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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Q Edmonds interviews Zach Reiss, a seasoned real estate investor with eight years of experience. Zach shares his journey into real estate, discussing his passion for the industry, the challenges he has faced, including evictions and property management, and his future goals of replacing his W-2 income and building wealth. He emphasizes the importance of relationships in real estate and offers valuable advice for new investors, particularly regarding house hacking as a strategy to enter the market with minimal upfront capital.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Zach (00:00)
Well, yeah, I’ve, you know, obviously one of the worst things that you can go through as a landlord is an eviction and it’s time intensive and it’s cash intensive and I have property downtown that I actually, it’s my first property that I own and it’s a two bedroom, one bath and that one at the time I was renting to the full unit, so I was renting to a family and they didn’t pay for like two months. And then this was my first official eviction. so then I had to get an attorney and then I had to get a court date and then they still wouldn’t leave or contact or respond to any of my messages. So then we had to get what’s called a writ of possession. And so then have the…the sheriff come down with me. And then when we opened the door, the come to find out that the house was vacant, but it had five, five cats in the house.Quentin (02:32)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. Listen, another day, another amazing guest that we’re about to bring to you. So you know what I’m gonna say. I’m excited to be here today. I’m super excited. I’m excited about my guests. Like you said, I’m always interested and always on it that when our guests come with their own unique perspective and lens and so.Zach (02:55)
ThankQuentin (02:56)
That’s the same thing I’m looking for today. And I know you guys are going to get a ton of value out of our guests. And so I just want to introduce you all to Mr. Zach Reiss. Mrs. Zach, how you doing today,Zach (03:06)
I’m good. Thanks. I’m excited to be here.Quentin (03:08)
Absolutely, man. Excited to have you, And again, I’m just, I’m excited about you sharing your perspective. You know, I’m excited about you talking about real estate. One of the things you said, listen, I’m passionate when it comes to real estate and I’m just, I just want you to talk about that passion with our audience. And so I’ll be honest with you, man. I want you, I want to dive in. I want you to take us into your world. Let us know the things that you are mainly focused on. Let us know a little bit about yourself and what market you’re operating in. So.Zach, the floor is yours, man.
Zach (03:37)
Okay, great. I started investing in real estate about eight years ago when I was 23. I just graduated college. Excuse me. And I started doing some research when I was 21 because I was working a full-time job and going to school and I was like really tired and I was like, man, there has to be another way, you know? And then I started doing some Googling and then…real estate popped up. So it’s been, I went down that, that, you know, whole rabbit hole. So, but now, eight years of investing in real estate, you know, I just have seven, residential properties and I rent by the room. And, ⁓ so I have 36 rooms and I self-manage. So it keeps me pretty busy.
Quentin (04:22)
No, absolutely. And I know it’s not always easy in this climate. And I know you say you self-manage. And so I guess my question would be, what keeps you running smoothly, man? I know you self-manage, but I know it could be a lot. So what keeps things running smoothly on your hands?Zach (05:25)
Yeah, well, you know, historically when I, I’m kind of delegating now, but historically when it was just me, you know, time management is obviously essential. And, you know, you just gotta keep your eyes on the prize, you know, to keep yourself motivated. But, you know, I just…after doing all the research before making the first investment and then the second, I’m just convinced that this is just the way to go. So any setbacks that I’ve experienced, I know it’s just part of the course and you just got to keep on going.
Quentin (06:01)
Yeah. No, I love it, man. I’m so glad you talked about setbacks because again, like I said, in this climate, it’s not always easy. And I know, you know, just, talking to people, talking to different operators, there are moments when things get real. There’s times when deals go sideways or maybe a time when you have to pivot fast. And I know, you know, you got, you know, seven properties, you rent by the room, 36 rooms. So I can only imagine there are times that you bump up against.that are not ideal. And so I was just wondering if you had a story like that, maybe that you can share a time when things kind of got real and you had to pivot.
Zach (06:36)
Well, yeah, I’ve, you know, obviously one of the worst things that you can go through as a landlord is an eviction and it’s time intensive and it’s cash intensive and I have property downtown that I actually, it’s my first property that I own and it’s a two bedroom, one bath and that one at the time I was rentingto the full unit, so I was renting to a family and they didn’t pay for like two months. And then this was my first official eviction. so then I had to get an attorney and then I had to get a court date and then they still wouldn’t leave or contact or respond to any of my messages. So then we had to get what’s called a writ of possession. And so then have the…
the sheriff come down with me. And then when we opened the door, the come to find out that the house was vacant, but it had five, five cats in the house
So, and they were probably there alone for a while because, you know, there was cat feces, you know, everywhere. So that was definitely one of, but we still had to.
