How He Turned a Reptile Business Into Real Estate Wealth

Amad Osman (00:00)
if you focus on life designing and creating a life that you want to live and you want to be excited about, you can’t, think anybody can do that. but it, it will take a lot of work and sacrifice in the beginning to get to that stage. because it wasn’t, it wasn’t all fun and games and it wasn’t all, it wasn’t always a 12 hour work week. I had, I had to create that deliberately and I had to make some tough decisions.

And walking away from a 21 year career in biotech and a $200,000 plus compensation package was not easy psychologically like it. That was a tough thing to do,

Cody Crabb (00:35)
Yeah, no kidding.

Hello and welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Cody Crabb. And today I’ve got Amad Osman, a DC area investor who used a pretty unusual path to get into real estate. He built a profitable reptile business, then used that to leave his W-2 and started buying long-term rentals and small multifamily. We’re gonna get into turning any business into real estate momentum, what he’s buying now, and kind of what he thinks about building.

long-term wealth. So, Amad, this is gonna be interesting for sure. Thanks so much for joining us today.

Amad Osman (02:42)
Yeah,

thanks for having me.

Cody Crabb (02:44)
You know, when I think of reptiles in real estate, the first thing I think of is Godzilla, which famously does not have a good relationship with real estate. It’s very fairly destructive relationship with real estate. And now you’re officially the thing I’ll think about when it comes to reptiles in real estate. So let’s let’s talk just because just because everyone, including me, is going to be like wondering about this the whole episode. Unless we talk about it. Tell us tell us a little bit about the reptile thing.

Amad Osman (03:08)
Yeah.

Cody Crabb (03:10)
and how it started, how it kind of got to the point where it was and kind of what maybe the transition into how that got you into real estate.

Amad Osman (03:14)
Yeah.

So I was working in the biotech industry. I’m a science major. ⁓

Cody Crabb (03:23)
Again,

key full of surprises, this is amazing. Keep going.

Amad Osman (03:25)
Yeah, yeah. So

we’re working in biotech and then I got, I always love snakes, constructors. and I got exposed to, species called ball pythons, which, which have a lot of different color and patterns and, and, you know, there’s a lot of genetics involved and it just fascinated me. And I started doing it as a hobby and it quickly became,

Substantial income generating hobby and basically what I do is I I Breed designer snakes. I create new looks and appearances and I ship and and export these snakes all over the world So it you know, definitely I wasn’t planning on it I was just doing something that I enjoyed and it was a hobby and it turned into a hobby business and then in

Cody Crabb (04:16)
I suppose there’s worse problems

than I’m enjoying myself and whoops, I made money. Like that’s not the worst problem to have, suppose.

Amad Osman (05:09)
Yeah, exactly. And yeah, so in 2017, was, had a director level position, had a very lucrative job working in the biotech industry. I was making over $200,000 a year, but I was, I was really miserable. You know, just my health was declining and just a lot of stress, working a lot of hours.

And, if, know, and I wanted to do real estate and I just didn’t have the time or the bandwidth. So in January of 2017, I walked away from my W2. at that year I was, I was making several hundred thousand dollars just goofing around with the snakes. So I decided to go into that full time and I started.

Cody Crabb (05:48)
Yeah, can’t imagine why.

really stressed at work and making multiple six figures and then I accidentally just made multiple six figures with the snakes, so I figured I might as well just do that. I’m like, yeah, maybe that’s a good idea.

Amad Osman (05:55)
Hahaha!

Yeah,

I quit my job and then I really, really deep dived into the real estate podcast, bigger pockets. mean, the books, all of it, ⁓ know, rich dad, poor dad, cashflow quadrant, and started to figure things out. And as I grew the business and started to get my health back and, you know, dialing my health and working out routine, I had more time that

2017 later in that year. I think it was in October November. I picked up my first six unit and Yeah, and then I’ve just been slowly building my Portfolio I’ve invested in some syndications which haven’t gone so good But my own portfolio that I personally self-manage. I’m just doing really really well, and I’m currently

filing my taxes as a real estate professional. So I get to leverage my real estate to offset my tax burden on my hobby business.

Cody Crabb (07:08)
It’s funny that you

say that. If I had like a this podcast bingo, it would be like rich dad, poor dad, bigger pockets, like the typical burned out from my W2 job, that kind of stuff. And then the one that you’re, and then you’re like, and also snakes. That’s just off on the side somewhere. No, but that’s really interesting. think that there’s a lot of people in your position in a similar situation where they’re like,

Amad Osman (07:27)
Yeah.

Cody Crabb (07:32)
I just want to, maybe they’ve kind of always had real estate in the back of their mind and it’s, ⁓ and the taxes too, that’s another big thing. Some people that kind of earn, you know, multiple six figures, they’re like starting to really be like, I’m giving a lot of money to the government now. Like it’s one thing when you’re, it’s one thing when you’re making like a little bit less and the percentages are lower and it’s not as much cash, but you start thinking like, that’s like a whole other salary. That’s kind of wild. So it makes sense that that’s one of the reasons that that pushed you toward that.

