Using Credit Cards and Bank Capital to Build a Real Estate Portfolio

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Show Summary

In this conversation, Brandon Elliott, founder and CEO of Credit Counsel Elite, shares his inspiring journey from a challenging upbringing to becoming a successful real estate investor. He discusses the importance of leveraging credit to access capital, the benefits of investing in multifamily properties, and strategies for finding lucrative real estate deals. Brandon emphasizes the significance of networking, education, and understanding the difference between good and bad debt in achieving financial success through real estate.

Resources and Links from this show:

• • • Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
    • Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
    • Mike on Facebook
    • Mike on Instagram
    • Mike on LinkedIn
    • Credit Counsel Elite Website
    • Credit Counsel Elite LinkedIn
    • Credit Counsel Elite Facebook
    • Credit Counsel Elite Instagram
    • Brandon Elliott Investments Instagram

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Brandon Elliott (00:00)
  what I did was just get creative. When there’s a will, there’s a way. I had some credit cards that I was doing mistakenly the things that were correct. And so, every six months I would ask for a credit limit increase. I was always paying my bills off each and every day. So, whenever I would use the credit card, I would pay it off later on that day because I wanted the points.

  and I didn’t want to get into debt.

  Dylan Silver (01:53)
  Hey, folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest, Brandon Elliott, is the founder and CEO of Credit Council Elite, teaching entrepreneurs and investors how to strategically leverage credit to access capital and build wealth through real estate. Brandon, welcome to the show.

  Brandon Elliott (02:13)
  What’s up Dylan. Appreciate you having me on man. Excited to be here.

  Dylan Silver (02:16)
  It’s great to have.

  Absolutely. It’s great to have you on here. And I always like to start off at the top of the show by asking guests really how they got started in real estate. But you’ve got, you know, access to not just the real estate perspective, but also, you know, the access to capital and credit, which sometimes gets overlooked when you’re just looking at deals, right?

  Brandon Elliott (02:36)
  For sure, yeah. Yeah, a little bit about how I first got started was, well, first off, I’m born and raised in New Jersey, grew up with a single parent mom. ⁓ She was labeled manic depressive bipolar at a young age, raised three misfits, me and my two sisters. And we grew up, I always say like American poor, quote unquote. When you get to travel the world, you start seeing that

  There’s levels of poor and here in America, like there’s food stamps, there’s section eight housing, there’s government assistance. We had all that stuff. also were very blessed to have help from local churches and local schools around the holidays and so forth. So I’m very blessed, but that was also, you know, my motivation was I was tired of the lights getting turned off, bills not being paid and getting threatened to get kicked out of our

  our home each and every time when we’re renting. So I got a job when I was young, I was 12 when I got my first job. I was desperately trying at age nine, running around the golf courses locally to see if I could collect any of the golf balls until they kept on denying me and laughing a little bit. But I did get my first job at age 12 and fast forward.

  I fell in love with real estate from a lot of problems that I was kind of running into. I guess backtrack. When I was growing up, I ended up working at these restaurants at age 12 and there were people around me smoking weed, marijuana, all the things. And so I got into that at a young age and that

  Dylan Silver (04:09)
  Yeah.

  Brandon Elliott (04:13)
  kind of took me down this rabbit hole of selling drugs and doing drugs and all the other things. So long story short, I ended up trying to change my life in 2011 and I was doing door knocking for Kirby vacuum cleaners.

  Dylan Silver (04:30)
  Yeah.

  Brandon Elliott (05:18)
  And that’s where I got recruited into a real estate company. And that’s what changed my life. I got education, I got motivation and I got positioned to start

  going down this rabbit hole of figuring out how to jump into real estate. And fast forward, once I jumped into real estate 2015, now we have 14 million in real estate assets. We collect about 50,000 a month off cashflow. We have no money into any of it. We’ve done the BRRR strategy on everything. We get a few million in tax write-offs and about 4.3 million in equity. And the cool part, it was all done through the power of credit.

