LOS Live Presents: Benjamin Medina - From Combat Boots to Closing Deals

LOS Live Presents: Benjamin Medina – From Combat Boots to Closing Deals

On this episode of Loan Officer Success Live, Devin Dubuc and Gretchen Shelton sit down with Benjamin Medina to hear how he went from serving his country to serving families through real estate in South Florida.

Benjamin shares how discipline, systems, and an abundance mindset fuel his success—and why real estate investing is one of the best paths to long-term wealth.

💡 Key Takeaways:

• CRMs + systems = business growth
• Build “clients for life,” not one-off sales
• Smart investing: house hacks, multi-units, DSCR loans
• Authenticity > sales tactics

An inspiring journey filled with lessons for agents, loan officers, and investors alike.

Connect with Benjamin Medina:
[phone]
[e-mail]
Instagram: @ benmedinarealty
Facebook: @ benjaminmedina.me
https://benjaminmedina.com

#LOSLive #LoanOfficerSuccessLivePodcast #RealEstatePartners #RealEstateGrind #LegacyBuilder #MindsetMatters #LivePodcast #HustleAndLead #RealTalkRealResults

Creators and Guests

Host

Devin Dubuc

Coach. Dreamer. Dad. Helping you own your worth and go after what sets your soul on fire🔥

What is Loan Officer Success Live?

This isn’t another sales tips podcast.
This is LOS.LIVE - where mortgage and real estate pros come to master modern growth without the burnout.

Hosted by Devin Dubuc, LOS.LIVE is a deep dive into the psychology, strategy, and systems that build legacy-driven businesses in today’s market. Whether you're a high-performing loan officer, a rising agent, or an entrepreneur scaling fast—you’ll learn how to attract clients, grow income, and lead with brand, not brute force.

Real conversations. Tactical playbooks. No cold-call bro-hype. Just clarity, confidence, and creative firepower.

You don’t need a script. You need a strategy. Welcome to LOS.LIVE.

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Disclaimer: The information is intended to be viewed for informational purposes only. The content contained herein is not guaranteed or endorsed by the company, or any company mentioned, nor is this content meant to be an offer of credit. The information contained in this video may not be wholly or at all applicable to every situation or jurisdiction. You are strongly encouraged to consult your professional mortgage advisor before acting upon any information in this video. The information provided is for use as a training tool only. The information is not intended, nor should it be relied upon for any other purpose.

