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In this episode of the Real Estate Post Podcast, David Renaud shares his journey into real estate investing, emphasizing the importance of financial discipline, the benefits of long-term rentals, and the significance of time management. He discusses his approach to tenant relationships and the lessons learned from past mistakes, providing valuable insights for aspiring investors.
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David Thomas Renaud (00:00)
Well, I would advocate for anybody to start out with a four family. That’s the safest because if you’re missing one tenant, you know, you still got three other rents. And if you’re missing two tenants, you got two other rents. And if you’re missing three tenants, you still got one rent. You buy one family, you miss a tenant, you have nothing coming in. So twofold one. It’s great as far as living in one and renting out the other three. They pay all your expenses. You bring your paycheck home and you go, hey, honey, here’s my pay. No bills. Bingo. You save it, you know. And the other thing is,you paid off a four family in 15 years, you got let’s say 72,000 a year coming in. If you get two of them, that’s 144,000 going in. And that’s your retirement and you can live forever, know, like everything’s great.
Kristen Knapp (02:14)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Post Podcast. I’m Kristen and I’m here with David Renaud, who’s an investor out of New Jersey. So thank you so much for being here, David.David Thomas Renaud (02:24)
everything’s beautiful today, thank you.Kristen Knapp (02:27)
Thanks so much for being here. So let’s go back to the beginning. How did you fall in love with real estate in the beginning?David Thomas Renaud (02:35)
I just, well I’ll tell you the truth, I lost a quarter million in the stock market, so I felt that wasn’t the way to go. And I just knew how to fix things, you know, I guess from my family, and that’s what I did. You I just started to say, hey, let me make an investment. And instead of waiting like some people I talked to, where they talk about it, talk about it, five years later they’re talking about it, talking about10 years later they’re still talking. I jumped into fire, thought I was good enough, smart enough, and I found out there was a lot to learn. A lot to learn along the way.
Kristen Knapp (03:08)
Yeah, absolutely.Yeah, well that’s awesome. You kind of got the bug right away. Yeah, it does allow for lot of, you know, financial freedom, time freedom, stuff like that. What would be your advice to people who are getting into the investing game? How you, where do you even start? How do you learn?
David Thomas Renaud (03:27)
When you first got to start saving money, 100 % examples would be instead of going out to the bar with the guys and spending $100, you get a case of beer and spend $30. Instead of eating out and $70, you eat in and you spend $25. Instead of buying a $45,000 car, you buy a $30,000 car and then you’d have nothing fancy really unless you absolutely had a habit. No jewelry, fancy house, fancy car, no vacation boat, any pay raises you get through your job, you save that pay raise.because you lived without that money before and this is how you acquire that first house first down payment by simply stepping back and ⁓ you know living below your means below below below as low as you can go ⁓ and that’s how you move forward
Kristen Knapp (04:15)
Yeah, no, that’s really good advice. mean, just simple savings, simple just looking at what’s going out and what’s going in and figuring it out. And then as you look to buy, what are the kinds of properties that you’re looking for? What is a good investment look like?David Thomas Renaud (04:26)
youWell, I would advocate for anybody to start out with a four family. That’s the safest because if you’re missing one tenant, you know, you still got three other rents. And if you’re missing two tenants, you got two other rents. And if you’re missing three tenants, you still got one rent. You buy one family, you miss a tenant, you have nothing coming in. So twofold one. It’s great as far as living in one and renting out the other three. They pay all your expenses. You bring your paycheck home and you go, hey, honey, here’s my pay. No bills. Bingo. You save it, you know. And the other thing is,
you paid off a four family in 15 years, you got let’s say 72,000 a year coming in. If you get two of them, that’s 144,000 going in. And that’s your retirement and you can live forever, know, like everything’s great.
