“The most useful piece of advice to get into real estate at 18?” - Calling Subscribers on Snapchat!

What's up you guys? It's Graham here. So I'm testing out some new audio equipment, and I also figured this would be a good time to test out an idea I had.

So basically, I get a ton of Snapchat messages and a ton of Instagram DMs, and I just can't possibly respond to everybody. So what I did is I posted on Snapchat asking people to send me their questions with a phone number, and what I'll do is I will call a few of those people and answer their questions. At the same time, I can record it, and you guys can listen in on my advice or my recommendations or what questions people are having. I'm really hoping you guys enjoy this, so please give me feedback on this.

This is the first time I'm doing this sort of idea. If you liked it, hit the like button so I know you guys want to see more of this, or comment down below and give me some feedback about how I can make this better and what you want changed if you want more of this. So please be open with me and give me honest feedback and maybe some criticism or whatever I can do to improve.

So with that said, I really appreciate it. So let's go to the snapshots and let's see—oh wow I'm okay, so I got a few of them so far. These are really good questions.

So the first one, shout-out to Bra, it's Jay 13 here. We got the first one. The most important thing to do anytime you're calling somebody is 67 so they don't have your number. That's how I block my number here. Oh, I'm gonna be so upset if he doesn't pick up. Oh, don't tell me the first person doesn't pick up. Oh damn! Doesn't pick up. Doesn't pick up, and that was a good question too.

Okay, let's go into the next one. So by the way, this guy was picked on Matt McKeever's channel to win the book, so it's especially cool that I get to talk with them because I guess she's gonna be getting a signed book from me.

Matt and Jeff, why? Booyah! You see the thing is I don't really see myself as feeling like I ever gave up my 20s. Something that's just seems like—well, I guess it's twofold because one that's my only experience and for me that's like my only reference point I have is just like what I've experienced. So for me, like that's what's normal.

What I definitely don't feel like I missed out on anything in my early 20s. I think I still had it pretty good; I still had just like a ton of freedom to kind of do what I wanted. The only thing I regret, I think my only regret, which was in high school, is I was in a band for a little bit and I ended up doing an internship instead of going on this tour with the band. I played drums. That's been my only regret so far.

But besides that, no, I honestly I don't think I would have changed a thing. Yeah, what were the other questions?

So right now I'm going through college planning on getting a bachelor's in business. After, yeah, I know that I really want to do real estate or at least try my hand in it, whether it's flipping or renting. So I guess obviously you don't need a degree for that.

So do you think that I should I guess eat the fruit while it's ripe and just follow my passion kind of like you did, or should I stick it out and have something they call a little fallback on and then pursue real estate after I graduate?

That's a tough one. How much longer do you have right now in college?

I just finished college to create, you know, it's the thing—I feel like if you stopped, it's gonna be a lot harder to pick it back up and do it. So I think the year and a half in the bigger picture is not gonna make that big of a difference. I don't think you're really missing out on anything by sticking it out an extra year and a half. I would just finish it. I think if you were just like just starting, maybe that would be a little bit different. But yeah, I would just finish it, and you have plenty of time.

If you had suggestions on how to find, you know, what, it's just whatever your interest is. I promise you there's a forum of other people that have the same interest. Matt McKeever, believe it or not, I actually found from Reddit.

This is, I'm gonna tell a quick story here. I was on this Reddit subreddit, I was really big into like financial independence and like retiring early and all that sort of stuff. So I found a subreddit; it's called Financial Independence, and I was reading through that, and there was someone that posted like, "Are there any good YouTube channels that promote financial independence?" And our friend—now friend, but I didn't know them at the time—Kalyn posted, “Matt McKeever actually has this YouTube channel that I'd highly recommend.”

And I started watching Matt McKeever, and this is when I first started to do videos, but I ended up sending Matt an email because he was from London, Ontario, and I have family there, saying like, “Hey, I see you. You know, also in London, Ontario, I have family up there. I'm gonna come up there; we should hang out. I have a YouTube channel as well.” We became friends from that.

I have other friends that I met from like car meetups. I was on LotusTalk.com, no joke, and we would have these weekly dinner meetups where we all bring our cars and hang out and talk cars and stuff like that. So I think whatever your interest is or whatever type of person you want to meet, there's a forum out there.

And if there's not a meet-up, make a meet-up! Like there was not a Los Angeles financial independence meetup—nobody did that, so I just created a group and I posted on Reddit, and we had like 30 people show up that are all into it.

So whatever you're interested in, just online is, I think, the best way to meet. Find a group, find a meet-up, show up, and everybody is like this has the same interest as you.

Thank you! No, I really appreciate that. I've had so much fun doing this, and like I don't know—for me it gives me something to kind of look forward to and something to like work toward. I don't know; for me, this is like my creative outlet, making these videos and finding content to film, and it's just like a bonus that people enjoy watching it.

