How to Make $2K/Month With Shared Living Real Estate

Idris Talib (00:00)
So typically with most rentals, especially now in this high interest rate environment, you’re lucky if you’re netting $200, $300 a month. Well, in fact, I was netting over $2,000 a month, and that’s when it really hit me that I was onto something.

Erika (01:46)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pro Show. I’m your host, Erika. And today I’m thrilled to be joined by Idris Talib, also known as the Pretty House Guy running Shared Profits. It’s so nice to have you on the show.

Idris Talib (02:04)
Thank you. Thank you. my pleasure. I’ve been looking forward to it.

Erika (02:07)
So, Idris, for those who may not know your story, give us the rundown. How did you get started in the real estate world and who led you to focus on shared living investing?

Idris Talib (02:16)
You’re Indian.

Okay. So I actually accidentally got into entrepreneurship. never actually wanted to be an entrepreneur. I was straight A student in school. I went to college on an engineering scholarship, but I ended up walking on the basketball team in North Carolina State. So we had a private plane flying all over the world. And I was like, wow, okay, this is really nice. You know, I want to make a lot of money when I get out of school. So I ended up taking a personal finance class.

and I learned that most millionaires were self-made. And on the last day of class, my professor told me, you’re serious about your finances, continue to read books. So I kept hearing about this book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and I went to the bookstore and I maxed out my credit card in every book in this series. And you he talks a lot about how real estate investing is a great way to create wealth for yourself. So that’s what really piqued my interest. My father, this was back in 2003. My father sent me this

home study course, which was about lease options. So I went through the course, I was making my calls, and then I had a guy to agree to allow me to talk to him about taking over his house. So I went there and I was inexperienced. It didn’t dawn on me to read the contracts. And he actually had to help me sign the contract to take over his house. But nonetheless, I just kept learning. I kept learning, I kept learning. And then I’ve done some of everything in real estate from

commercial real estate, to multifamily, to syndications, single family. And then now I have a specialty niche with shared living investing in which I create multifamily income with a single family residence while addressing affordable housing crisis.

Erika (04:03)
It’s really interesting. What was the moment that you realized shared living was a game changer for you?

Idris Talib (04:09)
It was how after paying all the expenses,

so typically with most rentals, especially now in this high interest rate environment, you’re lucky if you’re netting $200, $300 a month. Well, in fact, I was netting over $2,000 a month, and that’s when it really hit me that I was onto something.

So it’s really been a huge game changer. I’m up to about 16 houses now. So I have houses that range from

affordable housing up to a couple of mansions.

Erika (04:41)
you’re operating in Atlanta, which is a hot market, what makes

Atlanta such a great fit for your shared living model?

Idris Talib (04:48)
What makes it such a great fit is because in Atlanta, to stay anywhere decent, your rent, if you’re renting, it’s gonna be around 2000 a month, okay?

And most landlords require three times income, which is 6,000 a month, which is 72,000 a year. Well, there’s a lot of people who don’t generate that type of income. You know, they may make 30,000, $40,000 a year. And you know, these are good, you know, hardworking people.

they’ve been outpriced in the marketplace. So what I provide is an opportunity for them to stay in a nice house, except they’re staying in a fully furnished room. So each room is like its own apartment. And what my standard is, I want to make that house so nice, they will never be able to afford to stay anything that nice based off their income. And then, you know, from there, I’ve been able to expand.

Erika (06:34)
Wow,

exciting. For someone new to this, explain some of the advantages to it. For example, there’s changes in the market. How does shared living help with that?

Idris Talib (06:38)
Where are you so long?

You know, I would say the thing that I love the most about this, it doesn’t matter how your position financially, you can actually get started immediately with shared living investing using some creative strategies. For example, you know, one of the strategies that I often recommend for people who can’t qualify for financing.

is to do rental arbitrage or profit sharing. So basically what rental arbitrage is, you will have a master lease with a house, and then you’ll sublease it by renting out the rooms, and then you’re able to pocket the spread after all expenses. And if your mathematics is right, you should net at least $1,500 a month. And the great thing about this is you can get started immediately. All you need to find is a landlord who has a house for rent.

and someone who is open to allowing you to do that. Another thing is there’s so many people who will, I mean, they almost have to live in a house such as this.

the market is wide open. And then in Atlanta, it’s just grown by leaps and bounds. This summer, the World Cup is gonna be here this summer. The Olympics are gonna be here in another two years.

So anything in the city, it’s just the prices just keep going up and up and up. And it’s really outpricing a lot of people out of the marketplace.

Erika (08:17)
someone who’s new to this and wants to get started, Idris, what are some of the critical steps that they need to take for this to be a success?

Idris Talib (08:25)
Yeah, so one of things that you need to do is you need to do an

of the area in which you’re going to look to acquire the houses at. You you need to really run your numbers. One of things that I do is I have strict criteria. I look for houses that have at least four bedrooms and two bathrooms. You know, that’s that’s my strict criteria. Also, I look at the locations as well. I don’t want to be in any high crime areas. So the areas that I look for that yield me the best cash flow

I like old working class areas. So the houses are a little bit older, therefore they’re not gonna be as expensive as the newer areas. Another thing is I look for areas where there’s no HOAs and if I’m doing affordable housing, I look to make sure that there’s public transportation in the area. So for example, in terms of numbers, and it’s a four-bedroom, two-bathroom, I want everything to be $2,000. I want it to be right at 2,000 and under.

