Why Successful Entrepreneurs Invest in Real Estate | Creating Passive Income & Generational Wealth

Ron Beauford (00:00)
We also want to be able to position our children and our grandchildren for long-term generational wealth for their children and their grandchildren down the road. And for what I’ve known because my dad was in real estate, real estate is the most profitable and safest investment that I know of. I— I’m not one for stocks. Stocks do this, real estate can do this, but there’s one thing for sure that God stopped making dirt a long time ago.

Issa Hanna (02:05)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros Show. I’m your host, Issa Hanna, and today I have Ron Beauford here to share his knowledge with us, somebody who built it from the ground up. Ron, welcome to the show.

Ron Beauford (02:15)
Thank you, Issa. Thank you very much.

Issa Hanna (02:16)
It’s a pleasure to have you. We were talking before the show. You’re a great guy. I told you we connected a little, you know, so I’m excited to get started. I’m excited to pick your brain because you’re able to build a multi-million dollar company, which we’ll get into later. And then now you’re pivoting into real estate and you’re already making huge waves. So with that, can you kind of run down what businesses you’re in as far as real estate and the logistics, and then

Kinda run down your day-to-day operations for us.

Ron Beauford (02:45)
Gotcha. So they’re both starting to merge together now, but I’m gonna start with my logistics business first. I am what they call an Amazon DSP, which stands for delivery service provider. As you order packages from Amazon and then deliver to your houses or your jobs, and you see those Prime trucks that deliver the packages, I own a fleet of those trucks with drivers that deliver Amazon packages seven days a week.

Only closed five days of the year. And it’s— it’s been a good business for us. Prior to Amazon, I’ve also started off with my first two duplexes. They were located about three hours away from me, so eventually I ended up selling them because the travel was just and commitment to that. And my previous food distribution company was— was trying. So, but now that I’m back into the real estate

business, I have rental properties. I have short-term stays. I purchase properties through auctions, renovate them. Some are rented, some are short-term stays. I’ve flipped a couple of them, bought a couple properties through auction and— and did a complete renovation and flipped them and made good six-figure profits. But my long-term goal now is to

get into multifamily apartment complex arena for the longevity for my— me and my family and my wife, children.

Issa Hanna (04:16)
Definitely, and we talked about that. How— how a lot of people they start off in a business, but most wealthy people, they have real estate in their portfolio. And that’s— that’s because it’s— it’s— it creates generational wealth. So the reason for your pivot into real estate is to create generational wealth, but also you mentioned that the logistics company is— is a lot to keep up with sometimes. So

So can you share a little bit more about that with our viewers?

Ron Beauford (05:30)
Yes. Fortunately, my— I’m blessed that my wife of thirty-eight years owned an Amazon logistics company as well. So I have a hundred and seventeen employees. She has— they’re close to seventy-five. So when we— when you add them all together between drivers, dispatchers, site managers, fleet managers, it’s close to two hundred employees. So that’s two

livelihoods or— or households that rely on you to run a successful and profitable business. So I launched my company in 2018, my wife launched in 2020. So we’ve been doing it for a while and it’s been very successful for us, but it’s— it’s running its course because we’re getting older and we want to do more with our family, with our grandchildren. We have seven grandchildren, all of which we— they only live but a good

twelve, fifteen minutes away from us, so we spend a lot of time with them. But

we also want to be able to position our children and our grandchildren for long-term generational wealth for their children and their grandchildren down the road. And for what I’ve known because my dad was in real estate, real estate is the most profitable and safest investment.

That I know of. I— I’m not one for stocks. Stocks do this, real estate can do this, but there’s one thing for sure that God stopped making dirt a long time ago.

