Subscribe via:
Show Summary
In this episode, Anish Dave shares his 25+ year journey in real estate investing—from early success during the 2005–2008 boom, to getting wiped out in the crash, to rebuilding through wholesaling, rehabbing, and creative finance. Now CEO of BPM REIA and President of the National Real Estate Investors Association, Anish discusses the power of mindset, mentorship, and momentum in building long-term wealth. He explains how confidence, action, and correcting limiting beliefs around money are just as important as deal strategy. Through his coaching model—where he funds deals alongside students—Anish emphasizes aligned incentives, execution over perfection, and building generational wealth through smart investing.
Resources and Links from this show:
-
Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode
Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Anish Dave (00:00)
I think the other thing that I noticed in general, even for myself, is I’m a perfectionist. So I’m waiting for everything to be perfect. When my mentor said, hey, Anish, I got something to tell you, it’s never going to be perfect. And that freedom actually made me feel better, right? He jokes about it. Whether it’s social media, I’m not, know, my generation, not great on social media. And he’s like, it’s okay, Anish, you’re going to put out crap 1.0. You’re going to look back at it.You’re going to fix it. It’ll be crap 2.0. And the funny part is no one else is going to even notice.
Micah Johnson (02:04)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host, Micah Johnson. And today I’m joined by Anish Dave, who’s been making some serious moves in real estate investing now for the last 25 years. Anish, welcome in man. Glad to have you.Anish Dave (02:17)
Yeah, thanks Micah. I’m glad to be here.Micah Johnson (02:19)
Yeah, I’m excited. We were digging in a little bit in our pre-recording call. You’ve been doing some major stuff and not just real estate wise, along with the mindset things that real estate, I was actually thinking about this on a walk earlier, like real estate is an incredible personal development tool. If you’ll let it be, it will force you to become who you need to be to do the thing. So I’m excited to dig in with you on it. I know that’s a big deal in what you talk about and the coaching you offer. So.Let’s dive in, for folks who aren’t familiar with you yet. Tell us a more about yourself and what your main focus is right now.
Anish Dave (02:50)
Yeah, absolutely. So my name is Anish Dave. I am CEO of BPM REIA. That’s the Broward Palm Beach Miami-Dade REIA in South Florida. And I just got named president of National REIA, which is the National Real Estate Investors Association. And really excited. There’s 120 chapters and affiliates nationwide, ⁓ well over 40,000 members. And, you know, I’ve been running the REIA and coaching and been a real estate investor.Micah Johnson (03:03)
Heck yeah.Anish Dave (03:17)
For 25 plus years, so I’ve been through the ups and downs the punches in the stomach all the aboveMicah Johnson (03:24)
Right, right. And that’s just it. It’s real estate’s a cycle. And if you’re gonna participate in it, think long-term always and just know it gives and it takes and the whole goal is to keep learning. So take us back. What led you to where you are today? being, man, again, congrats on being president of the national. That’s awesome. So what was that journey like?Anish Dave (03:46)
Well, so it’s funny for me, I grew up in Jersey, Indian kid. I was working in banking and finance and I read one of those books called Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki. And what I realized, my dad was poor dad, financial analyst for about 35, 40 years. And what killed me was I was on the same path. And I said, shoot, I better do something different. I started my own mortgage company, bought a lot of real estate.And I started crushing it from 2005 to 2008. I’m not sure if you’re old enough to know those times, Mika, you look pretty young there. And for me, it was questioning and the market crashed and I got wiped out. And after wiping out, I had to figure out something else. And I really got into the real estate investing side, wholesaling, rehabbing, creative financing, all the above because I did not want to go back to corporate America.
⁓ And fast forward and you know, I spent a lot of money on education and masterminds and you know, I started really doing well and ⁓ what happened next was I became a board member. We have a unique coaching program where I put up all the money for the deals and what you also touched on what I realized mindset is important too. So I have added that in personally with a lot of coaching and mastermind that I’ve taken.