And it's all transparent, so it really means a lot to me.

That's awesome. Yeah, very few people have seen that video since it's like such an old. I thought that I honestly made that video. I think I had maybe like a hundred subscribers at the time, and I made that video, and I thought, “This is the video that's not gonna take off.” And like, you know, I'm gonna get like tens of views, and like nobody watched it.

But do I really appreciate that, and that's so cool. Awesome! Well you too, and thank you for the message.

Thank you! So what are the best things to do to pass the real estate license test before you're old enough to take it?

Alright, let's do that. One sec.

Hey what's up, man? It's Graham.

What's up, man?

I think so, yeah. You know what, let's just assume you are? If you want to say hi, you can say hi to YouTube. Yeah, you could still buy some of the books and some of the study material for your—what state are you in?

Oh, you're in California? Okay, so you should still be able to buy all the books and all the study materials prior to actually being 18 and being able to take a test.

So if you want to do that, you can totally do that and just read through some of the books. Or there were also a ton of like exam cram study materials that you could just buy online that are pretty self-explanatory, and you can just start to memorize those things. But to be completely honest with you—and I don't know if I'm gonna get a lot of hate on this—but a lot of what I learned taking the real estate license test I just forgot after a week and never really used again. I would say most of what they teach you is never really applicable to what you do day to day. Maybe like 20% is like good information to learn, but I would say the vast majority of it you just kind of forget right afterwards and you never use it.

So I wouldn't be too concerned with studying, like, you know, for like years or trying to get—honestly, the best thing I think you can do to get ahead is read on websites like BiggerPockets.com, continue watching YouTube videos, and read the book The Millionaire Real Estate Agent. I think you'll learn more from reading that book, it's by Gary Keller, than you will by doing anything to study for that state test. Yeah, you're welcome. So The Millionaire Real Estate Agent by Gary Keller, just honestly read that book because the California state test, at least for me and from what I've seen, is pretty easy. I don't know many people that have failed on the first time; most people pass. Sorry, anybody watching has failed the first time but most people I've seen pass, and so yeah, just read that book. That's what's going to make the biggest impact.

Coleman, well I appreciate it. Thank you for sending me the message. Coleman, have a good night.

Alright, that's one. So let's see. This is a good question but he didn't include the phone number. He says, "What's the biggest mistake you've made in real estate or business?" Roger, nine-one-two-three-five-seven, but didn't put in a phone number. I don't know, you haven't—you guys.

Sometimes here's a good one from Myka, hen two-two-three. How do you use a credit card correctly?

So let's call this guy.

Hey! I think you just hung up on me. By the way, I'm recording this at like 11:00 p.m. at night here in California, so maybe that's like too late to do this. So maybe if I do this video again, I'm gonna be doing it a lot earlier. Maybe it's just like the creepiness factor after like 11:00 p.m. gets a little weird. Alright. You know what? The first guy just got back to me, so I like this question. He said, "You picked the best time to ask me that question," and I thought that was one of the better questions that I've been asked so far. And that's why I really wanted to speak with you on this phone, because I thought that's actually like a good question. Yeah.

Ya know, because that goes deeper than just like someone else's like how to use a credit card. Like that's the sort of stuff that you can just—you can YouTube that. That guy is probably watching right now, but anyway, how has it impacted me? I think it's impacted me really positively. The thing is, is that I think it just kind of expands what you think is possible. And I think it sounds cheesy but it continually pushes you like to go out of your comfort zone a little bit and try something else and figure out what works for you. And it's really a lot of—it sounds cheesy but I feel like it's a lot of like inner self-development of like overcoming these fears that you have or like sometimes these limiting beliefs that you have. Like when I first started, I thought it was like almost impossible to make a sale, and in the back of my mind it was like nobody’s gonna trust me because I'm 18 years old, and everyone says that I'm like too young and I'm too inexperienced. I don't want to do it. And then when you do it, it just blows away all those beliefs that you just had because now it's like it's possible. So for me, it took me like ten months to sell the first house but then two months to sell the one after that, and I think a lot of nice is okay yeah, it's just was like this confidence thing. So I think it's great and I think it's pushed me in ways that, you know, I don't know if any other business would have been able to do that.

No, thank you! I really appreciate it. It's so weird for me to hear stuff like that because for me it sounds weird because it's like I'm like no, it's just me, so it's yeah, I know all of it's pretty new to me from the beginning. So yeah man, I really appreciate that. I'm just, I'm honestly I'm happy that just people watch.

Okay, and then it's helpful, so like that means the world to me.