So you can— you— once you get a hold of something, even if it’s in— not in the greatest neighborhood, my philosophy, everybody needs a place to sleep. So, and you know, and it’s— I haven’t owned a piece of property that I didn’t make a profit on, whether it was

through rental or through flips. But at this point, I’m looking for something that’s gonna give more of that generational income for my kids to be able to take care of their grand— their kids and then their grandkids and so on and so forth. And that’s if you look in the history, any wealthy family has real estate portfolio and as one of their top performers and among all their trust because it’s able to pass through

with income. You can limit your— your taxes and the way you how you leverage your— your profit. It’s— it’s a lot of different ways and that you— that real estate is very, very lucrative. And even if you don’t have a lot of money, you know, the— the misnomer is wow, you gotta have a lot of money to buy your first house. No, you don’t. Actually someone who’s a first-time homebuyer can buy a house quicker now than me. And I’m you know have a

800 credit score, but you— you got first-time homebuyers are— are looked after. And one of the things that my wife and I try to do with our employees is try to create homeowners from our employees. Because an employee that becomes a homeowner has skin in the game. They have a vested interest now, you know. And then when you show them the— the economics on you buy a house three to five years from now, you’ve gained another, depending on the market,

$30,000, $50,000, $60,000 of equity. You can borrow from the equity, you can buy another, another house, and so on and so forth. What I know today, if I knew what I knew today when we bought our first house, I probably would not have bought a single-family home. I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t have bought a single-family home. We would have bought a duplex because I could have lived when my kids were young at the time. I think they were five, six, and

We could have lived on one side in the two-fam— in a two-bedroom duplex, rented out the other side. That other side would have paid the mortgage, could have saved the money that I was paying on the mortgage from the first house and put money away and bought the second one. And I could have scaled it and then bought the house that we wanted to live in. But that’s hindsight. And that’s one of the things that we— I try to instill into my family that, you know, do you— you gotta get something that’s gonna, you know, my philosophy is to make money

while you sleep. When you’re sleeping and you’re making money and you’re getting deposits while you’re sleeping, that’s owning a company. Okay. And I’ve been in the— in the— the business world for a long time. And there’s, you know, the difference between owning a business and owning a company. And I tell people this all the time. You know, I have friends who are doctors. I got a friend that’s a— that’s a— a— a kidney surgeon and my— my dentist and we talk all the time and

I we— we— I told him, I says, you know, you got a great business. And he said, What do you mean? I said, You— you own a business. I said, I own a company. He said, Well, what’s the difference? The business is from a dental perspective, you don’t make any money until your hands is in somebody’s mouth. Okay. You have to do procedures or you have to do a surgery. Me, I’m here all holding this conversation with you and I got trucks driving all over the place and I got tenants that’s making deposits on the regular.

That’s a company when you don’t have to be there in order to generate that profit. And that should be everyone’s long-term goal. And but not everybody can see that. And it’s educate people to see that. Even if they got one, you can create a retirement program because re— that’s the biggest thing for me and my wife now is we’re creating retirement wealth while creating generational wealth. That’s our goal. Because, you know, life doesn’t revolve around working all the time and

That’s not enough hours in a day for you to work to make the income that you want to make. It’s just not possible. You know, not paying $100,000 a year anymore. You just— it’s just not possible. So you gotta generate it.

Issa Hanna (11:49)
Definitely.

Yeah, definitely you gotta generate your own wealth. And— and when Ron was talking about, you know, I should have bought a duplex, it’s because first-time homebuyers, you guys can get into these places with three and a half percent down, you can get a closing cost credit of up to six percent. So you know, you can make your down payment almost what you would pay to— to rent something. So if you get a duplex, you can— you can use that.

It’s not an investment. You would live there and you only got to live there for two years. You can rent the other side, it’ll pay off the mortgage. So you’ll— you’ll be living for free. And then also the generational wealth part is even if the thing doesn’t go up over time, which all real estate does go up over a longer period of time, 10, 20 years, you can— you’re paying that mortgage down over those years. So by the time you are ready to retire, that thing is paid off and you’ve got an asset

worth X amount of dollars. So great piece of advice, Ron. Amazing. I wanted to ask you, how did you get into your first rental property?