Micah Johnson (04:41)
Right.Anish Dave (05:09)
where we got to fix that idea that you deserve to make money to, happily.Micah Johnson (05:15)
Right. Right. That it’s, it’s, it’s so much comes down to belief as someone who’s walked through that personally understands what has come things that you have to overcome that you didn’t necessarily put there. That’s the reality. It’s as you’re coming to grips with things about yourself that that’s where we’re saying, I was saying real estate and my own personal walk with it has forced me tolook at myself in ways and see like, wow, you literally thought that wasn’t for you. And it wasn’t for you until you thought it was for you. And that’s just the way it is until you start to think that way. And then it made me think about like, where where’d that come from? Am I where else am I doing this in life? Like, it’s not just real estate, we do this all over. And whoa, man, you start peeling the layers back. It’s it I said it a little bit earlier.
It’s about who you have to become to handle the success that you desire. You know, I use an example of, know, I hear a lot of folks get in really excited, you know, want a thousand units. And it’s like, okay, I could give you a thousand units right now and you would not be able to handle them. Like what you want to become is someone who can own a thousand units. And that, that’s a 10 year journey minimum. Okay. Like that is a, there’s a process to that. And that’s really what honestly jives me up is.
That’s life itself. Like now you’re leveraging this whole existence, man. Don’t get me jived up on this.
Anish Dave (06:36)
Well, you know, it’s a straight line, right? It’s not this, right? Any investor that’s been in this for a minute knows the ups and downs, right? And a lot of people, I know you’ve been doing this for some time, is that the first big hit, a lot of people quit. They’re like, hey, I tried it. Let me move on to the next shiny object. maybe, and then again, I’m not against this. Like, is it stock trading or is it this? And they just look at something else.I had one of my managers I thought was really interesting, know, hard money guy. He’s been in it for years. And what he told him was in 2008 to 10, if you didn’t lose money as a real estate investor, you really weren’t losing. You weren’t really investing. There’s no way that you came super clean. That means you didn’t put yourself out there enough. You don’t have enough properties. You didn’t do one or the other. Right. So almost every person’s been hit.
and then what happens afterwards.
Micah Johnson (07:31)
Right, right. Because it’s not if, it is when, and it’s not a doomsday mentality. I heard a good word for it. It’s just productive paranoia. It’s knowing how to set it up because reality, you couldn’t have known what to do for 2008 to 2010 unless you literally walked it out. And that’s the journey of every real estate investor. Who knows exactly what it’s going to look like for all of us as we keep going.But one thing it’s taught me in multiple times of having and losing due to different scenarios was how I built it. Right. I realized, started to realize, I’m building that in an unstable way. It’s fragile. So when something shifts, it doesn’t have the ability to shift with it. And that’s something I’m learning more now is, okay, when you’re going to build this thing, that’s in your mind. Like it’s a machine that you’re building that trades in the commodity you want. How do you build it in a way?
