Real Estate Underground

Building Wealth Through Turnkey Real Estate with Michael Drew

• Ed Mathews

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Ed Mathews:

Greetings and salutations, Real Estate Undergrounders. It is Ed Mathews with the Real Estate Underground. Thank you so much for joining us today. I'm really excited about this conversation. This gentleman and I we were just talking before. I hit record and realized that our careers have actually tracked one another over the years, and I also discovered that we are both geeks in our very own special ways. We're going to get into that. So, Michael Drew, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for your time today. I'm excited to have a conversation with you.

Michael Drew:

You know what? Thank you, sir. And remember Bill Gates said be careful how you treat nerds. You could be working for one one day you will.

Michael Drew:

Thanks for having me.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah, absolutely, and one of the things I've been really intrigued by in terms of how you operate is the real estate done for you concept and your website and everything. I'm just I'm all about being a former marketing geek myself always about making it simple, right, so that people can understand it, learn and then ultimately build enough trust to be able to do business. Why don't you tell us a little bit about your business and your philosophy in terms of how you got here?

Michael Drew:

Sure, Absolutely.

Michael Drew:

My background was in the stock market. I taught and trained people how to do some of the basics. Covered calls things like that a little bit more boutique-y, like iron condors, premium selling strategies. The problem with that is that it's a certain aptitude. You have to have a certain aptitude to do that. It's also so boutique-y, if you will. Let's just say you've got a million dollars. You wouldn't use more than about a hundred grand with that strategy. If you will. Let's just say you've got a million dollars. You wouldn't use more than about a hundred grand with that strategy. And it's also very active. So when you add that all up, it's basically another job. And I was taught a long time ago I'm a big into self-development back in the day and I was taught wealthy people have time and rich people have money. Yeah, okay. Then what happened is I had four kids and I'm like, wait a second here. I think it's cool to go to soccer games. I think it's cool to have kids that are older, who are not jerks. There's the goal. So I said, all right. So let's begin with the end in mind. I don't want a job, I want passive mailbox money.

Michael Drew:

Initially, a hundred years ago, I tried some multi-level marketing stuff, but then you had to rely on people, and that's not a great idea sometimes, right? So really, what happened is I said you know what? I've got good credit. I was living in an area that wasn't great for rentals, so I had a co-worker actually who was a UPS executive.

Michael Drew:

Okay, so UPS was a private company that then went public and he, when he went public, he was told the smart people bought real estate and then not so smart people bought cars and things like that, and he had 20 houses in Indianapolis If you don't know, that's where UPS is based and he was making money every single month. He didn't quite have the systems and processes, but I'm like we could fix that. The fact that you own 20 doors and you're in your fifties, this is a great start, man, and that's basically what I copied. I bought my first nine or 10 doors about 15 years ago and we've been helping investors do about the same ever since, so it's been a great. Now, fast forward to today. We've done just over almost 1100 houses.

Ed Mathews:

Wow, congratulations. That's really amazing. It's interesting you look at the stock market and how it's performed over the years. By and large, I've always been a bet on America kind of guy, right, but I've stuck to the indexes because I'm not as schooled in what you're schooled in. Real estate for me was something that was tangible, I could reach out, I could touch it, I could directly increase or decrease, but increase the value of the property by upgrading a bathroom or upgrading a kitchen or siding or whatever, and so that was something that I always really understood, as opposed to hoping that the CEO of GE, Larry Culp, I think, knows what he and his team are doing and so I'm going to pile money into that. And for me, real estate became a pretty easy way to build wealth and then ultimately, it actually built cashflow and set me free. But I'm curious when you looking at the various asset classes, what drew you to real estate specifically? Because there's a lot of asset classes out there, right, and single family homes in particular.

