Why Mentorship and Underwriting Are the Keys to Winning in Multifamily Real Estate

Hitomi Yasuda (00:00)
So what happened was my unhappiness outgrew my fear of change. I just couldn’t take it anymore.

So I started actively looking for like, what are all these successful people doing? You know, we have all the same 24 seven hours, right? How come they’re all successful and happy and they have life balance and my life is so out of balance.

Micah Johnson (01:54)
Hello everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host, Micah Johnson. And today I’m speaking with Hitomi Yasuda, who’s been making some serious moves in real estate investing now since 2018. Hitomi, welcome in, glad to have you.

Hitomi Yasuda (02:07)
Hey, thanks for having me.

Micah Johnson (02:08)
Absolutely, absolutely. I’m really excited for our call today. You have a message for people I believe is very, very important. It’s broad spectrum, especially across the experience of what entrepreneurs go through. And I think folks are really gonna take something away, especially some action steps, which is really key in this journey. So let’s dig in. For folks who aren’t familiar with you yet, tell us a more about yourself and what your current main focus is.

Hitomi Yasuda (02:35)
Great. So ⁓ my name is Hitomi and I am someone who kind of grew up in a very strict Asian family where go to school, get good grades and learn how to become an obedient employee was really instilled upon me from a very young age.

So I went the whole hog and I actually got a PhD by the time I was 28. I moved to England and I lived there for nine years where I went to graduate school and kind of started climbing the corporate ladder in England. ⁓ And then when that nine year period ended, I came back to the States and started the same thing again, trying to climb that corporate ladder back here.

in the fashion industry, believe it or not. So what happened to me, however, was that perpetual burnout sensation, right? We’re working so hard, you know, feeling a lot of the times very anxious and insecure about what could happen to my future, that I can just kind of lose my job, you know, that working really hard really didn’t equal success. And in that midst of time, I saw my own father pass away at 58, really was kind of like a kind of a, wow, a wake up call that, you know, working with

really

hard doesn’t necessarily equal success, security, stability, that it can just be taken away, you know? And at that time, I read a lot of the books that we hear about today, know, Rich Dad Poor Dad, know, Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich, Robert Kiyosaki, all of those things. But the problem I had at the time was it all made sense and I found them extremely interesting, but I didn’t know how to change my pattern in life.

to start incorporating the messages that they were teaching us. I was so afraid of making the change of what was familiar, which was just keep grinding away, grinding away. So I’d read these books, evenings, weekends, knowing that there’s a message there, but I didn’t know how to incorporate the teachings, multiple streams of income. You’re never gonna get ahead being an employee. You’re never gonna get ahead trading time for money. But I just didn’t understand, but how, but what?

Micah Johnson (04:07)
Mmm.

Hitomi Yasuda (04:34)
What do I do instead? You know, that sort of thing. ⁓ Until, huh?

Micah Johnson (04:37)
Yeah.

Take us into that real quick. So you’re in that space where you’re starting to be open. You’ve done everything you were supposed to do. Like you’ve created like that. And that’s the thing I think a lot of folks deal with is, but I did all this, right? Why am I not happy?

I did it all. did all this right and I’m still not happy. What in the world’s going on? And now you’re going through that place where there’s, that’s real fear involved. It’s cause it’s not just, switch a job. It’s actually, change your worldview. You’re, you’re messing with an ideology at this point. You are messing with inherited things from your childhood that you don’t even know why you even believe if you haven’t taken the time to go understand why they’re there because we absorb our environments nonstop.

Hitomi Yasuda (04:52)
Yes.

Micah Johnson (05:19)
And now you’re shifting into that point where, okay, I see it, I understand it. What was that separator that, what put it in motion? What were those first actions that you remember where you were like, you know what, okay, I’m gonna do something different here.

Hitomi Yasuda (06:21)
For me, I remember it was like around 2018 and I just hit emotional rock bottom. Like we’re talking massive depression. My relationships were a mess. I…

I kind of had like this, you know, I have a nice house car, right? Cause I was making good money, but I was like emotionally bankrupt, you know, I became that flaky girlfriend that would cancel, you know, having dinner with people or an event at the 11th hour, because I had that report that was due on Monday, you know, like I, the work just consumed me because I was so afraid of getting fired from a job that I hated. Like that was the irony. I absolutely couldn’t

stand my boss, I couldn’t stand what I was doing, yet if I got fired or somehow lost that job, I was like so scared of like what’s the alternative, you know? But around 2018, I just hit rock bottom. I was just so miserable, like what kind of life is this, you know?

