Turn Tax Deductions Into Wealth Through Real Estate Investing and Smart Strategy

Brian Boyd (00:00)
Yeah, so I do want to reach out to the viewers or the listeners and tell them that, look, yes, this is a it’s a tax play, but it’s also a wealth generation play for you. And. You know, you cannot get your second property until you get your first. You have to take that step first. You have to dive in. If you’ve got analysis paralysis, call somebody, call a friend, call a mentor, call anybody.

listen to a podcast, read a book about it, but you need to jump in because the best time to have purchased real estate was yesterday

Quentin (02:06)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds and I’m excited to be here today. I am excited about my guest. ⁓ man, a wealth of knowledge. mean, he’s going to hit you probably from so many different areas and with so much information and experience. so he’s a practicing tax lawyer, but he’s also an investor. And I’m telling you again, you know, we’re going to glean a lot of experience from the gentleman here. And so I’m excited. I’m excited for us to learn.

from Mr. Brian Boyd. Mr. Brian, how you doing today sir?

Brian Boyd (02:38)
I’m doing well, Quentin thanks for having me today. It’s a pleasure to be here. And I think we have a lot of information to share with your listeners.

Quentin (02:45)
Absolutely, man. No doubt about it. So listen, Brian, I’m the type I like to dive right in, right? So I would love for you to tell the people, what’s your main focus these days? If you don’t mind, give us a little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got into the space that you’re in. And then, man, tell us what part of the world you’re in. People love to know where you are geographically. So Mr. Brian, sir you have the floor, man.

Brian Boyd (02:50)
Let’s do it.

Absolutely. So I live in Franklin, Tennessee. I’m a member of the law firm of Thompson-Burton. We have offices in Nashville, Franklin, and Huntsville, Alabama. We also have an outpost up in DC, up near your area. ⁓ So I graduated college at the University of Tennessee. I went to law school at Sanford University in Birmingham, Alabama. Then I matriculated to Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC and earned an LLM in taxation. From there,

I worked at Ernst & Young and their corporate tax division in Washington, DC. ⁓ And finally made my way back home to the South where, you know, I moved to Nashville, had my own practice for 16 years and then joined this firm a few years ago as the tax attorney overseeing most of the transactions that we have going on. Like I said, in our pre-call conversation prior to the podcast, I worked at a firm that

you know, is heavily involved in real estate. So if you come to Nashville and you see all the cranes in the air, this firm is touching every single crane. So we are heavily involved in real estate development, investment, transactions, anything that’s going on real estate wise. We’re probably touching it. We have the largest land use group in the state, if not the Southeast, and we are really excited about the things that are going on here in Nashville. Now, my journey into real estate is

It’s kind of a fell into it backwards in 2015. I think I worked 50 out of 52 Saturdays that year. And I can’t tell you how many Sundays I worked. So I was out Turkey hunting with one of my clients and he was like, Hey, have you ever thought about getting into laundry mats? And I was like, no, I’ve never thought about getting into laundry mats. And he was like, well, let me talk you through it. Cause that’s his business. That’s what he does.

So we started talking through it and I started putting my ⁓ tax attorney hat on and I’m like, well, wait a minute, I bet I could offset some of my income with this and make money while I sleep. So lo and behold, I took my money out of my retirement account, I took the penalties, I opened up a coin laundry and I sold it a year later and I did four things with that money. I bought my wife a new wedding ring, I paid off a student loan, I bought some hunting guns.

Quentin (05:54)
Mmm.

Brian Boyd (06:12)
and I bought my first Airbnb and that was the beginning of, you know, owning and managing a real estate portfolio that now has 20 properties. And we have 16 units down in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We have two cabins in Gatlinburg. We have an Airbnb in Nashville and an Airbnb in Montana. So we are heavily involved, not only in the short-term market, but also the long-term and multifamily. And

2023, we decided that we wanted to pivot a little bit of our portfolio. We dedicate 25 % of our portfolio to affordable housing. So we are trying to give back. My wife and I are both from Chattanooga, Tennessee, so we are heavily invested there. ⁓ But we take 25 % of that portfolio and we dedicate it strictly to Section 8. Not that these houses are

lower in quality, in fact, you have to do a lot more to these houses to get them up to the standards of Section 8, but we do that to give back to the community. And by doing that, we believe not only the success that we’ve achieved in life, but in the community where we come from, this is our way of giving back. So that’s who we are.

