Brandon Elliot (02:33):

Years later I got house arrest and I started improving my life and changing things around. So I got introduced to real estate from… I was a good salesperson and door knocking for Kirby Vacuum Cleaners out here in San Diego. And I got recruited into a real estate investment company that I got a little bit of education, but a hell of a lot more motivation.

Brandon Elliot (02:57):

I saw the system in place and I saw how we were making a bigger impact in people’s lives. I saw how everybody was getting paid well in the company and it was just really inspiring. So I started doing my own education with all the books, podcasts just like this in YouTube, because I wasn’t smart enough to know that there was mentors out there to help me.

Brandon Elliot (03:17):

And eventually I ended up finding myself investing 3000 miles away over in Ohio. I submitted 30 plus offers out here in two years in San Diego and going against real investors that offer all cash, no contingencies and close in 10 days. Stuff that we do now, it’s funny I just couldn’t get in out here, but Ohio, I was able to. I was working restaurant jobs at the time, so I really didn’t have that much money saved up. I had 35,000, but I had good credit and I was able to get creative. You know when there’s a will there’s a way.

Brandon Elliot (03:54):

And I got creative and I figured out, okay let’s see if I can use my credit to actually be able to purchase properties and complete the remodels. And it turned into just a whole credit business over the years, but we’ve purchased properties with credit cards. I’ve done all my remodels with credit cards. So I get a nice vacation at the end of each remodel. And I don’t get screwed over by contractors, which is amazing because it’s on a credit card.

Brandon Elliot (04:20):

And we’ve done private money lending, hard money lending. We started a mastermind group called Credit Council Elite, which has helped people in so many different ways, it’s fix credit very quickly, build up millions in personal and business lines of credit. And then leveraging it into e-com stores, real estate, you name it. Bunch of fun stuff.

Robert Leonard (04:42):

What was that first real estate company doing? What kind of real estate were they into? Was it a private equity firm doing these big apartment buildings or what did it look like?

Brandon Elliot (04:49):

No, no. It was back in 2012, so I was at ODS, notice of defaults, a lot of pre foreclosure stuff back then. Right after the crash, several years later, people were just trying to get modifications and so forth. So they needed door knockers. They needed people. We had this huge list that everybody was going to foreclosure soon and so forth and getting all these notices.

Brandon Elliot (05:13):

So they gave me this list and I drove around, knocking on doors, trying to see if, hey, do you guys have a modification? Do you guys have something, a backup plan? Because it’s gone to auction in a week from today and if not, we could be your backup plan and make it a win-win situation. So it doesn’t go to auction. It doesn’t mess up your credit and you guys can actually get paid instead of just losing it.

Robert Leonard (05:36):

What was that company doing if they didn’t have any backup plan, how were they being the fix for them?

Brandon Elliot (05:42):

So we had multiple strategies because we had agents as well on the team. So if they didn’t want to actually to sell it to us at a discount, then we could list it for them and try to sell it on the market or set them up with a modification.

Brandon Elliot (05:58):

Another team section within the company could set them up with a modification so that they could stay longer if that was truly their goal. But back then a lot of the modifications really weren’t even working that well or they were misguided. I feel like a lot of people thought it was the one and done simple trick that they needed, but there’s a lot more to it.

Robert Leonard (06:22):

When you started to invest yourself, why did you choose Ohio? I understand long distance, I’m a long distance investor myself, that’s my probably number one strategy. So I totally understand why you chose to go long distance, but I mean there’s 49 other states other than California. Right? So why did you choose Ohio?

Brandon Elliot (06:39):

I feel like it’s a good thing honestly, because I was trying out here for two years, couldn’t get any offers accepted. I started getting more desperate and started submitting on deals that weren’t even really a deal. It really wouldn’t work out number wise, but I was like screw it. I just want to get started. Two years and I’m impatient, like all millennials I feel like… But needless to say, I started looking in other states. Arizona is right next door so I looked there first and then I started looking in Texas. And then I’m from New Jersey, so I checked out New Jersey.

Brandon Elliot (07:11):

And just truth be told, it was probably my lack of education honestly at the time but instantly I wasn’t finding, as I was doing the due diligence on the location and properties in the area, I couldn’t find something that was really cash flowing and that it truly made sense, but I got recommended by three different people all within the same week to check out Ohio.