So what happened was my unhappiness outgrew my fear of change. I just couldn’t take it anymore.

So I started actively looking for like, what are all these successful people doing? You know, we have all the same 24 seven hours, right? How come they’re all successful and happy and they have life balance and my life is so out of balance.

My health started deteriorating as well because of all the stress, you know, I couldn’t sleep at night and all this kind of stuff. What the heck are all these people doing? So I kind of revisited again, rich dad, poor dad, Napoleon Hill. And the message started becoming very clear.

You know, successful people have multiple streams of income, cash flowing assets, and they don’t trade time for money.

And that was my problem. I was doing all of those things, trading time for money, trying to make more, you know, so I’m like, all right, I’ve got to figure this thing out. And it was at that moment I came across real estate. So that was the thing for me. I knew I needed to make a change. I just didn’t know how, what do I do to make that change until I found real estate and then the how that’s the ticket. Someone’s going to teach me how to do it. So for me, real estate was the vehicle. Cause I know there’s many different ways in which one can achieve all of these things for me.

Micah Johnson (08:26)
Right.

Hitomi Yasuda (08:28)
state was that vehicle, as long as I could find someone or something that was showing me how to do this successfully. So I started surrounding myself with mentors, etc.

Micah Johnson (08:36)
Right.

Okay. I, that’s, I love this story and I love where it’s going before we move on. There’s a part there that I find interesting because I’ve seen it in my own life. I’ve seen it in the life of people I’ve worked with in the personal development world. And it’s that part about change. And there’s honestly, I find kind of a relief in it. And I’ve actually, I’ve tried to teach myself to see it sooner, but as humans, we just naturally don’t change when things are good. We don’t change necessarily when things are bad either.

We change when things are terrible. That is for us, when it gets so bad that not changing isn’t the option anymore, that’s when it goes. And we’ll hit that point. Sadly, life takes us to that point and we’re doing it, right? It’s a story that we’re telling ourselves about why I can’t see my friends and why I have to have this job and why this can’t do this and why this can’t do that to that point where you’re just.

You’re literally in jail. You feel so trapped. And once a human feels trapped, which is the reason why most people get in real estate, that freedom term, that when you start to feel trapped, you know, okay, I got to change. I got to shift this. Something has to happen. And then you revisit that material and it looks different that time. The way about it. And it’s the person who changed. And that’s what’s beautiful about it is you’re becoming the person who can be free. That’s the key is it’s

And I hope you’re listening and watching this. That’s the trick. It’s becoming that person and it happens in stages. Pay attention to it because now you’re eight years into this journey and you are completely different than you were the eight years ago. If I were to be a betting person.

Hitomi Yasuda (10:05)
Thank

Absolutely. And I think what’s hard for a lot of us to make change is our own insecurities, but also who you hang around with, right? The naysayers. And some of the worst people is your immediate family and your closest friends.

It’s sad to say, but a lot of them, think, project their own fears onto you, and then they hold you back because they think they’re trying to protect you. But what if it doesn’t work? Well, what if this? What if that? And it further just builds the own fear that you’re caring about making this giant leap. So for me to kind of embrace change and stuff like that, even just almost two years ago, a year and a half ago, I moved from California to Wyoming.

because my mentors and CPA were all like, start over. It’s gonna force yourself to get out of the habits of what you’re familiar with, move someplace where you don’t know a single soul and start over. The metamorphosis of the new people that you’re gonna meet, the friendships, just being like… ⁓

surrounded by like the beauty of Jackson, Wyoming, you know, like the mountains, it’s gonna force you to turn that damn laptop off and go outside for a hike, you know, like start living your life. So things like that I’ve embraced change where I put myself in situations where I don’t know anybody and just grow. Because the thing about me is, even though over the over these years, you know, I’ve grown and I’ve done a lot of podcasts, and I’ve stood on stage and talked in front of people.

I’m a hell of an introvert. I really am. It’s extremely scary for me, but again, I force myself to become the person I need to become to develop these skills. So I force myself to put myself in uncomfortable situations to grow.

Micah Johnson (12:17)
Right.