Kristen Knapp (05:14)
Yeah, and you mostly focus on long-term rentals, correct? ⁓David Thomas Renaud (05:19)
Yes, I not only look on long term rentals, I look to pass them down. So I do it once, I do it right. I put nothing cheap in. Everything’s made to last unless the tenant breaks it or gets destroyed somehow. You just replace it and move forward from there.Kristen Knapp (05:32)
Yeah, can you talk about the opportunity in long-term rentals and why that’s such a great investment?David Thomas Renaud (05:38)
Not because you have money coming in every month for the rest of your life. Once you fix a house up and you get it online and everything’s working perfect, what are they going to call you for? A thermocouple, a sewer, some damage? That’s it. It’s just nothing. It’s a well-oiled machine. If you’re an entrepreneur and you’re out there working a store, you’re 15 hours a day, six, seven days a week. This is like being on vacation every day. Or you can do the multiple of things and be able to control it and it’s just 10 times easier.Kristen Knapp (06:57)
Right. do you find it easier? Right. You know, compared to short term rentals, what are some other benefits to the longer term rather than short term?David Thomas Renaud (07:11)
⁓ What else do I do besides long-term rental? That’s all I do.Kristen Knapp (07:15)
No, I was saying, you know, if you’re comparing long-term rentals and short-term rentals, what does long-term rentals have that you might not get in with like Airbnb model?David Thomas Renaud (07:27)
⁓ I…believe in none of that stuff. just know, you know, I know, I buy anything one hour around me, 360 degrees, within the hour so I can get to everything. You you have to answer your phone, you have to respond to it, you have to take care of the tenants, you take care of them. I mean, I got tenants for 20 years. I mean, you know, I don’t care what it is. They’re my boss. I don’t look at it like, hey, I’m a big shot, I’m the landlord. I look at it they’re my boss and I cater to their needs, them customer service 100%.
and they love me and I love them and they make us rich.
Kristen Knapp (08:02)
Yeah,that’s amazing and it’s great to have people that stick with you or even refer you out. That’s a great way to get business.
And so when you started investing, what’s your advice for people before maybe they take the jump to do this full time? What did that look like for you? Did you do it full time right away or did you have a job that you kind of assimilated out of?
David Thomas Renaud (08:25)
Yeah,here’s how I do it. ⁓ I work a full-time job. I save the money, any pay raises, whatever. My other half, of course, has money contributing to it too. So when you work full-time, I have free time during the day, because I work nights, so I would go to school full-time during the day. ⁓ After the full-time graduation, then you would get a job with a small mom and pop shop, whether you like plumbing, electric, carpentry, anything. I did them all, HVAC, because when I would call an HVAC guy, and they would cancel an appointment, cancel an appointment,
two hours late I said the heck with this man you know I want my tenants to be taken care of so I would just go to school full-time work buying homes and rehab them full-time and then go to work after that that mean you know so when you work a 30-year job you really put in 60 years and then if you able to amass a big enough income and buy somebody else’s portfolio out that worked 30 years now you put in 90 years etc etc you know you got the idea
Kristen Knapp (09:21)
Totally, and what are your time management tips for people who are kind of managing all of this at once?David Thomas Renaud (09:27)
I spend as me, 100%.I mean, I’m not big enough to really, besides management companies, hear nothing but nightmares. Maybe there’s some good ones out there, but I don’t hire. My tenant calls me, my phone’s right here. I pick it up and I answer the call and I go out and look at it. I live, and breathe this 24-7. A lot of people aren’t gonna do this. That’s why I don’t want a partner. They would wanna be on vacation, or be with the family, or they’re not committed. It’s like a marriage. You could get a divorce, or it could work.
I just like doing it alone and ⁓ that’s what I do.
Kristen Knapp (10:03)
Yeah,absolutely. And how do you manage your time? How do you, you know, balance all of this at once?
David Thomas Renaud (10:44)
Yeah, I make up a list like this, know, mark one to ten to do every day and a million other thoughts that come in my brain and as you’re driving, walking, working or whatever, I’m always writing down, writing down, writing down. When you get back to the office, you put it, you organize everything, put it on a list and ⁓ you just have to be methodically organized 100,000 % and love what you do and if you love it, you know, there’s no like, ⁓ damn, that bone wrangle, I gotta…see them you know it’s just hey I got something to do let’s go you know and that’s it so that’s how I handle that I love my people
Kristen Knapp (11:17)
And what would you say like?Totally. And what do you love so much about this if you were to get granular with it?
David Thomas Renaud (11:25)
Uhhh… I don’t know what…I just love repairing and fixing and I’m not really the manager type. I have several disabilities which, you know, we all have something going on and this happened to be my strength and my avenue where I succeeded at and I tried other things and lost money at. So I live, and breathe this. Every time I step away from this it doesn’t work and I don’t step away. I go for a new area, a new investment, but between the marketing and how long it takes,
and you know I’m not all about that here right? Buy, fix, bingo, do it again. Buy, fix, rent, bingo, do it again. And that’s it.
