Real Estate Investment Strategies: Path to Financial Freedom Transcription:
Steven Pesavento [00:00:00]:
there was a lot of challenges that led you towards getting to that point of now being in a place where you have the option. You have the ability to decide what you wanna do. And, obviously, you love the work you're doing, and you pour a lot into it. But you also have the ability to go travel and take trips and you're in that point of really being job optional, which I think is such a powerful place to be. Welcome to the name of your numbers show presented by the or mindset. We're on a mission to help create financial independence for over a million investors. And when you name your number, the number that you want to earn passively every single month that creates your ultimate quality of life, then I believe you've achieved real freedom. And in today's episode, I'm excited. I've got Devin Burr in the studio today. How you doing today, Devin? I am great, man. I appreciate having me, and just excited to serve and see how we can we can touch people around the world and create positive impact. So thank you so much. I love it. And I'm grateful to have you here. And for those of you who don't know Mister Burr, as we know him, Devin started in the mortgage and refinance business back in 2005, and he's been full time in real estate since 2019. He's got some really creative strategies about how to use your money. to not only invest in real estate, but also some creative strategies to allow you to be able to grow your wealth even faster. So I'm excited to dive into some of those. But before we get into the meet, some of the strategies you're using to reach independent Love to start off on a personal note by looking back at your life, what events or influences from your childhood shape to you are today, and how has that impacted or influenced your money journey?
Devin Burr [00:01:45]:
I would say probably just, like, all the struggles I had as a kid, My parents got divorced when I was three years old. I don't really remember it. They got remarried to try to make it work for me and my brother. I have an older brother, and then they got divorced again when I was 5. So I remember just hearing them fight all the time when I was really, really young. And then they got divorced, and I would go from my mom's house to my dad's house every Friday. I'd spend a week with mom -- Mhmm. -- Friday to Friday, spend a week with dad. And what that did is that gave me, like, a lot of insight into 2 different earning styles, but both of them were they both struggled. Like, my mom was a nail technician. She didn't make a lot of money. I think the most she's ever made is, like, 20, 30000 a year. My dad was heating and air conditioning technician. most he's ever made is 80,000, which was this last year. So -- Mhmm. -- didn't come from a lot of money. I grew up here in things like, you know, money doesn't grow on trees. Like, they'd come behind me and, like, turn lights off when I left rooms. And I just always had this mindset to like, money is scarce. And when I started to, like, come into my own as an adult, I realized that that's not the case. Like, I started off in sales. That was like my first real job as a telemarketer. And I was sixteen, seventeen years old working for MCI, selling long distance. So I kinda shows you my age a little bit because that was before everyone had cell phones that have long distance. But I used to sell long distance working part time. And I worked 5 hours a night in high school making, like, 1700 bucks a week. So I'm thinking, I'm making more than my parents as a high school kid working part time. Like money's not scarce. It's just how hard are you willing to work, and you have to be able to serve more people. So, I really learned early on that, like, you can shape your life financially,
Steven Pesavento [00:04:01]:
you just have to know how, and then you just have to go do it. Yeah. It's so true, and it's so interesting because when we grow up with those beliefs. When we grow up with the beliefs of scarcity around money, when we see those actions and those behaviors turning flights, talking about the lack of money, fighting about money, we start to associate that, oh, well, it's not really available to us. Like maybe we're not those people who have a lot of it. And so we just started thinking, hey, well, you know, we have to we have to really be tight with it. And from that perspective, it can really limit us. What was that what was the the the turning point or that first moment that you realized Well, money isn't as scarce as I thought it was, and maybe there is another way of thinking about money. I think it was with that first sales job. when I just started I started really excelling at sales.