We self-manage our own portfolio. We leverage technology, whether it’s through our online property management platform, Buildium, to using for making it a little bit more affordable for people to move into properties. ⁓ And then we have a dedicated maintenance van on the ground in Chattanooga to go out and…

handle anything that may come up during the day because we’re in Nashville and the properties are two hours away. But that’s who we are in a nutshell. We currently are selling our portfolio in Chattanooga. It’s an eight cap. ⁓ It’s 16 doors, multifamily and single family. And we’re just pivoting into another niche of the real estate investing world right now. We’ve actually outrun all of our depreciation. We’ve already cost sagged and bonus depreciated everything.

So it’s time for us to pass this portfolio along to somebody else who can benefit from it. But that’s who we are in a nutshell. My wife is really the brains behind the operation. I just kind of do all the paperwork and the leases and things like that. And then in the unfortunate event, I have to go evict somebody, I’ll go down to court and I’ll take care of that myself. But that’s who we are. That’s what we do.

Quentin (08:45)
Gotcha.

Love it, man. So you the beauty and the brawn and your wife is the brain, right? So, yeah. I love it, man. I love it.

Brian Boyd (08:51)
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. She’s the one that tells me what to do and I just go do it. you know, I don’t know how

many listeners have ever heard this adage, but happy wife, happy life. That’s very true. That’s very true. So.

Quentin (09:03)
Your mom? Yeah. So true.

⁓ Me and my wife, strive for happy house, happy spouse, but you and I both know, happy life. You know?

Brian Boyd (09:13)
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. That’s

exactly how it works.

Quentin (09:20)
man, so Brian, thank you, man. Thank you for taking us through the journey of where you are, how you got there, what you’re doing now. I was actively listening and I kind of just had to stop writing, man. As you was talking, I just had to stop. I I was writing stuff down as you was talking, but I was like, okay, I just got to stop in. So I actively listened because I kind of want to give you a brief summary of what you said. I want to make a statement and I want to ask you a question, right? And so.

You live in Tennessee. You went to University of Tennessee, did law at Stanford, then you wound up coming to Georgetown. You did 16 years of your own practice before joining the firm that you’re at now. And you guys just, I mean, y’all got your hands on everything. Y’all do just heavy involvement in real estate, development, investing, just heavy involvement. In you said you worked probably 50 out of the 52 Saturdays.

and can’t even tell Sundays, we ain’t even getting into that. But, and then, know, you were out, you know, doing some turkey hunting and a friend bought up about laundromats. And then you took some money out and you kind of just hit the ground running. You did some things with the money. They kind of just involved to your real estate journey and kind of where you are now. Is that a pretty good summary pretty much? Yeah.

Brian Boyd (10:51)
Yeah.

Yeah, that’s

a good summary. And let me touch on the reason that I got into the laundromats was much like many of your listeners out there, there are only so many hours in the day. And for me, I noticed that I wasn’t being a good husband. I wasn’t being a good father. I wasn’t being a good friend. I was being a really good lawyer, but I was living at the office and my family deserves more than

And so I looked at real estate and the laundromat was an entree into real estate as a way to make money while I sleep so I can spend more time with my family. And I think a lot of the listeners out there, especially that are involved in real estate, they look at real estate as a way to supplement income so they can maybe take a step back. And that is exactly how I looked into it. But when I decided to jump in, I did so with the idea that

there are also all these tax benefits that come along with real estate investing. So while I make a good living and my wife makes a good living, we could do with paying a few less dollars in taxes every year. So I dug into cost segregation studies, I learned about 1031 exchanges. Yeah, you learn all this in tax class at Georgetown or even in law school, but…

Quentin (12:19)
to

Brian Boyd (12:31)
the nuances of all those code sections are, you know, they’re substantial. So what you have to do is you have to really get your hands around it to understand how it works. For example, the real estate professional status that a lot of people are looking to achieve under section 469 of the tax code requires 750 hours a year minimum. And you have to have more than 50 % of your time and efforts.

in real estate investing. So even if you are a W-2 and you’re working 750 hours there, you have to work 751 hours in real estate to make yourself a real estate professional. A lot of people miss that little nugget right there, but all of that is to say that our real estate journey has been phenomenal. We get tax returns back every year or refunds back every year.

⁓ And we take that money and we throw it on our debt for our properties to pay them down so they cash flow better. So that is another really tangible benefit to real estate investing for your listeners to hold onto is that, hey, this can generate almost like a tax shelter for you because it does generate tax deductions. If you do it right, if you don’t do it right,

Well, then it’s going to stay in a passive bucket and you’re not going to be able to unlock those until you have a disposition of that asset. So for your listeners out there, please talk to your accountants, talk to your attorneys. You know, there is a way to do this that can benefit you, but let’s make sure you do it right.