Ed Mathews:

I'm curious about that

Michael Drew:

Of course obviously there's more than one way to get there, wherever the goal is. Sometimes I like to talk about athletics and sports because it's easy to relate to. Somebody says they want to lose weight. You could do it any way you want, you just have to like to do it. If you say you got to run 10 miles a day, it's not going to happen. You got to find something that works for you. Initially, I gravitated towards the stock market. However, one of my mentors said the stock market's great for accumulation. It's just not great for cashflow. So let me get this straight If I got a million dollars and I'm 55 or 65, I pull out 4% a year. That's 40 grand. After it's taxes, it's less Crickets, right?

Ed Mathews:

Okay, three grand a month. Okay, now what do we do?

Michael Drew:

I'm kind of a competitive pickleball player so we like to jab at each other a little bit. When I bought one of my kind of dream houses, if you will, I did pretty well once upon a time and I had a good credit score, good W-2 income. My buddy, I think I probably made I don't know three or four times money and he goes. Good for you, fancy pants. You've got one house. He's never made more than 150 grand and he goes. I think I have 17 houses currently and the tenants are paying off the mortgage and I'm like, wait a second, I only have one house and you have 17. And he's. And then when you fast forward this, when you get them paid off, you're like you're going to easily have a quarter million dollars to residual income based on assets. And Andy had a 401k.

Michael Drew:

I said I'm being a poor steward of my credit. So what happened to me is I had a vision of when I retire. All right, and I love my wife, I love my kids. I wanted a several-legged table. I didn't want a one or two-legged table. I goofing around. I wanted a 10-legged table, a 20-legged table. So if something happens, you love Lowe's and Home Depot has bad earnings. Lowe's takes a dunk. You've got to have diversification, but you have to have it in asset classes. And I said you know what? Let's go ahead and go all in on this. Let me figure it out. I can mindlessly do the stock market stuff. I could put in X per year. My company may or may not match that right back in the day. And now it's been easy. Why don't you get started? And that's what the struggle I noticed with a lot of people. They get ready to get ready. I don't know. Let's go, let's. It's not brain surgery, it's not that hard.

Ed Mathews:

I'm always fascinated by that, because you look at like the statistics of people that buy training courses and there's a process that most human beings go through and that is that they buy the course and they get the dopamine hit right. They go okay and their brain says, okay, I've accomplished what I just wanted to accomplish. I wanted to learn how to buy and sell real estate, and you didn't read the book yet, you didn't go through the training yet, and 95% of the people buy the training course and never use it,

Michael Drew:

Which is 1,000 percent

Ed Mathews:

Astonishing number. The idea of accountability and acting. Now you and I come from similar cultures, business-wise, where there's just a bias towards action. It's let's not talk about it, let's go. It's the old ready fire aim kind of thing.

Michael Drew:

Amen! it reminds us that my son liked to drive better. My daughter didn't love to drive so much. I drive a big old SUV like the Tahoe should I be Tahoe Escalade type thing, and I can, literally. I don't want to embarrass this I can like text while I parallel park. I'm joking, but it's. I can easily do this. When my kids saw me do this, they're like oh, you're so great, I go I've just done it hundreds of times from Chicago, it's easy. So you've got to. You're right. A bias towards actions. You gotta start and sometimes you have to.

Michael Drew:

We always say this is there enough evidence in your life to accuse you of being serious about blank, losing weight, dating your wife, whatever it may be, whatever's interesting to you, All right. If you would have had that, I could have looked at your schedule. I could have looked at what you put in your body and said, wow, you really get the Mediterranean diet. You really are spot on. You've got the discipline. And what I realized is so many people in their forties and fifties are just too busy and they're interested in that feeling that happens when they open up a mailbox and get a check. Now I'm dating myself.

Michael Drew:

Nowadays, Of course, it's all age, right. But when all of a sudden, our companies send out over a million dollars a month in rent, Okay, so you can. Let's say you start with my company and you get four grand a month or whatever, it's not going to really maybe it'll change your life. But the point is you did all that without a job, Right, Cool. When it gets up to the point where wait a second. When I retire, my IRA is going to pay me this or my 401k. Just wait a second. Here I can afford this without hitting my principal.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah, and you've touched on a key point. That is something that means a lot to me and the folks that I work with is that the fact is, you don't have to have 5 million bucks in the bank, right. What you need is cashflow to be able to live your life, so that it gives you the financial freedom of being able to do what you want to do without asking a boss hey, can I take this time off? We both have kids, and the fact is that my youngest is a competitive softball player, and when she goes to a tournament, I want to see the kid play Right, and not having to ask permission is a wonderful thing, and cashflow is what breaks guys like you and I and the folks we work with free.

