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Mastering Passive Income & Real Estate Strategies with Tim Tepes

By January 14, 2026Real Estate Pros Show

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Show Summary

In this engaging conversation, Tim Tepes shares his extensive experience in real estate, emphasizing the importance of building wealth through passive income, strategic investments, and strong relationships. He discusses the significance of mentorship, the impact of technology on the industry, and the value of legacy planning for future generations. Tim also highlights the challenges faced in real estate and the necessity of continuous learning and adaptation to succeed in the ever-evolving market.

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    Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

    Tim Tepes (00:00)
    I never forget, I get out of college, you know, all my life I worked ever since I was like five, six years old. I was always on the job sites doing stuff. Well, I graduated from college. think, okay, I’m going to be in the office now. And

    managing the job sites, because I got a management degree. have associate’s degree. I’m going to be drawing homes and doing stuff like that. first day I get out there and he goes, hey, I want you to do this. No problem. I get on the job site. My dad pulls up to the site in front of all the workers with an old ladder hanging out of the back of the truck. And one guy goes, what’s he doing with that ladder? That should be thrown away. He gets out, takes a saw and cuts the bottom rung of the lateral. Hands me the ladder, the bottom part of the ladder and goes.

    You’re on the bottom of ladder. got to walk, work your way up and you don’t even have a ladder yet. Right in front of everybody. So ⁓ that was an interesting, I mean, it was a great learning experience, but you know, nothing was handed to me in my house. If you wanted something, you have to work for it. You know, that was the big key. You learned how to work for it

    Quentin Edmonds (02:25)
    Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. Excited to be here today. I have another fantastic guest. Someone with 30 plus years of experience in his business. So when I tell you he’s it all, he’s probably done it all. He’s a third generation builder, big on passive income, helping people find passive income, build passive income, landlord, investor, investments.

    We probably gonna talk about a lot of different things today. And so I am so excited to introduce you guys to Mr. Tim Tepes Mr. Tim, how you doing today,

    Tim Tepes (02:59)
    Good, good, Quentin Nice to meet you and be on your podcast. I look forward to this is going to be some great conversations we’re going to have.

    Quentin Edmonds (03:05)
    Absolutely, sir. So listen, I want to dive in. I want you to tell the people what your main focus is these days. If you wanted to, Mr. Tim, give us a little bit of an origin story of kind of how you got to where you are, how you got into real estate. We love origin stories. And then tell them what part of the world you’re in. So main focus, origin story, and where you are. So Mr. Tim, you got the floor,

    Tim Tepes (03:25)
    Thank you. We don’t have enough time today to go through on this podcast in my background. I really enjoy this. I tell you what, I was very fortunate to be blessed and bought into a third generation building for a family that started in 1950. My father bought them out in 79. then unfortunately, my father got sick before COVID, started getting dementia and going blind. And I kind of took over his construction company. But in 1990, I graduated college, I got into real estate. So I got into investing in real estate and

    kind of drifted a little bit away from the construction part. I never really took a paycheck from them, even though I helped sell them to construction. was on the job sites every day. But then, you know, I got involved with real estate, got involved with rental properties. I got involved with passive income and, know, had a lot of great mentors along the way, you know, like rich dad, poor dad. I look at this way, I had a lot of rich dads. had a great grandfather that our grandfather, she’s a great grandfather, grandfather that was wonderful. He’s great, but it was wonderful. And

    taught me hard work on both sides of grandparents and then my dad watching him grow up and then people would start coming into my lives. You know and it’s always like they say never be the smartest person in the room and it just seemed like all along the way God has put great people in front of me and helped me along the way so you know here we are 30 some years later and you know it’s been a wonderful journey.

    Quentin Edmonds (04:39)
    Yeah, yeah, I love it, man. I love you talk about, you know, night that the family business, I guess what you say started mid-butt 1950. But your dad, you say, boy, about 1970. Did I hear that about Rex about about that?

    Tim Tepes (04:52)
    He took him over my grandfather in second heart attack. yeah, watching growing up in the business, you learn great work ethics, great habits. You learn how to communicate with people, treat people fairly, treat them right. My grandfather and dad did a lot of built custom homes on handshakes. When your word is your word. And people get to know you, like you, and trust you. And that’s the big key in any type of business. And like we’re doing right now, a lot of one-on-one talking, that’s the key. People don’t realize that.

    Quentin Edmonds (04:56)
    you Wow.