Brandon Elliot (07:34):

So when I did that, all of Ohio I was doing my due deal on, and most of it cash flowed in many different ways. So I found this lucrative opportunity that it had job growth, population growth and then something unique about it that actually turned me on to like, hey, I think this is the location.

Brandon Elliot (07:53):

So I started building the relationships, but the unique part was really a famous Catholic university that they just announced the semester before that they didn’t have enough housing available for the students. So juniors and seniors had to find off campus housing. And that was like that light bulb moment. And once I started doing more due diligence, I found out there was a lot of bigger investors there, old guys that had a ton of properties in their early 90s that they just wanted to cash out. So they were creating more of a buyer’s opportunity for me.

Robert Leonard (08:31):

Did you end up going into student rentals because of that university needing housing?

Brandon Elliot (08:35):

It wasn’t intentional but it turned out to be that way. I’ll run it out to anybody. We have a good amount of Section 8 as well, but yeah, we have several students and yeah it just turned out that way.

Robert Leonard (08:49):

Have you decided to go into student rentals more after that experience or have you just, again, like you said, take anybody that’s qualified to rent your places?

Brandon Elliot (08:59):

Yeah, so I screen very tough just like a bank would. I’d rather have a vacancy for a long time. Some people are like, dang, I can’t believe you’re having a vacancy this long, but I’d rather have it that way so that I can and get the cream of the crop instead of somebody that is going to potentially damage or just be a headache to me.

Brandon Elliot (09:20):

So I’ve noticed that the students, as long as I screen well, and then they almost find their replacements and I give them incentives to do so, then it typically works out well, but I’ve also had some young guys that they want to party a little bit. And I’m like, dang, how did I let you guys slip through the cracks here? But they’re all pretty respectful at the end of the day.

Brandon Elliot (09:43):

Section 8, I’m starting to find out is just more, as long as I find the right, good tenants that aren’t going to trash the home. And they’re respectful, Section 8 has been that bread and butter of like… I’m starting to like this because we can really get top dollar.

Robert Leonard (09:58):

When you do the student rentals, do you put the parents on the lease as well as like a co-signer?

Brandon Elliot (10:04):

Sometimes we do. Yeah, we’ve done this several times. If they don’t have their own income and parents are paying for it, then definitely. If they’re very young and this is their first time living on their own then yeah. Yeah. I just screen hard. So a lot of them will end up having to have their parents.

Robert Leonard (10:24):

How have student rentals performed over the last year or two with COVID?

Brandon Elliot (10:30):

Yeah, that’s a great question because the school in general, they did close up for a while. So there were several students that were going back home and so forth. And I’m very blessed, we haven’t had any vacancies or anything related to COVID that restricted us or held us back.

Brandon Elliot (10:52):

We’ve had one tenant that tried playing some games a little bit during COVID of not paying rent and then rubbing it in our face like, you can’t even evict me. But Ohio’s different over there and they didn’t realize, so uneducated and we were able to evict them very quickly within like two weeks. So that was our first and only eviction that far. We probably could have worked things out on the side, but we just wanted to set the stand of, we’re not going to tolerate any games.

Robert Leonard (11:22):

Talk to us a bit more about Section 8. Tell us first for anybody that is listening that’s never heard of Section 8. What exactly is it? And then we’ll dive into it a little bit deeper.

Brandon Elliot (11:32):

Yeah. So Section 8 is government housing, basically subsidize housing that a landlord like myself can provide the home, and then the government will step in and help out paying a good majority or in some cases the whole portion of whatever the tenant qualifies for.

Brandon Elliot (11:54):

So the tenant would have to get qualified with the Section 8 housing administration. And if they qualify and get approved, then depends on their income, how much they’re making per month, the number of kids and so forth that will put them in either a poverty demographic or something that classifies them that they need assistance from the government.

Brandon Elliot (12:17):

So in that case, I would be signing documents with Section 8. Section 8 comes through the house to inspect, to make sure that it’s up to code and qualifies for a safe environment for the family. And yeah, all three of us assign it’s basically me, the tenant and then Section 8 signing an agreement. And they pay clockwork each and every month without any issues. And some of the tenants are paying very, very little and it really makes it beneficial. We don’t need to worry about it.