Devin Burr [00:04:51]:
Like I said, making, like, 1700 bucks a week as a high school kid, But then I started realizing, like, I'm making this good money. I just started spending it like it was going out of style. Right? I would buy new rims for my car. I would get a new system. I would go out. I actually had a fake ID. when I was in high school, my my supervisor at MCI, Frank Boriga, never forget him. He actually looked a lot like me, but he was 23. So he left his ID at work one day on his desk. And I was like, oh, so I kinda swiped his ID. And, yeah, that was my fake ID. So I used to go to clubs. I would get bottle service, and literally, I was spending all my money. So I never had anything to show for it. And that that literally went on for my entire twenties. Like, I would make decent money, spend all of it. And then at 31, I found myself bankrupt. I had $300 to my name, couldn't afford the apartment. I was living in with my daughter. I was a full time single dad at the time, and I'm about to be homeless, because I just I fell on hard times. You know? And at that point, that's when I really decided, like, okay. I can make more money. I've done it in the past, but I need to stop being stupid with money. Like, if I can make money, but then actually have the money work for me instead of me always having to work for it, that's when I can actually start getting ahead. So -- You know, tell me, are you finance actually free today? I am, which is pretty cool. I mean, we've been traveling a bunch, and the fact that I'm able to do that, I don't have to work anymore. Passive income were up to about 30000 a month. So my bills aren't anywhere close to that. So I'm not, like, the wealthiest and richest person by any means, but I don't have to work anymore, which is just such a cool feeling that I can just kinda do whatever I want, when I want with who I want. And if I wanna work, then I can make more money if I don't have to.
Steven Pesavento [00:07:06]:
Yeah. I think it's such an important place to to just underline is, like, there was a lot of challenges that led you towards getting to that point of now being in a place where you have the option. You have the ability to decide what you wanna do. And, obviously, you love the work you're doing and you pour a lot into it, but you also have the ability to go travel and take trips and you're in that point of really being job optional, which I think is such a powerful place to be. What was the strategies that you used to get to that point where you could start having that type of income coming in?
Devin Burr [00:07:44]:
Well, it started off really with with leaving my job. So I was doing mortgages, and I left that in 2019. to just become my own boss. I wanted to really have my effort build wealth for me and my family instead of that effort build wealth for the company I was working for. So when I left my job, October of 2019, I started doing wholesaling and flipping houses. And I did pretty well quickly by Mark of 2020. I had done 8 real estate deals. 0 marketing. I didn't spend $1. I would just go to local meetups. and I would scour Instagram to find out where people were gonna be at, and I would just go introduce myself. I would just go make friends with people and By doing that, I was brought in on deals. And, yeah, I was doing well, but I had started realizing that If you wholesale a deal, if you flip a house, you're making capital gains income, so you're still taxed pretty high. Yeah. And taxes suck. I hate taxes. To this day, I can't stand them. Right? I think I'm like every other American. So I started thinking, like, well, how can I pay less taxes? And I started researching. And if you hold on to properties, if you own them, you can start writing off depreciation. You have different write ups you can take, so you can lower your taxable income, then you just pay less. So I'm like, alright. How can I start holding on to properties? I knew about this method called the BER method by renovate, rent, refinance, repeat. My last name is Burr. So I'm like, I'm Mister Bur. How about I become Mister Bur? as you see on the wall here. And I just started coining myself as that guy. I made a music video. It's like a spoof music video. Anyone who wants to check it out, go to my YouTube channel, mister underscore burr. It's the first video I ever uploaded. It's just me and my friend Templeton Walker were wrapping, and it's it's it's hilarious. But, basically, I started holding on to properties and building my wealth by actually owning things instead of selling them. And then I realized, like, alright. Well, The the people that make the most money in real estate all the time is the bank. the lenders. Right? Think about if you're a flipper. You have to get a hard money loan. You have to get a private money loan. You could make zero money on that deal. You could lose money on the deal, but who always gets paid? The lenders. the bank always makes the money. So I'm like, alright. I need to become the bank. And when I started thinking like that, I actually heard a podcast with this guy by the name of Chris Noggle. He was talking about Chris is he's awesome. He he he was talking about how to become the bank, and I'm like, that's what I need. Right? So -- Yeah. I went down that rabbit hole. I started researching it. I got on a phone call with Chris. Actually started doing what he practices, and then using it with all my real estate, and I realized I was able to multiply money by being the investor but also being the bank on those deals. So think about that. I'm making money as the investor, but I'm also making money as the bank. So I'm making money in two places at the same time. Once I realized that, I was like, this is freaking incredible. Everyone needs to know about this. I'm telling mom and dad. I'm telling brothers and sisters, Aunts and uncles, cousins. Dude, I'm I'm literally telling people in the most unopportune times. Mhmm. Like like, literally in the checkout line at the supermarket. I'm like, dude, did you know you can be your own bank? And then I'm I'm explaining it to him, and everyone's looking at me like I'm crazy. But -- Yeah. -- it was changing my life, so I knew As a kid that barely passed high school, I passed with a d average, as a kid that stumbled through his twenties, was bankrupt at 31, rock bottom, if it could work for me, it can work for anybody. So I'm like, let me just share it with as many people as I can.
