Brett: 

Yeah, a lot of uncertainty there and a lot of moving parts, it's hard to be an investor, I would say, especially in a marketplace where prices are so highly appreciated, and low inventory. It felt like the peak before the pandemic, and it's only gotten even more appreciated. Let's talk about the importance of liquidity diversification and being out of debt. George, what are your thoughts on being a seller? And how would liquidity, diversification help you to lower your risk?

George:

Well, it's simple. When you have money on hand, you can move a little bit faster. Okay, there's a lot of things going in the real estate market where everybody now is sending out marketing material, or we can buy your house cash, no, they can't, they have a lender standing behind them. That was a guarantee maybe they can close in seven to 10, maybe 14 days. But it's not cash, a cash deal as if I walk into a piece of property that I like, I make an offer and tell him, I can have you a certified check or wire transfer and 24 to 48 hours. That's where you want to be right now in this particular market. Because if you have liquidity or leverage that you can move within that timeframe, most likely you will get the deals The time is now you know, during COVID, we saw late mortgage payments increased to 37% could be higher by now. But that's an indicator for us. Because the last time we saw that, was when the housing market crashed in 2007. So there's a push, and there's something coming down the road, you just have to be financially ready right now to be able to pick and choose some of the best deals for you in that particular time. So, understanding your capital stack, or putting a capital stack in place is definitely going to help you in this particular time while you're moving.

Brett:

Yeah, I couldn't agree more, and it's really fascinating to kind of compare and contrast the ‘08 crash to potentially what could happen. I feel like everyone holds their breath and says, we have another 6 to 12 months, and then they hold their breath, get a little nervous another 6 months. So, at one point, we're going to be holding our breath and it's going to happen and that's my thought, at least that's my feeling. Now, my thoughts sometimes go well, the economy looks pretty strong and the fundamentals look pretty good and inflation looks like it's not going where it could go. So, that's the part where I get concerned. But, all that being said, if you have great credit or access to great debt, and you have liquidity, and you're in the position to come in and, buy deals or discounts that first summer, George.

George:

Absolutely. That's exactly what I did. That's my strategy. The reason why I wrote my book about How to use your credit rating to become your own hard money lender because that's exactly what I did. Short story - For about 10 years ago, I was looking for money to be able to get into my real estate deals and what I want to do and how I wanted to do them, and I had been walking around in circles, and I met a gentleman who used to be an underwriter. But he was in the business for about 30 years before he got sick, and he had to retire. He looked at my profile and he said, George, you are 99% the way there and your problem is you don't know that 1%. By the time we got done, and he helped me out and set up my profile effectively, so lenders could see me efficiently and everything of that nature, by June, June, July, we put the application in by September 2019, I had my first million-dollar line of credit. That means now, instead of me doing one deal at a time, I can start picking up four deals at a time. 2020 was supposed to be my year, but COVID put the brakes on it. I had four deals on deck in February, March 2014. By April, I lost all four deals due to COVID. I'm not saying that because that's a bad thing. I'm saying that because there's a silver lining there. COVID helped me get a lot of things off my plate that helped me catch my breath. It helped me refocus and realign, to set the next type of goals for the next 3, 4, 5, 10 years. And that process, also helped me complete all those books that I've been having in my mind to write. So, that's the good thing about it. The second good thing about it is, I already know how to get the leverage, I already got my first million-dollar line of credit, if I can get a million-dollar line of credit, I can get a $2 million line of credit, you see what I mean? So, I'm not stuck where I was. I can do it. Now, I can move forward aggressively than my competitors.

Brett:

Absolutely, you're presenting yourself because you've already been there to do it again when the iron is hot. Love that. That's fantastic. And so by the way, what was that 1%? Or was that 1% that you were missing that you said that to help to adjust the profile?

George:

Thank you. I learned wrong, I was taught wrong about finances, I can't blame my mother, my grandmother, and my father. They just don't know what they didn't know. But I was always taught to just pay your bills, just make sure you don't miss a payment. For the majority of my adult life, I'm 47. I've never missed a payment in my life. But, what I didn't understand was how the credit industry works. While I was doing deals, if I was using leverage, if I was using credit cards to pay for equipment, pay for materials, and things of that nature, I would max it up to 90-95%. Then when the money came, I would obviously pay it off. Well, if you have three or four credit cards, and they're all at 90-95%, you don't look good to lenders, regardless of what you're doing. Because sometimes real estate deals can be three months, four months, six months, depending on the project, it could be 12 months. So just imagine looking at a lender coming to you for money. And he's already maxed out three credit cards, whatever that interest rate is at 95%. Of course, you're going to get rejected, you know. And so I had to understand how the credit industry worked, how businesses and lenders put things on your credit report, how to negotiate, how to get things off your credit report, I had to learn that whole entire process to make sure that my profile, no matter what lender I was talking to was in the green where they were like, “He's solid”, “He's this, he's that”. you know, because when my friend came back to me, he was like, George, you know how many people I've met in 30 years with a credit score over 800? I said, “No, sir”. He said You're the fifth person. He said, there's no possible way that you should be in this particular predicament that you're in. You just don't understand. So, once I did that, and once I cleared all that up, as I said, June-July, and I understood that and started the process boom, by September I got my first line.

