3 Degrees of Freedom

Ep 127 - Active Sidehustling In Real Estate with Pinny Lubinsky

November 28, 2022 Derek Clifford Season 2 Episode 127
3 Degrees of Freedom
Ep 127 - Active Sidehustling In Real Estate with Pinny Lubinsky
Show Notes Transcript

Here comes a new episode of Elevate Your Equity podcast with Pinny Lubinsky. Pinny is a real estate entrepreneur that is passionate about building wealth through real estate. On the show, he shared some of his strategies to maximize time and cash returns in his real estate career.

Topics we also talked about include:
• How he made the decision to focus on multifamily properties,
• How his mindset has evolved since he first started in real estate.


More about Pinny, he has been involved with single-family rentals, multifamily syndications, and most recently short-term rentals. Pinny also hosts The real estate ventures podcast, a show geared to help newbies break into the real estate world.

Thanks a bunch, Pinny Lubinsky for coming on the show!

Unlock 3+1 degrees of freedom (time, location, financial + health) with our 5-Point Blueprint! https://elevateequity.org/podcastgift

If you really enjoyed this content and are looking for more, you can continue to learn more about us in several different places for free!


If you'd like to have a FREE copy of our 7 Ways Commercial Real Estate Syndications Protect and Build Wealth, simply click the link below. We are here and vested in your long-term success! elevateequity.org/7waysEbook

Unlock 3+1 degrees of freedom (time, location, financial + health) with our 5-Point Blueprint! https://elevateequity.org/podcastgift

If you really enjoyed this content and are looking for more, you can continue to learn more about us in several different places for free!

If you'd like to have a FREE copy of our 7 Ways Commercial Real Estate Syndications Protect and Build Wealth, simply click the link below. We are here and vested in your long-term success! elevateequity.org/7waysEbook

Introduction:

Welcome to the Elevate your Equity podcast where we, as married busy professionals, leverage real estate investing to unlock the three plus one degrees of freedom, health, location, time and financial.

Derek Clifford:

Today, we've got none other than Mr. Pinny Lipinski. How are you Pinny?

Pinny Lubinsky:

Doing well, thanks, Derek. Pleasure to be here.

Derek Clifford:

Awesome. Yeah. Great to have you here, man. For those who don't know Pinny, Pinny is a real estate entrepreneur passionate about building wealth through real estate. And he's involved with single family rentals, multifamily syndications, and most recently, short term rentals. So quite a broad stroke there on the residential sector. Vinny is also hosts the real estate ventures podcast, a show geared to help newbies break into the real estate world. That's awesome. Pinny, so glad to have you on the show today. And where we'd like to start, usually, with most of our guests is how did you start investing in real estate and kind of walk us through your journey while you were getting going?

Pinny Lubinsky:

Sure, absolutely. So I was actually I was 25 when I started when I got bit by the bug, so to speak. And I work in a family business, and we sell building supplies and janitorial supplies, my dad and my brother, and you know, it's a real family, mom and pop shop. And it's the kind of place where everybody wears a lot of hats. So I was 25. And that day I was wearing the Human Resources hat and I was doing some interviews, we were looking for like a starter sales position, not necessarily a high salary, a real starter position. And we had a whole bunch of people come in for interviews, this is when people still wanted to work in the US, unlike today, a little bit harder to find in place today. But so we had a whole bunch of a whole a whole bunch of interviews. And we had this one person that that came in that was I don't know exactly, he's but probably in their 60s. And he was telling us how he worked at this job for like a really, really long time. And he was really loyal to them. And it was going so well. And he kept climbing the ladder. And then all of a sudden, one day like he got fired, he got laid off. And what he realized was at that age, it was really difficult to find a new opportunity because a lot of people, a lot of employers, were not interested in hiring somebody at that age and having to train them in and, you know, work with somebody that's already working for that many years, you know, when they have the option to hire somebody straight out of college. So he came and interviewed by us. And he was telling me this story. And honestly, he didn't like it wasn't a good fit for us, either. Not really even because because of his age, it just wasn't a great fit. But that conversation really that conversation with him really got me thinking. And it was like, How could somebody that has done so well their entire life and done all the right things, right working for a company and you know, showing up nine to five, you know, giving it his blood, sweat and tears and up in a position like this, where he's in his 60s. And now he's got to, he's got to interview for a job like this, like something is not right. And like if he can't like retire at this stage, or he can't get a better job, like, there's something wrong with the system, because it's not just him, there's so many people doing this. And then I started thinking like, I don't want to be in that position. Well, I'm a little bit different because I work for a family business. And I have a little bit more of a guarantee that like my dad won't fire me. But still the same concept applies that there are things that we can do to sort of pat ourselves and give us a little bit of an insurance policy to not end up in a position like that, where you're just relying on your on your employer. And if he says you're out one day, you're not gonna be totally screwed. So at that point, I started looking into, you know, what are some ways that I can create some income streams outside of my nine to five, very quickly stumbled upon bigger pockets and real estate and rental properties. And it was not too long after that when I bought my first single family residential rental in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Derek Clifford:

I got it, I see. So when you were doing your research, and by the way, thank you for that very interesting story that kind of gave you the spark to be like, I got to do something different here. very applicable. And one thing I want to also applaud you on too is when you're growing up, and you listen to that guy, you actually really listened to what he had to say, right? Even though it didn't work out, you know, for him coming on board. I have to I have to say that for someone who's in their mid 20s or mid or early 20s. And hearing that story. I'll be honest, I don't think that I would have picked up on that. I really don't. And so it's very interesting that you did and so I think that that is something that the listeners can really take away because if they're in situations like this, it's all about awareness and an understanding of their people. And the sooner you can do that the better and quicker. You're going to run at this real estate investing business. Anyway, I just had to have that aside because

Pinny Lubinsky:

no and it's true. And the first thing that I that I realized during this conversation was like I just kept on thinking like this is so sad. Like this is yeah, this is so sad. And then the next thing that crossed my mind was like, hey, like, how does one make sure that like more people don't end up in a situation like this? Because this is really sad. And like, you know, that's kind of like how you know how it evolved?

Derek Clifford:

Yeah, absolutely. That would probably hit me too. But I still wouldn't have the insight to be like, well, how can I help other people, or even help myself to be able to escape that? And so you you picked, you picked up your first single family rental? Where did the real estate investing thing come in? Because you mentioned that there was some sort of pain that came with, you know, having to rely on a single employer for the rest of your life. But how did we go from there to investing in real estate? Was it personal development? Were you talking with some other folks who've done it before? Like, where'd you get that inspiration.

Pinny Lubinsky:

So I was really looking for something that would be like a passive income stream, or even maybe not so passive, but more of an income stream, something that I can have on the side besides my nine to five. And I was looking online, and there's so many gurus that are happy to take your money. And there are so many channels out there that are just telling you how wealthy you can become within the next 30 days and all that stuff. And I'm not exactly entirely sure why or what it was. But I do remember that I did stumble upon BiggerPockets pretty quickly. And I have to give a lot of credit to Brandon Turner and Josh Dorkin, they were doing the podcast back then. And they did such a good job of explaining to the listeners and to myself, the value of passive income and growing your net worth through owning real estate. Like I think that was one thing that also clicked it's like, when you brought by a property with leverage in a good area that you're just your net worth pretty much just keeps climbing, like it just keeps going up and up. And you're not even doing anything like the tenant is paying the mortgage for you. You're in a good area. So it's going up in value, it's appreciating. And then when you go to sell the property in five or 10 years, like your net worth is a whole lot higher than it was when you started. And you didn't even have to like it's not even that much more. It just made a lot of sense to me. And they did a really good job of explaining that.

Derek Clifford:

Excellent. Yeah. And that makes a lot of sense. So it sounds like you just did a systematic search. You found these, these these gurus that were on the podcast, actually, I can't call them gurus because you're not paying them very much. So you're not paying them anything. You're just listening to their their conversations, which is awesome. And I highly recommend that people who are looking to do what you're doing probably go down that same path as well. It always doesn't hurt to get educated.

Pinny Lubinsky:

Yeah, absolutely. I will say like, I did take out a membership to bigger pockets. So they actually maybe they are gurus they did get my money, maybe. And then the forums are great. The podcasts are great. Like it's such a good platform. And I know so many people see this that like bigger pockets was their first like, you know, real mentor sort of education step. Like for me, like it was a really, really big part and any stupid question that I was embarrassed to ask anyone, I would just throw it up on the forums, most 99% of those people don't know me anyways, and they would really happily answer all of my really dumb beginner questions, but they really weren't that dumb. They were just brand new, you know, up, and I really just had no idea like what an ROI was, you know?

Derek Clifford:

Absolutely. And you know, a bonus side effect of all of that Pinny is I got to at least when I was doing the same thing, I got to find out people who I maybe want to work with in the future, like I started triangulating around certain people who like we're doing some cool stuff back in the day. Because right now it's kind of a mixed bag, like anyone can go in and comment. And so it's more like a social network than anything. But back then, you know, before 2020 It was, in my mind, at least you could find really good people and you still can, you just have to do a little bit more extra work to try to dig down and find someone that says stuff that you like, and then try to build a relationship with them that way add value to them and get your big break coming into the investment industry. So just wanted to throw that out there.