Quentin (14:00)
Yeah, yeah. I love it. I love it. I love it, man. And I want to dig a little bit more into you because I love how when I gave the summary, you instantly went to why you chose Laundry Mads. It was a way to free up your time for your family. Right. So my wife and I, we have a saying where we say your presence is a present. You being present is a present. Right. So with that summary, with the journey that you’ve been on. So I have a saying, I say destiny has no wasted moments. Right.

I if we reflect back and look, the journey has been building us momentum to the people that we are now. It’s kind of forging our purpose, our why. And so I want to dig a little bit more into you. I would love to know your journey, the moments, the moments that’s been built into where you are now. What have they taught you about yourself? What have they revealed to you about you? Has it revealed discipline, resilience? Has it changed the way you look at innovation? Like, what is the journey revealed to you about yourself?

Brian Boyd (15:37)
So I think the journey, the real estate journey that I’ve been on has taught me that I really enjoy the teaching of real estate. I don’t know that I could say I enjoy doing the deal, right? A lot of people are chasing the deal. They love the deal. For me, I look at the deal and I’m like, okay, well, let’s just pencil it out and see if it works. And if it works, fine. There’s so many people out there, they’re just…

Quentin (15:52)
Yeah, gotcha.

Brian Boyd (16:03)
They’re hungry for the next deal, hungry for the next deal. I’m not. I am really happy with a very stable real estate portfolio, but showing people how real estate can change your life. I saw a statistic recently that 85 % of all millionaires in the United States were created through real estate. And it is a tried and true method to create generational wealth.

And I think you, me, anybody listening, you wanna give your family more than you had. And that is the goal for me and my wife. We want to give our son more than we had. And real estate has allowed that to happen.

Quentin (16:44)
I love it, man. So you are hitting on a topic I love to hit on. I always love to hear people’s unique perspective when it comes to the word relationship. So you bought up your wife, bought up your family. You didn’t talk about, you know, slurring yourself when you’re present for your family, but also you got business relationships, right? So when you hear the word relationship, what comes to mind for you?

Brian Boyd (17:07)
So when I hear relationship, I think of friends because many of my clients, I have a relationship outside of the attorney-client relationship. ⁓ For example, I’ve got a client up in New Hampshire, I’ve got a client in Baltimore, I’ve got a client down in Texas, and they all know each other. It’s like this little group and they’re just so intermingled with each other. And so, you know, we’ll be talking about something on a group text together and

Quentin (17:10)
Hmm.

Brian Boyd (17:36)
You know, it just suddenly, well, did you see this and we should do a podcast on that or you should do a video, Brian or Jeff, you should, you should talk about this on your next podcast or Brandon mentioned this in your next mastermind. So these are just things that I think only enhance the real estate investing world because everybody wants to help each other. I don’t look at real estate investing as a closed world. I think there’s something there for everybody.

everybody, whether you have a million dollars or you have $0, there is a way for somebody to get involved in real estate. Whether it’s bird dogging a deal and getting a piece of equity for that or your property managing for somebody and you get a piece of equity for that or you found the deal, but you don’t have the money. Well, there’s money out there. We can raise money. That’s doable, but let’s get the deal. And so

For those that don’t have money, those are things you can do. But for those that do have money, they’re always looking for operators, always. And so, hey, you may not have the money, but this guy’s got the money and you’ve got the time, let’s put you guys together. And I think to a person I have met in the real estate investing world, everybody would say that, like there’s room for everybody. Everybody has a seat at the table.

Quentin (18:52)
Yeah.

Come on. Well, I totally believe in no competition, just collaboration. Everybody got to see that table. And so I absolutely love that, man. Absolutely love that. Now, I know you mentioned that you’re about to try to transition selling off the portfolios, but I want to ask, I want to ask this question cleanly so you can expound on that. Maybe give me more. may just be the same answer, but I would love to know what’s next for you, man. What’s the next real goal? What are you looking to solve a scale next?

Brian Boyd (19:20)
So the next goal for us is to sell our real estate portfolio in Chattanooga. It’s an eight cap and we’re going to pivot into self storage. And the reason I like self storage is I’ve done the landlord thing. I’ve done dealing with HOAs. I’ve dealt with codes, variances. I’ve dealt with tenants that don’t pay rent. I’ve dealt with destruction to property. That’s fine. It’s all part and parcel of being a real estate.

investor and you’re going to deal with that. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in the business, you’re going to deal with it at some point. For my wife and I, we have four more years until our son goes off to college. And I would rather not spend my time dealing with tenants that I’m going to have to evict or I’ve got to go deal with ⁓ city council over a codes issue or something like that. So we’re going to pivot into self storage and it keeps our feet

firmly planted in the real estate investing world, but gives us more free time on a day-to-day basis. Now, is it sexy? No, not at all. There’s nothing sexy about it. It’s a corrugated steel building on a concrete

right? And it might have a garage door that swings open and a light switch over on the side. There’s nothing sexy about that. You can’t make it attractive. You can’t make it an Airbnb that’s gonna rent more than it did last year. It’s just not possible.

but it keeps us in that world and it keeps us moving towards a goal of creating a little portfolio or even a large portfolio that will sustain us as we move into retirement in the next 10 to 15 years.