  And, you know, good credit, not, there’s a big difference between bad debt and good debt. And so we utilize the leverage of smart capital to be able to do that.

  Dylan Silver (06:03)
  There’s a term for this. I’m forgetting the name of it. Is it like credit stacking or ⁓ credit card stacking? Is there a term for this that I’m butchering here?

  Brandon Elliott (06:13)
  No, no, you are correct. So that is a widely ranged common term that people use for it. What we call it here at Credit Council Elite is a mass apply. And a mass apply is literally just an application sequence. When done correctly, you can be able to apply for anywhere from 10 to 50 plus applications over typically about a 30 day timeframe.

  getting up to 90 % approval odds, which is a big deal. So you’re not wasting your time, you’re not winging it. You’re getting the highest limits possible and you’re getting the best terms and conditions. So it’s not just credit cards, it’s all types of financial products. But of course the 0 % interest stuff is always gonna be in the form of credit cards.

  Dylan Silver (06:56)
  want to actually back up your ear from New Jersey. I’m actually from New Jersey. We were talking a little bit before hopping on the show. I live outside the US right now. And I’m a Texas licensed realtor. But I grew up in northern New Jersey in the Caldwells. Where are you out of New Jersey? Where’d you grew up?

  Brandon Elliott (07:11)
  Exit 17, so the very bottom half an hour, about 30 minutes south from Atlantic City.

  Dylan Silver (07:18)
  Okay, I’m ashamed to say this. I’m from New Jersey. I’ve never been to Atlantic City. Shame on me. But you know, one of the interesting things. Thank you. I really do have to go just for, you know, the ability to say that I’ve been there being from New Jersey. one of the things that’s unique about Jersey is that, you know, over the course of my lifetime, I’ve seen, you know, how costly things have

  Brandon Elliott (07:24)
  Yeah, you’re not missing anything.

  Yeah.

  Dylan Silver (07:42)
  gone and where I grew up in in northern New Jersey, about 30 miles outside of New York City, like the average price of homes in those neighborhoods, I don’t know exactly what it is, but it’s got to be somewhere around $800 900,000. I don’t know that for sure. So don’t quote me on that. But I mean, you have to think you have to think like a real estate investor just to own your own home out there.

  Brandon Elliott (08:03)
  Yeah. Yeah, for sure. know, markets have changed a bunch over the years and yeah, it’s that that market particularly, you know, the top hour of New Jersey, it’s only three hours in total, but the top hour is really like the city. It’s it’s basically the second extension of New York. And so yeah, there’s the market from supply and demand has been increasing for sure and driving up these prices.

  But there’s always incredible opportunities in any market for sure.

  Dylan Silver (08:31)
  Now, when you started getting involved in investing yourself personally building your personal portfolio, were you strictly looking at single family homes? And was that the asset class that you were exploring deals?

  Brandon Elliott (08:42)
  I was looking at residential multifamily. So anything that’s four units and under, my first deal was a single family house, but my second one, two months later to the day, I ended up buying a triplex and that one actually saved me the most because I was only saving that first single family house. I went through five contractors. It took a year when it should have taken 60 days.

  Dylan Silver (09:04)
  Yes.

  Brandon Elliott (09:42)
  I spent a lot more money, I got screwed over by contractors, you name it, but that triplex, it had one roof, it had three tenants, it had cashflow, it just had opportunity to save me basically.

  Dylan Silver (09:56)
  Now, when we talk about getting involved in small multifamily, the triplex, for instance, I’ve now seen right now, and I don’t know how long this has been going on for, but right now it almost seems like, if you’re going to be investing in real estate, you might as well get like a duplex, triplex, quadplex, because the access to capital is even more feasible than in a single family home. Since you’re involved in this space, what’s your thoughts on?