Hitomi Yasuda (12:31)
because otherwise, right, we just kind of stay the same and everything. I moved to a new town where I didn’t know a single soul. I’ve forced myself to do podcasts as scary as it could be, or talk in front of people, you know, because I have to become that person.

Micah Johnson (12:45)
Right.

Hitomi Yasuda (12:45)
Um,

and it’s nothing bad has happened, you know, all those people like, if you move there, you don’t know anybody. I’ve met so many cool people here. I’ve like, right. Like what bad thing could possibly happen, but it’s right. It’s the, my naysayers. So unfortunately I had to break away from my immediate family. I had to break away from some of those old friendships. I had to actually cut some of those friendships because there’s the negativity to hold me back and keep me small, you know, and nobody wants to end relationships, but.

Micah Johnson (12:52)
Right?

Hitomi Yasuda (13:13)
I just had to break away from that that was holding me back, if that makes any sense.

Micah Johnson (13:16)
Right?

It completely does. you practice active personal development, and I’ve been in it about 10 years now, it requires, it’s number one requirement is self honesty. That’s what I’ve learned. You’ve got to be honest with yourself, especially when it comes to the relationships that you’ve had. It’s led me through a divorce. It’s led me to the strongest marriage I’ve ever had. It’s led me away from friends to the best friends I’ve ever had that are, where my circle just

keeps leveling up and it’s what we have to do because one thing I learned when you are changing yourself you’re actually you’re also changing the way people perceive you and other people don’t take that well because there’s a bit of an there’s a bit of an accusation in it where

I’m going to do this and by you doing it and they don’t believe they can, it has this showing that, well, she’s not going to do it either. I’m going to make sure you don’t because I’m not either. And that isn’t healthy. And in lower level relationships, the ones that we have from childhood, the ones that we just keep around, if you aren’t intentional about the people you’re around, you might have some folks in there, y’all, that it only benefits your future self to make the relationship stop.

It’s not about hurting them or hurting yourself. It’s about, becoming that person. And I would say it’s almost required from everybody. Almost everyone I know has had to go through that. And I love it when folks like yourself talk about it because I want people to know that it’s normal. Now, does it feel normal while you’re going through it? No, no, it doesn’t necessarily feel good, especially when you find out that people closest to you actually don’t have your best interests at heart.

because they’re more worried about your bank account than your internal state of being, which is way more important. Right? Like you proved this fact. And I say this a lot. We can do something for our financial paycheck only for so long. If it’s not paying our emotional paycheck, if it’s not paying both, you it’s going to hurt you. It is hurting you eventually in the end, you can only do it for so long. And do you need to sometimes? Sure. Yes. We all got to do stuff that we’re not necessarily fond of. But if you know it going in, you at least create

a light at the end of tunnel for yourself. And now shift into real estate. That’s where my world, that’s where I found that freedom. I found both. I found both paychecks get paid very well in this industry and lead to those kinds of relationships. It led me to my mentors, which is where I want to drift next, because you’re coming from that place where you didn’t know what to do. Now you were scared. Now you’re taking action. And you said in real estate, I went and found mentors. I couldn’t agree more. It’s the shortcut.

They show you the process. So what was it like for you to find one for those listening and watching? How would you encourage them to go about looking for their own?

Hitomi Yasuda (16:39)
So I think what’s really important is ⁓ finding a mentor who is not going to allow you to make excuses, right? But is still approachable and supportive and comforting. So I remember long, long time ago a mentor who still become a very dear friend today. He told me way back then, hey, Hitomi, I would be honored to actually be able to sponsor your very first deal. But you got to get me a deal, OK?

And I’m like, okay.

And so we kind of talked about their buy box. Buy box means their criteria, right? It’s all about trying to reduce risk as much as you can. So they talked about the things that they would entertain, what are some deal breakers, markets, type of assets, all of those kind of criteria, what they would be interested in actually sponsoring me on. And then from that, they’re like, OK, so go find me a deal. I’ll talk to you next week. So during that week, I was so excited. I’m like, my god, I found a sponsor. And I’m still juggling.

full-time job at that point. So I’m like calling brokers, property managers, lenders, all this stuff. I started underwriting three or four different deals, all of them incomplete, you know, and I felt really proud of myself. Like I’m making all this progress. Like, wow, you know, and then like like clockwork, he calls me a week later and how’s your week? How are you getting on? Right. And so was so excited and I started telling him doing this and doing that and he stops me. like, do you have a deal or not? And I’m like, ⁓

Well, I’ve got like three or four that he’s like, it told me if you don’t stop screwing around and find me a deal, I’m going to dump you and go sponsor somebody else. Get me a deal. And he hung up. And for me, that was a ice bucket of bucket of ice water thrown in my face about what the heck am I spending my time on? Right. What am I spending my time on?