Ron Beauford (12:59)
My— well, my first rental property was my single-family home that we bought first. And we ended up buying another house, single-family house, not even 10 minutes away. That— that got me into the first rental property. It wasn’t by choice, it was we were holding on a property, living in it, while we were closing on the next one. And then we turned around and started renting it out. And that’s the challenge with single par— single-

family housing in the rental market, which I don’t recommend. I don’t recommend single-family houses in the rental market. I have one, two, three, four, five, but they’re not rental profit per— per se, not the traditional rental profit. They’re used as short-term stays. So, you know, travel nurses, professionals, doctors, those construction workers, the— the— those units stay

full and occupied all the time because people travel across the country and they want nice places to stay. And majority of time the corporations are pay for their rents. So it’s no cost to them. So it doesn’t matter how much it costs, they just want a nice place to live. But that was my first venture was my f— single-family house that— that I lived in. And then after doing the math and having a struggle, so if anyone who owned property or been in business, period, and said they didn’t have difficulties or struggles,

They’re not telling you the truth. Because a single-family house as your sole one rent coming in is risky because if that tenant for some reason gives you trouble, they fall behind on the rent, they fall behind, now you’re— you have to cover that mortgage. So it went from cash flowing to pulling from your private— your— your financial budget for— for at home. That was my first struggle, my first house. That’s why I segued into

the duplexes and mul— multifamilies. It wasn’t until last couple of years is when I started buying houses on auction, which I would recommend first-time homebuyers as well. You can buy them probably 40, 50% on the dollar. They may need a little bit of work, but you’re going to save a significant amount of money. If your credit is strong, you can get a line of credit. You can buy it and buy it on auction,

have the line credit waiting. So when you go to an auction, you buy a house on auction, you use your line of credit, you put a little money into it, and then you can borrow, put a mortgage on the house then because you own the asset, and be able to remodel the house and possibly pull cash out of it. And that’s where wealthy people stay wealthy and not pay taxes because you can gain that equity, do a refi,

pull cash out, and there’s no taxes because it’s a loan. And if the— you got your tenant that’s covering the cost of the loan, it’s a win-win for everybody. So then— but it’s— but the key is to maintaining your properties and keeping them— being proactive for your properties. You know, there’s not just something you walk in and it’s just gonna be cash and money coming in. You— just not a way to look at this business. You need to be proactive to your

HVAC systems. You need to be proactive to the appliances, you know, get homeowner’s insurance, not regular homeowner insurance, home warranty insurance. Like I have home warranty insurance on my properties. Something goes wrong, my tenants already have the 800 number to call that company. The company coming and if it’s a refrigerator problem, if it’s a stove problem or plumbing problem, they send a plumber. If it’s a— an electrical problem, they send an electric— electrician. So

All those things I’ve learned over the course of the years in order to reduce my expenses, give a better environment for my tenants, and— and keep my profit margins where they need to be to be able to stay with a strong cash flow and put money back into the house. Put a roof on it. When you— when you have— put a roof on the house, upgrade the landscape, and hold the tenants accountable for maintaining the landscape, you know.

Issa Hanna (17:08)
Yeah.

Ron Beauford (17:50)
And then some of— at times you can turn them into homeowners. You know, you can sell the house as a rent-to-own at the same time and then they can cash you and you— you can move on to the next project. So

Issa Hanna (18:00)
Definitely. So you’re— you’re not only putting money in their pockets, you’re helping people, a— a path to homeownership that they might not have from another outlet. And then B, you know, like you said, put money into those properties because A, you don’t want to be a slumlord, because eventually over time that big fits— that big fix hits you. So you wanna be proactive,

and you want people living in an environment they’re happy with. That’s how they stay paying rent. That’s how, you know, gotta do good business, y’all. And— and from what you just said, it tells me you do really good business. I know you built a million-dollar logistics business, and you’re— and you’re just now starting to scale into the real estate, but man, you— you’re— you’re wise beyond your real estate years. I’m gonna tell you that right now. You’re doing really, really well.

Ron Beauford (18:48)
Thank you. Thank you. My— my— my dad was in real estate for many, many years. You know, he’s ninety-one and he did it at an older scale. Generation did things at the older scale. I’m fortunate I use technology to— as my friend. And that’s another thing that, you know, as a new investor, especially if you get your first duplex or two or second duplex, you know, use technology, use the bank— banks to help collect your rent,

Issa Hanna (18:52)
Beautiful.