Ed Mathews:

I'm always interested in the sub asset class in terms of you've chosen single family homes, right, I'm more of a multifamily guy. I do flip houses. I don't keep them. I do that because it's fun. But I'm curious about single family homes and why, given your background in terms of your advanced background around asset management and all that, what drew you to single family homes as opposed to multifamily, self storage, parking lots, whatever.

Michael Drew:

Sure, first of all, just like anything, they'll all work it if you work them right. Yeah, they really will. I was born and raised in Chicago, okay, and that is a higher taxed area in Chicago. When I looked at parking lots you just mentioned, all the Russians controlled it and I just Even though I have 3% Russian, I'm like, and I like vodka, that's about it. I can't do that.

Michael Drew:

And so what happened I do remember this is that when I went to Columbus, Ohio and Indianapolis, where my company is based, is one of the hidden things you don't see is the turns in between tenants. Okay, so I had some multi-investor guys. They really like student housing and things like that. The problem is those turn every year, every other year, and if you don't put that on your spreadsheet, my man, it's going to hurt, okay. And then, all of a sudden, I realized I'm an old. I still ride motorcycles.

Michael Drew:

Anytime you get in a situation, you must predetermine how you will get out of a situation. I'm passing a car, I'm passing a semi truck. You can't pass over a hill. What happens if you always got to think how do I get out? And so I always remember is that in the Midwest is that multi-units cater to a lower demographic financially. Okay, I get the manager of Taco Bell and he likes to smoke his marijuana, which is probably legal by now in most States.

Michael Drew:

Who knows? It's just that guy is not staying. He doesn't have kids. Also, if I have a 10, 20, 40 unit building, when I go to exit that building I'm selling to a professional, I am not selling to a mom and pop. Versus if I have a single family home, the homes right now are in the $150,000, $200,000 range. A $30,000 down payment gets me a home. The appreciation is solid and if and when I do want to exit that home, I'm exiting to a retail buyer. And then the color of the tree in the front yard and I get 110% of asking. It's easy to buy, easy to sell. Cashflow is solid. My homes are so profitable in the Midwest that they're positive cashflow and 15 year mortgages and they're also qualified for DCSR loans or no doc loans.

Michael Drew:

So the cashflow is there and I'm a property management company too, so we do all the CapEx on the way into the investor. So we buy them wholesale. We do the roofs, we do the HVACs, the plumbing, the electric, the water heaters, et cetera, et cetera Secretly. So I have an easier job in management and my secret game plan is so the investor buys more. My top investor has 88 houses out of Ventura, California, and I think he's seen about four of them.

Ed Mathews:

So when you say you're an investor, so you work with a single investor on every property?

Michael Drew:

I do, I don't pool money at all, yeah, so they can

Ed Mathews:

Teach me more about that.

Michael Drew:

Sure, so what happens is we buy about five to 10 homes a month. Okay, we also own the construction team. So we buy, we rehab and we own the property management team, as I mentioned and, on a side note, I also am a major owner in a self-directed IRA company Okay, so we acquire, we rehab, we tenant, and then if Ed, one of your listeners or one of my existing investors, says you know what, you keep sending me four grand a month, I want it up to five grand a month, whatever the number is, they raise their hand, they take one off the shelf. That's already rehabbed, already rented If we close on the 15th of the month. If we close on the 15th of the month, I program rate the rent and then I ACH you the next month's rent. It's already done, already rehabbed, it's done for you. Passive income.