Steven Pesavento [00:12:17]:
Well, I think what's so I think what's so great about that is when you find something that you're passionate about, when you find something that's really helped you, and you wanna share it with everyone else. And it's always funny because, like, some of the people are gonna receive that message. They're gonna be like, great. Tell me more. I wanna learn more. But you're, of course, because you didn't know about it. Most people don't know about it. When they hear that, they're like, what the heck is this guy talking about? But the the passion of being able to find something that you know is gonna help other people, I think, is such a good indicator that you're onto something.
Devin Burr [00:12:50]:
Yeah. I mean, I looked at it just like, how can I get this message out more? and the easiest way to get a message out that is free social media. So I just started putting out videos about it, My third video, it was me sitting in my car talking about how to get all the money back for any car you'll ever buy, drive, and own. by using the concept of being your own bank. Mhmm. I went to bed, woke up the next morning. I had 17,000 followers. like that. Mhmm. Everyone started asking me how to get a policy, how to do this, how to become their own bank. So I just started I kept making more videos. And then I realized, like, alright. All these people are asking me how to do this. What I was doing was sending them to Chris because that's how I did it. I'm just sending him to Chris. 10, 15, 20 people a day. And then it hit me one day. I'm like, why am I giving all this business to Chris? Why don't I be Chris? and be the guy that sets up people to be their own bank. So March of 2021, I started doing that. And since then, I've set up over 1300 people to be their own bank. That's added a whole another stream of income for me. This year, I'll make probably $1,300,000 just from that. And it just came from helping people, helping people do what I learned. It's been incredible.
Steven Pesavento [00:14:25]:
Yeah. What I really hear here summarizing is, you know, number 1, you started using the BER method, which is really buying rental properties, doing some renovations, pulling out the cash. Then second, you started using infinite banking as a tool to take the money that you had earned, putting it into a policy, doing that in a unique and creative way, and then lending that money back to the real estate company that you created in order to be able to continue to have that money investing in moving for you. And because you're borrowing money at one rate and you're lending at another rate, you're making a return on that. So you're making a return in two different ways. And then the third thing you did was you built another business, a consultancy, a insurance agent business, essentially. where you're taking those qualified people and you're bringing them through a process, teaching them some of the same things that you've been able to learn, and that's led you to creating more earned income that you're then able to invest. And so I think it can be a really great example of regardless of where you're at today, the key thing to figure out is how do you make money, and then how do you multiply it? So you gotta make money through the active business, through the activities you're doing, through maybe going and finding a new niche or something that you're passionate about, that you can deliver value to other people. You earn that income, and then you multiply money by going and investing, and you're bringing something unique to the table by putting that money into an insurance policy, which is another form of investing. and then being able to use the money from that cash value life insurance policy to then reinvest back into the real estate. So from from the investing perspective, how would you say from a time perspective? What's the split? of where you're spending your time. You're spending 10% on real estate. You're spending 50%. Talk to me a little bit about that.
Devin Burr [00:16:24]:
So I'm glad that you actually mentioned it was a life insurance policy because I tried to refrain from mentioning that. Soon as I mentioned, it's life insurance. People's, like, blinders go up. They're they just think it's some sort of scam, but they think of, like, a regular whole life insurance policy, what we do is totally different. It's it's not built for the death benefit. It's built for the cash value. Yeah. So, yeah, as far as split goes, I would say most of it now is geared towards How can I create passive income? Like, my Airbnbs, that's what I own with the BIR Method, all Airbnbs. they're not really that passive. There's a lot you have to do with them. So I'm actually in the process of selling them, They've got a bunch of equity because of how we've done the deals. So I'm gonna take the the cream off the top, put that money into policies, because that money is guaranteed to grow once it goes into an insurance policy. And then I'm gonna take it and lend it out I'm just gonna be the the private money lender. Right now, we have about $800,000 lent out to private deals. So right there, we're making, like, 9, $10 a month passive just from that. And that is literally passive. You don't have to do anything. You just get checks in the mail. So most of my energy now is spent on just creating videos so I can get people into a funnel, and they can watch a video that shows them how infinite banking works. and then they get on a call with someone on my team. I used to take all the calls. Now I just have my team do it, and they set up a policy. And then from there, I'm just focused on building relationships. How can I get more money moving? How can I get more money growing without me having to work at all? So that's really the thing. I don't spend a lot of time on real estate. I just kinda try to make creative videos, spend the rest of my time traveling and doing cool stuff.