Robert Leonard (12:50):

Section 8 is interesting because I feel like it can be a bit divisive. I feel like some investors say they absolutely hate Section 8, they would never even consider it. And then there are some people who love it. It sounds like you enjoy it yourself. I’ve talked to other people who really, really like it as well. So it’s really interesting that there’s this divide between some investors really like it and some don’t. What have been some of the upsides for you for renting to Section 8?

Brandon Elliot (13:17):

Yeah. So with Section 8, I grew up on Section 8, honestly. So I grew up getting a lot of… We grew up like American poor, right? There’s all these other countries that their level of poor is a whole different level. So we are above and beyond blessed, but still grew up with the government stepping in and helping out and local churches and my local school helping out as much as they could. But yeah, I mean, bottom line is that I think if you get the right tenant in there then they’re going to treat the home as if it’s theirs. They’re not going to trash it.

Brandon Elliot (13:54):

And this go was across the board with any type of tenants. Right? The awesome part behind it is that the government is paying it each month. So whether they work or not they’re going to step in and really be more of the authority figure over these tenants because they do an annual inspection. If they find out anything about the tenants that they’re doing that are breaking the lease, they step in before I even do. So it’s beneficial in that way that you don’t need to worry like, hey, is this tenant actually going to pay rent this month? Good portion is getting paid by Section 8.

Robert Leonard (14:30):

From my limited experience with Section 8, I’ve seen that they actually paid pretty well for rental rates for Section 8 too. Is that up in your experience?

Brandon Elliot (14:38):

Exactly. Yeah, that’s where you can really get the premium amount for your area. And it’s all within their own algorithm of calculating what it’s worth, but it’s crazy. And each year you can ask for an increase. So with some of my other tenants, I’ve always been hesitant or scared like, hey, if I increase it this much are they going to start searching around? Are they going to look for something else?

Brandon Elliot (15:02):

Section 8, you can ask for the increase. It rarely messes with the tenant. It can in some cases and they might need to pay more depending on their monthly and annual income. But besides that, a lot of Section 8 also stay longer, which is in my case, just been more of something that we don’t need to worry about. If they stay for a long time, that’s great.

Robert Leonard (15:28):

What have been some of the sides if any to Section 8? I know you’ve mentioned the different inspections that Section 8 does. I’ve heard of some investors, they’re definitely not slum lords and they’re providing a good place to live, but there are sometimes with FHA mortgages, Section 8 could have requirements that are nuanced and a little bit more of a pain in the butt than they are necessarily providing a specific place that’s safe to live. So have you run into any issues with the inspections or any other downsides with Section 8?

Brandon Elliot (16:00):

Yeah. You’re so correct. There’s definitely some nitpicking that goes on because that’s the inspector’s role to find something. If he constantly has nothing that he’s criticizing the landlord’s on, then it looks like he’s not doing his job.

Brandon Elliot (16:18):

So it’s really a weird concept. Sometimes it’s like the most ridiculous things, but in all of our situations, all of our cases, it’s always been less than a couple 100 bucks, if any to actually do whatever they say to make it qualified. And it’s always been a great relationship that the guy has always just told us like, hey, after you install this or do this then just take a picture of it, send it to me and I’ll prove it and let Section 8 know.

Brandon Elliot (16:49):

So it’s really not that bad if they ever nitpicked about the stupidest things and really decided to be a pain and make it like thousands of dollars. And we didn’t see that it was justified, then I’d probably just say, no, I’m not going to do this. And then keep it moving outside of Section 8. We do the BRRRR strategy on all of our properties so all of our properties are fully remodeled and in pretty good condition for the most part.

Robert Leonard (17:18):

You touched on something that’s important is that, if tenants are not working with Section 8, you could just rent it to a normal tenant. It’s not like you’re section or nothing. Right? You can always rent it to a normal tenant as well.

Robert Leonard (17:28):

When you do go about Section 8 and housing, if somebody’s listening and they’re interested in this strategy, talk to us a little bit about how it works in terms of actually getting started. Do you have to designate a house as Section 8 housing available? Or do somebody who is Section 8 approved already come to you and say, “Hey, I want to rent this place, but I am Section 8.” How does that work?

Brandon Elliot (17:48):

Yeah, that’s a great question. So first off, I reach out to Section 8, I let them know that I’m a landlord with many properties in the area. They ask me for the list of my vacant properties and then they basically put my name and my number, my contact info on a list of theirs, of local landlords that have property is available.