    Absolutely. No, you’re absolutely right, especially with AI on the rise. One thing that you can’t replace is the human interaction. Like it’s some things that you just can’t replace. And so you’re absolutely right. In this generation, it’s kind of getting lost in the sauce a little bit. But I’m glad it’s people like you and me that value the real conversation face to face, even though we’re using technology. we’re not in the stone age, but it’s still this face to face interaction that we still value.

    a high premium on. And so I love the fact

    Tim Tepes (06:40)
    You touched on a good point there on technology. When I got in the business, we didn’t have computers. We didn’t have fax machines. We didn’t have cell phones. Public records was on microfiche. Multi-million dollar businesses off a cell phone, basically. I’d come to your house, log on your computer within two seconds, and my phone and everything’s ringing on your computer. And completely nameless communication. But still, you’ve got to pick up that phone call, pick up the phone, make the phone call, or go visit somebody and talk to them face to face, eye contact.

    Quentin Edmonds (07:10)
    Absolutely. So listen, I want to pull on kind of like your 30 years. You got 30 years of experience, third generation. You didn’t mention your great granddad, your granddad, your dad. You know, didn’t miss all in a short period of time. So I would love, know, throughout your life and where you are now, are there personal strategies that you can identify that, you know, have helped you grow successfully as a businessman? You know, I know some people, you know, read books, some people meditate.

    So are there personal things that you know have helped you along your years to be where you are today?

    Tim Tepes (07:44)
    That’s a great question because I was a poor student. I was a B.C. student. I struggled through school. I had a guidance counselor who told me I’ll never make it through college. And even my first semester, my comp professor said, son, you should quit school and save your parents the money. Save yourself money. But anyways, I graduated in four years and I learned along the way is basically time management and always have to read ahead and study. And I hate reading, be honest with you.

    So I thank God now we’ll get to say about the internet. I do a lot of podcasts. I do a lot of webinars, ⁓ book summaries, listen to them on tape. again, as I said before, if you’re not learning, you’re not earning. So I’m always looking and I said about people coming into your lives. So if you could take a little crumb from every person that you picked up and led along the way and just keep adding to it. And thank God I had some great mentors along the way. I had a real estate broker that I met. followed and became part of his company and was a great mentor to me.

    He taught me actually dollar cost average dividend reinvestment. They had a stock group, a stock club that was big on dollar cost dividend reinvestments. And that’s how I learned to passive income. I’ll explain that a little bit more later in the show. can talk about that. And now I’m in another investment group where they’re more about just growth. How much can we make in growth? How much is the stock in rising price? But I still like the dividend reinvestments. I like the passive incomes. And I can explain when I talk about active income.

    semi-passive and then complete passive income. So there’s a lot we could talk about.

    Quentin Edmonds (09:08)
    Absolutely, absolutely. So definitely, I think you can make room for that. I definitely want to know as you built, did you run into any kind of adversity? Has it always been easy? Has it been smooth sailing? Did your dad just pass it down to you you was like, man, this is easy. But have you ran up into any adversity as you was building?

    Tim Tepes (09:29)
    my gosh, that is a perfect question. And you know, I want to say that is I graduated college with a business degree in business management and associate degree in architecture. So I had no clue I was going to get into real estate. My real estate was building homes. Yeah. Yeah. Not investment properties, not resales and stuff like that. So

    I never forget, I get out of college, you know, all my life I worked ever since I was like five, six years old. I was always on the job sites doing stuff. Well, I graduated from college. think, okay, I’m going to be in the office now. And

    managing the job sites, because I got a management degree. have associate’s degree. I’m going to be drawing homes and doing stuff like that. first day I get out there and he goes, hey, I want you to do this. No problem. I get on the job site. My dad pulls up to the site in front of all the workers with an old ladder hanging out of the back of the truck. And one guy goes, what’s he doing with that ladder? That should be thrown away. He gets out, takes a saw and cuts the bottom rung of the lateral. Hands me the ladder, the bottom part of the ladder and goes.

    You’re on the bottom of ladder. got to walk, work your way up and you don’t even have a ladder yet. Right in front of everybody. So ⁓ that was an interesting, I mean, it was a great learning experience, but you know, nothing was handed to me in my house. If you wanted something, you have to work for it. You know, that was the big key. You learned how to work for it

    because you know, there was tough times in the seventies and that, know, some of the listeners may remember some may not, but you know, when there was, you know, on days where you got gas,

    If you had even license plate number, you got gas. was an odd license plate number, you got gas. you know, look at that. was, think it was, I think Carter was president at that time and I was like five years old and I went down Main Street or Hamilton Street, downtown, which I’m from Lillian Valley, just north of Philadelphia and just west of New York city. And I was holding a sign. What about my future ⁓ for the builders association on a big front end loader going down?

    Quentin Edmonds (10:53)
    I did not know that.