Welcome to Loan Officer Success Live, sponsored by Premier Lending, the show where the mortgage industry's top players pull back the curtain. Your host, Devin Dubuque, sits down with industry leaders, top producers, and game-changing mortgage tech innovators, all sharing their unfiltered strategies, bold ideas, and proven secrets for success. Get ready to take notes, think bigger, and play to win, because this is Loan Officer Success Live. All right, guys, we are live and back in action. We've got returning co-host Gretchen Shelton from down in Naples, Florida. Gretchen, who did you bring along today? Today we have Benjamin Medina. I really admire Benjamin. Not only is he young, but he's got a really fresh perspective on investing. He's a veteran. His wife is a veteran. How cool is that? And he just has a heart for really helping people purchase properties that whether they live in them or rent them really will be a good investment for them. That's awesome. Welcome to the show, Benjamin. Yeah, thank you, Gretchen, for that introduction. I'm very excited to be here, very excited to be able to chat with you guys and be on this live feed and talk with some winners. Love it, man. Well, the winner is right here. We got you. You're going to steal the show because you're doing some great things, you know, out there in the South Florida market. And we definitely want to showcase you for all the amazing services that you provide. And thank you for your service and your wife's service to our country, brother. You know, we appreciate, you know, you for being there for us, right? Does the hair kind of like mix it up a little bit? Like, there's no way this guy. For clarification, I've been out for many years. You're like, now that I'm out, I can grow it out, right? Yeah, yeah. exactly well you're a handsome guy and the hair looks phenomenal brother so yeah i like it i like it it's a good look man so um well uh you know one of the things that i always like to do is take a walk down memory lane right like let's get to know you a little bit and where you're from originally and you know how you got to where you are today so are you from the the florida naples florida area originally Yeah, great question. So I always like to start with that I'm one of the rare breeds in Florida, which is that I was born here. So I was born in a small town called Clewiston, Florida, which really technically I couldn't even be born there because they don't have a hospital. It was that small town. And it's like right in the middle of Okeechobee, right in the middle of the state, right next to Okeechobee. And you either go to Palm Beach or you go to Fort Myers. My parents decided to go to Fort Myers. So it's actually funny, you know, because I could say I was technically born in Fort Myers. My parents kind of moved around, you know, just how they own their own business. And they felt called to go to East Coast. So we went from Clewiston to Naples, actually spent some time out living in Golden Gate. And then we went over to Fort Lauderdale, kind of Southwest Ranches area. And then right in the middle of high school, I know the best timing for a young person. They're just like, hey, we're going to go back. And this time we're going to go to Fort Myers. And besides my time serving the military, I've been here ever since. very cool man very so you've been all over florida west side east side yeah and yeah and right in the middle of you know the the most confusing time of our life right like high school they're like no yeah sorry yeah yeah yeah and i had a you know it's any person in high school like oh i love it there and why my whole world being uprooted but uh over time I you know it's I I do very much love Fort Myers especially uh coming back after my service and I met my wife here and she was actually living in Cape Coral and um we met during high school not at the same high school but we were both in high school at the time and so uh it's fun it's great it's growing but it's still fun I've actually live out in kind of the rural area of the county which is uh something i didn't even get to experience when i was you know a little bit younger so it's it's a great place and uh especially connection to naples my wife and i actually went down to vanderbilt beach vanderbilt beach that is and uh kind of more towards gretchen's area and it's just beautiful it's really really cool out here That's awesome, man. Well, you know, what I love to, you know, when you're in the industry, if you really know the market well, right, you know, that's how you can truly serve people. And you've spent a lot of time all over. So, you know, I have a feeling that probably actually works out when, you know, people are trying to decide, you know, who can I trust and, you know, where do I go? And, you know, is this the right neighborhood or the right part of the city or state for me? And you can actually answer those questions. You're qualified. Yeah. Well, thanks for saying that. Yeah, definitely a lot of, I mean, a lot of Floridians is a vacation destination, right? Like I was kind of reminded of that this week. It's like at the end of the day, this is the capital of coming to vacation, coming to retire, coming to have a second home. So it's a lot of like, I'm thinking about Fort Myers or Ocala or, you know, somewhere else, right? Like it's, you know, or maybe I'm thinking about the Southwest Florida, but do I want to be in Naples or do I want to be in Fort Myers? So it's definitely a lot of that here. Let's talk about that real quick, right? So, you know, you do get a lot of people, you know, that come from the northern states around retirement age. That's actually really popular. And you want to settle into, you know, South Florida. And we also hear a lot about the halfbacks, right? Like they settle in and they're like, oh, it's way hotter than I expected. Yeah, that's developing only right now, I think. But yes, yes. I've heard that term said a little too much lately. You're like, no, stay here. This is a great place, right? Don't go back up. So talk about it, though. What are the things that are great about the Fort Myers or just the different sections there in South Florida? What would you come to each one of them for? Yeah, I'm glad you asked that because I very much like helping individuals that are particularly looking to retire or you find a lot of folks that will start with a second home and then actually ends up becoming their primary home. I'm sure Gretchen would probably attest to that, whereas I remember helping an individual and they're like, we have a place in North Carolina and here, but I think within two years we'll probably end up loving here more. You know, with our market, it's really fun because you really can get all the amenities that you're looking for. And that's particularly why I like helping folks. And I know they're not all looking for communities, but I think at the minimum, they don't want to do their lawn, you know, or don't have to think about their landscaping. So communities tend to work out pretty well, you know. uh and you just have so many so many out here that you know whatever box that you're looking to fill um they have that and from a realtor's perspective it's it's a little bit easier to to kind of put them in that right box because you can understand the neighborhood a little bit more you know what's the hoa is you know outside of the fees right like okay for let me still use examples just to clear like uh veranda's nearby me