Quentin (20:56)
Yeah. Man, Brian, sir, I love the way you think. Got a lot, a lot figured out, man. And I’m just going to open up this space a little bit more. Is there any topic that I have not brought up that you would like to talk about? Is there any other words of inspiration, education, motivation? Like maybe you came in with, you know, a thought on your mind that you wanted our listeners to know. I kind of want to open up the floor so you can land that message if there’s something like that.

Brian Boyd (21:21)
Yeah, so I do want to reach out to the viewers or the listeners and tell them that, look, yes, this is a it’s a tax play, but it’s also a wealth generation play for you. And. You know, you cannot get your second property until you get your first. You have to take that step first. You have to dive in. If you’ve got analysis paralysis, call somebody, call a friend, call a mentor, call anybody.

listen to a podcast, read a book about it, but you need to jump in because the best time to have purchased real estate was

The next best time is today. Tomorrow, it’s gonna be here, but is the deal gonna be as good as it was two days ago? And if you think about real estate like that, and you have that passion to grow your wealth and do better than what you came from, then I think you’re gonna really enjoy your real estate.

experience and journey because that’s what it is. It is a journey.

Quentin (22:18)
Yeah, yeah. Brian, sir, man, thank you so much, sir. Listen, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you,

Brian Boyd (22:30)
Absolutely. So you can find me on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube as BrianTBoyd or Brian Boyd. And on YouTube, it’s ⁓ your tax lawyer, Brian Boyd. ⁓ I put up videos, long form videos every two weeks on YouTube. I’ve got short forms going up just about every day. But all that information is there to help people save money on taxes, get into real estate investing, and

grow your own wealth and save money while doing it. Because at the end of the day, all we have is our legacy to leave behind. And my legacy is in that little boy that’s at home right now and making sure his life is better than the life I

Quentin (23:08)
Man, oh man, you know, that’s so, your last statement is something that my dad used to preach over and over. He used to say, Quentin, I’m gonna give you everything that I have, so that everything that I have combined with what you’re gonna do should take you much farther than I’ve ever been. And so, man, from somebody whose dad have done that for me, man, a year of setting your son up for just an astronomical springboard. And so just,

Hats off to you, man. And I want to say three things to you very sincerely. One, thank you for your time, As you just said, you are doing putting things in position so that you can free up your time, free up your stress. And as a lawyer, know time is a precious commodity. Like we can put a premium on time, you know what saying? thank you for your time. And Mr. Brian, please don’t send us no invoice, please. But no, but thank you for your time. I appreciate it.

Brian Boyd (23:53)
yeah. yeah.

Hahaha!

Absolutely.

Quentin (24:04)
Secondly, man, thank you for your story, sir. Thank you for your narrative, the gift of your vulnerability, the gift of your transparency. I believe stories have a way of planting seeds in people. We may never see the growth, but the seed is there. And that seed can spring up at any given time once it takes root. And it can be two years from now, five years from now. So thank you for planting seeds that can really course correct somebody’s life. lastly, man, thank you for your mindset.

that you have paid for with money, with experience. And so thank you for your mindset and bringing that mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate you, sir.

Brian Boyd (24:37)
Absolutely, Quentin. It’s great being here. Thanks for having me and everybody out there. Best of luck in your journey.

Quentin (24:43)
Yeah, yeah. Well, listen, y’all heard Mr. Brian. His information is in the show notes. I’m sorry, we talk about your book?

Brian Boyd (24:51)
So I’ve written two books. I

wrote one on real estate investing. It’s called A Lawyer’s Guide to Real Estate Investing. So it’s finding, it’s Replace Your Income, A Lawyer’s Guide to Finding Funding and Managing Your Real Estate Investments. And then I recently wrote another book called Turn Tax Deductions Into Wealth. And that’s for W2 earners and entrepreneurs alike. It’s a very short 120 pages thereabouts, and there’s something in it for everybody.

So look, if you can save yourself some money, please do. Take that money and invest it in yourself.

Quentin (25:26)
Yeah. So listen, I had to have him say that because I want all that information to be in the show notes. I want you to get in contact with him, get the books, reach out to him, let him help you. Right. And so definitely reach out to Mr. Brian, but definitely make sure you are subscribed here because I promise you we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Mr. Brian. So, sir, I say thank you again. And everyone else, listen, you’ll have a fantastic day.