    Tim Tepes (11:49)
    So I’ve seen the roller coaster, the ups and downs of real estate and you know, it is a roller coaster and unfortunately in our market, it goes up, it levels off and goes up. It levels off and goes up. We never had that major downturn, but I’ve seen challenges and I’ve seen our family struggle. So I’m aware of that. ⁓

    Quentin Edmonds (12:07)
    Thank you. mean, thank you for sharing that, you know, because there’s people that’s listening. There are different parts of their journey and of course from different walks of life. And I love how you talked about wasn’t nothing handy to you. You had to work for it. And there’s people, they are in situations where it’s pretty tough. And I just want people to know that you keep working, you keep learning, you keep finding the tools that work for you. You you’re going to succeed. You’re going to find a way out of any situation that you’re in. And so I’m so glad that you brought that up.

    Tim Tepes (12:36)
    You what

    it is you hit the nail right on the hammer with the nail there you you know have to show up You know, that’s the key showing up is half the battle and learning at least one thing a day I think if you want 365 days in a year, you know one thing a day. That’s 365 new things you’ve learned. So showing up and learning. Yes

    Quentin Edmonds (12:54)
    Yeah,

    I love it. So let me ask you this. With that being said, do you have a next real goal? Like is there another thing that you’re aiming for? Are you looking to scale something, solve something like what’s next for you?

    Tim Tepes (13:08)
    Well, there’s a couple of things. mean, I’m learning AI right now, as we know. But what I’m looking at right now is the complete passive income. I have two daughters. OK, obviously they don’t want to do anything to real estate business. So, you know, I have a number of rental properties, but I’ve been doing for a lot of clients and it’s been helping out. And I said earlier about the 1031 exchanges. So we’re on taxes, you know, and then putting in the K1 so they have the benefits of being a landlord and an owner.

    but without the TTT, the tenants, toilets and trash. And that’s not called Tim Tefas today either. So, it’s toilets and trash. right. You know, I got to do a little plug there for myself, but anyway, absolutely. You know, but they could they could have that income. They could have the tax advantages. And yet then they could take that as a DST, a Delaware statutory trust, and then you could put that into a trust and your Rockefeller trust, the dining shoe trust, the waterfowl trust, whatever you want to call it.

    Quentin Edmonds (13:40)
    I can’t see.

    Tim Tepes (14:01)
    and then pass it on to their children. So I’m not coming here to be a financial advisor or an attorney or anything in that respect, but you get that into a trust, a family trust, a dynasty trust that could pass on from generations to generations and let that, as I said earlier, compounding interest. And you know, your children can live off of that. You got to set guidelines. They just can’t go out and take fancy trips, but Hey, for a house. There’s a lot of

    you know, stuff that you could put into that trust and really, really gets exciting later in life. Those are my goals right now.

    Quentin Edmonds (14:32)
    I love you. So you said your two girls are not looking to go into the real estate business. No, no, gotcha. I just said, I understand. But, but as a wise father, just like your father with you as a wise dad, you’re still giving them the tools to be successful. Not only the tools for them to be successful, but also some disciplinary tools, because that’s really what’s going to define a success is how disciplined they are and how they stick to.

    just some integral things that you are helping them build on the inside. So I hear you on that.

    Tim Tepes (15:02)
    Yeah. So what you do is you form a family business. Okay. So your family becomes a business. Okay. And in that business, you have rules, you have guidelines. Okay. And if you look at the Rockefellers, the Rockefellers are still going strong. The vandals went broke because they didn’t have rules and guidelines. You know, even take it to the Hilton’s. Okay. The Hilton’s right now do not own hotels. Yeah. Right. But they are still living off their trust and off their dynasty trust. They’re living off their name. Okay. Let’s say I have a name to live off of. But if you have the passive income in there,

    You could set your business, you know, your family business up and have that going on for generations, generations. And, know, if we three, four generations down the road and they’re going to say, who was Tim Teppes? You know, that was your great, great grandfather. He set this up for you. you know, just keeping that family line going on forever.

    Quentin Edmonds (15:46)
    Come on, absolutely. So, you know, I love how you talked about, you know, your kids and those are the personal relationships that of course you’re building with your kids, great relationship with your kids. But I want to talk about building business relationships. Has building relationships with, I’m not sure if you got partners, clients, or just people in general when it comes to business, has building relationships impacted you in a positive way?