Pinny Lubinsky:

Yeah, I absolutely agree. And then I actually my first failed partnership, but my first partnership was from bigger pockets. Like there was a local meetup. I met someone there. We decided we're going to do bird together. And then that didn't last very long. But yeah, that was my first real estate partnership. It did come from bigger pockets. Actually. It's funny you say that?

Derek Clifford:

Well, there you go. I mean, even that is experienced in itself. So awesome. So let's let's let's move on you currently have a job, right? And what I want to ask you is as a real estate investor, side Hustler, how are you managing your time between real estate and the employment that you do? Like what is your daily routines look like? Just give us a day into into the life of Pinny Lubinski.

Pinny Lubinsky:

Yeah, absolutely. So I want to start with one with a concept first that that's going to tie into this and it's basically that I believe that everyone has some Some sort of unfair advantage, everyone has something going for them. Yeah, some people have, you know, money, some people have time some people have other resources that most other investors don't have. And for me, something that has been a huge unfair advantage is that my dad has really been good to me. So he's my employer. He's my boss. And he has allowed me to work and create sort of my own schedule around his work and sometimes in his work, that allows me to be able to pursue my real estate. So when a deal comes up, like we have this sort of plan that I will just take time off of the nine to five a work on the deal. And then at the end of the week, I'll just take whatever hours I worked on that deal, I'll just take it off my paycheck. And so that's a it's a beautiful arrangement. And like, I don't know, if everybody's that lucky to have a boss that would do that for them. But I know I do. And for me, that's a huge plus. And like, it really helped me be able to simultaneously like work on multiple things, I can do the nine to five. But I don't have to worry about not having time for real estate, because whenever something pressing comes up, I can work on it during that time. Now, most of the real estate, I do try to get in around the nine to five, during weekends or later at night. But if something is pressing, and if some documents need to get in today, then I can go ahead and do that. I have that luxury. So definitely like it's been a it's been a challenge like like balancing the schedule, as well as just being like aware of like, you know, timelines and all that stuff. But but definitely like having that luxury has been like really big for me as

Derek Clifford:

well. Oh, yeah, that sounds like it comes in handy for sure. Next, next question I want to ask you was it sounds like you'd have walked the walk from single family to multifamily now it sounds like you're shifting a lot of your focus into short term rentals. Can you talk us through why you're making those shifts right now so rapidly? Because you know, when I first met you was all multifamily. I think you were transitioning away from single family that was probably a couple of years ago. So walk us through, like what your line of thinking is with doing that, and how maybe you can have other investors think about maybe pivoting or shifting their strategies to?

Pinny Lubinsky:

Yeah, sure. So the first one, the first deal was a single family rental, as I mentioned, that was in Pennsylvania, and I'm not really doing those anymore. Like I'm not doing a regular residential single family rental anymore. Just because of scalability, I find like you're better off doing either larger deals or even a single family. But if you do a short term rental, it'll be more lucrative. It makes it more worth it. But to try to kind of walk you through the transition, like I did a single family rental that went really well. And then I was like, how do we do this but bigger and better. And really just naturally like the idea of that, like the path that made sense was to go into multifamily. And it took me actually a really, really long time to go and lock in the first multifamily underwrote a lot of deals and I finally got one and Euston Texas, that deals doing well too. But then I started realizing that just based on like the market conditions, and the cap rates kind of going where they're going and it just it it wasn't healthy this like it just it wasn't as right of a market as it was a few years ago. And so naturally, I just started looking for other asset classes that were cash flowing a little bit more in this time. And then I met my now partner and like we basically discovered short term rental and hospitality a little bit more. So yeah, now now the main focus is short term rentals. I still like multifamily. I always want to be in multifamily. But right now the main focus just based on like where the market is, it's just like the path of least resistance is I find that least for myself is short term rentals. And they cash flow pretty nicely too. So that was kind of like how that worked. But to answer your question like I would like it like going forward like I definitely would like to be involved in both like have a combination of short term rentals and multifamily. I think they complement each other really well. I think what one has what one lacks, the other one has and like, you know, the cash flow of short term rentals will balance out the, you know, the lack of lack of cash flow, at least in today's market and multifamily. The stability in multifamily will balance out the, you know volatility and seasonality of the short term rentals. I kind of like both paths. We actually just passed up on a 20 unit in St. Pete this week. But at the same time we're pursuing a short term rental portfolio so I'm really pursuing both but if I had to say like which one might mean focus it'd be it'd be short term rentals right now.

Derek Clifford:

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to in just just for clarification, are you buying locally to are you buying in your neck of the woods also?

Pinny Lubinsky:

No, actually, I've never bought anything in New York. Yeah, I live in New York. It's it's really difficult to buy things here. I don't have the deep pockets for it.