Yeah, of course! I just read Rich Dad Poor Dad. I got it from my library. Cool! And actually, thank you—it's like moving like I don't know if you've been on—I throw up, but like my school's they really focus on my college like we have like good programs and stuff like that, and they really don't like inform you like mindset for like how to change. Like basically they just teach you how to conform to like whatever I wanted to do. It's kind of sad because, for example— for example, I think accounting, the German high school cook, it's just entry-level, you know, debit credit stuff like that. And my dining teacher, restocking financial cut, but no one took it so I had to get like cut out of the budget. All this stuff.

Mmm, like yeah, but these kids will go take like culinary arts like I like—yeah, you have an interest, not, but like I just think it's kind of sad how they're so happy to cut important things out of education.

Oh, I agree! At least for another—for me in high school, I felt like it was a total waste of time. And I remember I was in a geometry class, and that was my hardest class because I thought I would never ever in my life ever use geometry and I'm just wasting my time when I could be doing something better. I think it's that.

But you know the good thing with schools not teaching you that is it, it by not teaching you that they almost teach you how to learn on your own, which could actually be more valuable than I think learning from somebody else. This is going because that way you're not limited to like just what someone teaches you because you can learn whatever it is out there that you want to learn. And I think by the time you're ready you can hit the ground running and you'll already have learned like a ton by the time you start.

Thanks for picking up, Coleman! Well I appreciate it. Yeah, have a good one. This is another—say you guys, you're sending me great questions, and then you're forgetting the phone number.

I mean okay, so another thing is I can't call people in Australia obviously; I'm gonna be calling people in the US and Canada because that's what my phone supports. I do not want to be paying like a dollar a minute.

So here's a good one from Tech Tricks. Let's call him.

Hey, what's up man? Yeah, I would say my biggest piece of advice if you can is intern or be an assistant to someone else who's at the level you want to be at. And I think it's like the thing is you can read as much as you want, you can watch as many YouTube videos as possible, you can know as much about it in theory, and but until you actually see someone doing what it is that you want to do in person and seeing like the little subtleties of like how they talk or how they interact with people or what they're doing day to day—like it’s the little things that I think make the biggest difference, and that is my biggest recommendation is just be an intern or be an assistant for someone else who’s doing the business you want to do. You’ll learn so much—you’ll learn more probably working with that person in a week than you will months working on your own. And I think it just cuts the learning curve down dramatically because you could see, and you can learn from someone who’s already like extremely successful, and you can almost just like imitate that but kind of put it in your own way. So if they’re doing a certain thing, you can just like spin that around to kind of fit your own style.

Yeah, so that's my advice. And by the way, I'm totally open, like I think it's a good idea to if even if you work for free like for the first like month or two months or something, you know, I think the learning experience is going to be worth every penny. And it's—I think it's just a great opportunity to be able to, you know, surround yourself by someone else or by other people that are successful before so you can like get caught up with everything. So once you're actually doing the business, scripts and everything.

Oh yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. No, as far as scripts are concerned, I've seen a lot of people do scripts. I've never done scripts, and I've never liked scripts, but maybe that's just like my own, my own because I know a lot of people who do like really internalize scripts, and no matter what someone says, they always have like a good comeback to it. I've never been into that. I've always felt that it's best to kind of like—I don't know, maybe do your own style, but maybe that's my own, my own like weird belief about it.

Yeah, I guess it's more so just like yeah, I guess off the top of my head, but maybe I could do way more business by learning scripts, I have no idea. But I've never used scripts.

Well, I appreciate it. Well, thank you so much for the question and for yeah, or the other opportunity you have is just to target agents who have like really high-priced listings because sometimes if you walk into an office, sometimes they'll like shrug you off or they’re gonna give you to some like random agents who might be like really bad or something like that. It’s almost better you target specific people and you can even go on like realtor.com and look up listings above, like I don't know, in the high end, whatever the high-end market is for your area and reach out to those Realtors. You can either call them, or if you see they have an open house, show up. I mean, that's what I did. I just showed up to open houses on like really expensive listings and would just meet people, and I had no expectation of like working with anybody, but I went and just asked questions and asked for their advice and what they recommended and, you know, how I can do this too, and it just kind of happened organically. But there's no—I think there's no harm in going and doing that in that aspect if there's any free work you can do and just, you know, just try to offer something in return, whether it's your time or your dedication or your enthusiasm. You have to give something in return, but yeah, I would definitely do that and then report back; let me know how that works!

Awesome! Well thanks so much, Matt. If you want to say hi to YouTube really quick, I don't know how many people are gonna be watching this or if I'm gonna post it, but I'm probably gonna end up posting this.

But well that was good! Have a good one man!

But here's a question. I won't hat trade. I won. Oh, I won that trade.

Graham, so his question is do you think it's a good idea for a young person 18 to 20 years old to get into real estate in the Houston area after Hurricane Harvey? If so, what are some things we should be wary of?