it's a big community uh right on Palm Beach and it's seriously huge um and I actually in a starting I remember a couple of buyers of mine where we started in a different community in River Hall and then they're like well I don't like that I have to be part of the golf membership I'm like okay well cool the veranda's over there it's even bigger more mature you know now you have uh you know fitness area you don't have to be part of the golf membership like I can have those kind of conversations like what are you looking for what do you not want what do you do want and then you know whether it be brand up here in the, in the Northeast, um, or of course go down to South Fort Myers and you have, uh, places like Kelly greens is very, you know, known for their, uh, golfing and just, you know, high end communities, uh, colonial country club, the promenade. Those are just like community lifestyles, particularly for those recreation, um, buyers or second home buyers. There's everything here for you. That's amazing. Yeah. So you know, it doesn't matter what the box is. And at the end of the day, you know how to get away from the things that they don't love and dialing on the stuff that they actually do. Right? Yeah. So what got you over here? Like, like, how did you get into this space? Right? So I know you said you're from the area, and you you know, you were in the military, but what got you into real estate? Like, what was the the driving force that said, I gotta get out here and do this? Yeah. Yeah. So I've always been in business from a very young age. Um, and so I think, I think that has to do with it a little bit, uh, because my journey actually, after getting, leaving the military, I actually spent some time as a teacher and thinking that, uh, I do enjoy, I do enjoy the subject matter that I ended teaching, which was history. Um, but ultimately I still had that entrepreneurial drive and, And, you know, working hours just show, like, when you just get paid to show up, it just didn't bode well with me. So, like, so that's number one, you know, ultimately, being a business owner, being an entrepreneur, you know, wanting to really build something, that was one. But then I had a a longtime friend that he actually ended up calling me right around twenty nineteen, twenty twenty. That's kind of when I got my career started. And he he's like, hey, man, I know you you're kind of a little more tech savvy than me. I'm launching my real estate career. Do you know what the heck a CRM is? I was like, I do because I've grown teams of virtual assistants. Like at one time I was I was at a I had like like ten person staff and we're doing appointments for life insurance agents and like so like I I have some knowledge and dialers and CRMs and he kind of knew that and um then we just got talking and he was like well uh I can I told him I could set up the CRM for you and maybe I can actually help you make some calls and so uh one thing led to another I ended up just being his ISA or like his inside sales agent And so for my first two years of real estate, it was literally just prospecting for him and making opportunities for him. Got a double on there. And I tell you what, if there's ever like a new agent ever listening to this and any person I ever talk to when they're just looking to start, that's the best position to be in. because i didn't have to you know meet with the clients i didn't have to negotiate the deals i didn't have to do any of the contract stuff i just focused on getting new business and you know it just helped me fine-tune the craft because i already had experiences like in my script side of things i just need to fine-tune it to real estate remember just having dialogue like how he closed that deal how he's able to underwrite that transaction um that kind of split into investment opportunities too so just imagine like two two and a half years of literally just being doing one aspect of the job and getting you know fine-tuning that so i think that answered you i that ended up round about to where eventually i was like i got out of the i was actually doing that in the middle so i got out of the military or when my wife was and then came back home and like well now it's time to get my license i have all this experience all this time then just kind of went from there well you know it's actually perfect timing for you to talk a little more because i had some technical issues over here and i dropped off for a second so i am back now but i know you were mentioning crms and that that was kind of your segue in was that you understand the technological side of the industry And, you know, you were able to and that's great, especially, you know, coming into this industry, you know, you know, kind of newer right to to the real estate side of the market, because CRMs are something that a lot of people have struggles with. Right. Like we talk about this all the time. We literally just we were on our morning show the other day. We had a gentleman on there, Brad Brant, great guy and built and built an amazing CRM. I build CRMs, too. And I think it's an Achilles heel for a lot of people because it creates a lot of stress in their life. Organization can be difficult. We work with a lot of people and we're in front of a lot of people. And, you know, we've got to learn how to be able to stay in front of those people efficiently and effectively. And, you know, so having that knowledge to be able to bring it into organization. you know, your, your business and help others. You know, I think it's, it's, it's a, it's a great quality to have because there's a lot of people over in this space that just don't get that side of things. So I, and that may not have been what you talked about, but that's where I left off. So no you're good i mean it's so true like i i i've seen some agents or or more more mortgage folks and like it seems like they're working out of their phone in a way that like their entire crm is just like message threads a little bit and i'm like how do you how do you keep track of all that like i i i would be lost because you're talking with so many people especially like if you're if you're full time in this you're speaking with multiple people on any given day you're trying to remember what their needs are what their you know looking to buy in what area like i save links to like you know if i have a home buyer i'll save the link to like their property appraisers website so i have like all the information of their property like already they're saved like it's it's it's the hub for sure for everything and then not to mention i have a team so like i could share that data with them too you know here here's what we have going on with this here take the transaction like it's a no-brainer that's like the first tool that any any person should have in business Well, and it just, it helps you serve your clients better, right? You know, at the end of the day, you know, like you said, you've got a lot of people you're working with and you want to remember those things. The important details are important to them. And when you're, you know, helping them travel down that home buying journey, you know, remembering that they wanted, you know, this particular amenity for that home because they have this situation with their child, right? That they need that. And you having the ability to come back to them and remind them, yeah, look, let's make sure that we're focused on this because I know that was one of the things that you were really