Derek Clifford:

Yeah, no, completely understand. I think I think that the Airbnb thing is a is a very interesting play. And a lot of people have been doing very well with it. So if you're dedicated to the space of being, you know, in the hospitality, business, and also Okay, with going back to single family rentals, you could make a killing from this from this, this market right now. And honestly, like, with people like me plenty, there are people that just are constant Airbnb hoppers. Right, they'll hop from place to place. And so I think that there's a place in the long term portfolio for some of these short term rentals, believe it or not, that's just my my opinion on how things are working out now.

Pinny Lubinsky:

Absolutely. And being that you travel so much, I'm going to take this opportunity to actually ask you a question like when you're looking for a search or short term rental in a market? What makes you choose because I know you didn't a heck of a ton of them? What makes you choose one over the other?

Derek Clifford:

I'm curious to know. Yeah, so like, you know, because of my situation, I like to find places that offer weekly or monthly discounts. Like that's a big, big thing for me. But amenities being close to amenities, whether it's either nature or the downtown areas, is super important. I think having modern finishes and just better basically being a clean place. Is some of it, I'll be honest, like, my wife is the one that picks a lot of these because she's way better than I am at doing it. But I'm having air conditioning, furniture in the place place that that just feels like home, for us is super, super important. And again, I think that's the number one thing and then pricing and being able to offer discounts for weekly and monthly type rentals. You'll get more of our business that way. That's what I would say. So I think I think those are the Yeah, that's what I would prioritize the amenities thing is okay. It's I'd call that maybe third on my priority list, because we can drive and we'll be working anyway, that's just who we are, as we have to work in the place. So for us, as digital nomads, we have to have a comfortable place to live, strong internet connection and enough furniture for us to be able to arrange so that we can make our office spaces. Comfortable.

Pinny Lubinsky:

So just got it. I appreciate that. Yeah.

Derek Clifford:

No worries. That's very cool. I've never been asked to question my own podcasts. It's really neat. All right. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. New New Item. Okay, let's move on. So let's talk a little bit about a story about doing mailers. Back in the day, can you can you tell us about that? Like, I'm really intrigued by what you meant by that?

Pinny Lubinsky:

Yeah. So okay. So before? Was it before? No, it was right after about the single family in Pennsylvania. I hadn't right away made the shift to, to multifamily I was the plan initially was to go and buy more single families. And then the plan was depending on what the property needed, I would either try and you know, rent it, or maybe fix and flip it that was kind of like the plan after that first deal. And so I figured that one of the best approaches, at least, you know, everyone was talking about at the time was mailers, mailers, everyone was doing so well with the mailers. So I went and, you know, started doing mailers. And I sent out a heck of a ton of mailers. And then what I realized was I made a mistake, and this shouldn't this mistake should never be made. And I'll explain later why I left instead of the return address on the on the letters, instead of it being a peel box, I by mistake left my home address. And just so you understand, like the people that you're mailing to, are people that are about to get evicted. There are people that are going through crisis, and there are people that are not necessarily the most wholesome people, but some people they just fall on hard times, but other people are people that would actually come and kill you. And I learned this the hard way because this guy gets on the phone. And he says my name and he's like, he's like Kenny, I don't remember exactly the words, but he read my address. He's like, 12 or whatever, whatever, whatever. I'm not gonna say it right now on the podcast, but he's like, Well, whatever. Is that where you live? I'm like, No. Why would you think that? He's like, yes, it is. He's like, I'm gonna come and get you. He's like, You sent me you sent me a letter. He's like, everyone's been harassing me. I'm gonna teach you a lesson. I'm gonna bring my boys and we're gonna kind of get you and like, honestly like for the next week? I barely left my house like every time I did I like look like three times like each way just to make sure there's no oh my god car in any driveway or something. And I always looked over my shoulder. And he's had a really scary voice sounded like an older guy, but it's still scary nonetheless. And that story basically scared me away from doing mailers. Even though there was a simple solution, I would just not put my home address after that. But I that really traumatized me. And I was like, Okay, maybe maybe we will move to multifamily.

Derek Clifford:

I love that man. Wow, what a story, man. I know that like looking back, it probably wasn't so funny back then, you know. But I think going forward, you can look back at this as a learning lesson. And even maybe something that's kind of cute that you can tell us a story, which we I definitely enjoyed listening to that. But you know, I can, I can respect it. Because there is a level of hustle that you want to bring to the table, because you could have just gotten your first single family property. And now, you know, you were trying to find a way to scale up, right. And so this was the logical step that BiggerPockets and a lot of people were telling you to do. So I gotta applaud you and taking the action there. So thank you for sharing that very, very cool story and serious lesson for those out there who are going to do live mailers, or even direct dials or texting, because you may end up getting some of the same backlash, right? So yeah, and

Pinny Lubinsky:

do keep in mind, like what I said earlier, like the people that you're mailing to are people in distress, like these people are frustrated, they're going through some major crisis in their life. And they're not exactly excited to get mailers from you, a lot of them are not at least. And the last thing you want to do is tell them exactly where you live so that they can track you and come and get you so definitely.