Brett:

That's fantastic. And you can learn more about George Booley Jr. at georgeboleyjr.com. So George, is this something that you help people do too? So maybe you help them with buying property selling properties? And if you're a broker and help them with their credit, is it something that you do George?

George:

I coach, I'm not a broker, I'm an investor. I'm not licensed in any form of fashion, I just share my experience and just give them tips. And the reason why I do that is that I feel like if I can help somebody else, shave a couple of years of their life when they're 30, I would definitely do that. And like I said, it pays back in because when they get in a situation, they come right back to you. So, now all of a sudden, you're getting deal flow from particular places that you didn't anticipate. Why? Because you want them to succeed. But, you also don't want them to get stuck. And they know, okay, well look, why don't you come in and help me with this deal or that deal, whether it be helped sourcing money, putting some of your capital in helping me figure out what's going on with this particular contractor, whatever it is, and then you take your little piece out of the deal. So, now I'm not working as hard looking for sources and deal flow, you see them and find yourself. I have recommendations, and I have people bringing sometimes deal flow to me.

Brett:

I love it, you're coaching, you're partnering and you can get a piece of deal and helping close more deals. And sometimes they do it themselves. And then they bring in to notice both and it's a win-win for everybody. I love. And so what? So, you're in Jersey right now. Right? So, are you seeing the flight from New York and Jersey to places like Florida is? How real is that? What's your take on that? And give us the boots on the ground, what's going on?

George:

I'm seeing it. But I'm also seeing them coming back. You know, people coming back to New Jersey, people coming back to New York. You know, I've been in Florida 10 years that happened. Now, I'm moving back. Why? Because Florida is being supersaturated. One of the biggest problems in Florida right now is the fact that the affordable real estate that you used to afford a couple of years ago, now you cannot. They're being bought out. They're being turned into townhouses, big complex big apartment buildings, even the land is cheap. I was looking in Florida for a couple of years and I have a partner in Florida. You being able to live there over time just doesn't work. You get priced out of that entire market. Not just Florida, places like Arizona, and Texas, where they're like paying these particular taxes but telling you more than 50% of the time. And sometimes even shorts, not 10 years. Outside of three or four years, they move back to New Jersey or they move back to New York because they're like, they don't charge you tax for this, but they tax you for everything else. So, you're still paying the taxes. Whether you look at it that way or not.

Brett:

Very well said. That's really fascinating to see. I'm in California. We're seeing that you know, I think for the first time in 100 years, California's population is decreasing, not increasing. So, a lot of folks going to Florida, going to Texas, going to Tennessee has been a big one. It's interesting, and we'll see how long they last over there. If they do come back. What about value add deals? Are you finding those? Where do you buy it? What's the best deal you've done when it comes to the kind of real estate?

George:

The best deal I've done is, I bought it in 1995. And put in five, seven. It's a duplex and it’s cash-flowing every month.

Brett:

Yeah. That's awesome. And that being said, Are you ready for the lightning round?

George:

Sure. Absolutely. Let's go.

Brett:

Alright, so knowing what you know now, George, if you go back to your 25-year-old self, what's the one Golden Nugget you'd make sure to tell yourself to do?

George:

Relax, pay attention and learn.

Brett:

Beautiful, I love that. What's the biggest frustration when it comes to capital gains tax deferral and or the 1031 exchange?

George:

I don't know that much about it. I do know that when I did some research on it. It was just almost like jumping through hoops to get some information about 1031s, and even investing. At some point in time, I spoke to a gentleman, probably 14 months ago, and he was saying that there are some investment opportunities with people who have their money in either tax-deferred holdings or 1031s, where they're now investing into real estate, leveraging what they have in investing into real estate because they're getting better gains and better yields. It was like almost every company that I researched had 1031s. We have projects we're working on in Jersey, Philadelphia, we need some capital, this is what we're paying, so forth, and so on. We're in here, we're out here. These are the numbers. Some of these guys didn't even return my emails. So, I was just like, this is crazy. Let me just start focusing on that to continue what I'm doing. And I'll come back to that a little bit later.

Brett:

Yeah, it's interesting. There's a lot of groups out there doing the 1031 exchanges. The question is the inventory. Does it look good? Does the deal make sense especially if you look at the Delaware 1031s, the package deals with it can be pretty low returns, not a lot of value, add upside, and pretty high fees? It can be a challenge, we do have a backup plan, an alternative called a deferred sales trust. Folks can learn more about that by going to capital gains tax solutions, where you no longer need to do a 1031 exchange, and it works for primary homes, cryptocurrency, and other assets like that. That being said, George, the next question is this, what's the one book you recommend? Or have gifted the most in the past year?

George:

In the past year, I really hadn't, quite honestly, because I was completing my books. That was really my focus was completing my books. I had one book on the shelf, My fitness training, Manual resistance training, it was on the shelf for like 15 years. And when I say that, I'm not saying that I forgot about it. I knew it was there. But life happened, wife, kids, work, jobs, everything else, and I just put it on the shelf. And my second book about property management was actually my sister that told me, that I need to write a book. I'm like, I'm not writing any book, thinking about my other resistance training book that was taking me so long. But, she just kept insisting and when COVID happened, and when I lost my last deal in April, the Lord just said, “What about autumn books, even writing and stuff? When are you going to do those?”, and so I really just focus my time on completing those done. So, I know it's lightning round, but that was just a short answer.