Ron Beauford (19:16)
you know, to start off until you find the right software to use to help track your payments and track your expenses and being able to feed that into your— your QuickBooks. So it— it’s— it’s— but to having mentors or being able to listen, some people want to get into the game, but they don’t want to listen and take advice. And that’s where it troubles me because I— I tell people all the time, you know, that you know or

My wife and I talk about it and say, you know what, you tell everybody everything that you do. You know, why would you do that? Well, first of all, the mint didn’t stop printing money. So there’s plenty, there’s enough money out there for all of us. Okay. But the more— if I teach Issa something and Issa learns something down the road three, six months from now, he’s— because you know, somebody was talking to Ron. Let me give Ron a call, let him know what I tried or— or what’s going on out in the industry. And that’s where that networking comes in, you know, and real estate.

Networking it is very important because you need contractors, you need HVAC technicians on call. That’s when you call them, they stop what they’re doing and they go take care of your property. My— my plumbers, my electricians, my HVAC, they know when they see my name come on their phone, stop what you’re doing and tell them take care of my situation. And then when I have a— an opportunity to put a new unit in or to do some work and— or

pass their name on to friends of mine who need work done because word of mouth is your best advertisement. And you know, people trust the other person who’s in the industry. And, you know, but then you got those who just— I can tell them and they still won’t follow the blueprint. And I don’t, you know, that’s supposedly that’s what brought me to the— to the podcast that, you know, I don’t claim to know everything. That’d be far from fetched. But I’ve experienced some bad

in order to create some good. Okay. And it’s good to share. There’s nothing wrong with sh— I’m sharing right now.

Issa Hanna (21:16)
Yeah, definitely. Well that—

Ron Beauford (21:17)
See this and shares back with me. So

Issa Hanna (21:19)
No, one hundred percent. And that’s why Investor Fuel has decided to put on the Real Estate Pro Show to those young guys that may be looking or maybe you’re in a different aspect of real estate and— and you wanna, you know, you wanna kinda peek in and look and see, you know, hey, what’s Ron doing over there? That’s a good idea. There’s no gatekeeping over here. That’s— that’s why we put on this show. We— we’re here to empower people, we’re here to teach them how to make money and to showcase

people like Ron who are successful business people who are gonna tell you and share advice on how to get to where you need to be. And with that, you know, we touched on it a little bit, you know, it’s— it’s a long, bumpy road to get to the knowledge that we have here in the game when you’re— when you’re kinda climbing to the middle top of the mountain. So how about a real estate nightmare that you’ve had over the years? Can you share that with our viewers?

Ron Beauford (22:10)
If you’re in real estate, you have plenty of those stories, that’s for sure. But the goal is to limit those as many, learn from your left— your mistakes. And I would say the— the biggest mistake a landlord can do, and when you have property and you’re in rental and you’re a landlord, the biggest mistake you can do is have compassion for someone when they’re in trouble with their rent.

You start giving them more time and you start— that is a carnal problem. Five-day notice on the sixth— the sixth, they got from the first to the fifth, on that sixth day, send a letter and start the process. Okay. Yeah, you know, you have to treat it as a business. It is a business and your receivables, which is your rent, is what protects your profit and your cash flow. And you have to remove your feelings from

the tenants. Don’t get into feelings with your tenants. Don’t get relationship with your tenants. Don’t just— it has to be business. And that was probably, you know, letting people, you know, I— I had one tenant and he got behind on his rent. We ended up going to court. He got— the court, he said, “Ron, I’ll pay on such and such. Can you just let me in?” I said, you know, “Okay, I’ll give it to you.” And then next thing you know, he didn’t pay. I had to go back.

Get the judgment, got the judgment, then go back and get the garnishment, because you get the garnishment, and then I knew where he worked, so I had the garnishment sent to his job. Well now here’s the lesson that was learned that I was fortunately proactive. Sent the garnishment to his job. You have to wait a certain amount of period for the garnishment deductions to come out of their check. And then the court calls you and says, “Hey, we’ve got a check for you now. Come get your money.”