Michael Drew:

That's what it is

Ed Mathews:

Right, all right. So one of the keys to that, then, obviously, is filling that pipeline right, and I'm always interested in how folks like you find these houses. Five to 10 houses a month is a lot of. It is A lot of rowing, so to speak. You're breaking it down. So what is your top or couple methods of getting a property under contract?

Michael Drew:

Sure. Now, that said, as we get older 51 years old our proverbial Rolodex is one of the most valuable things we own. If someone's 23 years old and they have a million bucks, they can't compete with me, or 10. It is 23 years old and they have a million bucks, they can't compete with me or 10. It doesn't matter, I just have the relationships. My phone just rings and it's like that old adage, right, when I take a loved one out, a good friend of mine out to dinner, you order a steak and it's not perfect, the maitre d' comes up and says sir, I'm going to put a little bit more fire on that. Can I buy you a drink? Or, you know, own it, just, whatever it is, you just take care of business. You want to do more business for that person, like I'll go back to the restaurant you didn't mean to, you know, right, and so you keep doing that for years pays itself off in dividends.

Michael Drew:

So, whether it's a tax, liens, foreclosures, courthouse steps, probate attorneys, if there's a property on, the guys like me and five other guys behind us have already passed it up, right, okay. So if you're buying on the MLS, yeah, that's not where you get it. Or if you do, you have to buy so high you can't afford to do the capital expenditures. We do, of course, wholesalers same thing. But also keep in mind, to do my business you have to act quickly. You have to have cash and you never back down If I say I'm going to buy something. Sometimes they'll call me while I'm on the proverbial pickleball quarter at the gym. And they and I got a 911 phone call from my buddy. I got one for you. I know the address. I got pictures I can wire from my phone earnest money. Let's go, let's go.

Ed Mathews:

And you look at. So you named a whole bunch of different strategies in terms of tax liens and foreclosures and it sounds like you have a whole bunch of bird dogs working for you, looking for the that's the thing.

Michael Drew:

You got it.

Ed Mathews:

What does your team look like?

Michael Drew:

So I'm with computer sales and marketing, podcasts et cetera and I really enjoy that. I also do, like I said before, four kids. My business partner, great guy. He's the single guy so he's a little bit more in the field all day, so I'm more on the sales and we're running several different teams at the same time. My dad passed away so I called my business partner's dad, my second dad, so we've got a nice team of guys out there that work things and we're all aligned all the way up to giving it to the investor. So leasing is on the phone calls, acquisitions on the phone calls. When things go wrong, maintenance is on the phone calls. So we know everything that's going on in the company and what I do. We don't sell out much of anything, maybe something goofy like a foundation thing that we don't see that often.

Michael Drew:

But everything else is in-house, so we can control quality.

Ed Mathews:

Okay, so that includes your technicals, your mechanicals and whatnot. Absolutely Really, wow Okay.

Michael Drew:

Yeah, I think we'll outsource. We have a couple of guys we'll outsource HVAC, just the installation.

Michael Drew:

We'll maintain it, though.

Ed Mathews:

Okay, all right. And then so, in terms of disposition, right, it sounds like your investor partners are all about cashflow, not necessarily selling off right and so mostly yeah, okay. So in this scenario, let's just draw this to its natural end. Then, if someone says, hey, I'm looking for my $30,000 back and I'd like to take my equity out, what's the process in how you do that and do you get involved in, or anything like that?

Michael Drew:

Yeah, we do them every month, yeah, so there's two things that I want to talk about. Number one is to answer your question and number two I want to go. I'm going to go fast by going backwards. So to answer your question, my sister is one of my best friends. Both our parents have passed away and it's been unfortunately, but it seems it's going to happen to everybody right and she's got a property between her two properties. Unfortunately, she's divorced.

Michael Drew:

I navigated some of those finances for her. She's got a quarter million dollars of equity in two houses and I said what do you want to? At this point you don't really need to keep them, You're too young. I say 1031 on both and she said okay, and she's going to turn one into two. She could go one into three if she wants, but I think she's going to be conservative. So we're selling it and when we walk through that with one of our favorite 1031 exchange companies, we've already identified the other two replacement properties. So we'll dispose of it, maybe do an existing investor or maybe retail that's depending on the house and then we'll 1031 that in two or three more doors, absolutely.