Micah Johnson (18:20)
Hmm. Hmm.

Hitomi Yasuda (18:22)
And it was a huge wake up call for me about it doesn’t matter how strong of a work ethic you have. And you think you’re like running around doing all this stuff if you have nothing to show for it. So that to me was like, what am I spending my time on, you know? And so basically,

Micah Johnson (18:31)
Right.

Hitomi Yasuda (18:37)
the following week because I didn’t want to lose him right as a sponsor I got really laser focused and despite having a ⁓ demanding job of those three four deals that I kind of half started underwriting I picked one that I thought would give me the highest probability of success I went deep and I underwrote it as best as I could at with my skill set at that time and then I presented it to him on a silver platter so the next time we spoke right I explained to him that I can demonstrate

Micah Johnson (19:00)
Mm.

Hitomi Yasuda (19:04)
you know, that I really understood the deal. I pointed out like the top five things about risk that I identified and how I intend to mitigate those risks. I had a very clear exit strategy and then I shut up after 20 minutes. And he was like, wow, I’m very impressed, but may I give you some feedback? And I’m like, yes, please. He was like, well, from my experience, I think your rent projections are a little aggressive. Can you please tone that down a bit? I’m like, yes, sir.

Also, I believe from my experience and the market, I think your vacancy, we need to build in some extra cushion. So please adjust that. Also, I feel from just my experience, operating reserves. I think you need to throw in an extra $150,000, maybe $200,000 just to be safe. So go ahead, adjust those things. You might have to reduce the purchase price a little bit, but then here’s my resume, my bio, go ahead and submit.

and let me know what happens. And I’m like, OK, sir, thank you so much. And then we won that deal. The key was we were third place in terms of price. So that was another big thing I learned working with a mentor and all of that, that it’s not highest price that necessarily wins deals. It’s being able to demonstrate in front of the broker and the seller a surety of close, that should you be awarded the deal,

You and your team can take this down. So in this instance, obviously, they’re not judging based on little old me. It’s my equity partner sponsor mentor that I’m aligned with that gave the broker seller confidence that, this team can perform. So to answer your question, the mentor was so critical for me in really understanding real estate math.

Micah Johnson (20:27)
Right.

Right.

Hitomi Yasuda (20:44)
about becoming a badass operator, right? That this isn’t just about submitting an offer just to win. It’s like, we’ve got to think through this. We’ve got to run this thing successfully over the next however many years, you know? And by him really breaking that down for me to really understand what does that look like? What does that mean? It really started to help me understand what it means to become a badass operator, because ultimately that’s what we’re trying to accomplish, you know?

Micah Johnson (21:08)
Right.

Right. And I love the fact that that’s where your focus is on becoming something you can actually become. Right. Can we actually control how many doors or how many deals or all the things? Maybe to a point, but then everything else is market driven. Right. You just don’t go buy stuff. You buy good deals. There’s a way to stay in business. But to be a badass operator, that’s any market. That’s any time.

and you have control over that. We can do the actions and practice and learn and dig in and do all the things that make us those things. And that’s where I see people actually become successful. You’re focused on a process, not an outcome. Outcomes are the byproduct of a good process. What’s your process creating? And really, in my opinion, we’re all running a process. If you look at your life right now, all your outcomes are products of your process. How are you dealing with life? You freaking out.

You’re dealing with it. Okay. Do you spend all your money? Do you, you you do a bunch of drugs. Like, do you do? Like really you take, look at what you do and we can show you your outcomes. And when my first mentor showed me that it was game changing, was like, ⁓ my God, wait, I can control all this now. And one thing I love that you hit on there was you found somebody that set it to you in a way that got you to look at reality. That’s what a good mentor does.