  Brandon Elliott (10:19)
  Yeah, I think, I think in any market, I think there’s always opportunities. think they’re, I think, you know, residential multifamily, it’s always been a great position for the simple fact that it’s the same type of financing options as a single family house, except now you have the, debt to income ratio. Like you, you have the other units that are rented out to

  you know, help offset your expenses. And so I think there’s a lot of great opportunities there. But yeah, it just comes down to like, I’m personally not taking down a dozen properties per month.

  Dylan Silver (10:56)
  Sure.

  Brandon Elliott (10:57)
  I’m

  not taking down a dozen properties per year. literally focus on just one or two deals per year and I aim for home runs, like grand slams in fact. Like if it’s making less than a quarter million when I’m really, aiming for about a half a million on each deal. If it’s making less than a quarter million, conservatively, I’m not even touching it. I’ll pass on it. So it’s all about just strategically knowing what you want.

  focusing on the numbers, being conservative, then, know, dialing in your marketing and your offers at the end of the day.

  Dylan Silver (11:32)
  How do we find these grand slam deals? When we talk about that kind of scale, you really have to thread the needle there. Are you looking for someone who’s a distressed seller? Are you looking for a big value add scenario? What’s the scenario where that will end up panning out like?

  Brandon Elliott (11:49)
  Yeah, it’s, it’s, it all comes down to you networking with other individuals, like wholesalers that are doing all that grunt work. Like, you know, we don’t have a business in real estate. We just own real estate and handle business through real estate with.

  with the real estate, like I’m not doing any marketing. I’m networking with people and I’m convincing them that I can perform and I can close on the deal if they send me a deal that fits within my box that I want. So I get a bunch of wholesalers and contacts and resources that are sending me deals all throughout the week. so, you know, and people don’t waste my time because I…

  You know, I cut them off if they’re going to send me some BS or think that I’m going to be their average, everyday buyer. I’m going to take down a home run deal once or twice a year that really, really, really makes sense. And so what I’ve also done in the past is just networking within my own neighborhood. You know, I’ve closed four different deals within my own neighborhood. And it’s only for the simple fact that

  Dylan Silver (12:53)
  Wow.

  Brandon Elliott (12:57)
  that I’ve networked with other people, they know what I do. We negotiated terms versus price and without a realtor and all these other things to get more creative. And so it really just starts off with, I wouldn’t have been able to do any of that without the education and sometimes doing the work. You could read all the books, all the podcasts, all the YouTube like this, it’s like,

  But you actually implementing these things and doing it, you start getting more confidence throughout the process and you can kind of not just talk the talk, but walk the walk. And so that’s where experience over time starts kicking in and you can be more bold with knowing that you really have a solution. You have a solve to many people’s problems.

  Dylan Silver (14:25)
  Yeah, I mean, that’s the name of the game, right? It’s about, you know, being able to solve the problem. That’s where the money is made, because otherwise, you know, not only could anybody do it, but then also to they can probably do it themselves. So like if folks are finding themselves in a situation where there is some distress either in the property or themselves, you know, financially, or it could be, you know, probate issue. There’s so many things that come into play, where these deals come into distress.

  I do want to pivot though here Brandon and ask you specifically about leveraging credit. is a space that I’ve heard more and more about and when you showed that stack of cards, put up that stack of cards again. That was impressive.

  Yeah, when you showed that stack of cars at the beginning there, I said, that’s, that’s, that’s something that’s something else, right? Because when people traditionally think about, you know, investing in real estate, they’re thinking of this massive, you know, nest egg that takes decades to build up, or they’re having to go to family or, you know, raise tons of capital. But now there’s there’s another strategy here. And

  Brandon Elliott (15:21)
  Yes.

  Dylan Silver (15:29)
  without giving away all the gold, right? But just a gold nugget. If folks are looking at, what’s the first steps to getting started on that path? What advice would you give them?