Michael Drew:

Does that make sense?

Ed Mathews:

Total sense. Yeah, I was about to use the monopoly analogy. You're literally playing monopoly, right. You're just buying the hotels, you're just buying more greenhouses.

Michael Drew:

You're based on the East coast, right?

Ed Mathews:

Right

Michael Drew:

So, my buddy, I have a bunch of clients on a New Hampshire area and they're like we can't touch houses for your price, we can't touch cashflow, so, price, we can't touch cashflow. So they're coming to me saying wait a second, here I've got a building that my mom left me, my this left me a commercial, blah, blah, blah. And they're like I got to go, I've got a million dollars of capital gains and I said let's put that in 1031 and I'll give you seven houses. Okay, the coast is a little bit better for appreciation. The interior of the United States is a little bit better for cashflow. And I want to go back to that on purpose, because when my mentor came to me he said, listen, you got to play offense and defense. Offense is cashflow, but defense would be things like insurance. Okay, I snowboard in Florida sometimes, right, so they have so many storms, insurance has gone up crazily, right, sure has Taxes.

Michael Drew:

I have buddies in Nevada and Texas. No state tax, but property taxes are spicy. Don't like that for cashflow. Next, I've got landlord-friendly versus tenant-friendly. Don't like California. I like to be there. Santa Monica's fun. My dad shipped the USS Midways out of San Diego. That's cool man, but I got to tell you it's tenant friendly For me. I can get somebody out in 40 days, 500 bucks. And then in Indianapolis, it's within 700 miles of two-thirds of America. So you can get to New York, Chicago, Nashville, and Atlanta. If you need to Florida, you're going to probably take a minute, but you can get to America. And if you want to work, you can work. It's like the 16th largest city. It's the county seat of the state. There's several universities nearby, so you get wealthy by having job growth and population growth. That's where you get your appreciation from and if you play defense with those things. As far as expenses, that equals that's cross and T's dot nines. That's how I found Indianapolis. It checks all the boxes.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah, it sure does. Yeah, it's actually one of if not you read all the lists of the best rental returns in the country. Indianapolis is invariably on that top 10 list every year. Yeah.

Michael Drew:

Yeah.

Ed Mathews:

Absolutely, and it's a nice part of the world too. It's a nice place to live. Okay, all right, you had mentioned your mentor and I want to get into the final five, so why don't in there? I'm always curious about what gets people out of bed on Monday morning. Right, because in most cases the folks that I interview it's not about the money. Right, it's about something else, because the money started taking care of it. Mortgage is paid off, college vacations are paid off. You're living the life you want to live, so tell me about your purpose. What gets you out of bed on Monday morning?

Michael Drew:

Thanks so much. Literally, at age 31, my dad, who did serve in our country's Navy, was diagnosed with melanoma in November and he died in January and that baby boomer mentality didn't necessarily he wasn't stoic per se, but he wasn't as friendly with me as I am with my son, Right? So I got to say becoming wealthy is mainly a math problem, right, losing weight is mainly a math problem. You have to have some discipline, but it's not that hard. You just have to have discipline. And so when the music stops right at the end of your life you're not going to wish you necessarily had more money, is? I really enjoy having great relationships with my kids?

Michael Drew:

And also I think there's an underserved area which is men have a low quantity and quality of same sex relationships. For example, I got my buddy, my business partner. He's one of my best friends, but pretty much everybody all day long is subordinate to us. So I don't really have I don't sound like I'm lonely, but I don't have any friends in my daily job. I don't have a water cooler to hang out with or a coffee shop, so I work out of a co-hatch which is a co-working facility and I really enjoy pickleball because that sometimes it's an underserved community, I think, where men don't have camaraderie. So my kids really I do probably play pickleball four days a week and probably about half of it's social.