    Tim Tepes (16:51)
    Well, yeah, because real estate is all about relationships. I always say it’s not all what you know, but it’s who you know. You never know where that next one, you never burn bridges. You never know when that next door is gonna open to you and who you’re gonna meet. And again, as I said, I had a lot of great mentors along the way. And now what I’m helping is I have a lot of guys that’s interesting is, they’re not college graduates. I’m not saying, cause what is a job?

    just over broke, right? J. B. Okay. Yeah. So these investors here are these guys here, which interesting, they’re small business owners, you know, they’re plumbers, they’re electricians, they’re painters, they’re glanscapers, grass cutters. And you know, I sat down with a couple of these guys and they’re part of my team now, which is great because, you know, knowing do I help them and get refer their business out, they refer business to me. I’m also helping them build their real estate portfolio. So they’re buying those two units, four units, maybe up to 12 type units, and building a portfolio, maybe 3040

    Real estate of rental properties that they’re bringing to income so we’re looking at that then taking that income that they’re making and investing that into a stock market into maybe a dividend aristocratic stock or a low index ETF Dividend stock or you know something like that and still building income and wealth and teaching them different strategies And you know it came almost like an advisor, but yet I have other people advising me and helping me along the way Yeah, and then trying to help pass that along, you know, so

    Yeah, it’s again, it becomes like I said earlier, the snowball effect, was snowball and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And that’s all power of compounding.

    Quentin Edmonds (18:10)
    No.

    It is the power of calm town. I absolutely love it. So listen, before we give people, you know, maybe information on how to get in contact with you. Is there anything that we haven’t talked about that you may want to talk about any subject that we haven’t touched? Is it any kind of word of inspiration, motivation, inspiration, education that you want to give? Like, is there anything else you feel like the people could benefit from here?

    Tim Tepes (18:39)
    You know, there’s a couple things there, you know, so, you know, some of the things you’re proud of is when you help somebody and I had a widow, unfortunately, you know, she lost her husband and we sold some real estate for her and, you know, it was close to, you know, $10 million worth of real estate. Okay. So we got to sell that property off, got to put her into a 10 31 exchange. Okay. Saving her close to $2 million in taxes.

    Okay, so by doing a 10-30-one exchange saving two million dollars taxes even at five percent return That’s a hundred thousand dollars just on the money that she’s saving from the government Yeah, all right now you take that money and you invest it in and what’s nice is we diversified into diversified real estate across the country This is key. So it was self-storage units. It was mobile home parks assistant livings hotels apartment complexes

    And some individual matter fact, even one of the buildings is owned by our government. It’s Homeland Security building. And then that’s it. It was a brand new building, which is built 35 year lease. So you basically come almost like a reat, a tenant, a ticket tenant in common. But you know, she’s making over $500,000 a year now. And then you have to get out of bed. You know, I became her biggest hero because one, I saved her taxes to, she still had an income and she doesn’t have the headaches of everyday operations.

    And she could pass that on to her family members because we hooked her up with a great attorney and a state attorney that knows trust inside and out award winning a trustee. And these are people you have to have on your team and know how to get ahold of them and put it in trust. Yeah. It costs her a few bucks to set up that trust, but look at all the money she’s saving and making. Now she could pass it on to family. So I’ve done that for a number of different clients. And you know, that is a great niche and a lot of real estate agents don’t know that or even real estate investors.

    You know, so it’s a great thing. It’s a great tool to have in your toolbox. you know, like you and I, Quinn, right now are just talking and you know, that’s something you maybe you weren’t aware of or maybe the listeners aren’t. And it just helps people along the way. And I always believe you give more and you get what you get, you know, get back. But, you know, I always like to give and I always like to see people smile at end of the day and make their lives better. That’s the key.

    Quentin Edmonds (20:42)
    Yeah, it is an old saying to say if you give it will be giving back to you. Press down, shaking together and running over so yeah. Yes Sir, absolutely. Well listen Mr Tim, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can I get in contact with you Sir?

    Tim Tepes (20:50)
    I got it.

    Very simple, I’ll give you my cell phone. It’s 484-275-0056 or you can reach me at my email which is just simple, [email protected] That’s the easiest one to use. But yeah, mean, just reach out if have questions. I always enjoy talking to people and if I can help you get to the next level, that’s what always counts.

    Quentin Edmonds (21:20)
    Thank you so much, sir. Thank you for your time. Definitely thank you for your story talking about your great granddad, your granddad, your dad, know, the third generation, talking about your kids. Thank you so much for just telling us a little bit about your background. Appreciate your story so much. Also appreciate your perspective. Love the way you think and thank you for bringing that mindset to this platform. So, sir, I appreciate you so much. Thank you for being here today.

    Tim Tepes (21:44)
    I appreciate it. I look forward to talking again and maybe following up on this. This will be great.

    Quentin Edmonds (21:49)
    Absolutely.

    So listen, y’all heard Mr. Tim, you got the value from Mr. Tim. So definitely check him out, but definitely make sure you are subscribed here. That way when we keep bringing incredibly people up, just like Mr. Tim, you can just come in and get the great content. thank you. There you go. Hit that like button. I love it. I love it. Thank you for that, Mr. Tim. And thank you all. Listen, we’ll see you all on the next time.

    Tim Tepes (22:05)
    Like button down.

    Let’s make this go viral.

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