Derek Clifford:

Yeah, absolutely. Good advice. All right. So one thing I wanted to ask was regarding family office as well, for family office, there's, you know, it takes a connection, like what you have, which is a family connection, to be able to find a family office and workforce. So first, maybe I can ask you in general, what is the family office? And then secondly, how would you suggest people maybe approach a family office? Or try to find one? If you have any insight there?

Pinny Lubinsky:

Um, that's a good question. Um, there's, there's one family office that I have a relationship with, it wasn't something that I built through real estate, it just happens to be there's a family office that I that I know, for years, oh, and I'll just go back and explain like my interpretation of a family office, it's basically just a family that has a lot of money, and they're looking to invest in, I guess, real estate deals, and, you know, but obviously, they have their criteria, you have to understand that they see a lot of opportunities, they see a lot of deals, and you just need to really understand like, as good as possible, like, you know, who they are, what they're looking for, because, you know, just driving them crazy. Throwing them deals all over the place is not exactly like gonna get going. Probably won't get you very far. But yeah, and in my in my case, like, there's honestly, there's, there's a couple, there's one that I my best relationship with, with, you know, the closest family office that I know that we're really close family, friends, I've known them for maybe 10 years or something like that, and the relationship was built, like far before I was, you know, in real estate or investing in real estate. So I can't really speak to how to develop relationships with family offices. In my situation, the one that I do have, the best one I do have is more just like built organically, like before the real estate. So too much light on that. No, no,

Derek Clifford:

that's okay. That's alright, that that, that confirms some of the some of the answers that I've been getting also is that it is very difficult to do that. I mean, and for good reason, it takes a long time to build that trust. One thing that I've suggested that maybe works out is, you know, go to some of the things that they support, right, and just try to get in front of them as much as you can, like, you know, volunteer, where they volunteer, go to the things that they support, and it has to be genuine, you can't obviously go out of your way and just, you know, have that be your primary objective, I think you really have to have a fit and and, and I think that you kind of stumbled into these things more like more than others at least that's what I've come across with some investors who have done something like this is they've built those relationships over time. It started outside of real estate first and then went into business afterwards. So

Pinny Lubinsky:

yeah, I mean, those are the best ones and I don't know if everyone you know, has that in their life, but you have to just like understand, like, they have so much deal flow, they have people coming over to them. Everybody knows they have money, everybody knows that, you know, you generally these family offices are pretty well known and especially if you live in a community like mine, everyone knows who the wealthy people are. So you know, there's a diamond dozen people throwing during deals on a regular basis. So it really, I think what does help me For me personally, is not throwing everything at them just really knowing you know what, pretty crystal clear like, what their criteria is, what they will go for what they won't get go for. And just try to like prove to them that you're actually serious about like finding them good opportunities because I Um, you're not going to be wasting their time just like you know, hundreds of other people are. And you're actually like, you know what they're looking for and like this this way, when you do present something, they'll actually take it more seriously because they know that you put in the time and the effort to actually review the deal. And you determine like that it is up their alley, and it's something that they would normally bite on.

Derek Clifford:

I would say, yeah. Excellent. Love it. So we are a big proponent of mindset here, right on elevate your equity podcast. And I want you to help explain to the audience, how your mindset has changed over the years since you started investing in real estate from the beginning.

Pinny Lubinsky:

Okay, so I would say honestly, the biggest thing that has helped me do some successful deals, and especially more recently has been like you said, the mindset and the biggest aspect of that, is overcoming challenges. So in my opinion, and like, I don't know, if this is just my opinion, or everyone, you get into real estate, especially me like I was really young. And I think the younger you are, the less you realize, like how many obstacles you're going to face just on a regular basis. And you see so many people just like the the obstacle, like hits them, and then they just kind of like quit, they just stop, they roll over and die. I really think like, the biggest key to like being successful in this business is just constantly constantly learning how to overcome challenges, and like, it'll be a different challenge each time. But the challenges will be real. And they're gonna come up on a constant basis and like being, like, able to be flexible with that, and being able to be creative, and persistent to continuously like, work through these challenges. Like, I think for me, that has been the biggest thing. So like, in the beginning of my career, like the first couple challenges that came up in my real estate life, like I like, I didn't know that that was normal. Like, I didn't know that. Like, I'll just give you an example. Like the first, like, as I was getting into multifamily. Someone offered me to get into a multifamily deal. And all I need to do was like, raise, I don't remember, it was like four or 500,000. That was that was all they asked me and like at the time, like I felt like, oh, that should be easy, like four or 5000 in my community, easy pickles. Like, I'll just tell you, like I raised $0.00 for that. And so for me that was like, that was a huge obstacle or like, in my like opinion, like I had already started working on my list. My investor list and like, I felt like that would be easy. That was a huge like, that was really, you know, heartbreaking. Like to see like, oh my gosh, like nothing like zero, no bites. And then I realized, like, you know that that was that was an obstacle that I faced. I was a little bit raw. My presentation wasn't well, I didn't, you know, wasn't so smooth. I didn't really know the deal. You know, enough to be able to present it to the investors. You know, so I learned from them, I learned what my investors were looking for. I learned how to present the deal better. And like, I don't know, that was just one example. But like, I could have in an alternate universe. I would have you know, faced that adversity and then like rolled over and quit and said, Okay, real estate's not for me, this is too hard, let's do something else. But I did it. And like, I'm really happy that I did it. And and that's just like one like silly little thing. But like, constantly on a daily basis. I'm sure you can attest to this as well. Like, there's just so many so many facets to this business. There's so many different moving parts. And like each moving part, there can be challenges on a daily basis. So it just like constantly navigating through the challenges. I think that's something that is probably the for me at least, like I would say that's the biggest thing that has led to like me doing deals successfully.

Derek Clifford:

Yeah. Awesome. Thank you for that. That's great. So I wanted to end with one last question about what it is that is in your three year vision. You know, we've been finding that one year is too short. And five years is probably too long. So three years is right within the sweet spot of what we can visually as humans grasp what our future to be and what our future self would be like so given that context, what do you think your three year vision is? Or do you have one or you know just I don't need to put you on the spot right now but I'm curious where that is for for Pinny.

Pinny Lubinsky:

No, that's good because like I actually don't have one but but you asking me you're forcing me to kind of like come up with one which is great. So I'm happy yeah. Well, let's do it. Yeah, so I don't have it like you know, I don't have it like down on my notepad, like all official but for me, it's getting into more multifamily deals actively getting into more short term rental deals actively and then I would certainly hope and this has been like kind of my mindset all along. I want to start investing more passively. So the more money that I make from active income, I want to start rolling that into passive investments. Um, Because ultimately, like, really what I'm looking for is freedom. Like I'm not, you know, that's really my, my biggest goal, like I want to create, like financial freedom. And I feel like there's really nothing like a passive investment like it, you're just like, you're really just making money, like by doing nothing, essentially. But I do think that a good idea is to work to do active deals first to create some sort of income, to create some cash flow to then be able to, for me, to then then be able to roll into passive investments. And then I don't know if that's exactly three years down the road, but I certainly hope like with three years, five years, 10 years, eventually, like, you know, I could have a nice amount of passive income to be able to support my lifestyle, and just be able to have more freedom and more time to do the things I'm most passionate about. I guess that would be my answer. But that was totally I'm on the way. Yeah, I just wouldn't.

Derek Clifford:

Awesome. I love that, you know, one thing that I have to share with you is that, you know, we kind of were looking at the same thing, we want to become passive investors on our own. But what we discovered, at least my wife and I is that there's actually three degrees of freedom, financial freedom. And, you know, it's gonna seem obvious as soon as we tell you, but there's a location, freedom, there's a time freedom, and then there's financial. And what was really funny is that we kind of unlocked our degrees of freedom in in three different degrees. So we first started with the Location One, because we were able to say, Okay, well, our job allowed us to work remote that was thanks to COVID, at least for that time period, right, we were able to be remote. And then secondly, there was the time freedom, which I didn't quite have until I left my job. The time Freedom is the ability to choose when you work and when you don't work. And then the financial, ironically enough, Vinny, like we've been, we have a bunch of jayvees. And we have a whole bunch of, you know, apartment buildings that we've been getting into ever since, you know, the early 2020s and late 2010s. And when I was living in the Bay Area, we did not have enough to become financially free. But as soon as we started to travel around, our expenses plummeted, because we didn't have a huge mortgage to pay, we didn't have the expense of California, gasoline, expensive, California, you know, food costs, like all of that stuff. So our cost of living dropped, which meant that we had the ability to live almost anywhere in the world, right with, with our passive income. And so in a way, I would say you have location freedom, if you could do your job from anywhere, maybe that's not the case, you do have time freedom right now, because I know you can set the hours more or less, and then you're working on your financial. So I think, you know, you may be further along than you think, to your to your goal. So I have no doubt in my mind that you'll be able to get there in three years.