That is what a good mentor does. They speak to you in a way where you understand and they leave you in a place where you can take action. Where he didn’t need proof that you were this awesome person. He could tell that or he wouldn’t have said that beforehand. So when you go back with, look at all the busy work I did, and which is probably, he probably wasn’t surprised you did that in the grand scheme of things as someone who knew he was working with, but he knew he could come back and say, this is what I wanted.

get me this and you could be like, yep, absolutely. And then you jumped in it. That’s, that’s that thing about a good mentors. They, they, the way they say things gets you in motion. It triggers that thing in you that says, okay, come on. Okay, come on. Tell me, tell me that’s one of my mentors. I don’t get to talk to him unless I finished my homework, right? That’s the rules, man. If you don’t do it, you don’t get to come back and have the next conversation deal. Leave it in my court, please. Cause that’s what makes us

That’s what makes you the badass operator. Makes you be able to pull off whatever you want to pull off.

Hitomi Yasuda (23:27)
I think when you’re new, and I can say this with my honest heart, just reflecting back, when you’re new, you don’t know what risk to look for, right? Because it’s all about.

assessing risk and then being able to pivot quickly, right? Be able to make critical decisions. But when you’re new, you don’t know what you don’t know. And I think that’s what’s really hard for us getting into this industry, this business is what is considered risky, right? Because we all kind of come into this with a very optimistic attitude. Everything’s going to work out. It’s all going to go according to plan. Probably going to come in cheaper as well and, you know, shorter time, right?

Micah Johnson (23:45)
Right?

Hitomi Yasuda (24:04)
Because we don’t know, we don’t know, right? That’s where having a mentor is critical because they open your eyes, because they’ve lived to tell the tale of all the rocky waters and the crap that’s happened and things you’re like, holy cow, that can happen? You’re like, yes. So I’ve learned some of the biggest lessons and have become a really strong underwriter from number one.

Micah Johnson (24:05)
Right, right.

Hitomi Yasuda (24:28)
living through my own deals now and how they’re actually actualizing, right, versus how we underwrote it. And I’m like, my god, we were too aggressive. But also surrounding myself with very experienced people and listening and learning from them, like, don’t do this, Hitomi, because this is what happened to us. Or don’t forget about that, because again,

this bad thing happened to us, you know, it’s the only way to get better is from learning those from adversity. And a lot of times when you’re new, we’re too naive thinking that everything’s going to go perfect, you know. So that’s what was for me really, really helpful was them watching my back. Cause I remember too, when I was really new, some sponsors are like, man, I don’t want to work with so-and-so. They’re such a deal killer.

Every single deal we looked at, they killed the deal. And I would be so angry and upset and frustrated that they killed the deal. Now, with the experience that I have and looking back, no, they saved my butt. We would have been paying, we would have been under-capitalized, the rents were too aggressive. Like everything about that whole underwriting was just like pie in the sky. But through my naivety, my ego, right, my pride.

Micah Johnson (25:23)
Right?

Hitomi Yasuda (25:35)
I was angry at them for killing the deal, but I didn’t see it at the time that no, we would have been in a whole heck of a lot of trouble and pain had we pursued it, right?

Micah Johnson (25:46)
Right, right. And real estate, you don’t need to learn all the lessons the hard way. And I think that comes with getting better at being human. Our young lives, need some bumps and bruises. Humans learn that way. But to me, my opinion of a really mature human, they can learn from someone else’s mistake. That’s when you’re really getting good at doing this. Because when you can, like you’re talking about, go into the, work with mentors, go into these rooms,

Hitomi Yasuda (25:51)
Yeah.

Micah Johnson (26:11)
and hear them and then apply it in your life. That’s the key is, hey, you should avoid this, check, I’ll do that. Not, I can probably just do that better than you. No, no, actually continuing to learn. And that’s really that, I think that that position that you get left in and real estate really is good for this. If you enjoy problem solving and understand, I like to call it we’re human becoming, we’re not human beings. Like it never stops until it’s over, y’all. That’s just the way it goes.

get into those two positions where it’s like, okay, I’m always here to learn. What are we learning? You can do really well at this game because you remain coachable. You remain open. You’re reading the terrain is what one of my mentors called it. Like that’s what you gotta do. You gotta be reading it. And if you don’t know what something is, who are you asking that can say, ⁓ that’s this, that’s this over here. Like you’re talking about mitigating risks. my God, same. First deals I looked at, I’m so glad. I know why people said no.

No, no, I’m not buying this, right? As frustrating as it is, if someone was to that me, I was been like, what the hell are you doing? They were nice after I reflected on things, but that’s just it and get over it, right? If you’re feeling angry about a deal that someone’s turning down and you’re newer at this, know that that’s you, not them, right? No, it’s you. If you can take a look at yourself when that feeling goes off, that’s like the big indicator. Here’s a great spot to grow.