impressed with. important for you that changes their mindset because they go man benjamin listens he cares and you know effectively you do but again when you're working Hundreds of clients, right? We've got to stay organized. And I've seen some people do it great on spreadsheets. And I've seen some people do it great on literally yellow pads. Like we've got a guy in our company that is an amazing loan officer. He has everything on a yellow pad, even though we have a CRM. He's just old school mentality. But let me tell you something. He knows when his customers need something. Basically, he had a client just the other day, and he's like, oh, they're in perfect position. This is a great time for us to opportunize their refinance. Reaches out to them because he's got his cliff notes. I can't work that way. I don't think it's the most efficient way to do things. I don't baffle by how he makes that work, but to each their own. To each their own. That's exactly right. Well, and I remember being in the industry, uh, twenty years ago, and you're like, yeah, so when I was three, uh, I had a bin system, you know, that was my CRM. My CRM was literally, I had Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and every day. And that's where all my notes were, and that's the way that I operated. So, when CRMs were introduced to me, I was like, Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, or even to probably you're commenting on is like to be successful. And you obviously didn't been doing it for twenty years. It's like a matter of being organized and knowing that you have everything segmented. Like I, I, I was spent time, um, you know, being on the operation side of a brokerage last year and, and kind of trainings and team members. I remember even saying like, Hey, uh, there's a background section here on the CRM. Like just put anything that comes up in the call that you don't even think might be important. Like they have two cats, right? Like, Hey, how's, how's your cats doing? Or like, Hey, I just got a cat recently. I'm gonna send you some pictures or send them a card that has a cat. Like you can even kind of get really granular in some of those things too. I love that. Yeah. I love that. Sorry to cut you off there. You build CRMs? Is that what you told me there? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So when I say build, I don't mean like I build them from the ground up. So I'll take a CRM system and then I'll build it out for our teams. So all the functionality behind it, the logic behind it, how it's going to... communicate with the people that we're actually outreaching to. I was on the consumer direct side for decades. That's what I did. When you're on a consumer direct side, you have to have an organized way because you have leads that are coming in. Literally, I would have over a hundred thousand clients in our CRM database. How do you organize that in a way that you're not missing opportunities and that you're there to be able to take care of your consumers? It was funny because You know, one of the things that I would run to, Benjamin, we have one officers that, you know, they call maybe once or twice. Right. And that's it. So when you could build out the mechanics behind it that do the follow up, even when the one officers aren't, you know, on the top of their game. Right. It was amazing because I remember the first time that I had built out a flow where it would follow up immediately for the consumer. And I remember the last we're in a meeting. And he said, Devin, I got this person on my calendar and I don't know how it got there. And I'm like, well, I know how it got there, right? So I was like, let's look at it. So we pulled it up. And what it was, I had a back end sequence that reached out and it said, hey, this is so and so. I see that you have interest in doing this. When's a good time to meet? You know, here's my calendar. If you just want to jump on the client, jumped on the calendar. And in the client's eyes, they had communication within seconds of them applying. They had somebody personalized reaching out and offering to give them time on their calendar and they took it. Right. But that's what a great CRM can do for you, because you and I both know. And Gretchen, you know this, too. We can't be in a hundred places at one time. But our clients, they need us to be available to them when they're ready. It's a fast-paced business, for sure. Yeah. So how do you help them feel like they're getting immediate gratification when you build out a great CRM with communication tools like that? The client, in their eyes, they reached out and Benjamin responded. Gretchen responded. Yeah. Right. And now they've got an appointment and they're ready to make something happen right now. So, you know, I think that's the great thing with AI, man, that adds a whole new element because, you know, you can do AI now to where it's scrubbing the data, getting into the person and responding back to them with messaging that's actually exclusive to them. Go ahead, brother. But with that, with a slight caveat that like. If you've been doing this for twenty years, maybe start setting that up. Let's say ten to fifteen years. What I find funny is simple automation such as booking calendar to some companies. That's AI now. You know, it's like everything stamp of AI like everywhere. I'm like, that's just a code that's a zap like there's no ai in there at all so i i agree like that's uh probably the actual ai is when you're hey can you source this data scrub it maybe try to refine it a little bit and i think a lot of agents need to be reminded like that's probably where you leverage ai the most and more your automations and integrations the most is on the back end as opposed to on the consumer end um i think a lot of agents as you you see like the market shifting And you see like, you know, there's a lot of competition there. Maybe I'll source us and, you know, where's our value? It's like ultimately it's being on the phone and, you know, I'm just not sold on any like AI calling services or tech services or anything that would kind of be client facing. I just. Keep it on the back end. Keep yourself in front of the clients. Well, I love that, right? Because at the end of the day, I think authenticity is really important, especially right now. And there's so many people that are afraid of like, I don't want to be duped. I want to know that I'm talking to a real human being, right? And so I couldn't agree with you more, right? Utilizing the sequences that can be built to help keep you face to face is such an important value to have because this is a relationship industry, right? And, you know, we're building relationships. And that's why, you know, as you mentioned, you know, they've got two cats, right? Like being able to remind yourself of that, you know, humanizes the experience. And that's something we want to do for our consumers, right? Is make them feel like they're valuable because they are. They're super valuable. This is an important time of their life, Benjamin. Yeah. Yeah. Always have to be reminded it's about the know, like, and trust, right? Like it's not. It is the sales data at some point, but every first-time agent or new agent got a sale and they never had a sale before that. But why did they get it? Because someone trusted them, someone liked them. They were able to be there and available for them. I love that. let's, let's, uh, collaborate off camera at some point. I'd love to see how your CRM