Anish Dave (08:09)
Mm-hmm.Micah Johnson (08:24)
that can work with the market and adjust and pivot because that’s real estate. If you can’t pivot, you’re going to struggle. Not every strategy doesn’t work in every timeframe. You’ve got to really find that one.Anish Dave (08:36)
Yeah, and one of the things that I’ve seen also, especially if you’re in the rehab world, fixing up houses, when the market’s going up, your inefficiencies will be hidden. What I mean by that, let’s say the rehab was supposed to take four months, and now it took 10 months. And the reason you’re OK is because the prices went up dramatically versus imagine when the market’s flattening, right before the pandemic.Micah Johnson (08:47)
youAnish Dave (09:02)
You didn’t know what was happening and all of it was a boom everywhere where prices were going crazy. So if you were a bad rehabber and mismanaged, your expenses or the inconsistencies were hidden. And if you’re a newbie investor or even somewhat seasoned, you’re thinking, man, I really crushed it. And really, you weren’t good at what you did. Vice versa, right? When the market adjusts,and your margins are thin, this is what’s going to happen on the other side and it’s easy to lose some money also. So I think it’s, you know, the biggest thing on even with mindset is to go out there and take that chance. The more you hesitate, it becomes expensive. Working with the professional athletic community, these are former NFL players, current NFL players, also other major sports. And what cracks me up is they’re afraid to put an offer on a property. And I would have to have to remind them
Imagine a 320 foot young gentleman, I call him young still, even though they may be retired. And they’re the point, I don’t know, zero, zero, 1 % of their industry. And they’re like, Anish, I’m afraid to even put a deposit down. I’m scared to even put an offer on. And the exact way it made me laugh, I was like, seriously? You’re kidding me. And so again, when we correct that mindset and we’re confident and you’re certain,
It’s literally going to change everything for you in anything you do in your life, not just real estate.
Micah Johnson (10:26)
Right. I couldn’t agree more. couldn’t agree more. And you said something in your story earlier that was really interesting in the fact that you were laying out this timeline of what you experienced and you went from, I started getting coaching, joined masterminds, and then I found success. That’s a success stabilized. Connect the dots there for me. That’s not random, is it? ⁓Anish Dave (10:48)
No, not at all. SoI always say you’re going to pay for it one way or another. I think one of the things as you, I’m not going say mature, as you change seasons in your life, that’s like a nice way to say that, right? Is that you realize you have less time. And for me, you know, I can’t get time back. So I’m going to pay for it one way or another. I’d rather learn from two experts, let them make the mistakes and also be multiple talent. So I see a lot of people, whether it’s my coaching,
or people in other masterminds or groups, ⁓ they take all that knowledge and then they’re never in action. So even when I coach our students, I look for people that are multiple talent. Again, you’re the expert or I’m the expert or whoever you’re paying for, they’re the expert. And so I think that makes a big difference. It’s not just knowledge, it’s taking action now.
Micah Johnson (11:39)
Right, you gotta use it. I very firmly believe education is the first step. Go get the education, but now that second one is that putting it, go do it. And one thing I tell people, it always is gonna feel the same. There’s always that little knot in your throat before every contract you’ll ever sign because that’s the fun part, okay? Like when you can realize that part that makes you feel all weird, that’s amazing. That’s the great part. You mentioned athletes earlier.One of Jack Nicklaus’s quote from the golf world I love is he would talk about how nervous he would get before a major championship. And he would say, I loved it because only amazing things could make me feel that way. And I was like, that is so good. That’s so true. Like that’s the same thing. get this, I’ve played in golf tournaments and sports and different things where you get that nervous, that good feeling like, Ooh, something good could happen. Same.
If you can really fall in love with that, I tell people it’s what it feels like to be alive. Like that is it. It’s what just ⁓ fall in love with it.
Anish Dave (12:41)
I think the other thing that I noticed in general, even for myself, is I’m a perfectionist. So I’m waiting for everything to be perfect. When my mentor said, hey, Anish, I got something to tell you, it’s never going to be perfect. And that freedom actually made me feel better, right? He jokes about it. Whether it’s social media, I’m not, know, my generation, not great on social media. And he’s like, it’s okay, Anish, you’re going to put out crap 1.0. You’re going to look back at it.You’re going to fix it. It’ll be crap 2.0. And the funny part is no one else is going to even notice.
So I think it’s the same mentality. Make those offers. Talk to those sellers. Nine out of 10 times, you’re going to know more than they do. So it’s just being out there. And I think some of the things that I crack up on email on some of the investors that do well, and they’re not even knowledgeable. And at the same time, they’re fearless. And I think that’s worth way more than having all the knowledge in the world. Otherwise, you’re never going to catch up.