Brandon Elliot (18:09):

So when people that are just approved for Section 8 and they’re looking for a home, they’ll see that list. And yeah, they’ll give me a call and I always make them go through our application first just to make sure that they qualify with me and that it is a good fit at the end of the day. Everybody has to go through the same procedures, but then after they are pre-approved, then it starts off with Section 8, making sure that their paperwork is good with them. And then the inspection comes through. And then about a week later we’re good to go signing leases.

Robert Leonard (18:47):

How do you screen Section 8 housing applicants or tenants? Because one of the most important things that I look for as a landlord is income specifically three times the rent for a tenant. So that’s probably not going to be the case with Section 8, right? If they make enough money to be three times the rent, they’re probably not going to qualify for Section 8 housing. So what are you looking for in a Section 8 tenant application or just overall profile that you use to screen them?

Brandon Elliot (19:13):

Yeah, that’s a great question. So I screen everybody exactly the same. When it comes down to Section 8 and their income, it’s going to be slightly different, but I still want to see consistency for at least three months. Ideally I love to see consistency for at least a year. I do not like when I see people jumping from jobs, it’s just inconsistent, it’s unstable and they could break the lease in my opinion.

Brandon Elliot (19:39):

So I like to stay away from that. When it comes down to their income, I know Section 8 will pay a big portion of it. So I’m just concerned on their financial side of whatever they are responsible for. And I can check in with Section 8 to find out what that is. Then they make at least three times that amount, ideally more, but three times the amount is what we’re okay with.

Robert Leonard (20:05):

You mentioned breaking the lease, and that’s actually an interesting thing I want to talk about because again, I have a very limited understanding or experience with Section 8. I have looked into a little bit of research a little bit, I almost bought a house that was going to be Section 8. But from my understanding is that if somebody has a lease that’s Section 8 for a year, if they try to break the lease early, they’re not going to get assistance from Section 8 with their next house.

Robert Leonard (20:29):

So Section 8 is going to continue to pay you as the landlord for the length of that lease. And then if they go somewhere else, they technically could go live somewhere else but they have to pay that rent themselves. Is that what your experience has been? Is that accurate?

Brandon Elliot (20:43):

To a certain degree. Like you mentioned in the first part of that, if they break the lease then they are no longer approved and good to go with Section 8 anymore. If they get evicted they lose their Section 8 voucher. So they’re going to be screwed on rent, that they’re going to have to figure it out on their own.

Brandon Elliot (21:03):

So that’s another very huge positive sign right there because they are living off of that. They’re getting a huge handout and hookup, so they don’t want to lose that, therefore they’ll do many things to make sure that they’re in good status. On the flip side of that though, if they did break the lease and they’re not living there anymore, Section 8 won’t pay. They’re not going to… They’re going to break the lease and that’s it. So I would have to at that point go to Sue that individual.

Robert Leonard (21:36):

So if you had a house that could be rented, let’s just keep everything else the same. If you had a tenant that applied Section 8 or just traditional tenant, which would you prefer?

Brandon Elliot (21:46):

I would actually prefer if it’s apples to apples, good people and no issues when it comes down to that, then I would 100% prefer Section 8. And the three reasons are that they typically stay longer, which is nice. I don’t need to worry about vacancies, that’s what kills us, vacancies. Also the top dollar rent and getting that increase each and every year. And then also them just going above and beyond to make sure that they’re in good status with Section 8, as well as me as the landlord so that they don’t get kicked out. So that they don’t lose their voucher.

Robert Leonard (22:28):

As somebody who invests long distance, probably the number one question that I get asked is, how do you manage your long distance properties? How are you doing it?

Brandon Elliot (22:37):

I used to get this all the time like, so how do you own cloud toilet for your tenants in the middle of the night? I’m like you do that for your tenants? I don’t know if I would do that for myself in the middle of the night or for my lady. I just think it’s funny.

Brandon Elliot (22:53):

It comes down to systems and I’m very, very blessed and thankful that we started off doing this long distance, 3000 miles away because I’m the type of person that very, I would say a little bit of controlling. If it’s not getting done the right way and it’s close by, I would probably be over there on a regular basis. And stepping in, getting more hands on instead of working on the business, I’d be working in the business and that’s not going to be beneficial.

