscore green on all the socials. If you want to go to the website, it’s www.andretalksgreen.com. And you can, I can, I do consultations so I can book a consultation, book a consultation on there. Um, I don’t have any, I have the book is also on the website. I don’t have any mentorships that I’m doing currently cause I kind of put them all on.
on pause for right now, because I’m actually working out some things for the book and the program I used to have, kind of revamping that to give back, right? So I want people to be able to take actionable steps. If your goal is to do something, that’s what we’re going to set the plan around, right? I want you to accomplish the goal. I’m not trying to sell you something just so can spend some money and learn some information. It’s more valuable when you do the thing. So what other steps you can take. So definitely check me out on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn.
very active on there. And I’m accessible, right? If you want to talk, you want to book a call, can chop it up. You want to do some deals together, we can figure it out. you need some financing advice, I’m here for you. I’m here for you in any way possible.
Quentin Edmonds (24:17)
Absolutely. Listen, I want y’all blow up his phone so much that he’s regret giving his number out. We’re trying to blow it up. And he’s like, okay, wait a minute, wait, no, no, no, but definitely. ⁓ No, man. So listen, man, sincerely, bro, thank you for your time because you already know you can put a premium on your time. Your time is super valuable. So thank you for your time. Thank you for your story, man. Thank you for sharing the way that you shared the way you went into details about things. I really, really appreciate that.Kobe Bryant before he passed away, he said nothing in this world moves without story. Like he was going into a part of his life where he wanted to tell the greatest story that he could possibly tell. And so nothing moves without story. And last thing, man, thank you for your perspective. Thank you for the way you think and bringing that mindset to this podcast. I really appreciate you being here, Andre. Absolutely, man. Well, listen, y’all got the value. You can’t tell me you didn’t. Definitely check out Andre Talks Green for sure.
Andre Green (25:03)
Thank you for having me, appreciate it man.Quentin Edmonds (25:12)
But you gotta make sure you are subscribed here, because I promise you, we’re gonna continue to bring up amazing people just like Mr. Andre. So sir, I wanna say thank you again, and to everyone else, we’ll see you on the next time.