Kristen Knapp (12:07)
Yeah, no, it really you do need a passion for what you do especially in this industry when you’re it is pretty much a 24-7 job when you have to be on the clock you have to answer your phoneDavid Thomas Renaud (12:18)
Yeah, it’s fine. You work around your schedule and if you’re at an amusement park or something like that, you’re not going to get home for that night say, okay, I’m busy right now, but I could probably stop by around nine o’clock. Is that convenient for you? If it is, it’s convenient for me. And they’ll say yes. And then bingo, I stop by, take a look, write down model number, server number, see what I got to get or see what I got to bring back tomorrow and I fix it ASAP. You know, there’s no games here. They are my bread and butter.Kristen Knapp (12:43)
Yeah?Yeah, communication for sure. And then as far as, you know, the structure of how you work, do you work with partners? I know that you have like a perspective on how to structure your team. What does that look like for you?
David Thomas Renaud (13:00)
Yeah, no, no partners. If you’re making, let’s say you get to a point of 200,000 a year or something like that, that’s an example. You can hire two to three or four people with that money rather than giving it to your partner. So I’d rather hire people that are 10 times smarter than me. Other people like to hire the people that are less than them. I just go for people who are 10 times smarter than me. If I was to hire a one, I do hire and reach my dream wherever that’s going to be. But yeah, that’s exactly what I do.That’s it.
Kristen Knapp (13:32)
Yeah, so you hire a team around you instead of having a partner.David Thomas Renaud (13:37)
Well, I never have employees. Like if I’m in the neighborhood right here, I’ll hire some people in the neighborhood. If I need laborers or somebody has a skill, I have all the knowledge. I just, you know, if I’m fixing a flip in the house, what I’m doing is, you know, organ everything 100,000 % that you’re going to work eight hours and they start at eight o’clock. I’m at the Home Depot if I have to buy parts there, which I do every day, you know, I don’t go to build a supply house or nothing like that. I’ll go there at six o’clock at one and buy all theDeliver all the parts, set up all the parts for who’s ever working that day in their area, set up all the tools so when they walk in they can start working. They don’t have to worry about stopping, going to the store, wasting time, or anything like that. And when they go home, there’s another hour where you write down and take notes of everything else that you weren’t told during the day that you see that’s wrong or you want to accomplish tomorrow. Bingo. You do the same thing. Be at the Home Depot six o’clock in the morning, but you’re up at five or 430, you know, pulling certain tools from certain shops.
you have, however big or small you are, and just make everything work like some betraying most, no more no less.
Kristen Knapp (14:45)
Love that. It seems like you have just such knowledge of the industry and it’s kind of like a well-oiled machine for you and you know exactly what to do. Can you talk about maybe sometimes when you were starting out something that went totally wrong and how you were able to course correct and learn from it?David Thomas Renaud (15:44)
Yeah sure like I’m sure there’s a few that you’re talking about a tenant paying rent this Saturday and they would say hey man come by tomorrow at 10 o’clock you know I’m there at 10 o’clock and I’m knocking at the door and they’re like aw man.10pm. So I’m there at 10pm and you’re not home. So then I back up the car and I stay there and I wait. 11, 12, 1, 2, 3. Oh here they come pulling up. Put on my high beams, jump out and go hey man, hey how you doing? I’ve come to collect the rent. And you’re shocked. You have to put the time in. And if you’re going to wait to go for a week or a month, you’re not going to nip it in the bud. Then they will come out and say I only have half. And you say oh no problem. You know it’s okay. I’m just going to, you know I’ve got a file for eviction to cover my bun to pay.