Cause how do you fix it? You either got to read, you got to make a phone call or you got to go meet people. Like you got to get out there and find out who has that answer. And one thing here before we started to sign off that I want to nail on is you are, you went and became one of the best underwriters in your world. And now what you feel is showing people how to do it. And this is something I’m big on on this show. Learn the game you want to play from people playing the game.

You don’t go learn it from someone who isn’t doing it anymore or does something different. Real estate’s a huge umbrella with tons of niches and none of the rules cross over. with you, tell us a little about the coaching that you do and what can someone expect if they were to come into the program?

Hitomi Yasuda (28:17)
Yep, I’m my business partner’s name is Hans Seelinger. We created a very

hands-on technical underwriting program and it’s called underwriting to win. UW the number two win. And we found a niche in the market where basically a lot of there’s a lot of good content out there, right? Lots of good content, YouTube, Instagram, so on and so forth. But what we found was that implementation, execution on all this knowledge was lacking in a way that people could actually absorb and get feedback.

Because I remember when I was new, the biggest hurdle was that feedback on what the heck I’m making a mistake on whether it was not understanding how to use Excel properly, right? Or understanding the different key performance indicators, the real estate math. It was just kind of like too over my head. So what we’ve created is a program that’s very hands-on. It’s very one-on-one. So whatever you are stuck on, you’re going to get that feedback directly from us. So it’s not like this huge group

setting where you get lost in the shuffle. It’s very much directed towards your

your confusion, your feedback. And sometimes it’s therapy too. It’s like analysis, provost is like, you need to, if you want to change, you got to make the change. You got to call that broker. So it’s a combination of helping with that personal growth side because both of us went through it, continue to still go through it. It’s a continuous journey to keep growing, but then also the very technical part of the understanding the math because again,

You know, even with AI these days, right? We’re also at the forefront. We incorporate AI in our coaching. Like, why not? AI is everywhere. You have to incorporate that to speed things up. But it’s like with anything we talk about, right? You know, all these underwriting tools out there, it’s just a shell. But garbage in?

Micah Johnson (30:00)
Use it as a tool it is.

Hitomi Yasuda (30:08)
garbage out. So if you don’t have the right thought process, the right business plan stuff to go in, no tool is going to save you. You’re to have all kinds of gobbledygook numbers, you know. So we’re really our believers in helping our students become what we call property doctors. Learn how to diagnose the property. Understand what the financials are telling you in a way that they’re not so overwhelmed, right?

Micah Johnson (30:24)
I love that term.

Hitomi Yasuda (30:31)
And then from that, come up with a diagnosis. You what is wrong with this property that you as the new operator can fix, turn it around and make some money. And then how do you present this to a potential sponsor in a way that they’re not all confused and look at you as high risk to work with, you know? And then same, the final conclusion, submit offers for God’s sakes. You cannot get in the game if you don’t submit offers. So what does that look like, that process?

Micah Johnson (30:31)
Right.

Hitomi Yasuda (30:59)
So we literally take them the full cycle of, you know, getting very clear on their buy box. What is it you want to buy and where becoming a property doctor and being able to assess and analyze this business that you’re considering to purchase. Then coming up with a roadmap, your business plan, your underwriting of what you intend to do with it under your ownership, how to have a safe exit. What does that exit look like?

than being able to present it in a very intelligent and compelling way to a sponsor, and then all of that submitting an offer so that you can beat out all these other people. Because, think about it. We all had to win our first deal as a newbie. We all had to. That means we beat out all the other people. So there’s no reason why a new person cannot do this. And that’s the message that we want to give to

Micah Johnson (31:34)
Right.

Hitomi Yasuda (31:44)
the next generation of people that you can do this. You can do this life changing career path. But you need someone like us who are live investors who’ve gone through the suffering so you don’t have to and follow this system. But we very much are about understanding the math. We want people to become bad ass operators. You’re buying a multi-million dollar business. Yes, you must understand the math.

Micah Johnson (31:57)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Hitomi Yasuda (32:09)
And in conjunction with that, right, you’re also going through this personal growth to become CEO of your mini empire that you’re creating. So that’s what we’re very proud about. Here’s the other thing too that I really learned. This is a personal growth thing. There’s something incredibly rewarding about acts of service. Once I didn’t have to worry about my own money situation anymore.