  Brandon Elliott (15:39)
  Yeah, I love that and I don’t hold anything back. I’ll definitely be very blunt always. You know, I can’t relate with that more than exactly what you just said. At the end of the day, everybody, when I was networking initially, I was noticing, you know, back in 2013, 14, 15, everybody wants to do real estate. Everybody. There’s not one person that’s like, no, I don’t want anything to do with real estate. I don’t like cashflow. I don’t like tax benefits. I don’t like appreciation. You know, like

  I’ve never met one person that says they don’t want it. However, to be able to fund that real estate, so many people overcomplicate it. And that’s exactly what I was seeing all the time. They kept on telling me, like, when I would ask them, cool, when are you gonna jump into real estate? They would say, well, once I’m successful over here and this business makes money, then I’ll take that money and I’ll put it into real estate. But I was looking at it I’m like, man, what if that takes five, 10 years? Or what if it never happens?

  And so for me personally, when there’s a will, there’s a way. I didn’t grow up rich. didn’t have any, you know, uncles or friends, family. I grew up American poor. I had no idea that anybody would ever lend out money. and I didn’t have anybody in my circle that would. So the only thing that I thought of is, is banks. However, I didn’t qualify for traditional, you know, financing.

  Dylan Silver (16:47)
  Yeah.

  Brandon Elliott (16:59)
  And so, because I was working in restaurants, you know? And so,

  what I did was just get creative. When there’s a will, there’s a way. I had some credit cards that I was doing mistakenly the things that were correct. And so, every six months I would ask for a credit limit increase. I was always paying my bills off each and every day. So, whenever I would use the credit card, I would pay it off later on that day because I wanted the points.

  and I didn’t want to get into debt.

  So I used my credit cards as if it was a debit card. And so doing that, I was able to get credit limit increases, a bunch of points, and over time, I started realizing they were giving these introductory offers of 0 % balance transfer or cash advance, quote unquote, but at the promotional rate. So it wasn’t the mafia rates that everybody assumes.

  with credit cards. And so how I looked at it is, hey, if I can get my credit card, the whole credit limit to liquidate it into cash into my bank account, and I have these $60,000, $80,000 credit limits, that could actually, you know, for 18 months at 0 % interest, that gives me lot of freedom to buy properties, renovate them, complete the whole BRRRR strategy. You know, like,

  rent it out and refinance it, get all my money back and instead of getting a one-time cash out from a fix and flip, I’ll actually just get all my money back. It will cash flow and this will start getting me, you know, the tax benefits, the appreciation and the overall cash flow that I need to leave my day job. And it was just, it’s just doing the numbers. It’s basic numbers, but it’s, it’s identifying the difference between good debt and bad debt. That’s all it is.

  Dylan Silver (18:34)
  Yeah.

  It’s amazing because it flips the typical sentiment about credit cards on their head, right? People talk about consumer debt. And you’re basically saying, hey, I’m going to take this instrument that’s made for consumer debt and put it in a put it in a real estate. We are we are coming up on time here, though, Brandon. Where can our audience go? Where can folks go to learn more about you and your business? Any new projects that you’re working on as well that you’d like to get out to our audience?

  Brandon Elliott (18:54)
  Yeah.

  For sure, yeah. So we do a free webinar once a week. They can go to creditcounselelite.com to register for that or that’s www.creditcounselelite.com. Otherwise on Instagram, it’s Brandon Elliott Investments or our business page on Instagram is Credit Council Elite. We also are doing a monthly three-day virtual event. We’ve seen people get incredible breakthroughs because we are

  teaching the whole process over a jam packed weekend to really make sure that the fire hose is open, but you can soak it all up. You can get your questions answered and you can get true, like real results that really matter over that timeframe. And so we have tickets available for that. It’s, normally a hundred dollars for general missions. I’m always happy to, to give a discount code so that you guys can join for $47, but just

  you know, reach out to me on social media and and we can get you guys access to that plus all the bonuses and gifts by just mentioning this podcast.

  Dylan Silver (20:09)
  Brandon, thank you so much for coming on today. Thanks for your time.

  Brandon Elliott (20:11)
  Thanks Dylan, appreciate you.