The 5-Year Real Estate Plan for Building Wealth and Passive Income

Noah Ostroff (00:00)
Well, you know, we always live by the saying you’re never you’re never more than five years away from where you want to be in your life. And even if you’re not where you want to be today, you can be where you want to be in five years if you, you know, focus on it and put effort into it. For me, my goal has always been to build wealth. And for me, wealth is having one dollar more of passive income than you have in personal expenses. So you can have the freedom to do what you want to do when you want to do it.

Issa Hanna (02:02)
Welcome back to another episode of the *Real Estate Pros Show*. I’m your host, Issa Hanna, and today I have Noah Ostroff with us, a seasoned investor here to share his knowledge with us. Noah, welcome to the show.

Noah Ostroff (02:13)
Hey, thanks for having me.

Issa Hanna (02:15)
No, man, it’s a super honor to have you. We’re talking you are knee deep in the real estate game. You’re doing ground-up construction, large multifamilies. So I’m super excited to pick your brain. But for our viewers at home who are kind of wondering, okay, who is Noah? What do you got going on nowadays?

Noah Ostroff (02:34)
Lots of stuff, mostly real estate related, knee deep in the development stuff, developing a lot of projects, working on a 25-home gated community in Philadelphia that we’re building and selling. Just finished up a 35-unit six-story apartment building that was ground up that we just finished and we’re renting out now. We’re almost fully leased up. And just finished up a 10-unit building in Philadelphia and we’re about to break ground on another thirty-unit building in the next couple of months once we finished finished zoning of that. I have my sales team. We have a sales team in Philadelphia called PhillyLiving. We have a a sales team in New Jersey called JerseyLiving and we have one in Florida called FloridaLiving. So fully integrated with all the different real estate stuff that we do and just a lot of stuff going on.

Issa Hanna (03:26)
I love doing that. I mean, I love the fact that you’re doing that and you started as a real estate agent. So for all your realtors sitting at home and just collecting commission and bringing clients, you can build a nationwide business like Noah off of that one real estate license. So make sure you guys at home, if you guys are realtors or just in the game, pull them notepads out and start taking notes.

And I kinda wanna ask you, Noah, how’d you get started? So how’d you get into this crazy game that we’re all in?

Noah Ostroff (03:56)
So when I got out of college, real estate was the big industry and that’s where the opportunity was. And so I worked for a large national home builder, working for them as a project manager, learning all aspects of you know how to acquire the land, how to build homes, how to sell stuff and run a sales team and deal with acquisitions. So I did that for a few years. And then when I started having kids, I moved back to Philadelphia. So I was doing that in Florida first.

And then I moved back to Philadelphia where I’m from and became a real estate agent. And, you know, early on, I was working with a lot of builders and developers and realized that I could I could do what they do also. So I started doing a little bit of that kind of on the side here and there, like one home here, one home there. And I partnered up with one of my one of my clients who’s now still my partner 17 years later, building a lot, a lot more stuff.

And then we just I just kept kind of doing both of them simultaneously. I was doing real estate sales and running a sales team and also doing some small and then eventually mid and then large development over time. Later on down the road, I I started a real estate brokerage and grew that to be the number one real estate brokerage in Philadelphia and in Pennsylvania. It’s still the largest to this day.

And kind of grew from there. Had had sales teams all over the country, had a property management company, had a lot of different real estate-related businesses. But always my main focus has been development and also being a real estate agent. But these days I’m building up the the rental portfolio, focusing on wealth building and looking for opportunities and just rolling all that rolling all that stuff into my long-term wealth-building plan.

Issa Hanna (06:26)
Love that. So, man, you started actually in the development part. And one thing I wanna I wanna pull out of what you were saying is you learned, you know, you the knowledge that that you gained with the development. Then you went into the real estate, you got the real estate agent license. People that learn the game from the ground up like you, do really well. And people that have a lot of knowledge like you do really well. And then once you get to that.

Hey, I’m here, I’m successful point. I’ve built all these multiple successful real estate businesses. There’s not much left to do. So you gotta write a book, right? And you’ve written two of them. So tell us about your books.

Noah Ostroff (07:05)
I have. I have two books that I wrote here. First one was *No One’s Coming: The Motivation You Need to Take Back Your Life*. I wrote that one last year. Just all the different it’s like a motivational book for people with all different aspects of of life and what they deal with. And then this year, just recently this summer, I put out another book called *Recognizing Opportunity: How to Train Your Mind to Find Wins Everywhere*. And that’s my superpower is finding opportunity and recognizing opportunity and it’s one of the reasons I have been able to be successful during these years because I’m able to see opportunity before anybody else’s and recognize things that maybe other people are passing over or not looking at.

Issa Hanna (07:44)
Definitely. And it’s not something that you’re born with. It’s not like a special gift. It’s something that you have to really hone in and develop over time. You know, you have to have that knowledge. You have to have that drive also. So if it’s not something that’s just gonna it doesn’t come to people naturally. You’ve got to really, really know the game to have that, Noah. And Noah definitely has that. I also want to talk about something else that we talked about, because you’ve been able to build bunch of successful businesses in our industry, having a great team and the importance of that. So can you give us a little bit more about why having your team be the best is important?