Amad Osman (07:36)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Cody Crabb (08:02)
So now you’re into real estate here. Like you said, it kind of helps offset the tax burden of the main gig, which is cool. So I’d love to hear a little bit about what you’re buying, what is it that you’re looking for and why.

Amad Osman (08:25)
Yeah, so right now, obviously, there’s a lot of uncertainty in the economy and global economics. Yeah. Yeah. So initially, my goal was to start out with small multifamily and then transition into the larger multifamily. But I’ve since pivoted. A friend of mine has a pretty large small multifamily.

Cody Crabb (08:30)
Which is why I’m asking, because I’m like, to be an investor now, gotta, you know, there’s a reason.

Amad Osman (08:50)
single family portfolio and he’s doing really, really well. And in the past few years, I’ve watched him coast. He’s continuing to do well. He’s continuing to do great. And then a lot of these syndicators and, multifamily guys have, a lot of them have gone under, and are currently rebuilding. And one of the reasons why is he uses, he uses DSCR loans.

So all of his loans are fixed rate loans. So when interest rates started shooting up, everything he has is 30 year fixed. So his properties continue to cashflow. Those residential properties, single family homes, included mine, I continue to raise rents. My rents are continuing to go up. Whereas apartments and a lot of these metros that were booming previously are now struggling. If you have a B class or a C class apartment building,

Now this brand new A-Class apartment complex just went up and now they’re competing with you rent wise and they’re charging the same rent as you or less. So now your rent hikes have disappeared and you’re actually cutting. And now you have these balloon payments that are resetting. So these loans are coming due and now you have to refinance and the interest rates are a lot different than what they were when you first purchased that property. So for me, ⁓

I’m pretty conservative. I don’t like a lot of debt. And, you know, I like DSCR loans because it’s a fixed rate. If I go into that property at a 1.2 debt service ratio, I know I’m pretty safe. Even if friends come down a little bit, I can still ride it out. do cost segregations immediately on all my acquisitions. So I get the leverage, the bonus depreciation. So technically,

I get an immediate return the first year just through tax savings. you know, and although my primary income is coming from the hobby, I don’t work a ton of hours with my animals. mean, I, you know, I barely work 12 hours a week on that side of the business. spend the majority of my time now doing my real estate. self manage, and I’m constantly

Cody Crabb (11:19)
Yeah.

Amad Osman (11:39)
I do all my books, I do everything. So I spend the majority of my time doing the real estate and I actually enjoy doing real estate. So it’s not, I’m not crazy about bookkeeping, but all aspects of the real estate, even dealing with my tenants and stuff like that, I enjoy it. It doesn’t bother me. So yeah, that’s my strategy is to continue to acquire properties that meets my buy criteria and get fixed rate loans.

so that I’m not getting any surprises. And if I do refinance in the future, it’s because the rates have improved and I’m going to pull out some equity and very likely redeploy that equity to continue to grow my portfolio.

Cody Crabb (12:21)
Yeah, so because of all the awesome success that you’ve had, let’s talk about the non-success you mentioned. ⁓ I’d love to hear more about you said you’ve had this syndication experience that hasn’t gone very well. Can you tell us a little about that and maybe kind of what you learned from it?

Amad Osman (12:38)
Yeah, so in 2021, I joined GoBundance. It’s a mastermind and a lot of the guys in GoBundance invest in real estate. And a lot of them were talking about syndications. I was hearing about these guys, they’re dropping money in these syndications and they don’t have to think about it. And it’s mailbox money. you got to…

Cody Crabb (12:59)
and 12 hours a week in your main business,

you is like, yes, that’s what I want. That’s what I want.

Amad Osman (13:04)
Yeah, so, so, you know, I decided in 2021 was like, I’m gonna drop some money in these syndications, you know, and I ended up investing across three syndications. And yeah, not so good. And I think it was mainly the timing. But the funny thing is, all of the money that I invested in my own portfolio that I self manage is doing fantastic. It’s doing fantastic.

And then coming back to my buddy of mine who owns hundreds of single family and quadruplexes, duplexes, et cetera, he’s doing fantastic. So I just decided to, yeah, no more syndications for me. I’m going to double down and invest in things that I control because clearly,

I gave my money to these experts. Yeah. Yeah. So.

Cody Crabb (13:56)
You know what you’re doing. Yeah, yeah, you know what you’re doing. yeah. Well, and that’s the other thing

too. that, that just, I think that’s maybe a little bit of like shiny object syndrome. Like you see somebody doing something and you’re like, yeah, I want that. And so you kind of deviate from what you know a little bit. And then you’re like, Nope, Nope, Nope. I need to go back to the, yeah, that’s, I totally get that. So that’s, I find this really interesting because a lot of people would say, well, yeah, you know, you have this like just a few hours a week business. I mean,

Amad Osman (14:11)
Yes, yeah, yeah.