And that time had passed, I think it was six months. I want to think it was probably closer to six months. And I go to the courthouse and to go get the check, like, “Hello, I’m here.” And he said, “We don’t have any money— any money for you.” I said, “Well, what do you mean? I have a copy of the served garnishment to the company because when the sheriff serves it, they got to get a signature, and it’s— I have a copy of it.” Well, the tenant

intercepted the garnishment. So it was never given to the owner of the company in order for them to put in their payroll. So after doing a little homework, I reached out to the owner and I said, “Well, guess what? He signed that you received it. That garnishment debt belongs to you now. I don’t have to deal with the tenant anymore. That’s your debt because you didn’t d— deduct it from his paycheck.” And he immediately wrote me a check because,

you know, it’s just— and it’s— unfortunately I had to do that, but it was still my money. And he has to deal with that— that employee who intercepted that garnishment. I just want to get— get paid. And that’s something that I had to learn on the fly when it happened. It wasn’t, “Wait a minute.” And then once I went back to the courthouse and the— the clerk told me what to do, you know, indirectly, because they’re not supposed to give you l— legal advice. But I said, “Wow.” And lo and behold, he—

he came in with a c— a cashier’s check for what the tenant owed me in— in rent. So

Issa Hanna (25:32)
Wow. Yeah, that sounds like a nightmare. It sounds like a great learning experience. And now you know if something like this happens, now it’s nothing to you. You know exactly what to do, how to do it, what to file. So when— when something like that happens to you young— young guys or— or you new guys starting out, you know, don’t freak out. Get through it. That’s your exit strategy. You know exactly how to get out of it. Ron, great advice and

you know, the— the not feeling bad, i— you’re not a bad person by— by wanting your money, especially if you have a mortgage on that property, that rental property, you’re coming out of your pocket every month for somebody who has no intention of paying you. So the longer you wait, the more money it’s gonna cost you. Get into court, settle it into court. You’re— you know, do everything you’re supposed to do by law. And also, you know, give a chance to redeem that rent so that, you know, that could be your good guy thing is,

“Hey, if you can redeem it before court or by this time, you can stay here. If you can’t, you gotta move out.” You need to treat this like a business. So amazing, amazing advice. Ron, we’re— we’re kind of rolling on the advice today. How about the future? Five years down the line, where am I gonna see you?

Ron Beauford (26:46)
Well, five years down the line, I hope to have secured— finished my first purchase of a thirty to forty-unit apartment complex. And in five years, I should be— have increased the equity to be able to remove cash tax-free and purchase the next one. Cause I would like to have two 30 to 50-unit apartment complexes, have two children and

each one of them when I’m gone is going to end up getting one and it should pay for their children’s college tuition and their children’s children’s college tuition. And that’s where generational wealth come— comes in, and give them incomes for their retirement. You know, the— the— the key is, and where generational wealth comes in is, you know, it gives you an income to live off of. Life doesn’t revolve around working all the time. Okay. You’re supposed to live, too.

Issa Hanna (27:38)
Uh-huh.

Ron Beauford (27:43)
But you also have to have a certain amount of money to come in to pay those bills, because the bills are gonna keep coming, you know, even after you’re dead and gone. And that’s my goal is to build that pro— portfolio of multiple, not super 100-unit, 200-unit apartment complexes. Those belong to the hedge funds. Those belong to those multi-billion dollar— that’s their playground. I don’t want something that’s, you know, I’m in the smaller, you—

know, duplexes and quads. I’m— I’m already there, but that can— I’m sixty-two years old. That can take time to build more passive income. I can pull equity out, but I’m looking at increasing passive income and not a big portfolio of smaller rental properties for my kids to inherit and have to manage that— that piece, too. I’m gonna make it easier for them to be able to manage that and be able to leverage it. So that’s my long-term goal.

Issa Hanna (28:40)
What a great goal. So, in other words, get as you know, get the doors under one roof. It’s easier to manage under one roof as opposed to fifty different addresses. So I can definitely relate to that as a fellow landlord, landlord. You’re climbing that real estate ladder right now and you’re moving into the big— the big stuff. So and I do not doubt that you’re gonna achieve these goals, and your kids are lucky to have you and your wife, because like I said, like we said before,

you guys have built huge companies. Both of y’all have built huge companies in a whole different market and field than real estate. Now you’re moving into this, and the way you’re moving is just so smart, so smooth. Not a lot of people do that. You know, a lot of people that are in the game their whole lives don’t move the way you’re moving. So I— I— I love that about you guys. And with that, and we touched on it just a little bit, but I wanna— I— I wanna kind of dig deeper into it.