Steven Pesavento [00:18:32]:
And I think what's inspiring about seeing this example is that when you actually break down what you've done Devon is that you were in a position where you were earning earned income in your career. You took some of that earned income, and you started investing it into real estate that you needed to do actively. Right? Things that you would exchange your time, but you'd also invest and that would then drive a much higher return than if you were gonna do some other strategy. You chose Airbnb and Burr. So you connected those 2 to strategies together. You go out and find a property. You renovate it. You improve it. You make it a lot better, and then you go back to the bank. and you refinance it, you pull out some of that money, and then you own it, ideally free and clear or at least with not a lot of the original cash in it. And then what you've done is you just continue to repeat that process, but while you're repeating it on the next deal, you've gone and started renting these properties out on Airbnb. And why do it on Airbnb? Because you're able to get, you know, a 20 or 30% higher return by going and doing all of that extra management work of running a hospitality business to increase your cash flow, which then increases the amount of money that you're earning on each individual deal. And then you really found another strategy of being able to create more income at a higher level using some things that you're passionate about. And now you're really looking to move from that growing phase where you're looking at hey. How can I do things to make money and continue to grow that little pot of money I have? And now what you're looking to do is, hey. I wanna go to a phase where I'm more passive. and see, this happened within, you know, a couple of years depending on the if you're listening to this, this could happen within a couple of years. It could happen within a decade or 2. It just depends on what's right for you. But you've moved from that growth phase into the passive income, the cash flow phase, And so now you're finding a new strategy where you can actually lend out that money on a fixed note or some type of note plus equity type opportunity that's gonna then drive returns for you without you needing to do all the work or take as much risk as you were taking when you are the one who are managing it. 100%.
Devin Burr [00:20:55]:
I I look at it this way. The the most valuable currency that we all have It's something that we literally spend, so it is a currency, it's time. Mhmm. Like, how do you spend your time. I'm spending my time right now with you. You're spending your time with me. Yeah. We'll never get it back. It's spent. It's gone. It is the most valuable currency. So how do you wanna spend your time? I wanna spend my time creating memories Right? Experiences. So we just booked a trip right before we got on this podcast. My wife and I just booked a trip to Switzerland. We're going at the the end of June. We're going to the Bahamas at the beginning of June. We just got back from Maui. Like, I wanna spend time doing that, I don't wanna have to spend my time worrying about how I'm gonna make money. I just want my money to make money for me. I look at money as little soldiers, little green soldiers. I'm gonna send those soldiers out. and I want them to make little soldier babies. Yeah. And I want those little soldier babies to come back. Now I've got more soldiers. I'm gonna deploy those ones out. Those are gonna make more babies. They come back to me, send them out again. And as long as you can do that with first putting your money into a place that's guaranteed to grow, you can never lose money. You're just always gonna have more and more to invest, more and more to send out. So that's all I focus on.
Steven Pesavento [00:22:27]:
Yeah. And so with that kind of a shift, you can see you can see how powerful it can be that you gotta figure out those 2 things. Make money, multiply money. Manage money is really the third one. You gotta know how do you manage it. how do you get it working for you? How do you save on taxes and protect it? With those three things in mind, do you step into a totally new world. So you're in a position where you're earning great income, you're looking to become more passive. When it comes to making those investments, and lending out that money. What's the path or strategy that you're looking at? I know you're kind of in that developmental phase. But what type of investments are you looking to place that capital into in order for it to grow passively for you?
Devin Burr [00:23:18]:
So right now, I've got a lot of my money into a private fund with some investors I know out in Utah. They do development deals. So I really like their fund because what they do is they purchase the land with their money. So the deal always already has a bunch of equity because they've got their skin in the game. They also personally guarantee the deal. So I generally look for 2 things. I look for personal guarantee or first lean position. Because if I'm in first lien position, like, think about a house, my house that I'm in here. The bank is in first lien position. If I stop making payments on this house, they can take the house because they have a lean on it. So if I'm a if I'm a a lender, And I lend to you, let's say, in first lien position, you stop paying me? I can legally take the house. So I look for that, and I look for personal guarantees.
Steven Pesavento [00:24:22]:
And then after that -- -- talking about just to be clear, though, you're talking about lending money Right? So it's a you're lending. You're creating a debt instrument, and you're being paid for a set rate of return for making that investment. Very important to understand the difference for all the listeners because equity and debt are 2 different things, very powerful instruments. And what Devin's talking about is is actually lending debt.