Noah Ostroff (08:22)
Yeah, I don’t think anything that I’ve built, I built alone. Everything I’ve done, I’ve done through other people, through leverage and partnering up with great people or bringing great people into my organization. There’s a lot of areas that I’m weak on, and there’s some areas that I’m stronger in. And the areas that I’m weaker in, I bring other people to fill those gaps so that all the things that need to be accomplished in a business or a task can get done. And

For me, I was all I’ve always been willing to give up a little bit of money to or sometimes a lot a lot of money to bring in the right people to grow. I always had the mentality of one plus one equals three or one plus one equals eleven, however you want to look at it, because when you bring in the right people, things can multiply. And that’s the best return on investment you could ever get is through your people. So I invest a lot of time and a lot of money and a lot of effort into bringing in the right people to multiply all the things that I’m trying to do.

Issa Hanna (09:19)
Hundred percent. You’re a visionary and one thing that as somebody who’s built a successful rental portfolio, I don’t have is the ability to see the weaknesses and build a great team. It’s definitely an asset to have. I struggle with it. So in a way I kind of envy that you’re able to bring build such a great team, man. And now I wanna get your advice for our younger people, right? You touched on a little bit.

Our business is all about building relationships, growing your network. That’s your sprinkle and seeds so that you can grow that garden. Can you give them a few tips on where to start doing that?

Noah Ostroff (10:30)
So who are we talking to here? Who are we giving the tips to? What aspect? Okay.

Issa Hanna (10:34)
The younger, newer people, I kinda just blanket it all under one thing, builders to realtors to lenders, we all gotta build those relationships and grow those networks. So I kinda, you know, I just wanna kinda pick your brain for the newer guys that don’t know where to start.

Noah Ostroff (10:50)
I think it starts with knowledge. I think you have to really be a student of the game and make sure that you’re focusing on knowledge and getting better at what you do all the time and deeply investing in your craft to constantly be getting better and learning every day. I make it my goal to learn every single day. And you know, surrounding yourself with people that are doing the things that you want to do, having mentors that you can look up to, even if they don’t realize they’re your mentors. Reading a lot of books, listening to a lot of podcasts. I read lots of books or listen to a lot of books on Audible. Early in my career, I was going to lots and lots of training, and I still do training to this day, but I was going to lots and lots of training. And I think you just need to surround yourself with the people that are doing the things you want to do and learn from them. And once you do that.

Do it yourself. Make some mistakes. If we’re talking about development, you know, partner up with somebody who knows what they’re doing. If you’re a real estate agent, you’re what you bring to the table is you have access to deals. If and so maybe partner with somebody who knows how to build or how to or maybe partner with somebody that has some money if you don’t have any money. Find somebody that doesn’t have what you have and partner up with them. And then eventually.

You know, to do development, you really need mainly two things. You need knowledge and you need money or access to money. And the first thing is gaining that knowledge and understanding what to do. And then the second part is having money of your own or partnering up with somebody that has money, or figuring out how to raise capital to do that. And then you could do whatever you need to do. Start small, make your mistakes. You’re gonna make mistakes early on.

So make those mistakes on a smaller project, and that’s going to be your lesson, or else you’re gonna have a very expensive lesson. And then as you feel more comfortable, if it’s something that you want to do, you know, start to do bigger things or different things to learn different aspects. There’s no right or wrong answer. Just because somebody’s building high-rises doesn’t mean you need to do high-rises. Like that’s not the next level in what you do. There’s plenty of people that make a great living and make a lot of money off of buying single-family homes or building single-family homes or renting single-family homes out. And then there’s people that focus on small multis or, you know, middle-sized multifamily, whatever mid, you know, like a medium size would look like. And there’s some people that focus on the large stuff. There’s no right or wrong answer, but figure out what it is that you want to do and what you want to focus on. You don’t need to decide that from day one, but eventually you figure that out and dive deep into that and become the expert in that.

And either be the you could be the I mean preferably for me, I like to be the big guy of the small guys. Like I’m doing, you know, I say small- to mid-size stuff for me, you know, 10- to 40-unit buildings is kind of the the wheelhouse for us. And I’m not trying to compete with the with the people that are doing hundred, two hundred, three hundred unit buildings. I I’m not competing in that. So figure out what the niche is that you’re gonna do and invest in it and network in it and, and be the best at it. Be your reputation is really, really important throughout your entire life and your career, not just in real estate, but everything. And especially if you want to have a long career in this business, you know, don’t screw people over. Do what you say you’re going to do, have integrity and you know, focus on having some longevity in this business. So I’ll stop with that because I could talk for an hour on this stuff.

Issa Hanna (14:19)
Golden advice, man. Everything you just came out of your mouth was great and I love the integrity, the honesty. You know, like I was saying earlier before you started, before you gave us your answer, you’re sprinkling those seeds, guys. So when you are dealing with clients, these clients are not just a one-off, one commission check. They will be a one-off, one commission check if you don’t deal with them honestly and with integrity.