Brandon Elliot (23:24):

So thankfully it was long distance and it really just came down to the relationships. Like relationships, relationships, relationships and building them up. We have an amazing contractor that really is my everything over there. He does the full renovations. He shows tenants properties after they’re pre-approved. He handles keys, maintenance issues, anything and everything.

Brandon Elliot (23:51):

So he’s my boots on ground and basically my property management, but also my contractor. And I’ve tried getting property management companies in the past over there. Nobody’s going to care about your investment more than yourself. So this guy has been a gym for me and that secret little sauce, that little ingredient that has blessed our business.

Robert Leonard (24:14):

If anybody listening, listened to an episode a couple weeks ago where I talked about my long distance investing, you’re probably laughing like I am, because this is literally almost exactly what I said. When Brandon mentioned about the toilets and the exact same way as I own a duplex that I live in and I house hack. Even if the unit next to me broke, I don’t know how to fix it. So it’s not like I could do it anyway. I have to call a professional to go fix it for me.

Robert Leonard (24:36):

And so it’s the same when I invest long distance, I call a professional that’s able to do it for me and they go handle it. I think people make it more complex than it really has to be. What does your portfolio look like today? How many houses or properties or units do you have? I guess, across the board, but in Ohio specifically as well?

Brandon Elliot (24:52):

Yeah, so we are in the low 20s right now. We have over a dozen, like 15 over in Ohio and then out here in San Diego the last year and a half, two years, I guess we’ve been taking more territory and focusing more out here just because we finally got to the certain experience or confidence or whatever you want to call it, education that we’re making the BRRRR strategy work out here on and million dollar plus properties. And at first it was scary raising that money or utilizing our credit to be able to do so, but it’s been so rewarding.

Brandon Elliot (25:37):

We’re doing Airbnb in a lot of our properties out here, but still after we renovate it, have no money into it with the cash out refinance and out here, it’s like, you should, you never bet on appreciation, but let me tell you, man, it’s like, it really increases out here in San Diego.

Brandon Elliot (25:52):

One of our properties, a fourplex just last year in one year’s timeframe increased over $300,000. And it’s already fully renovated. We already got all of our money out, but now I can take out extra money from that. And it’s a cash cow because of Airbnb. And it’s just like, man, there’s so many benefits to being local and having fun with a different type of quality of a product at the end. It’s not like Ohio rental. It’s little bit classier, but it’s nice.

Robert Leonard (26:26):

We’re going to dive into the BRRRR strategy a bit deeper in a little bit. But before we do, I want to talk about credit, then we’ll tie credit together with the BRRRR strategy. As part of your intro you mentioned that you’re a credit expert, you’ve done a bunch of stuff with credit. You have credit hacks. What exactly does that mean? And are you talking about credit as in credit card or mortgages or what kind of credit exactly does it mean?

Brandon Elliot (26:51):

Really anything credit related. With that being said, just to make it simple is mostly credit cards. We look at credit as like a four step process. So it’s educate, fix, build, and leverage in that order.

Brandon Elliot (27:06):

So it’s very important to be educated when you’re jumping into this credit game of like, how the banks and lenders are judging us. How the bureaus are judging us, how to play the game of credit. Afterwards, we could all use a little bit of fixing because the bottom line is, they weren’t teaching it in school. And there’s a lot of things that we’ve done mistakenly, or even just too much info on our credit profiles. And the credit bureaus are screwing up a lot of things as well. So there’s a lot of mistakes on our credit profiles that need some fixing and cleaning.

Brandon Elliot (27:35):

So we can show people within hours up to 10 business days, how to remove and fix stuff that have been holding them back for way too long. Bankruptcies removed in like 30 days, it’s crazy. And then afterwards building. Building is my favorite. That’s what I am very passionate about.

Robert Leonard (27:52):

Some people listening to the show may not know that business credit even exists. Most people are familiar with personal credit scores and credit reports, but not as many are familiar with business. Tell us a bit about the difference between business credit and personal credit, and then explain to us how we can actually build business credit.

Brandon Elliot (28:12):

To just break down business credit, if you’re doing anything that is a business, treat it like a business. This is one of my biggest regrets when it comes down to credit as a whole. I leverage my personal credit for a long time and build up huge credit lines on the personal side versus the business.