Micah Johnson (13:37)
Yeah. Yeah. No, you it’s yeah. It’s a, it becomes worthless at that point. Like it, if it’s just in your head and it’s not creating what you want, then you, got to check it out. What’s causing that because it doesn’t do it itself. That’s the part where you got to get out there and do that. So you said you do some coaching. What is.and you do it through the REA. Tell us a little bit more about that. How do you set that up and what does it look like when folks are in that program and working with you?
Anish Dave (14:07)
Sure. So,owning the real estate investor, again, I’ve done a lot of different coaching, I’ve spent a lot of money, and it was great information, right? Like, I’m very thankful what I learned from these experts. The challenge was, great, I know how to flip houses, I know the knowledge, well, I don’t have the money for the deal, now what? Right? So, go ahead and try to raise money, right? And you’re new, right? So, imagine we’re good friends and you got a ton of money, you don’t really want to be in real estate and we’re partners.
And I said, hey, you know what? I took this course. We’ll flip houses and we’ll go 50-50. Let’s try it out. even though we’re friends, you’re going to say, well, you’re going to try it out with my money. I don’t think, right? On that end of it. So I saw that as a massive challenge. So what I do that’s really unique is I put up 100 % of the money for the deals for our students and I go 50-50 on the profits. So my business model is,
Micah Johnson (14:46)
Yeah.Nice.
Anish Dave (14:59)
really different than most people out there. I take less students and get them to perform. I make a lot of money on the 50-50. You’re leveraging my money. I raised a lot of capital to fund these deals. Again, I’m not really sure anyone else that does that. And, you know, any educational company, whether it’s, real estate, even universities, what I didn’t like the way it was set up is that even at a university, they make all their money on tuition. And unless you become Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos andYou went to whatever school and now that you might donate a library, otherwise they have nothing, it’s not good or bad. They have no incentive if you do well or not. So for me, I actually make more money on the deals. So it keeps everybody on. ⁓ In our business structure, there’s only one salary person. Everyone else is performance-based. So that’s the real side. That’s been amazing. And then what we’ve done on ⁓ the mindset,
is ⁓ change everything we’re working with Marshall Silver, where we want to reprogram that subconscious, meaning that you deserve it. So again, it goes right back to you could have all the education in the world and imagine that you don’t deserve it, right? You don’t deserve a happy life. And even my own story, I had a really ⁓ bad conversation with money. We’re a middle-class family from Jersey.
Indian roots and somehow I don’t know where I got this from people with a lot of money were greedy or a lot of people You know people with money were this kind of person so there was a lot of self-sabotage to get into a certain level and then You know, ⁓ everything’s going perfect. Now what how am I gonna screw this up? So we have to break through that and really find the genius in each one of us So that’s what we’re doing on on the coaching side
and also on the mindset side. we’re doing, we have two different products now.
Micah Johnson (16:53)
love that man because it takes both. It really does. You gotta learn how to play the game. That’s the real estate coaching. And then you gotta learn how to be a great player, which is the mindset part, right? I like to say if you wanna be a good human being, get good at being human. It’s a skillset that we all have. We all come with the ingredients, but none of us come with the same recipe. I can’t do yours for you and you can’t do mine for me, but if we do it for ourselves,the way we can work together after that, life changing. It’s life changing. We can actually interact and build things. And that’s really what I love about what you’re doing with your coaching. You’re still doing it. I think it’s very important for people to learn from someone that’s in the game, that’s doing it, right? I used to be a realtor, I’m not a realtor anymore, so I don’t teach people how to do it. I don’t know. What did I tell you? How it used to work, and that’s not helpful. And then the fact where you’re right.
One of the harder parts is money upfront and the ability to one, grow your own funds and grow that, but at the same time control the product, because that’s it. You’re taking smaller amount of students and making sure that they’re actually accomplishing their goals and plugging in all the parts they need mindset, real estate, someone there with you to help you understand because there’s so many moving parts to it. Is it simple? Yes. Is it easy?