Micah Johnson (32:27)
Mm.

Hitomi Yasuda (32:32)
and I can then turn around and apply that energy of life and help somebody else. Dude, it has been so rewarding than just where’s my next paycheck? How much money am I going to make? Just being able to help other people, my God, so rewarding. If you had asked me like 20 years ago, 15 years ago, hey, would I be an underwriting coach? I would have been like, huh? What? What are you talking about? You know what I mean?

Micah Johnson (32:43)
Right. Right.

Right,

right. It does it unlocks something in you for though I really appreciate people, especially the one, the successful people you meet that understand abundance mindset, they understand that life is this opportunity that’s happening for them. What you’re talking about becomes that byproduct, it becomes the reality of

Hitomi Yasuda (32:58)
But yeah.

Micah Johnson (33:16)
How do I want to say this? It’s just possible now. Everything becomes possible. And what I love about what you’re doing, if you’re listening or watching in and you’re looking into the multifamily arena, there’s a reason we bring folks like Hitomi on the show, because I want you to work with a professional. And what I love that you laid out is that it is a process. This is where most people miss. Hey, let’s go write an offer. Awesome. Okay. Where do we start?

I don’t know. We’re just here to write an offer. Okay. But you got to know something like we all get excited about the big parts, but it’s the little steps that create it because writing an offer like you just demonstrated, it’s like step 10 in the process. You got to do it, but it’s not what you’re doing first. And the way you overcome lack of confidence is preparation. Preparation is the number one creator of confidence because it’s based on reality. It’s not blind hope.

You’re doing the work. And that’s where, when you learn the math, that’s the rules of the game. The rules of multifamily investing lie in the math. When you understand the math, now you can go present your ability to go talk to that possible partner. You know how much more confident you are when you have that math nailed down, when you’re walking in there with an intentional presentation built by professionals who understand what people look for.

Are you a newbie? Sure. But what you’re borrowing is years and years and years worth of other people’s experience and credibility because that’s how we all did it. That’s how you do it. And I’m so glad that that’s how you’re laying it out for people because I get hyped up about it. There is nothing like that feeling of doing good things for other people. There’s no true altruism because it feels so damn good. You get so much out of helping other people when you can get to that point where it’s just

You built the way in and you left the door open. That’s why I was trying to say it earlier. I love that about people that have the abundance mindset is you, you learned in your own life. Look, this is what’s missing. You created that thing and now you turned around and said, Hey, come this way. Success is this way y’all. I built this doorway. Come follow through it. So thank you for doing that. Number one, I love people that I meet that build that sort of thing and still provide that high quality content that people need.

So for those that are listening in that want to learn more about you, find out about your program, what’s the best way for them to find you?

Hitomi Yasuda (35:39)
So every Tuesday evening, 4 PM Pacific, 7 PM Eastern Standard Time, we hold a live technical underwriting master class that kind of covers this whole thing from point A to point B so that you, within 30 to 45 days, could really learn and understand how you could become deal ready yourself. So I highly encourage you guys to show up to that master class that we host on Tuesdays. And I think you have the registration link that you can share with them.

Micah Johnson (36:08)
Absolutely. So if you’re listening or watching in, check our show notes. We’ll have all of Hotomi’s links there, including that masterclass. Again, go follow along with a professional. Follow along with someone who has walked the road of exactly what it feels like to experience what you’re fixing to experience. It’s the most valuable thing in the world. Even back to the reason why you surround yourself with others. Put yourself in a room and with people that when they say, hey, what are your dreams? And you tell them their next response is, all right, so how are we going to do that?

not anything else, because if there’s anything other than that, that’s not who you want in your corner. You wanna surround yourself with people who know they can do it. They’ve seen it done and can show you the way. So again, Hitomi, thanks for being with us. I love these kinds of conversations. I could do them for hours. I just love them. So thank you. Thanks for being out there. Thanks for the way you do this. I think we need more folks out there like yourself doing it. For those that are watching and listening, thank you for being with us today. If you got value out of today’s episode,

please like this episode, share it with someone else you think can get value out of it. And if you’re not a subscriber yet, you know what to do. Click that button, follow along. We’ve got more conversations coming up with operators, just like it told me. People out there building real businesses in the industry. Thanks for being with us today. We’ll see y’all in the next episode.