Brandon Elliot (28:33):

Business, nine times out of 10, that credit won’t actually show up on your personal, therefore it’s separated and it’s not going to fluctuate your score. It’s not going to drop down your score from having a high utilization and so forth. So even if you personally guarantee it, you might get a hard inquiry, but we can show you how to remove that quickly. And then it will never actually pop up on your personal side, unless you’re delinquent.

Brandon Elliot (29:03):

Now there are certain cards that are business, but will still actually pop up underneath your personal. So you want to be mindful of certain things like that, such as the business discover card or business capital loan and so forth. You can get a lot more credit, huge credit lines and a lot more of it on the business side. So why not?

Robert Leonard (29:26):

What are you using it for? What kind of business loans are you getting? What types of products are they? And do you have to have a ton of revenue to qualify? How are you getting qualified for this? Walk us through that a little bit.

Brandon Elliot (29:37):

Yeah, it’s a great question. So there’s different ways that the banks will give you funding and how they judge you. You can either personally guarantee everything, meaning your personal flight go score. You can give a ton of documents, meaning you have great revenue coming in. You have great contracts, you have great tax returns that you can show, or you can do collateral. Collateral, meaning you have other assets that, or life insurance or something that you could put in exchange to be able to get you these fundings as a secured loan.

Robert Leonard (30:11):

What is a personal line of credit and what are the benefits of it? How does it differ from a business line of credit?

Brandon Elliot (30:19):

Yeah. So personal line of credit is just going to show up underneath your personal credit profile. So it shows up as a revolving account, meaning that there’s a monthly payment due each month. They’re going to calculate that into debt to income ratio, if you are going to get a mortgage or really any type of financing, similar to other loans and so forth.

Robert Leonard (30:42):

Let’s combine these credit card strategies to what you’re doing in real estate. First, explain to us what the BRRRR strategy is, and then tell us how you’re leveraging credit cards and how people listening to the show might be able to use credit cards to do the same thing.

Brandon Elliot (30:57):

Oh yeah. So I fell in love with the BRRRR strategy first off. So if anybody out there that doesn’t know this definitely dive into this stuff because it can be life changing, but the BRRRR strategy it’s B and then four R. So buy, renovate, rent, refinance, and repeat.

Brandon Elliot (31:14):

So what that looks like is we’re buying a fully distressed property beat up from the feed up. Afterwards, we’re doing the full renovation on it, making it a brand new again, making it look sexy in the neighborhood. At that point, it’s easy to get a lot of interest in the property because it’s brand new and it looks good in the neighborhood, but getting a well qualified tenant is the key to that, right? After it’s rented out and it’s doing well, then you can take it back to a bank and you can get a cash out refinance.

Brandon Elliot (31:43):

So making sure that you qualify for a personal or business mortgage or there’s investment type of lending out there that will work with you based on the asset itself, the property, however, you will pay a higher premium when it comes down to the interest rates. If the numbers may makes sense, the numbers make sense. So I want to overthink that part, but once you get… It’s really like a fix and flip, except instead of just a one time payout and that’s like a high paying job, and then you got to move on to the next. You actually keep the property, and the whole goal with this is just to have no or little money actually remain the left out of your pocket into the deal.

Brandon Elliot (32:27):

So ideally, if you bought it for 50,000, you put 20,000 into it. It’s worth a 100,000, you get a new mortgage at 70,000. You only had 70,000 into it, you have no money left into it and now you have a small monthly mortgage, let’s say $500. But in fact, it rents out for a thousand. Now you get the cash flow, that couple of hundred dollars, obviously, minus your vacancies, capital expenditures, maintenance, insurance, all that fun stuff.

Brandon Elliot (33:00):

Doing this process and repeating it, that’s the last step. That’s where you’ll get that financial freedom. You’ll get that generational wealth. You’ll be able to compound on so many different areas of real estate that has that mailbox money that has literally been able to give us a freedom over the years and life changing experience.

Robert Leonard (33:19):

How are you leveraging credit cards to do this?

Brandon Elliot (33:22):

Yeah, so we’ve purchased properties with credit cards and we’ve completed all of our remodels with credit cards. Also have done hard money lending and private money lending with our credit into real estate for other partners.