works and, and there's some, there's some like real refinement there over your years of experience for sure. Yeah. A hundred percent, man. I'd love to do that and, and, uh, take a peek behind the curtains here, what you guys got over there too, man. Like it's always, well, and this is great. This is one of the things that's great about, you know, our industry is that, you know, we can help each other, you know, uh, you know, with, with, with, uh, with a lot of things, you know, and, uh, But let's get back on topic. Yeah. Even if it's not, even if it's like, you know, another mortgage company or another realtor, like, you know, we'll meet regularly with them and just like, how are you doing? What are you doing? Like, who are you marketing to? And I don't know how it is on the mortgage side, because I guess I don't know. You can answer that. But with us, you have people that are focused just on condos. You have people focused just on the waterfront. I think the best of the best agents or the whole time agents tend to find that niche. And they're willing to share notes because you're really not in my space. So I'm OK sharing what I have going on. I'm all the way in Cape Coral, which not that far, but it's the point is like very open. They're very open to sharing because they all want to, you know, to see the wind to succeed. And, you know, again, back to kind of newer agents, like there's so many opportunities in fishing to see like we can't take care of everyone. So it's very great to appreciate you meeting with me and maybe doing that. we call that you know leading with an abundance mindset you know at the end of the day there's plenty of opportunities out there and you know um i i don't know the specific quote but i i heard a quote about uh you know gary keller keller williams and you know he wrote that book that you know is a blueprint on how you could build a very successful real estate business and somebody asked him uh something to the tune of you know like why would you give away all your secrets and he's like because only you know ten percent of the people will even attempt to do what i've done And most won't accomplish it because they're not going to go down that that rabbit hole. Right. And, you know, that's how this works is that, you know, there's only about ten percent of people out there. They're actually going to take all this stuff and put it to action if they can. Great. That's amazing people to have in this industry. We want those people. Those are the people that we want out there are the ones that are actually going above and beyond and providing amazing service. And, you know, again, that's one of the reasons why we want to have you on the show, because you're one of those people, Benjamin, that, you know, You know, you're providing great value and providing great service. And there's no question as to why you're having success. You know, it's because you care about the people that you serve. So, yeah, absolutely. That's that's that's the point of it. It's that there's cool monetary gains, but like that's. not why you wake up every day. It's not why you grind every day. It's not why you're getting on the calls. Like it's like truly, you know, Hey, you're looking to move down here. Okay. What's the final role. But it, especially on the selling side, you know, you have this house, like does even selling make the most sense. I I've had a lot of conversations like that recently. you know like hey you know you just bought it three years ago or you know you you're you don't have enough equity to purchase something else like have you thought about renting have you thought about you know do you need to adjust the loan do you need to like do you need to bring in a an airbnb like on the property like there's so many there's much more than than any financial gain it's more of like what is the need that the client has and especially see that on the seller side and that's been my focus this year in particular you talk about millionaire real estate agent which is the book right like that's listings leads and leverage right it's it's ultimately like trying to get more opportunities for to help sellers out and i think that's probably where i found the most um a lot of enjoyment i should say the most but a lot of enjoyment too is because there's even more so like how how do you how do you best fit this property Well, I love that you said that, you know, because ultimately we talk about this all the time over here. You know, we want to make sure that we're providing great value to the people that we serve. And, you know, always trying to sell them is not always what's best for them. Right. And effectively, are we meeting the needs of what they need? And if we're not, then let's not encourage them to do something that's not going to be smart for them. Right. And that's such a different mindset than most salespeople. They're like, I got to sell something. I got to sell something. I got to sell something. The problem is, is that people that go into the market with that type of an attitude, they typically don't do well long term. They may have some success spikes here and there, but eventually the authenticity comes out and people sniff that out and it moves them right outside of the industry. What I found, Benjamin, is the people that have long term success in this industry and I've interviewed a whole lot of them. I've been doing this podcast for a couple of years now and I've had people East Coast to West Coast. And the ones that are doing fantastic, they do it for the right reasons. And their following comes because people feel that authenticity. They're like, this is a good person, and I want to give them business. And now what ends up happening, because you just gave them great advice, even though it didn't profit you monetarily, Um, they want to give you your friends and their families and they want to give you their coworkers and they're like your, your big endorsers. They're like, Oh, you're thinking about buying a house. You got to call Benjamin. Like you got to, this guy is amazing. Right. They didn't do anything because you helped them. Right. And that's, I think that's what it's all about. Yeah. I'm sure every agent mortgage advisor would absolutely love to be in that position. And I think to your point, it comes with authenticity and like being known that you're had their best interest in mind, knowing that you are going to represent them and their families. Like, yeah, I love every opportunity that comes, you know, by good word of mouth. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's, you know, our clients are, are, are best, uh, you know, marketers, you know, those are the people that we treat them right. We take great care of them. We provide them great service, you know, they're going to endorse us. And that's, you know, that's, that's what we should be focused on is how do we best serve the people that, uh, you know, that, uh, uh, have, have, have been there, you know, work with us in the past. So speaking with another book, there's a one called clothes for life. Uh, kind of came across last year and, uh, The premise is essentially to what we're talking about here is like, we're not looking for the one sale, we're looking for the close for sales of an entire life. But look, you know, more to the point of having that client, you know, like, hey, you're looking at buying this investment property, like, I'm going to underwrite it for you. And here's the numbers that I think it's gonna bring in okay like you could do that but just so you know you're not gonna make any money off of it I don't think you should buy the property right that's it you know an example like so it's being willing to have that conversation as opposed to it's like cool you like it here's the contract signed like yeah turn it in and like nothing nothing else like that's that's not a client for our life that's a client maybe for that one transaction that's not fun Well, I know we're getting close to wrap up, and we haven't really talked about one of the things that you specialize in, which is helping people with investments and entrepreneurship. Touch on something there, just anything that you can provide a value that people should be thinking about when they're thinking about investing or going down that pathway. Yeah, I appreciate you asking. I do very much enjoy the investment space. It's the best way to build or a great way to build passive income, a great way to build some good tax savings, right? I think ultimately the first thing you have to ask yourself is, what type of landlord that you want to be, right? Or maybe even stepping back a little bit, what type of investments you want to get into, right? Ultimately, we probably tend to say investments, we think rental properties, but there are other ways of, you know, probably whether that'd be flipping a property or whether that be just looking to, you know, joint venture on a property. Maybe they just want to private money lend on real estate, right? That's an opportunity there too. And so let's say just the traditional mindset is rentals. with that like what type of landlord do you want to be do you want to be one that does the short term do you want to be one that does the midterm do you want to just do the long-term tenants um and there's been a lot of accidental landlords recently and all those you know like probably the more interesting one just happened last week was like our mortgage rate is really our interest rate's very low and so i think our total payment's like fourteen hundred bucks i'm like I don't know, you could sell that and you could equity some money, but just so you know, like you could also rent that and cashflow three, four hundred dollars. And he's like, that's it. And I was like, no, that's that's great. That's that's good. Like because in conjunction with being the type of landlord, our market it doesn't necessarily give amazing cash flow when you're buying particularly retail right and so folks that buy in Southwest Florida are typically looking at it more of an appreciation game and that being because you know there's limited land and it's a coastal area right as opposed to like if you're looking for cash flow I haven't personally invested but I've just heard spoken with other investors There you can go maybe towards like the Midwest, for example. Like I have a gentleman who he ended up buying like nineteen doors up there for six hundred thousand. That's crazy. Yeah. And he's from Kansas. I'm familiar with that. Yeah. Your rents are nine hundred dollars a door. He's cash flowing like five thousand dollars. But the huge caveat is like what you bought a six hundred thousand. How much is that really going to gain in ten years? Yeah, exactly. Right. It does. It's a five by five by nineteen doors at six hundred thousand. Number one, that's an amazing deal for our local market. But, you know, like ten. Yeah, you could just stop. You don't invest anymore. Like, what does that look like in ten years old? Yeah. Your equity position. Yeah. Well, and you talk about that, you know, it's four hundred dollars a month, maybe right in this scenario, but that's forty eight hundred dollars a year. Right. And that can obviously go into investments, which can gain you even more reward. But in the background, what you're really talking about here, Benjamin, is the fact that most properties appreciate at least five and a half percent per year. And that's annually. And that's also historically, right? So if you look back over the last, I think it's eight decades, we've only had seven markets where homes have depreciated. Now, we could be in one of those markets right now, right? But historically speaking, even if that is the case, there's only seven markets in eighty years that have had So that means the other seventy seven or seventy three years homes have appreciated. So that makes real estate literally one of the safest bets in that you can have. And if you look at how your money can compound in and grow a five and a half percent gain on a half a million dollar property is is substantial. But again, going back to that. where else can you see that kind of money growth traditionally you don't you don't and you hit the right market and that could be a fifteen to twenty percent growth in just one year so it's not just about the four hundred dollars that you're getting back monthly it's about the thousands of dollars in equity position that you're getting So that, you know, again, this is why investors, you know, do so well and have that ability to retire at younger ages and have more asset at the end of their term is because when your net real estate worth goes up to some state, you can literally eventually walk away and you can either continue to rent some of those properties, you can cash out and liquidate some of those properties. And you can live very, very comfortably long term. So this is what you're talking about. So a four hundred dollar cash flow, maybe doesn't sound great in theory, but that's not where all the money is. Right. Yeah. Well, let's answer this. How many doors do you think it would take to maybe live well or maybe have a good financial independence? How many doors do you think? I'm going to let you answer that question. You're the investor and realtor, right? You're our expert today. All right. Thanks. So number one, it will depend on if it's leveraged or not. But let's say you're leveraging all these and you're looking for at least maybe two hundred dollars minimum cash flow. Right. You could be at a great financial independence number at as low as twenty doors. Right. A good little base of income every month. You could be completely retired at fifty doors. Right. Which is not completely out of the question. Right. If you're looking to maybe buy duplex or fourplex and you do one of those or maybe two of those each year. Right. Or maybe to be honest, if you're out single family and can maybe cash flow a little bit more and then therefore you only need a little bit less single family properties. Uh, and then, I mean, what's crazy, I've seen folks that advise and help end up selling their portfolios, wherein they were completely paid off because they've been holding it long enough. And they were only at twenty doors, twenty doors making over twenty thousand dollars a month, you know, because they were completely paid off. I mean, that's that's not even that that much headache. And you honestly could cut that down like who doesn't want, let's say, and cut that in half. You're at ten thousand, maybe twelve thousand dollars a month. I think you'd be pretty fine, not to mention. They bought that for like eighty thousand these duplexes and like, yeah, you could sell it for a little bit more like, you know, like that's ultimately, you know, you could see it time and time again where, you know, you're ultimately able to at least be able to have the property pay for itself and, you know, ideally get some cash flow. But the fact is, you have that appreciation and mortgage folks, you know this better than anyone. Like, what are you doing? Why are you making those payments? You're paying down the principal, right? That's it. You know, ten years on the road or you're, you know, Gretchen's calling you in five years like, hey, you know, you've been paying it down. You got some equity. Like, do you want to refinance? And you can have that kind of conversation because you talk about buying properties. It could be for legacy. Like, I could pass on a portfolio to my kids and I don't need to sell it in order to do that. Like, I could pass it on, have a good property manager in place. Maybe they refinance on it to maybe grow out some money, right? Or maybe they could do a whole set of opportunities. To buy another property. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Well, brother, that's why I wanted to go down that rabbit hole. Cause I know that's something you're super passionate about and that's what people need to hear. Right. People need to understand that homeownership sometimes it's not even about living in the home. Right. Like I know some people that don't even, they don't live in their own, like they don't live in, they rent a property, but they, they they have doors across the the united states because they're building their long-term wealth strategies right so you know you never uh you never really need to discount that owning property and land i mean it is our our oldest secret right like he who owns the most land wins i think that's why they call it a landlord i'm lord of the land right so Okay. There you go. I like that. And you could do that with land as well as properties. No land does appreciate a little bit slower and you got to certainly still buy it right. But I heard a saying, it was like, you know, buy in the places where their purchases are still equated in acres and then buy, you know, sell it when it converts to like decimals. I butchered that quote, but like the point is like you buy in the places they're selling at ten acres of a parcel and then just hold it until it starts being cut down to quarter acres and like that's where you can really cash in. That's a whole nother strategy. Well, I know you do a lot of that stuff too, because I've seen your portfolio. You do work with a lot of land buyers as well. So that's, you know, again, guys, so if you're looking for an expert, you know, in that Florida marketplace, specifically the South Florida marketplace, but he knows, he knows both sides, East and West Coast. Benjamin's the guy, right? So you see the website rolling around down there at the bottom of the screen. Go check him out. And, you know, if you have questions, you know, if you're thinking about moving to Florida, if you're looking at becoming an investor, you know, he's the right guy to talk to. And that's why we brought him over, right? Because we want to share the best kept secrets out there that are not so secret, right? So... Benjen, what did we not tackle today that we should have or any closing words that we should sign off with? Sure. Two things. Number one, does the mortgage world have an equivalent of the millionaire real estate agent? If so, you should definitely write it because I think you probably have enough content at this point. Millionaire mortgage advisor. Yeah, he does. There are a few books. There are a few, but you're right. I need to unload what's up here, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, be curated a little bit, but yeah. And then the second thing, because this conversation lent a lot into the investment space, I would actually love to give a space for Gretchen. I know you know about some of the investment loans in particular, so call me when you're looking to buy an investment, but also in conjunction, call Gretchen, and she could tell you about... What's the one loan that you would advise when someone looked into your investment? The DSCR is a really good one because you don't need income qualifications. It goes off the property. But another thing you didn't mention, you and your wife took advantage of the hometown heroes. So being a veteran, if there's any veterans out there that are looking for someone who's really going to take heart to what they served, that's one of the great benefits that we have for veterans. There's thirty eight million still out there. It's really for the essential workers. So, you know, veterans, no money down and you get the money from the payment assistance program by home with zero. And I've done quite a few of those. It's, it's very exciting to see a veteran get in a home. Yeah. Cause they, they can use the VA loan, which is an amazing product. Oh. Um, but there's still gonna be some closing costs. So that the hometown here is helps with that and something you may, I, I kind of wish I could do this, but I have like my family now, but like, I would love to buy like a duplex or up to a fourplex, you know, with my VA loan or, or the DSC loan, because What people probably don't know is, I mean, you can even use an FHA loan. I know, at least for duplexes, I don't know about higher. You could tell me that. As long as you live in one of the properties, right? Like you can live on one side, rent out the other side. And it's like house hacking like all day. And, you know, maybe, yes, your mortgage is going to be, at least in our numbers, it could be three thousand or so dollars. But, OK, you're living in one side. Someone else is paying you. It's like it's an amazing house hack. If you're thinking about it, like duplex, triplex, fourplex, you know, especially if you can combine it with, you know, would that be a VA loan? You could tell me the qualifications of that, but yeah, there's a lot of good opportunities. No, it can be done, a hundred percent. You can definitely do that. In fact, when we did the pre-podcast, I was telling you about the gentleman that was over in Nebraska that had used that. He was a veteran. And as soon as he had gotten out of the military, the first thing that he did is went up on the duplex, lived in one side, leased out the other side. And then, of course, that turned into the next project and the next project and the next project. And, you know, within five years, he had a portfolio that had a net worth of, you know, this is the liquid side, rather. If he was to liquidate it, a one and a half million dollar net worth. He did that with five hundred dollars out of pocket was his first house that he bought. And it was because he utilized his veterans benefits. But even outside of Veterans Benefits, you can use the FHA loans, which would be three and a half percent. Or the RDPA loans. There's many of them. Yeah, we have a we have a DPA loan that's internal. It's up to five percent and anybody qualifies. A lot of times the hometown heroes or the local programs you have there in Florida are fantastic. But the problem is they run out of money. So when those programs are out of money, where do you lean into? Well, you know, we've got programs that give up to five percent that you can utilize towards down payment, closing costs or even to win the bid. Right. You can use it to pay over. We're not having to worry about those times right now because it's You don't have to win the bid, but back in the day when you did, you could use it for that. And these are options that are available to anybody. If you qualify for an FHA transaction, this program is available to the consumer. So you're a hundred percent correct. You could use that house