No, that is the reality of real estate. And it’s all these little steps, a closed deal, like 30 different steps you got to get done, like just to get it to there. And it’s overwhelming when you first go through it and to be able to control that. That’s what I find is more so powerful with a good coach is they have skin in the game. It benefits them too, for you to do well, not just in a small way.
Right? So that’s awesome that you’re doing that, man. It’s powerful and it’s changing people’s lives. mean, shoot, real estate. It’s powerful.
Anish Dave (18:47)
I love it. youknow, like we teach, you know, self-directed IRAs. Like I’m all about building generational wealth. So owning the real, the really cool part is I get to have really smart people speak. And I’m like, man, that guy is really smart. Let me learn that. So I’m learning about self-directed IRAs. And again, I practice what I preach. I do infinity banking. ⁓ I’ll pay my share of fair taxes, right? The first job is to make money.
Micah Johnson (18:56)
Mm-hmm.Anish Dave (19:15)
seconds to keep it legally, right? Meaning only pay what you need to. So I see a lot of inefficiencies out there in what people do and owning the REIA, again, you you get to see these experts come in different fields and sometimes I’m like, yeah, that’s awesome. And that’s not for me, right? Do I want to own mobile parks? Not really. Do I want to own a store? So it’s easier to say yes to something.and then know and then also have the insight that this is also available out there.
Micah Johnson (19:47)
Right. Right. Real estate’s a huge umbrella. It lets you find yourself in it, getting exposed to it. My favorite thing right now is land. I’ve absolutely fallen in love with land and I did not start there at all, but I’ve just found myself in it. No, not before. And it was not in the way that I am now. My mind was more rigid. It was more traditional. It was more likeAnish Dave (19:59)
You weren’t a land lover?Micah Johnson (20:08)
This is what I was told to build, go build this, where now it’s like, oh my God, look at these opportunities. Look at how I could actually do this now. And it requires time to be in it, obviously, but then again, it’s constant learning. I’ve found that folks who love learning do well in real estate because you don’t stop. It does not stop. It changes. You have to keep paying attention to it. And as someone, I have ADHD and dyslexia. I love it.It goes fast enough to keep me like, Ooh, this is great. Okay, cool. What’s this? What’s that? Right? I can deep dive on it. use the superpower of it, but yeah, man, it’s a, love what you’re doing there.
Anish Dave (20:37)
you⁓
Yeah, and it’s interesting, know, everything constantly changes, right? Obviously, all the AI things out there, right? All the tools, we use a lot of AI tools for training. ⁓ So we’ve set up GPTs for role playing, ⁓ rehab estimators, all the above. And at the end of the day, it’s still people-first in business. So for the people that, I get it, you know,
Micah Johnson (20:59)
love it.Anish Dave (21:08)
You want to hide behind a computer a little bit. when you really go out and talk to people, that’s where you’re to make a lot of money.Micah Johnson (21:16)
Exactly. No matter what real estate is a team sport, it is heavy relationship driven. And that’s what I tell folks. Like there’s the game of real estate, like how the deals work. And then there’s the people part. And that is not the same. have to, it is a much different thing and how you interact with it. Cause the conversation to buy from a distressed owner is completely different than the one for a commercial building. And it’s completely different than the one for store. Like it is.Anish Dave (21:30)
Yep. Yep.Micah Johnson (21:44)
understand, but that’s a person you’re dealing with. And that’s what I found cool about real estate is your life experience somehow always plugs in. there’s no matter what you’ve been through, it will apply to this industry somehow because it lets you connect to people. That’s what I realized it was. It’s like, huh, you find similarities on what you’ve been through. And if you’ve been through a lot, man, you can get really good at real estate.Anish Dave (21:57)
Yeah.Yeah,
think real estate, know, or I know real estate is a momentum building, right? So after you do a couple deals, it’s not that you’re smarter, you’re just more confident. You’ve been through it, right? So I always use the example like, hey, 17 years old, got my driver’s license, and, you know, 10 and two driving exactly to speed limit. I don’t want to say, I know we’re recording this, what I do now, shave my head, eat a sandwich, you know, drive with my knees. I don’t do any of that. I’m just kidding.