Robert Leonard (33:35):

How do you purchase a property? How do you buy a house on a credit card?

Brandon Elliot (33:39):

That’s a great question. So there’s many different ways. Honestly, you can use plastiq.com. That’s our technique. There’s small fees involved with that, but they will wire it right into escrow. We’ve done manufacture spending to be able to liquidate cash from our credit cards. And once the cash is in our bank, then we can use it however, which way we want.

Brandon Elliot (34:03):

So we’ll just wire it into escrow. We’ve had students utilize merchant accounts and there’s right ways to do this and wrong ways to do it. There’s a lot of things with credit that we teach that there’s small amount of ways to do it correctly. There’s many ways to mess it up that could actually hurt you and damage your bank relationships or get your accounts closed and so forth.

Brandon Elliot (34:26):

So that’s why I’m a very big advocate of giving out free guidance and stuff like that and motivation behind it. It can be very life changing and amazing, but there’s so many ways that you could screw it up. So I encourage you don’t just wing it and try to do it on your own, really get educated on it. We’ve had people utilize merchant accounts and get 0% interest credit cards, swipe it on their card and then be able to wire it into escrow.

Robert Leonard (35:00):

The plastiq website you mentioned is that ending with a Q instead of a C?

Brandon Elliot (35:04):

It ends with a Q. Yes.

Robert Leonard (35:07):

Before we give a handoff to where people can find you, I always wrap up the show by turning the tables and letting the guest ask me a question. So Brandon, what question do you have for me?

Brandon Elliot (35:18):

That’s so good. I love it. What are you doing with your credit?

Robert Leonard (35:21):

So I’m not doing much in terms of creative stuff. I have about eight credit cards or so. I think I have like $150,000 in available credit to me. I don’t have any credit card balances, has never paid any interest or anything like that. So yeah, I think I have about eight credit cards or so I have a couple business credit cards because of the businesses I have, but yeah, about 150,000 or so in available credit. But I’ve never done anything creative really in terms of utilizing it for real estate or anything like that.

Robert Leonard (35:48):

I’ve more or less just used it for signup bonuses but only if, let’s just say I had my auto insurance coming up and I knew that was going to be $1,000. And I knew I only needed to spend $1,000 to get a $500 bonus or something on a credit card. I would do that but that was about the extent to how creative I’ve gotten with credit cards.

Brandon Elliot (36:08):

Yeah. I love it. And that’s a nationwide thing. A lot of people pay more in cash or just take advantage of some of the sign up bonuses so it’s very common here. I would just challenge everybody that’s listening and even possibly yourself, Robert, that when you’re educated on the credit and all the possibilities behind it, it’s really endless.

Brandon Elliot (36:27):

If money was ever the issue in your business or your life of, I need more of it so that I can do this, this, this. You could really flip that script pretty easily by focusing on credit and then whatever avenue. I know we’re all very passionate about real estate it’s changed our lives, but credit can help exponentially take you to the next level.

Robert Leonard (36:51):

Yeah, I have to admit, I’m not sure how I feel about it. I think it’s really interesting. I’m super fascinated by it. I’m going to definitely do some research. I’m not sure yet how I feel about it yet. I got to do a little more digging and get educated myself because I don’t think I could formulate a pen and say whether it’s good or bad before I know enough about it.

Robert Leonard (37:07):

So yeah, it’s been really interesting to hear from you and all your different strategies that you’ve got going on and anybody that’s interested, do your own research and check it out and see what your thoughts are. For anybody that wants to look into you a little bit more and connect with you, where is the best place for them to find them?

Brandon Elliot (37:24):

Once again, I appreciate you so much for sharing your platform with me. Yeah. Just had a great time today. So if you wanted to connect with me on Instagram, it’s Brandon Elliot Investments, otherwise facebook.com/brandonelliotinvestor.

Robert Leonard (37:39):

I’ll be sure to put a link to Brandon’s resources in the show notes for anybody that’s interested in checking them out. Brandon, thanks so much for joining me.

Brandon Elliot (37:46):

Yeah. I appreciate you Robert. Have fun today guys, stay blessed.

Robert Leonard (37:49):

All right guys, that’s all I had for this week’s episode of real estate investing. I’ll see you again next week.

Outro (37:55):

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Outro (38:16):

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