Pinny Lubinsky:

That's cool. And I really liked the way he like you haven't broken down into those three categories. Because you're right, like, it really isn't just one big picture, like there really are these, you know, different aspects of it. And, yeah, it's a good way to, it's a really cool way to look at it. And it makes me it makes me feel like I'm further along than than I initially thought you are. And I have to say, like moving like getting up and like moving out of the Bay Area. That's such a smart move to be able to, like accelerate that path. Because like, whenever you would have gotten there just by moving out and like cutting out all those huge expenses by living there. Like, you're just accelerated that like tremendously. Like that's it was such a smart, like a weird move. On your credit. Yeah,

Derek Clifford:

yeah. Thank you. Yeah. And I think, you know, one last thing I'm going to say just as as unsolicited advice on the podcast here, just from what I've been hearing, you have everything you need right now, if you have this, if you can swing it with your work, to just try what your life would be, like, if you were financially free, you know, just give it a shot, like see, I mean, obviously, you got to make some concessions after work 1020 hours a week. But, you know, most likely you could get a lot of that done with the flexibility you have from your place in Portugal, or from your place in Greece or from your place in Israel, which is a place that I want to go by the way. But you know, you could you could try doing all that stuff and seeing how it feels to be financially free, and then just get a taste for it. So that that way, when you actually are financially free, you have either the vision to get what you want, right, which means it will happen faster. Or you can say you know what, this isn't really that big of a deal to me. Like, I don't know if I like this very much I want maybe I'll find something else to do with my time.

Pinny Lubinsky:

Yeah, I like I like that. And I definitely yeah, I could I definitely could do like a trial trial run right now. Definitely. Yeah. I would think Israel would probably be a good bet. Although the the seven hour difference is a little bit of a pain in the neck. But

Derek Clifford:

you know, I'm actually like, and I'm going to keep this in the podcast just because I think it was really great is being able to wake up in the morning and not have any emails because it's midnight in the United States was really, really awesome. And you could have you could enjoy your day in the morning, right like in Europe at least It may be different in Asia, I think in Asia, your your morning will be extremely busy and then your knights will be will be free. But I think it just comes with like adjusting. And I don't see why you couldn't in this connected world be able to swing that because what we did was in the morning, like every day, my wife and I, like we had up until two o'clock free. So either we were doing, we are catching up on our business, or we're waiting until, you know, eight or nine o'clock in the morning in the US to have some of our calls. And, of course, we set up Calendly. And we did everything so that you know, we were working Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, depending on the needs. And that gave us four whole days just to explore cities where we were going, you know, weeks at a time. And so anyway, I we can talk more about that offline if you're interested in that. But yeah, I think it's a it's a cool thing to consider.

Pinny Lubinsky:

That's cool. That's definitely yeah.

Derek Clifford:

So let's go ahead and move into the Rapid Round, which is the same five questions that we asked every one of our guests, and we're just going to go ahead and rapidly ask them to you if you're if you're ready for it. Are you ready? I'm ready. Let's do it. All right, cool. Each one of these questions is meant to be answered at 30 seconds or less. So let's let's get to it. Number one, what book has had the biggest impact on you? And why? And we ask that it not be either the Bible or the purple Bible? Which is Rich Dad, Poor Dad or or his series of books?

Pinny Lubinsky:

Um, I would honestly say it's a good question, but maybe the E-Myth. Is that Is that too cliche or do you want me?

Derek Clifford:

No, that's a good one. That's a classic that has been mentioned in a while. So I think that

Pinny Lubinsky:

I don't know if that's your favorite. But that should probably be on your top five. Also, because I know you're a huge systems guy.

Derek Clifford:

I am. Yeah, absolutely do.

Pinny Lubinsky:

Definitely free.

Derek Clifford:

Yeah, definitely. It's a really good book, for sure. So people who haven't heard of it, you need to go pick that up and check it out. Number two, if people want to emulate your success, what's the first actionable thing that you think they could do to follow in your footsteps?

Pinny Lubinsky:

Start educating yourself. A lot of the education you can get on real estate is for free. You can find it online, you can find it at real estate, you know, networking events, there's so many of them. There's so many virtual ones. You don't even have to sell up. You can go in pajamas, you know, like, there are many ways to educate yourself, start educating yourself and then just like start taking action, like it's not gonna happen, unless you roll up your sleeves and start putting in real offers on real deals. Oh, man, love to get that education. Like first definitely educate yourself.

Derek Clifford:

Yeah, no one's gonna do it for for you, right. You got to do it for yourself.