Michael Drew:

I get out when I'm learning about a new, a book, a social event. We're raising money for Make-A-Wish. We're doing something fun. I do enjoy that. I do enjoy guys who, of course, love their wives and their kids, and I don't know. I think it's easier having a little bit higher energy in life, because it's attractive and also it's more fun. Music is always going on in my house. We're doing something.

Ed Mathews:

Love that, so I'm always interested. I want to ask you about your mentor what's the best advice you ever got and who actually gave it to you?

Michael Drew:

I would say, two companies ago. Again, there's two things that might not land with people, because men tend to jab at each other a little bit more aggressively. So this comes to me, not to you, right? Number one it says if everything was about knowledge right, Like you mentioned, 95% of people buy books and things like that. They're getting cobwebs on the shelf. It was all about knowledge. The joke was all the librarians would be multimillionaires with great sex lives. Mustn't it be all about knowledge there, buddy?

Michael Drew:

And the second thing is this is that if someone has lived their life and they're willing to live their life for three or five years and you can learn about it in a month or two, it's pathetic to learn about something in three years you can learn about in one month. That's just poor stewardship of your time. That resonated with me. You can talk like that to me. I don't need to read the book or hug you for three years. You tell me what I need to know in one month. I'll pay you money. That's great. Tell me the landmines. I've never raised a teenager before. Good luck. Tell me, what questions am I not asking? Those are things that I want to know and that's where I like to talk straight to my investors too, saying you don't want to cry over that. There's maintenance on real estate. By the way, If you've not owned a car before, there's maintenance on cars too. Yep, you got it. It's a line item in the spreadsheet. Once you tell people what to expect, they're fine. Yeah, so I do enjoy that.

Michael Drew:

I do enjoy someone else saying hey, what's going on? What am I not seeing here?

Ed Mathews:

That's awesome. I love that. Um, all right, so let's talk about I think. Personally, I think you learn more from stubbing your toe than your successes. Right, curious about your outlook into mistakes and what was one of the mistakes that you'd love to have back in terms of a decision you made. What was that process? To recover?

Michael Drew:

A lot of people. We can see people in our auctions and in our different areas and over the last 15 years it's the same about seven guys. And then there's a guy not to be goofy he's got a Rich Dad, poor Dad, three ring binder, and he's got 200 grand and we're like this is not going to work out well for you. I wish you didn't have that money because you do more research. For example, my failure was is I didn't do the research on a property. It was a hefty loss. It wasn't a six-figure loss but close. And what I did is they foreclosed on a property for the HOA dues, but it was a tiny little item in the title search that I so I was the proud owner of the second lien position. Essentially, when we went to sell the property. We didn't know about it for six weeks until we went to sell the property and there was a hefty first that the rules had changed in the auction I went to and no one caught it and it was a bad loss. So I own nothing and legally I didn't have a leg to stand on, Recourse. No, had that end up playing out, took it in the shorts Ooh, you're good at that. Didn't live and learn.

Michael Drew:

So now what we do is we pay money every single month for a gentleman who's retired and he does the title work for us on everything. We pull title on 70 properties and we go over it. One of the worst things that happened, we had another guy do the foreclosure on a blanket loan. So a blanket loan when they have that one was 15 properties on a blanket loan You're not in first position. When they were foreclosing these, you're still not in first position. It was crazy. He's like stay away, stay away, trust me, stay away. And I'm like but we can make so much money, the juice is not worth the squeeze, brother, stay away and I'm like got it, got it. So we have an expense every month for the guy who makes sure we don't do it again.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah, I would say that's an investment, not an expense. Yeah, yeah, I bet you don't pay him in a year what you lost on that one deal.

Michael Drew:

That's correct, that's correct, yeah, yeah. And now that he sees what we're doing, he's you know what. I have a few buddies that need some of these turnkey properties. They're like we're trying to copy me, because every you don, you don't tell people when you make two or three grand. You tell people when you make a bunch of money on a flip. I'm like replacing your income is the fun part long-term.

Michael Drew:

And then now he refers business to us you know.