People that are just starting out, it could be a new business owner, it could be a new realtor, it could be a new investor. Business, our game, whatever market you’re in, depends on connecting with others, growing your network, building relationships. And— and all successful people that build companies like Ron did from scratch and from the ground up are experts at building these relationships and maintaining them.

So Ron, can you give our viewers some advice on— on how to get started doing that?

Ron Beauford (30:06)
Yes. Very good— very good question. There’s— the chamber— of every city or municipality have a chamber of commerce, okay? No matter what business you want to go into or even visit real estate, visit your chamber of commerce. Let your chamber of commerce guide you into those organizations that have financing for you. You— you can easily, and just for give an example,

like my sister, she wasn’t doing very well. She’s in New York, she wasn’t doing very well at all. She became a homeowner. She went from not doing very well to a homeowner through VH— through the Habitat for Humanity. Okay. And now she’s a homeowner. Now she has— and she’s been a homeowner almost twenty years now. So she’s got a significant amount of equity in her house to be able to scale herself. So it— it’s networking

and not being afraid to talk to people. You know, my wife gets on me all the time. She says, “You— you talk to everybody.” I said, “Well, you know, it’s we find common interests, or it may be something that they may say, or something that I may share that opens up the door for something else.” But you know, you have to be able to get out of that comfort zone sometimes. And it’s not easy for— I’ve been in sales all my life, you know. I— I’ve did millions and millions of dollars with Walmart and Kroger’s and Publix and

in Sam’s Club and Costco for years, dealing with buyers at corporate level, you know. And when you walk into an office with a buyer in Walmart, Bentonville, Arkansas, you have these butterflies in your— if anybody’s been in sales, and these are— you’ve been in sales before, you— you have butterflies in your stomach. Okay. And that happens. And you have to push through that to close the deal. Then you can get in the car and have a woosa moment and say, you know

And then learn from what you just experienced, you know, and in real estate and in any business, you— like if I walked into your office, Issa, and for the— and I tell young people, “Pay attention to the surrounding in the area that you just walked into.” If you— if I see someone, and now I— I grew up in Long Island, New York, but I’m in Virginia, and I walk into— I used to walk into a buyer’s office and they would have pictures of Dale Earnhardt or

you know, so, from NASCAR. I know nothing about NASCAR, but I can guarantee you, Issa, if you like NASA— NASCAR and I’m coming to meet with you, we’re gonna have a Dale Earnhardt conversation or we’re gonna talk about something that happened at the race. But before I leave, we’re gonna close a deal that I came there to accomplish. So you have to bring some comfort into a conversation. That when you— people say elevator pitch, yes, you need to have an elevator pitch, but you have to— they have to

be wanting to see you again. That’s the key. And you know, and then some people you have to stay away from. You’re gonna have to cut some people off in your life. Okay. Because they don’t have the same common goal as you— you do. They can be friends from a distance, but if you really, really want to become successful— real estate, business, borrower, whatever it is— you’re gonna have to get

zeroed in on your scope of goal and what you want to accomplish. Because you can believe me, as we deliver packages for Amazon every day, the mailman is delivering bills to your house every day. He’s not gonna miss a day. Or she— and she is not going to miss a day. And they’re gonna want, you know, those bills are gonna need to be paid and the only way to do it is to— you need to generate an income. That’s just— just facts. I just like real estate because real estate,

Issa Hanna (33:48)
Definitely.

Ron Beauford (33:53)
there’s— it’s promising, you know. People gonna sleep somewhere. They’re not gonna sleep in their cars, they’re not gonna— they need a place to live, they need a place to take a shower, they need a place to watch television, that’s in real estate, and then you create an environment for them. Create that environment for that— for them to be successful, for them to have a good life, and it will pay you back tenfold.

Issa Hanna (34:07)
Hundred percent.

Definitely. And it— and you know, I— I heard somebody one time refer to it as you’re— you’re like— you’re like an old school saw. So you make money while you’re sawing down, you make money while you’re sawing up. You’re collecting rent, you’re coming up and collecting equity. So that’s— that’s one of the only fields, real estate, where you can get it and then where the everyman, a common man, you can get in with three and a half percent down with your first—

hey, with your first property. So you know, you don’t have to be super rich to get into real estate either. And— and you can create, like we keep saying, generational wealth. Man, we are rolling today. So, Ron, if people are excited about what they hear, they want to get a hold of you, maybe you give them some advice, you know, they— all that. How could they get a hold of you?