hack on an FHA where you use the bank's money to buy the property. You don't have to come out of pocket with any dollars at all, right? You live in one unit, you lease out the others. And if you go back and listen to guys like Grant Cardone, Grant will tell you right now, don't buy anything that's less than four doors, right? You know, this is how he's built his real estate legacy. And, you know, if you notice, he did this socially, he showed his first house that he lived in where he could barely pay the rent, like seven hundred and fifty dollars a month. And now the guy's worth billions of dollars, close to a billion. Right. You know, if not more. So these are the secrets, right, that are out there that are not so secret. If you talk to the right people like Benjamin, And Gretchen, who are going to put you in the right positioning. And going back to that DSCR loan, this is another one. A lot of people go, man, I can't buy an investment product because I don't make enough money to pay for the investment. That's what DSCR does. Ultimately, if the property has a rental value that's more than the mortgage payment or within Then effectively it offsets the debt. They don't look at income. We don't look at assets. We do look at us. We don't look at income. We don't look at tax returns. No, we do look at assets. We don't look at income. We don't look at a tax returns. None of that comes to play, right? There's no income on these loan transactions. And this is designed specifically for the investor that can't show the money because ultimately that's the big issue. If you're really good at what you're doing, you're you're not reporting it to the irs or you're taking advantage of the tax benefits we don't want to get any tax problems here i don't know the irs knocking on my door right but legally we all know how that works right you know you buy an investment property you immediately get your depreciation on that even if you have no expenses which you're going to have expenses you have closing costs on the property of a property manager like there's immediately depreciation you you know you almost should be losing money tax wise on these properties, right. Even if you do have cashflow, right. Like that's kind of just helps sweeten the deal a little bit, but yes, there's huge tax advantages. And I don't know, like that, that's a whole length of conversation. That's a book in of itself of just like, it is, if someone came to you, like, I want to get into their property and like, okay, are you willing to maybe live a slightly uncomfortable and not to mention, like you could buy a new duplex, which would be an amazing property, like, you know, with these type of loans, uh, or a great fourplex or, or, you know, even talk about building it. Like, Whether that be on the VA side and almost being nothing out of pocket, or maybe you don't even need like good qualified income. Maybe you have to bring a little bit more. Like there's just, if you're willing to house hack, you can get an investment right now. So it's. Well, yeah. If you're willing to house hack, put yourself in, you know, a situation that maybe you don't love for a temporary positioning. for the long-term benefit of where you can go. And Hey, you know, maybe if you do want to buy a four plex and you know, you, you've got a two extra unit or three extra years, you can put your kids in the other unit and then put two people downstairs. And then it's, it is, it is still comfortable, right? Like they've got their own, their own space. They just get cashflow on that third on that unit. Right. You know? Yeah. Or grandma, right? Yeah, grandma. One thing you were seeing a lot of is a mother-in-law suite. Oh, that's genius. The sense of generational living, right? Like that's a huge trend that we're seeing. And I've kind of taken note even over the previous four years of like, I think there's going to be more of that. And so like, and maybe you do buy the fourplex and you can even take care of grandma. She's right next door, right? And you still have two other doors that can probably still keep you whole, right? So like that's a good opportunity as well. Well, a lot of times grandma maybe, you know, had a property and had some equity in that home. So you can utilize that to either help with the down payment to purchase that property, or you can move grandma in next door and use some of the equity that she had to buy a couple other properties that you can now cash flow on as well. Right. So there's so many different strategies here, you know, that you should be thinking about, especially if you want to grow your net worth. And I think that's a big topic right now. I mean, I flip on, you know, social and that's, It's like, hey, how you can become an investment, right? But it's true. It's a hundred percent true. So if you don't know where to get started, guys, this is where you pick up the phone or you go to the website here, benjaminmedina.com. And then you pick up the phone, you call Benjamin. He's going to walk you through that rabbit hole. He's going to help it feel a lot less complicated and a lot clearer on how you can accomplish that without making it like, man, that's just too much work. Let the experts work for you. And then when you need the financing, You're going to have Gretchen Shelton down there that can help you walk through a financial path that's going to allow for you to accomplish those goals and start building your net worth, right? Your long-term net worth. And I think that's what Benjamin's passionate about. That's why he got over here in this space. is to serve you with that. And I know Gretchen cause I work with her and she is passionate about helping people. Uh, it's a, it's, it's who she is. Right. You know? So, uh, man, Benjamin, thank you so much for coming on the show. I know we went a lot longer than we had intended, but man, we had a lot to talk about today. So, um, yeah. yeah great thank you so much for for having me thank you for uh gretchen thank you devin like premier lending you know and the whole company it's really great it's really unique you know you guys are on something here uh i think to your point about reaching out every good investor every good home buyer seller needs to have a team behind them and you guys are just advocating for that and so definitely reach out you know to gretchen your lending team so thank you guys Well, appreciate the plug and guys go find Benjamin, find his socials. They're on his website and you know, go follow him for great advice and information, you know, and make sure to comment, right? Like his page, get him a little bit more traction. And then same thing with Gretchen, right? Go over there and find Gretchen. You can get her on Facebook at Gretchen loan officer.com. uh that's at gretchen loan officer on facebook and uh you know like her page comment on her page and if you want some secrets that are not so secret uh to make that home buying journey more successful and simplified uh these two are definitely folks that i would pick up and call uh if i was looking at doing something in south florida so uh guys thank you mo so much for tuning in Thank you guys for being here. And until the next one, we'll see you then. You've been watching Lawn Officer Success Live, where real strategies meet real success. Don't forget to subscribe now and share it with your teammates and keep leveling up because your next breakthrough starts here. If this fired you up, don't just watch success. Go out there and build it.