Yo! Yeah, as far as investing in that area, I would be a little bit hesitant. I mean, especially if you're going to be investing out of area. I mean, as far as getting something like you know undervalued, the thing is that like if something is undervalued it's gonna need a ton of repairs, so that almost you know negates a lot of the benefit there because if something is that well priced, it's that well priced for a reason, and it's not going to be something necessarily that you're gonna be able to scoop up for like this insanely low price. You're gonna have to put a lot of work into it. If it's gonna be like a first property, I probably wouldn't do it because anything that's been flooded or anything with water damage has to be treated so carefully because you have potential for mold, mildew, or you have just I think there are too many unknowns when you deal with something like a natural disaster when it comes to a house. And I would not even go close to touching a project that big, especially if it's gonna be like a first deal or especially if it's gonna be something like where you don't necessarily live in the area. I just—I personally wouldn't do it, and there might be good deals to come about from that, but you know I think if anyone were to get into that, I would recommend they be pretty experienced, especially dealing with something like water damage.

Yeah, that kind of explains it. It could be comparable to kind of like—

Yeah, yeah, it's just a risk/reward thing. I think you take on a lot of risk for, you know, potentially a higher reward. It's just I don't think that makes sense for somebody just starting out or just beginning to get their feet wet. That was a terrible pun.

So what was the other question you had?

Yeah, are you talking from like investing in properties? Okay, but I mean the real estate industry when you say that, it's like pretty broad. You can mean like a real estate agent; you wanna do wholesaling? You wanna be flipping? Investing? My recommendation for investing is just to focus on things that just need cosmetic repairs where like the foundation is good, one of the bones are good. It just is old. Sometimes you get these houses that are just stuck in like the 70s or the 80s or the 90s. I would try to find a 90s house because, you know, it's like slightly newer construction; it's just outdated. I like to focus on homes that just need cosmetic repairs, and that could be as simple as floors, paint, kitchen, bathroom, landscaping, things like that that are pretty easy to do and there's not a lot of risk involved in that because a lot of these things you could just get multiple contractor bids and you’ll know within a ballpark, and then you just add like 15% onto that what it’s going to end up costing you and then you compare that to other homes that are completely remodeled like that and you see if there’s going to be enough room for profit and that after commissions and closing costs and all that good stuff. So that’s what I like to focus on, especially places that have just had maybe some deferred maintenance, maybe there needs like a new roof, and the landscaping is all like old, and the person just kind of neglected those things. But otherwise, like it’s a solid house. So that’s where I like to focus on and that’s a great way to start getting into it. And then as you get more advanced, you could start like changing floor plans, which you know would begin adding maybe some more value by like opening up kitchens or making another bedroom or opening up a wall somewhere and then adding on square footage which is really where you get a lot of the return. So it might cost you, let’s say, I don’t know, I’m throwing out numbers, you’re like $70 a square foot to build, but you can get in return $200 a square foot for that. So I highly recommend doing something like that or a combination of those, but I recommend starting out pretty simple with cosmetic stuff and then as you get accustomed to that, slowly moving on to larger remodels and then adding square footage, and then after that you can get into like the crazy stuff.

Yeah, the duplex!

Yeah, yeah, it was kind of cool just to see like I’ve been up there kitchen on that property and she like watches turn into something that was like—I mean it looked okay and or something looked now which is pretty—yeah I’m actually filming in it now and I've furnished the place, like most of it, not all of it, but like so far I’m furnishing it, and you’ll see it in this video it’s coming along. Oh actually, you've seen the Snapchats, so what am I saying like you kind of know a little bit?

Yeah, yeah, that was the dining room, that light, so for anybody watching this who hasn't added me on Snapchat I messed up on this light and I seriously I spent like 45 minutes, maybe almost close to an hour figuring out like the wiring and like something wrong screwing around with like the breaker and I thought like for sure this whole thing had to be rewired and then I forgot I just flipped the switch to turn the light on.

Ya know it looks, it turned out great, it’s just, yeah, just an idiot sometimes.

So well anyway, dude, I really appreciate it. Thanks for the question and you know I’ll try to get this uploaded sometime next week.

Yeah, you got it! No, this is fun for me, so I enjoy it!

Alright, come on, well sounds good! Cool, you too!

There we go, that was a success. I've really enjoyed doing this. If you guys enjoy watching this, click the like button or comment down below, let me know your thoughts; give me any constructive criticism if you guys like this. If you don't, that's great. If it's bad, what you would do to make it better, so any sort of thoughts like that, please let me know.

I'm totally open to pretty much anything you suggest, and if you like it, I'm going to be doing this much more often. So you'll want to add me on Snapchat and Instagram so you keep track of this because if it goes well, if you guys like it, I'm gonna be doing more of this. Also feel free to subscribe.

Thank you again for watching! Until next time.