But if you do and they like you and you take care of them, like Noah was saying, they’re a seed. You’re gonna get that one commission check, and then that whole garden is gonna bloom. So man, like I said, great, great advice. Now I want to shift a little bit into the future, right? We all kind of ponder, we’re all visionaries in the real estate game, and we all ponder five years from now, I wanna be here. So let me hear your five years from now. Where are you doing?

Noah Ostroff (15:52)
Well, you know, we always live by the saying you’re never you’re never more than five years away from where you want to be in your life. And even if you’re not where you want to be today, you can be where you want to be in five years if you, you know, focus on it and put effort into it. For me, my goal has always been to build wealth. And for me, wealth is having one dollar more of passive income than you have in personal expenses. So you can have the freedom to do what you want to do when you want to do it.

And for me, it was when my kids all get to college, which is next year, I’ll be an empty nester next year. Once they’re all in college, I wanted to be able to travel the world and work because I want to work, not because I have to work. But you have to start doing that early on and planting the seeds early on. It doesn’t, you don’t become an overnight success overnight, right? It takes many, many years of doing the right things and being consistent with those things and just continuing to chip away. And it’s a it’s a series of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of decisions throughout your life and throughout your career that are going to help build that wealth and build stuff into the future. So by focusing on starting to do that now or whatever now means to you and doesn’t matter the age of how you are, whether you’re 20 years old or 60 years old, it doesn’t matter how old you are.

You can start doing that stuff now. And within five years, you can have passive income. The question I ask a lot of people is if you stop working today, if you’re a real estate agent, if you stop selling houses today, or if you have a job and you got fired from it or you got sick, or something happened to you where you didn’t have money coming in tomorrow, how much of your passive income can cover your personal expenses? And for some people, it’s zero.

Right. And for some people it’s not enough to cover all of their expenses. And that’s eye-opening for a lot of people. So the key is to focus on that and to build up that wealth and to build up that passive income and chip away every single year. And maybe this year it’s enough to pay for a couple dinners a month. And next year it’s enough to pay your car payment and then your mortgage and then so on and so forth until you get to the point where you can cover all of your expenses with your passive income.

So I would make sure that’s a big focus for everybody who’s listening today. If you’re real estate agent, you have opportunity. If you’re a doctor or a lawyer or somebody that, you know, makes a lot of money but doesn’t have a lot of time or a lot of access to deals. Well, you have opportunity too. Partner up with somebody who has access to the deals, right? There’s always somebody that you can become partners with or get into business with that brings something to the table that you’re not bringing to the table right now so you can focus on your wealth. Whether you’re investing with other people or whether you’re doing it yourself, it’s something that you should be focused on and chipping away at every single year, because that’s the business of the future.

Issa Hanna (18:48)
Viewers at home, make sure you guys save this. Make sure you listen to it multiple times because everything Noah’s saying right now are literally strategies and keys to success. So you you know, unbelievable. It’s not very often we get somebody who who’s giving us so much, so much knowledge and so many steps on how to get up there. So man, Noah, I’m loving all this info, brother. And then now I wanna give you the floor. I wanna give you a chance to plug whatever you want to plug, and whatever you want to get out there.

Noah Ostroff (19:20)
Yeah, I mean, I’m not really looking to plug anything except for if you’re looking to gain some more knowledge on different things, you know, I’d recommend grabbing the books that I wrote, *Recognizing Opportunity*. It’s a good one. You can get it on Amazon or you can get it in I guess a bunch of different places, but Amazon’s probably the easiest.

And then this one too, *No One’s Coming: The Motivation You Need to Take Back Your Life*. Also can get it on Amazon. I think these are both good, have a lot of good gold nuggets in it, give you a little window into my brain and how I think and some practical tips and life things that you can take with you throughout your life. I’m working on a new book now about wealth and wealth building that hopefully I’ll have out early next year or at some point whenever I finish writing it. And, you know, I’m always I’m always teaching. If you’re in Philadelphia, I’m always teaching different aspects of how to become successful and how to get into real estate and do that. But yeah, that’s about it. Nothing really to plug. If you’re looking to buy or sell real estate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey or Florida, come talk to us.

Issa Hanna (20:31)
Make sure you guys check out Noah. Check those books out just because this twenty minutes that we’ve had Noah on, he’s dropped so much knowledge on us. Imagine the books. What do you got in those books? So make sure you check those books out. Make sure you check out if you’re in Philly, Jersey or Florida. He’s nationwide with it. Noah, thank you so much for coming on the show. On behalf of Investor Fuel, I’d like to give you such thanks for coming on. You totally graced our show with your presence today. Thank you.

Noah Ostroff (21:00)
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Issa Hanna (21:02)
Thank you. And to our viewers at home, if you enjoyed my conversation, want to see more like it, make sure to hit like and subscribe. I talk to people every day that can bring us different knowledge on every aspect of the real estate industry. Until next time, the Real Estate Pros are out.