Micah Johnson (22:31)
Right.Anish Dave (22:35)
And your reflexes are worse, it’s just you’re more confident. So anything else, especially in real estate, to have that momentum, especially like you were talking about land, you get really good at one thing, add another tool in the tool belt versus trying to go do everything all at once.Micah Johnson (22:36)
YouYep. I tell people, I like to remind folks, Amazon only sold us books for nine years. That’s it. And then they did other things. Inch wide, mile deep. Then you can sprout up along the side. I like farming references. That’s what I grew up doing. But, ⁓ Anish, man, I love these types of conversations. I could go on and on, man, cause it’s, you’re speaking it to me, brother. Like, well, you are saying it how I like to hear it. For sure. For sure. So.
Anish Dave (23:06)
That’s a greatYeah, I appreciate it too.
Micah Johnson (23:19)
For folks that are listening and watching in that are interested in your program, the REIA, the mindset coaching, what’s the best way for them to find you?Anish Dave (23:27)
Yeah, so directly our website is www.b as in boy P as in Paul, as in Mary, REIA reia.com. That will go directly to our website, all my information’s on there. Our mindset, which we’re doing nationally. ⁓ So you might not even be in real estate and you just got to fix something else or you make it a ton of any real estate and you’re, I hate to say it, your personal life ain’t there or your health or.any of the above. So you could go to our other website. It’s called www.owntheresult.com. So that’s our second website. And if you’re looking for approved chapters of National REIA, what that means for you, get benefits at Home Depot, 2%. There’s rebates. There’s a ton of tier one ⁓ rebates for members around the country. That is nationalreia.org
So what that means for you guys is they do background checks on us. We have compliance every year. So they make sure ⁓ in the real world, they’re making sure that we’re good people and more vetted. So any of the three, if you really want to get direct contact with me, BPM, REIA, we do a ton of webinars. ⁓ One of my favorite ones that we did was, all we did was talk about all the deals that went wrong. So we did an hour, nothing good happened.
Micah Johnson (24:47)
Love it.Anish Dave (24:49)
because I was getting tired of everyone thinking it was easy and that we haven’t got to a heartache.Micah Johnson (24:52)
Right?I love it, man, I love that. So if you’re listening or viewing in there, check our show notes. We’re gonna have all of Anish’s links down there. I say this on the show all the time. It’s not random people that we’re bringing to you. When you meet a professional, talk with professionals. Those are who you wanna touch base with. Reach out, if this is an area that you’re in, something you wanna learn more about, touch base with Anish, take advantage of that.
So again, man, thanks for being here. I love today. I appreciate your time, your story, your perspective. I think we need more folks out there doing it like you’re doing it. Just the whole thing, man, the full person and the business getting taken care of. That’s what really changes lives and not a cliche way. So appreciate you, man.
Anish Dave (25:35)
Yeah, and Micah, Iwant to thank you also. mean, you’re doing great work and ⁓ it’s been awesome to watch your guest and it’s been an honor to be on your show because it’s awesome. You’re really breaking all the boundaries and getting to the nitty gritty and asking some of tough questions even on the pre-recording. So I appreciate your honesty and transparency. So thank you.
Micah Johnson (25:59)
Ithat man. I appreciate that. Thank you for saying it. And for everybody out there viewing and watching in, if you got value out of today’s episode, please like this episode, share it with someone else you think you get value out of it as well. And if you’re not a subscriber, please subscribe. We appreciate every single one of you that follows along out there with us. We got more conversations coming up with operators just like Anish, out there building a real business in the industry. Thanks for being with us today. We’ll see you on the next episode.