Cody Crabb (14:24)
I’m working 80 hours a week on my main gig. ⁓ that’s, my question to you is like, what would you say to those people that are like, well of course you have time and of course you can, you have time to manage a whole portfolio and do this because you have this other, you know what I mean?

Amad Osman (14:27)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

All right.

Yeah. But what, what, you know, what people are not seeing is they’re not seeing all the years where I was building that business and I was working a full-time job, raising a family and then coming home at night, you know, working 60 hours in my W two and then coming home at night and going down to the basement and cleaning and feeding snakes. People don’t see all of the other struggles that I had to go through to get.

to the point to where I have, know, this hobby has been 26 years. My customer base didn’t occur overnight and my branding, you know, if you go to my Instagram page, I don’t know how many followers I have, but 60,000 or something like that. All of that branding and name recognition, that didn’t occur overnight. So was a lot of work that went into that. But I do believe you can definitely design

if,

if you focus on life designing and creating a life that you want to live and you want to be excited about, you can’t, think anybody can do that. but it, it will take a lot of work and sacrifice in the beginning to get to that stage. because it wasn’t, it wasn’t all fun and games and it wasn’t all, it wasn’t always a 12 hour work week. I had, I had to create that deliberately and I had to make some tough decisions.

And walking away from a 21 year career in biotech and a $200,000 plus compensation package was not easy psychologically like it. That was a tough thing to do,

Cody Crabb (16:55)
Yeah, no kidding.

Amad Osman (17:00)
but it was the best decision that I ever made. And I have no regrets. initially I had fears of losing that income and

Cody Crabb (17:02)
Yeah.

Amad Osman (17:12)
you know, and I always viewed Ozzy Boids as a hobby. So for me, was, I never really looked at it as a genuine source of income. And I also had this complex about, you know, telling people, ⁓ what do you do? yeah, I’m a snake breeder, you know? It was subconscious. Yeah, yeah.

Cody Crabb (17:32)
Yeah, no, I mean, I kind of get it. You kind of get, you have

immediate things that just jump into your head when you say, I’m a snake breeder. I automatically start thinking things about, yeah, I know what you mean, yeah.

Amad Osman (17:40)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Whereas before, you know, I was a director, you know, I was site quality head and a director at the, you know, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. And that was a lot more prestigious. But, you know, it, you know, I realized that I was letting

Cody Crabb (17:48)
Yeah.

Amad Osman (18:06)
my fears of what other people thought influenced a very important decision. And I’m so glad it’s going on 10 years now since I quit. I’m in great shape now. I work out every day. I travel all the time. I have a lot of free time to spend with my family. And I’m just in a much, much, much.

Cody Crabb (18:29)
thought you were gonna say suspend with your snakes,

Amad Osman (18:32)
Yeah, yeah, yeah and yeah I get to I get to do what I love and I enjoy what I do every day and it’s never heavy I mean, I mean you have some you have some tough days with the real estate, you know I just got a $1,700 water bill for for a warehouse. I just closed I sold this warehouse. I had a warehouse for the snakes I sold the warehouse

Cody Crabb (18:45)
Sure, yeah.

Amad Osman (18:58)
and got my check and everything went smooth. And then the next day the title, they held back $400 in escrow to pay the water bill. The water bill came back in 1700 because somebody flushed the toilet and the flapper got stuck. So the toilet was running for like a few weeks. so, you know, stuff happens, but honestly, I just, I just write the check and you know, I don’t sweat it. Yeah.

Cody Crabb (19:20)
Yeah. Well, yeah.

Well, especially because like you said, this is something you’re planning for. You’ve built this in to kind of how you’ve designed it. this is, yeah, this has been really interesting to me because I feel like a lot of people would love the situation you have. A lot of people think of they jumped from A to B, but you jumped from A to B and then used B to get to C. then that was, so I find that that’s pretty interesting.

Amad Osman (19:32)
Absolutely, Yeah, yeah.

Absolutely. Yeah.

Cody Crabb (19:51)
Yeah, think that’s a great example. And honestly, I think that’s a great place to leave it for today. think we got some really great information. If people want to find out more about you or want to get in touch or want to find out about snakes, guess, where could they reach out to you?

Amad Osman (20:06)
Yeah, so if you just search Ozzy Boids ⁓ on Instagram or Facebook, I’m on Instagram, Facebook. I do have a website as well. I don’t post a ton on there anymore. But yeah, if you use any of those venues, you can find me and learn more about me.

Cody Crabb (20:24)
Gotcha, well thank you, again, thank you so much. This has been great. Amad, yeah, this has been so good. And audience, thank you so much for joining us as well. If you feel like you got something out of this episode, and I know you did, this is a good one, make sure you give us a quick like, subscribe, follow, all the things, and don’t forget to make sure to listen to every episode so you don’t miss conversations like this. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll talk to some other kind of animal breeder that ends up being a real estate investor. You never know what you’re gonna get on the show.

Amad Osman (20:26)
Hey, Cody. Yeah.

Hehehe.

Cody Crabb (20:51)
Once again, thanks so much and we’ll catch you next time.