Devin Burr [00:24:49]:
Yep. I the I think the problem with real estate is there's so many ways to make money with it. Yeah. So many ways. There's wholesaling. There's notes. There's sub 2. There's flipping. There's the burr method. There's I mean, you name it. There is every way possible to make money in real estate. I think the key is finding out what you really jive with, what really makes sense to you, and then just diving into that. Figure that out until to where you can have that just fully run it itself, then start trying to do other things. For me, personally, I wanna have cash flow. I had a deal where I could have funded it recently, a good friend of mine, great investor, on a track record. Wouldn't be a lot of risk in the deal because they have so many safeguards in place. Super conservative deal. but it wasn't cash flow. It was equity. So on the exit, I would get a return. The exit would be in, like, two and a half years. I don't want that. I want cash flow. So I just lend my money and get a monthly return. So if I lend a $100,000 at 12%. I'm getting 12% interest, which would be a $1000 a month. that's what I want. I want the money coming in every single month.
Steven Pesavento [00:26:11]:
So -- And what I like about and what I like about what you're saying is that you've clearly got clear on what you want and why you want it when it comes to investing. Meaning, you have set an investment plans strategy in place, and you're not getting distracted by shiny objects because equity investments where you double your money in 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 years can be great. But if your goal is cash flow, then you need to look past those or at least keep them within the amount from a percentage allocation perspective in that bucket to whatever it is that you've agreed upon for yourself. And so by being intentional, knowing that you're looking for passive income, it allows you to really focus in on only those kind of investments. So I think that's really great. Well, I'd I'd love for you to share, Devin. I've got one more question for you, and then we'll wrap up. But I'd love before we get there, share where can people follow you, and and how can they learn more about what you're doing online?
Devin Burr [00:27:13]:
So you guys can follow me and find me on any of the social media platforms under mister underscore burr. That's b with 4 r's. So Instagram, TikTok, YouTube. I guess Facebook I don't really get on Facebook much. I don't know if anyone does besides my parents. But but yeah. So just follow me on there. I'm always giving just a ton of free information. And then if you wanna learn more, There's a link in my bio on each platform where you can really start learning more about what I'm doing, how I save on taxes, how I how I do the infinite banking concept, different ways that I actually get money moving It's all in the link in my bio. So click that. Check it out.
Steven Pesavento [00:28:05]:
I love it. Well, this has been really great hearing about your story, how you've actually gone from more of an active role You're moving more towards a passive role because you've kind of reached that goal that you were looking for. What is your advice for those listeners as we wrap up? What is your advice for those listeners who are on that path towards figuring out what is the right direction for them to go in order to achieve achieve that financial independence that they're looking for?
Devin Burr [00:28:34]:
Man, good question. I would say run your own race. You know, don't worry about anyone else. There's a reason that Race horses have blinders on, and it's so they don't see the 2 horses next to them. They run their own race. There's so much power in that because if you start looking at everyone else, you you're gonna compare yourself with everyone else. I did that very early on when I was in real estate. I started looking at Pace Morby. I started looking at Jamil Damge. Justin Colby, all these guys out here in Phoenix that were crushing it, and I knew them from going to meetups. I'm like, God, they are killing it. What am I doing over here? When in reality, if I step back and look at it as a brand new investor, spending $0, which they do not do. They have a lot of marketing that goes into what they're doing. I was spending $0, and I had 8 real estate deals in 3 months. I was crushing it for my race, but I was looking at everyone else and what they were doing. And what happened is When you compare, comparisons is the thief of joy. I started getting in my feelings and thinking, man, I'm not doing enough. I started getting down and out. And then I started really just kinda being depressed because I was focused on them, not on myself. So what I would advise everyone to do is focus on you. Focus on your path because your path is exactly what it should be. Just continue to get better than you were the day before. and you'll have no regrets. You'll crush it on your timeline. Everyone else's timeline doesn't matter.
Steven Pesavento [00:30:20]:
Man, so good. Such great advice, follow follow Devin at mister underscore burr on all platforms. Really appreciate you joining us today. and we'll see you all on the next episode. Appreciate you having me, brother. Thank you for listening to the investor mindset podcast. If you like you heard, make sure to rate, review, subscribe, and share with a friend. Head over to the investor mindset dotcom to join the insider club, where we share jewels and strategies from the top investors and entrepreneurs and how to take it to the next level.