Ed Mathews:

So that's great, that's awesome, yeah, that's fantastic.

Ed Mathews:

So leaders, invariably, are readers right In some way, shape or form. Guys like you and me are magnets for as much information as we can take in. Tell, there were magnets for as much information as we can take in. So tell me about the book that's on your nightstand, either virtually or physically, and what authors are you paying attention to these days?

Michael Drew:

Thanks for asking.

Michael Drew:

I'm going to go old school and I'm going to go new school. The old school is a gentleman by the name of Jim Rohn. Jim Rohn was one of the first teachers of Tony Robbins. He wrote a book that I think I'm going to have trouble finding now, called the five major pieces of the life puzzle. I bought those in bulk and would give those out to anybody I love and care about. He also did an audio cassette called the art of exceptional living, and if your kid is about 15 or 16, starting to find their way in the world, that is what you play on a road trip. It's so simple though. It's so consumable. It's not esoteric, it's very like Rich Dad's book. It's not very difficult to listen to. So that is Jim Rohn.

Michael Drew:

Now, more clearly, I do James Clear's Atomic Habits. And what does he say there? You don't rise to your goals, you fall to your systems and habits. And so goals are great, but tell me about your habits, tell me about your disciplines, tell me about your minutia, and then I can tell you if you're going to achieve your goals, about your minutiae, and then I can tell you if you're going to achieve your goals. And that's really worked well and it's fun that way. And so when you look at my calendar, you can see that, yes, I am pursuing a relationship with my son and my daughter. They're different though. My son likes to do fun stuff, my daughter likes to do different stuff. That's fine. I'm going to love you where you're at guys, whatever it may be. And one of my daughters works for the leasing company and she's loving it right now and she's frustrated sometimes.

Michael Drew:

I'm like, I know, welcome to business Sounds great,

Ed Mathews:

But the cool part is that you get to spend time with her, right?

Michael Drew:

Yeah, exactly

Ed Mathews:

I think it was. Jimmy Johnson was talking about that. I can't remember where I saw the interview, but talking about. One of the reasons he went into business was so that his kids would eventually join the business and he could spend time with them. It's something that is time is so valuable and you can spend time with them. It's something that is time is so valuable and you don't realize. You're our age, right.

Michael Drew:

I did something different. I'm a wave runners, so that's how I spent time with them. It's better. That's way more fun.

Ed Mathews:

Way better. Yeah, all right, talk to me about. We're getting on the subject a little bit, so let's talk about success.

Ed Mathews:

What does success mean to you? How do you define it in your life

Michael Drew:

With relationships, which I still have a lot to learn? Some guys will be like oh, I'm successful in my family and this and that happy wife, happy life, yada, yada, yada. Now, when you ask the wife, you know what kind of husband you are right. That answer you might not like or you may not, and so that's something that I'm still pursuing.

Michael Drew:

I've not mastered that by far, but that's a little bit different. It's not just a bank account. Bank accounts are easy to measure, but so that's something that's important to me. Also, it's important to me when, like my kids, or when anyone has that aha moment, that they take ownership for the results. Okay, Someone says, oh, I really like making a difference in people's lives, so they're a social worker Great.

Michael Drew:

Just please understand that you didn't pick that path for wealth. You picked that path for other reasons. Just so you know you can reverse engineer where you're going to be at age 50. So somewhere along the lines, if you're going to be a firefighter, you're going to be a social worker. Call me up and buy one house every five years instead of every year. Whatever you do it just own those results and it's it is. It's a math problem.

Michael Drew:

So I have a book out there called retire on rent where people can read it for 15 bucks on Amazon. Get that so you can. You own those results. I really don't. I'm super not attracted to that whole victim mentality. I'm attracted to people owning those results. Help me, let me help you, if I can, whatever it may be. So that's one of the things that I like to be successful at is helping people realize that, like the farmer says, in the fall, we all have the same sun and we all have the same rain. You're responsible for your crops, so you reap without regret and you reap without reward. You own the results. Whether it's a bank account or whether it's an angry wife, Maybe, you own those results and I'm attracted to that, and I have a lot of work to do too.