Ron Beauford (35:06)
Well, I— I can provide my email address. I can give my phone number, but if you call me, you’re just practicing because I don’t— I get, you know, you can text, I can text you all day long, but the best is by email and then we can— I can always schedule time. I— I enjoy mentoring because I get to learn from that individual. A lot of people think that, “Oh, you got a mentor and you know they’re teaching you everything.” No, that’s not true.

Me, a good mentor will learn from you just as much as you learn— them learning from me. And you know, like, I can’t tell you how many times like I’ll— I’ll because we have a fleet of vehicles and I don’t know, I call my son and say, “Hey RJ, can— does— cause can you get this or can you— this?” “Yeah, that you can get it from there. You can buy from eBay.” Here it is, I’m buying stuff from the dealer and he orders it from eBay at thirty percent on the dollar, you know. So you— you have to trust the people around you that are going to make good

choices to help you. And finding a good mentor is important, but the mentor have to have some skin in the game that they want to get something out of it, too. Because while we’re going through learning programs or talking about how to buy a house for 3% down or some programs, one called NACA, NACA.com, you know, they provide the down payment, you know, in Virginia, they have Virginia Housing Development Authority, VHDA.

If you take a seminar off this like a five, six-hour seminar, they give you five thousand dollars towards closing costs. Well, you can negotiate part of your closing costs to the seller at the same time. You know, my wife and I— I’m a— I’m a combat veteran. So my first purchase, I used the VA. So we bought a house through the VA and I was able to negotiate the closing cost, which my realtor is the one that suggested. Because we weren’t the first-time owned buyers.

Issa Hanna (36:48)
Yeah.

Ron Beauford (36:59)
So it’s a first-time homebuyer. You have to have a good realtor and you have to trust they’re gonna look out for your interest. And she negotiated, I don’t know, either two or three thousand dollars for closing costs. Well, we ended up getting back twelve hundred, I think it was, at closing. So we bought a house and got a check for closing. So, and you know, we have a lot of veterans out there and even today that haven’t used their VA eligibility to buy rental property, so

and— and— and it’s there for you. But I’m not— I’m just stating there’s a lot of different ways to do it. You know, even if you’re making thirty, forty, fifty thousand dollars a year, you can still buy a home. There’s no th— nobody said you have to have six fi— make six figures to buy a house. You know, it’s just you have to do some homework. You have to put some skin in the game. So

Issa Hanna (37:46)
Definitely. No, it— it’s— it’s possible. And I wanna thank you for your service, first of all. Thank you. And the VA loans to those vets sitting at home, best loan you can get. They offer it to only veterans and super good loan. So if— if you’re looking to buy a home and— and you served, check the VA loan. It definitely will— will get you into a house. So, wow, man, Ron, we— we were—

we’re hot today. I’m all out of time for the day, but I wanna invite you back on the show because I— I— I’d like to pick your brain a little bit more about how to scale businesses. So maybe next time it’ll be how to— how to scale your business up, from zero to multi-million dollars, so if you’re interested.

Ron Beauford (38:30)
Yes, that’s a great topic and I love it because, believe me, prior to Amazon, I was in the food distribution business in sales. And if you sold 10 today, you gotta sell 20 tomorrow. That’s called scaling. And I— I enjoyed that part. That was the hunt for me. You’ve been in sales. You have to be a hunter. And I would love to talk about that.

Issa Hanna (38:51)
Well, we are gonna definitely book that at a later date, a hundred percent. I super enjoyed this conversation today. You’re very easy to talk to, Ron. So thank you.

Ron Beauford (39:00)
You as well. Thank you and touch.

Issa Hanna (39:02)
Definitely, one hundred percent. And to our viewers at home, if you enjoyed this conversation, want to see more just 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. Ron, did you want to add something?

Ron Beauford (39:20)
Yes, my email address: [email protected].

Issa Hanna (39:26)
[email protected]. You want to get some good advice from a really good person? Make sure to check him out. Until next time,