Quentin (07:38)
Mm.Zach (07:52)
like comply with the law and they left some of their possessions in the house. then legally we had to like take them out of the house, even considering the conditions that they left it in. So yeah, that was probably the worst, I would say, I guess battle that I had to face in my eight year career so far.Quentin (08:02)
Yeah.Yeah, yeah. No, man, that’s, listen, the exciting life of real estate, right? That’s why I love asking people these questions to get their unique response because, you sometimes you can never imagine some of the things that you have to go through. But this is part of the grind. This is part of the business. This is part of the transition, right? And so I tell people all the time, you know, sometimes it’s easy for us to talk about the success, but we got to talk about the little…
Zach (08:22)
Okay.Quentin (08:41)
my new processes that get us to be overall, to the overall success. And like you said, evictions is one of it. Cats, people leaving stuff behind. This is all part of the process. And so I thank you for your vulnerability. I thank you for sharing, man, because I know our viewers understand where you are, because many of them have been through that and more, right? And so I thank you for sharing that, Mrs. Ed.Zach (09:04)
yeah, of course.Quentin (09:05)
Absolutely. So let me ask you this. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? Like what’s the next real goal for you?Zach (09:50)
Yeah, well, to answer that, would have to go back to why I initially wanted to get into real estate in the first place, which was I wanted to replace, have a comfortable life that replaced my W-2 income. so basically to retire early.Obviously, and then the second tier to that would be to build wealth, obviously. But the first priority is to replace the W-2, have a comfortable life, you know, where you’re not so much trading your time for your money. So that’s what I’m focused on right now. Of the seven properties, I refinanced six of them into interest only.
DSCR loans and that saved me about 45 % of my monthly payments just because it’s interest only and there’s no escrow count. And then for the last one since I house hack, I’m just looking to pay off the primary and then to take out a HELOC. So that’s
That’s what I’m looking to do next. And then after that, I’ll just, you know, look to scale, just like I have been the past eight years.
Quentin (10:59)
Yeah. No, man, I absolutely love it. love it. Listen, you saying I want my time back, you know, like you want to be able to replace this W-2 job, get your time back. And I love it. You know, can sell a date and you’re selling properties and because you see the goal, you see the vision and that’s big, man. And I see you working towards it and just, you know, honestly, just thank you for sharing. I can see that you’re making momentum towards the overall goal.And you know, we know the next move, it can either compound things or create total chaos, depending on how we play it. But there’s beauty in the chaos. And it’s no doubt in my mind, you’re going to find beauty even when you make these moves, if they seem chaotic at times. So I love it, man. I love it. I absolutely love it. Now, you know, people listen, you know, they’re either, you know, early in their journey, they’re looking to level up. And I think they benefit hearing this from you. Relationships, when it comes to building relationships, right?
and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?
Zach (11:56)
Well, yeah, mean real estate is is definitely a relationship business. There’s a lot of relationships that you have to. You know, initiate and and nurture over the time and it makes your life a lot easier. And if you go into just any relationship with a win win mentality, then you know both of you are going to be happy and. You know the the more that relationship will grow. I mean just.Relationships pertaining to real estate would be like your lender. You wanna have a good attorney in your back pocket just in case you have those evictions. Property management if you would like to not self-manage. I mean, yeah, mean, those relationships will…
save you so much time and money in the long run and get you to focus on what you really want to do, whether that be look at more deals or just spend more time with your family. It all comes down to the relationships and if you don’t have those, then you’re going to be kind of all by yourself with no relationships and spending, you just kind of working yourself into another job essentially.
Quentin (13:12)
Yep, that part, man. I love that. I love how you said working yourself into another job. mean, those relationships are everything and those relationships can make your job a lot easier or it can make your job a lot harder. And so, yeah, finding that relationship that helps. And I know you mentioned the word delegate. We were talking about that. You know, one of the people I was talking to said you got to delegate to elevate. And so making the right connections with people that you can trust to start to partner, to help you.Delegate and move things so you can get your time back. It’s like everything man. So you’re absolutely right So listen, mr. Zack, like, you know, it’s you know, I thank you for the nuggets you’ve given so far Is there any other kind of advice maybe encouragement? You know from your perspective that you maybe you want our listeners to know, you know Not trying to just put you too much on the spot But you know eight years man, you’ve been doing it this as a successful rate So maybe there’s some some inspiration you can you can offer people?
Zach (14:47)
Well yeah, would say if you guys are just starting out and say this is before you even have a property, I would look up the strategy for house hacking, which is you buy a primary residence and you can put 3.5 % down if you go FHA and…There’s even down payment assistance programs which pay for all of closing costs and I know this because that’s what I did with my first property and I just lived in the downstairs master put three and half percent down and They paid for all my closing costs and they increased my my rate a half point but I bought during like 2020 so my my rate went from 2.8 to 3.3 so
And even now, with interest rates a little higher, I would still do it. It’s a great way to have less upfront capital to get your foot in the door. And then you can start renting out those rooms and then cash flow. And then a year later, you could just do the same thing all over again.
Quentin (16:01)
Absolutely love it. Great, great, great nugget. Listen, Mrs. before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, maybe collaborate and learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you, sir?Zach (16:15)
Yeah, you know, I don’t really, I’m not really big on the social media. I do have a Facebook. My name is, you know, Zach Reiss You just look me up on that, but that’s pretty much it.Quentin (16:27)
Yeah, there he is, y’all. Mr. Zach Reiss. Listen, sir, I thank you so much for your time. I thank you so much for your perspectives and your story. You know, we need people like you that’s doing it the right way in this space and just being authentic and just telling the real, right? The real story, the real process. And so I just want to say to you, Zach, again, thank you so much for being here today.Zach (16:46)
Yeah, thanks for having me.Quentin (16:47)
Absolutely. And so everyone else, listen, I know you found value in this conversation and you do not want to miss out on future conversations. So please subscribe. Just hit the subscribe button. It’s easy as just one click. And listen, we thank you, Zach, again and everyone else. We’ll see you on the next episode.