the bills but ⁓ you know you come up with the money I’ll mend it and there’s no effect so you know then you know once you do that a few times you can straighten them out they either move or they straighten out that’s all simple
Kristen Knapp (16:38)
Yeah, working with people is probably a really difficult part of it.David Thomas Renaud (16:43)
Nobody’s difficult. I don’t know to me. I don’t really care what they do. I fix everything so You know I handle everything you know even if a good tenant wants something for $2,000 you know I mean, I don’t care. I’ll just spend it $2,000 because if they move out and you lose three months you lost more than you $2,000 or if you’re a victim you lost more than it’s like $5,000 each turn So you know that’s I just treat them like God. They’re my bossKristen Knapp (17:09)
Absolutely.David Thomas Renaud (17:13)
And I never played a big side at all.I treat them with royalty the best that I can. And they love it and I love it and they stay. So when you have people stay in 10, 20 years with me, you’re not losing no money in between. And everything’s great and then you have to rent here and there and you make more money and more money. Next thing you know, the house goes up, it’s $100,000 and you got how many homes you have, use 10 as example, you made another million in equity, that’s all. Or even if it’s just the first house, as you’re paying it down and you have your flat deposit of cash flow.
So, ⁓ you know.
just make more and more money. In the beginning you’re painting the house and taking care of the lawn and making everything look good. You have no money and as time goes along when you make it a positive difference, you put it in the kitchen, you put it in the bathroom and I like it when they live in the apartment and I do that because I don’t lose any money and then I say I won’t raise you right next year. So they’re happy, I’m happy, they want to show their family and friends, you know, and you expedite the procedure. You don’t drag it out. You get in and get as fast as you can, you know, like and uh…
or my fix and flips, I put a 60 day target on my head. mean, once I buy it, and there’s no tenant in there, it’s 60 days in and out. Brand new floors, not this, I don’t know, not in cheap. Three quarter inch hardwood floors, now you never have to buy rugs. You get a scratch, you use some stain the same color as that. You put a new kitchen, new bathroom, and that’s it. You don’t always make your 60 day target, if that’s your target, they go 67 days, or they go
75 days, but I shoot for that 60 days and what puts me behind schedule is on a hardwood floors took four weeks I’m sorry. We’re doing inventory in our warehouse or to get your cabinets to take them longer You know so now you know to order that a little bit sooner, but then you could have damage and stuff like that by moving around Wait until the time
Kristen Knapp (19:10)
Yeah, mean, communication and efficiency. I think it’s actually more rare. It’s very rare to have somebody who is able to do that. And I’m sure your tenants really appreciate it. And that’s why you have so many long-term tenants.David Thomas Renaud (19:11)
That’s it.Yeah, if you love what you’re doing, you really love being a landlord, ⁓ there’s no headaches, no problems, meaning you’re taking care of everything. mean, if I gotta change a faucet, I mean, I don’t even just go in and change the faucet, I’ll change the faucet, the valves, the plumbing, all the way to the basement. Now you have time management. You never have to go back there for a leak here, leak there, another one, whatever, things like that.
Kristen Knapp (19:54)
Yeah, completely. And to kind of like wrap a bow on this, what would be a piece of advice that you wish that you had earlier in your career that you can share with us?David Thomas Renaud (20:05)
What advice do I wish I had earlier?Kristen Knapp (20:07)
Yeah,what piece of advice do you wish you knew earlier?
David Thomas Renaud (20:14)
wish my family was in it so they could have said, son, this is how you do it. No, you just have to learn every place. Home Depot has classes. ⁓ Go to REIA, Real Estate Investment Association, wherever it is. Learn to meet people there. Talk to people who are contractors. If you have to, something 50%, they do it for living at their side job from work. Get a few tips and next thing you know, the first one’s like anything else, kind of like messed up. The second one’s much better.You’re never a pro, but you are as good as you’re gonna be because you don’t live it, eat it, or breathe it each and every day of your life.
Kristen Knapp (20:51)
Right, yeah, if you could talk a little bit more about that, like how important it is to have peers that are doing the same thing as you and network a community, how that really benefits you.David Thomas Renaud (20:58)
youNetworking in the community, just REIA. ⁓ People who, I don’t know, you’re working so much and so busy, at least I do, that you really don’t have time to hang out with people. You’re not at the parties, you you’re not really, you have to make an appointment like this to make things happen. I’m just here to help other people, that’s all.