If it’s five or six bedrooms, I want to go up to $2,500 a month. That will assure me that I’m getting the spread that I’m looking for. Now, in terms of the luxury houses, because I have a luxury house model that I use as well. A lot of those are for, right now I’m doing a campaign for wealthy widows. I don’t know if you remember this TV show back in the day called The Golden Girls. So I have

home housing for…

I call them wealthy widows, so I provide housing for them. I also have housing for people who are

recovering from cosmetic procedures. So instead of them going to an Airbnb or staying at a hotel, they can come to one of our luxury places. The people, whoever you got your cosmetic procedure done, they can come in, they

check on you. have concierge service. So it’s a lot of different services we’re able to provide with this business model.

Erika (10:52)
This really interesting, Adrisse, I want to pivot a little. Every real estate investor has a moment where things got real. And I’m sure you know this, a deal went sideways or a lesson learned the hard way. Do you have any of those moments that you can cheer from all your time in the game?

Idris Talib (10:56)
Okay.

Yeah, I would say, was actually, this was after the financial crisis, I was able to acquire this house. It was gonna be a fix and flip. So it was real cheap. I was able to get this house, believe it or not, for $10,000. So I bought the house for $10,000. And then, I mean, I know you’re supposed to have a scope of work. You’re supposed to have your contractors vetted.

You know, you’re supposed to have your schedules in place and everything. But the guy who actually sold me the deal, he said, I have a contractor for you. Just trust me. Everything is going to go smooth. It’s only going to be about, I he said, like 40,000 for the rehab. I ended up trusting the guy’s contractor. It was it was horrible. I poured so much money into the house. Nothing was done like it should have been done. We went over budget.

We went over schedule and then I had to hire another contractor. I had to put some more money in it. And then I put so much money into the house that I wasn’t able to get the return I was looking for. So as a matter of fact, this is ironic. I actually was almost forced to rent out the rooms in that house. And then that’s how I started to see the cash flow. But this was back around 2000, for around 2011 or 2012.

So although I did take a hit of not being able to flip the house, I did make pretty good cash flow until I eventually sold it once the market picked back up.

Erika (12:50)
What did that experience teach you? Are there lessons that you carry with you with the investing you do today?

Idris Talib (12:51)
See you next time. ⁓

Yeah, it does. So for myself, I’m not very patient. So with that being said, that’s another reason why I go after a lot of high end real estate. One of the things that I love about it is I can make a rehab profit without having to do a rehab because the margins are so high when you do a high end real estate.

And not only that, there’s not really a lot of competition when it comes to hiring real estate because I’m doing everything creatively. And basically what I’m doing is I’m just solving people’s problems. know, anytime people get in, you know, different type of financing jams, you know, a lot of people call me. And then on the distribution side, I have people, I work with a lot of self-employed, successful entrepreneurs who can’t qualify for the financing that they’re looking for to be able to acquire these houses.

So I’m able to place them into these houses.

Erika (13:53)
Yeah, absolutely. Networking as I’m sure you know is huge in real estate and investing. What’s been the secret for you building relationships that actually move the needle for you?

Idris Talib (14:08)
Yeah, I say the biggest thing is find out how you can add value to others. That’s the biggest thing. I’m always asking questions in terms of, you know, what is your specific niche? You know, what is your buy box? You know, what are your specialties? And then not only that, you know, where do you need help? You know, what are some areas or some avenues to where, whether it’s myself or somebody in my network, can add value to what you’re doing.

You know, being able just to communicate effectively with people who have high integrity, that’s been the mark of me being able to network effectively.

Erika (14:49)
And, Idris, what’s the next big move for you and shared living profits?

Idris Talib (14:51)
Thank you.

The next big move is really to grab hold

the, I call it the Golden Girls housing. And this is basically to provide housing for a lot of wealthy widows. Women typically outlive men and a lot of them, once their spouse passes away, you know, they start to suffer from depression, anxiety, they’re real lonely.

all of the memories of their lives, you know, come to them when they remain in their house. And what I decided to do was, you know, put them into an environment to where, you know, they can flourish. And, you know, the theme of our house is, you know, the rest of your life is the best of your life. So that’s the big thing I’m making a push on right now. And a lot of people are really grabbing hold to it.

Erika (15:48)
That’s exciting. How do you see this shared living investing reshaping the industry?

Idris Talib (15:54)
Yeah, so as I got more and more into it, I just saw all of the different niches in it. And then I’m very creative. So I just started looking at, OK, what are some segments

the marketplace that aren’t being addressed? And then it just solves. It just solves such a major problem, especially on affordable housing in because housing, I mean, is becoming so expensive right now, especially in a city like Atlanta.

You know, you have people that are going to work every single day and they can’t afford to stay anywhere decent. So this is a way to be able to address that problem.

Erika (16:32)
Absolutely. All right, Idris, before we wrap up, if someone wants to connect with you, learn more about shared living profits or collaborate, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Idris Talib (16:42)
I’m on all social media platforms, The Pretty House Guy, or you can find me on LinkedIn. It’s Idris Talib. I-D-R-I-S-T-A-L-I-B. And then my website is SharedLivingProfits.com.

Erika (17:01)
Idris, thank you so much for dropping all this knowledge today.

Idris Talib (17:04)
Yes, it’s been my pleasure.

Erika (17:06)
For everyone listening, if you got value from this episode, make sure that you’re subscribed to the real estate pro show. We’ve got more conversations coming up with game changers like a Dries who are building wealth and making an impact in real estate and investing. We’ll see you on the next episode.

Idris Talib (17:10)
the nation’s interests. We will see it towards the end of the fourth century, we start coming up with a new change.

and get some of that stuff. That’s the goal. So, that’s

our mission.