Pinny Lubinsky:

You can get caught up. You can get caught up listening to podcasts for a million years like I did. And you feel like you're moving forward, but you're not actually like moving forward. You're just saying to yourself that you're making progress. So yeah, a little over 30 seconds. I'm gonna I'm gonna cut right here.

Derek Clifford:

No, no, you could you can I love it. Number three, what is one tool process or hack in the last three to six months that you have used? Or you know, an app you've downloaded or anything in your personal or business life that's helped you save time and or effort?

Pinny Lubinsky:

That is a good question. I would say honestly, getting everything organized and Dropbox, I don't know if that's the example you're looking for. But I used to have files flying all over the place. And he used to take me so long to find everything. That's even if I did find something in the first place. And then recently, I just went like, put everything in, like organize files in Dropbox and like I have everything leave all that I know exactly where everything is. And like, it may sound like a silly stupid thing. But like it really helped me just like streamline, it's like less headache. Like when you're doing things like everything just like is moves quicker. Yeah, everything is.

Derek Clifford:

Yeah, dude. Man, I cannot emphasize how important this is to the audience to at least for me, as someone who likes process and organization for me to be able to go in there and find something right when I need it. Like that's or be able to search for it. That's the other thing you can do with these electronic tools. I love that suggestion that you made. So awesome. Good stuff. Number four, if the people that you know had to describe you with one word, what would that be? And why?

Pinny Lubinsky:

Ah, so you'd have to ask them?

Derek Clifford:

Of course. Well.

Pinny Lubinsky:

Describe me business wise or personal life?

Derek Clifford:

I would say the best you can do to capture both or whichever you choose.

Pinny Lubinsky:

I would hope it would be something like genuine. Like real genuine. Yeah, I would say like I would hope I would hope it would be something like that. But again, I could take a survey and let you know later today what they say.

Derek Clifford:

That would be interesting actually, that is something I read in a book that is very, very useful to figure out like what your because it's very easy for us to think about how other people perceive us but to find out the truth of what people perceive of us is very interesting. And it can be very different than you think. So it might be very enlightening

Pinny Lubinsky:

I'm really scared to know or maybe scared to find out.

Derek Clifford:

You shouldn't be I'm sure you've got nothing to worry about. Number five, what small thing do most people not know about you?

Pinny Lubinsky:

I'm not real estate related.

Derek Clifford:

Anything.

Pinny Lubinsky:

I'm one small thing that I am taking underhand softball pitching lessons. Loving cool. I'm assuming most people don't know that about me.

Derek Clifford:

And why is that just out of curiosity.

Pinny Lubinsky:

I like softball. I like baseball. I like being a poetic I like the gym. I like being active. And like, I just figured, like in softball, underhand softball, like there's so much like of an opportunity, if you can actually learn how to pitch the right way, like so many of the pitchers are just like, kind of lobbing the ball. And it's pretty easy to hit. I just like I saw, I saw that, like, I realized there to be like an opportunity in this. Like, if somebody would actually learn how to pitch the right way, like professionally and like a lot of these like softball leagues, like they would probably dominate. So that's what I'm doing.

Derek Clifford:

Very cool, man. I love that I love the goals outside of real estate there. That's pretty neat, cool stuff. Well, hey, man, we could go on for a really long time. But I'm just really thankful to be able to have some time with you to talk about you and your story. And then you just want to say thank you for coming on the show. But before you go, and we end the show, I want you to help tell the listeners how they can find out more about you or what you have going on, or anything that you want to, to reach out to the audience with.

Pinny Lubinsky:

Sure. So I'm always happy to connect with people always happy to talk and meet new investors or want to be investors or anything like that. So you can you can get me on my website at plcapitalventures.com. You can email me, pinny@plcapitalventures.com. You can find me on LinkedIn at same name, or Facebook and yeah, just send me a DM, message me, I will get back to you as soon as possible. And we will set something up.

Derek Clifford:

That sounds awesome. Pinny once again thank you for coming on the show. Man. It's been great to have you here.

Pinny Lubinsky:

Derek, it was a real pleasure. Thank you so much.

Derek Clifford:

Absolutely. And for you listeners out there who've listened to this point in the podcast and want to thank you as well. So please, wherever you're listening or watching the podcast, please like, subscribe, comment, just engage with us however you can so that that way we can appease those algorithm gods and get exposure to more and more people out there. Just like Pinny and also like you so that we can connect everyone and add a whole bunch of value on every dimension. So once again, Pinny awesome having you on the podcast. Thank you for coming on. And dear listener, thank you as well for coming on and listening to our fantastic conversations here on the Elevate your equity podcast. So until next time, this is Derek. I am signing off, and we'll see you next time. Take care.