Kristen Knapp (21:24)
Yeah.David Thomas Renaud (21:24)
You know,so you just gotta be, you know, workaholic, organized, think ahead 100,000 percent, make sure everything runs like symmetry and motion, you know. So that’s it, you know. If you’re…
Kristen Knapp (21:36)
Love that. Well.David Thomas Renaud (21:38)
like in our state if you’re in new jersey but this goes for any state we have north central and south jersey north jersey the homes are a million bucks central jersey they’re 500,000 south jersey to 250 so if you’re gonna start out you don’t have any money you want to migrate down to south jersey and start down there you know that’s just an example if you went out to mississippi i mean or alabama they’re all there’s no money there i think the average salary there is 57 inSo
you can buy homes every day of your life by going on anything to search in those areas Even I haven’t seen it for ten thousand, but the average is twenty thirty or forty thousand dollars per house So there you can amass an empire I mean there’s even I hear through the real estate agent that even have people coming in from far Just to collect their rent once a month. They bought so many homes, you know, and then when you buy a home There’s many ways to go about that. I’ll explain that to you right here. You could buy it fix it and rent it you get
fixing a flippy.
You could buy it and sell it and make your 20 or 30,000. You could buy it, fix it, and then use seller finance for somebody to buy it from you and make more with payments coming every month. Or even sell it for, you know, like if you pay, let’s say 20 grand for a house for an example, and you tell them they have to come with a $10,000 deposit, and you haven’t paid $500 a month for, you know, 10 years, within that first year, you got your 10 and you got another…
Let’s say $600 a month rent, $6,000, $7,000, you’re almost close to your 20 again, and bingo, you can bounce to the next one and bounce to the next one. I mean, are you dedicated enough to run down there and live, eat, and breathe there? If you can’t, you can fly there for $400 and just go back and forth. You need a truck there, truck here, a trailer there, a truck here, a trailer here, tools there, tools here. So you need double of everything, but it’s gonna generate a lot of income. That’s the way to do it. Some people just don’t wanna be
landlord they’ll buy fix up and sell and then they got a mortgage payment coming in for 10 20 30 years whatever they were depending on the how much you pay for the house and they just walk up to their mailbox and they got 10 20 30 checks waiting for them because when the people buy the house from you they’re fixing the heating the air-conditioning the hot water heater plus you’re getting your money you know so there’s that
Kristen Knapp (24:02)
Well, tell everybody where to find you.David Thomas Renaud (24:07)
I’m incognito, I’m just here to help people, that’s all. So, yeah, so I talked about all that. I don’t have a website or nothing like that. I’m just a guy that buys houses and rent them out. It’s not like a business, it’s easy.Kristen Knapp (24:13)
Do you have like a social media or website?David Thomas Renaud (24:25)
But anyway, ways to get money is save every week, get a loan, use seller finance so this way you can qualify for less than the amount. So if you’re buying a $200,000 home and the owner is holding a $50,000 note, you only have to qualify from the bank for $150,000. So you might have two loans as long as it’s a flat to a positive cash flow and you’re good to go. When you’re… Another thing about buying houses, I had it here someplace, yeah.You don’t want to buy a one bedroom house that has 650 square feet versus a one bedroom house that has 900 square feet. This way you have more room, going to rent it out quicker, you’re going to have more people want it, and you always put in beautiful kitchens, beautiful bathrooms, beautiful hardwood floors. Or even with a two, three, or four bedroom, you don’t want 850 square feet. You want them to be 12, 1,400, 1,600 square feet because at the same price, it might be five, $10,000 difference.
those are the apartments they’re going to rent and if you’re buying it you’re to have a hard time selling it if you only have low square footage because who really wants that? You really can’t raise the rents and all that stuff.
is that that that and then I don’t know if I told you about about buying a home don’t buy like an eight hundred thousand dollar home where you’re paying twenty thousand dollar a year in property taxes you buy eighty thousand dollar home and pay cash and you pay three thousand dollars a year in property taxes netting you seventeen thousand more a year to get to wherever your dream is
And last but not least is you gotta love what you do. You gotta be a workaholic. probably think every now really enjoy and have fun. you got a couple of nightmares along the way, but there’s no big deal. mean, you learn from them and you move on to the next one. That’s it.
Kristen Knapp (26:14)
Well, you have so much good insight for people, so many tips and tricks, and I’m sure everyone really appreciated it. So, thank you so much for being here.David Thomas Renaud (26:25)
Thank you for having me and have a great day. Good luck to you.Kristen Knapp (26:28)
I you too and everybody thank you so much for tuning in and we will see you back next time. Bye