Ed Mathews:

Excellent. Yeah, I totally agree. It's again, it's not necessarily about the money, it's about the impact you have on the people around you and the folks you work with. Right,

Michael Drew:

yeah, absolutely

Ed Mathews:

When not talking about real estate, you mentioned wave runners. What else do you like to do for fun?

Michael Drew:

So I mentioned before that I was the number one tennis player in my high school. Man, I tell you about four or five years ago, right before COVID, when they introduced pickleball to me. It fit me like a five-finger glove. I record, I'm really good with databases. So I said, and Matthews, I know I put on my database everything about you, right? If I know you through pickleball, I probably have 200 friends on my phone and I played in 13 different states. I've been at the US Open. I haven't competed in the US Open in Naples yet.

Michael Drew:

I need a better partner, or maybe I need to be better, but I just really enjoy that. And so find something athletically that you love to do. And I got to say this my wife is brilliant. She's a health and wellness coach and she's also on staff at Advent Health in Florida. She says something very key. She says muscle equals metabolism.

Michael Drew:

So as men age, their testosterone goes down naturally, right? Women? Same thing. Muscle equals metabolism. So if you're noticing your body is not where it's at, you are not lifting weights and that is it's. It's just, it's easy, man. Or still lift weights three, four days a week. And I remember this was key. I was on a cruise recently in Italy, I saw this older gentleman lifting weights above his head. He's 70, ever been to 70. I'm like good for you, man, and I said what you doing. He says I'm fighting off the old man. That's right. I love that. You have to lift weights to break even as a man, not to gain, you have to do that just to break even. So I encourage men and women to do that.

Ed Mathews:

Yep, and as proof that you're correct, my father, who is now 82, walks. I think he walks a mile and a half a day and I'm pretty sure he still lifts three days a week.

Michael Drew:

Okay.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah.

Michael Drew:

Love it. Do it easy not to do so. If anybody's ever interested in that, you have to find out what you will do. Doing is more than not doing. Oh, I want the perfect gym. I want the perfect pair of shoes. I can't play, no, I don't care. Find what you'll do. Whether you'll do a Peloton bike, I don't care. That's not weights, though. You have to find something that you enjoy.

Ed Mathews:

Right. How can people learn more of your company real estate done for you or you in general? What's the best way to touch?

Michael Drew:

Thanks, Ed. My website is realestatedone (realestatedone4u) and then the number four and the letter U as in uniform, and on there you can book what's called a strategy session. Leave your checkbook at home, talk to me, it'll book on my calendar or my et cetera, and just let's talk and see what's going on. What can I do to help you? I'll go over a few of those properties. If you book with me, I'll drop ship my book to you no charge. Review it takes about 45 minutes an hour. It's not a novel. It also then serves as a coaster when you're done. Think of that. But just come on in, tell me what you're going for and then we can go from there. A lot of people just start with one house. What do you do? Wait a second here. You pay me X, my mortgage payment's Y, the house is appreciated, z, and then what are you?

Ed Mathews:

doing.

Michael Drew:

Every now and again we've got to snake the drain for 50 bucks or 100 bucks, but you've got to change your oil on a new car too. It's fine, and you call me up in five years. Almost a hundred percent of my industrial say I wish I would have bought more. So you start, we'll go over everything. There's a 12 minute video that I have that explains my whole company, the houses, the neighborhoods. Email me or please put my contact info at, or whatever you do usually, and I'll send you my 12 minute video and that goes over everything and you can see the houses, see the city and then book a call with me.

Ed Mathews:

Fantastic. Michael Drew, thank you so much. This conversation is truly enlightening and I wish we had more time. I would love to keep in touch because there's a whole bunch of stuff I still want to ask you. Well, that's good and, in the meantime, continued good success and thank you for joining us today.

Michael Drew:

Absolutely Take care.

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Ed Mathews - Clark St Capital

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