What would you do if you were given 90 days to change your life from being in a financial mess? For Henry, it had been a remarkable feat that he overcame through mindset shift and entering real estate.
Henry Washington is an author, entrepreneur, and real estate investor with more than 68 rental units and dozens of house flips under his belt. He’s been featured in numerous online and television publications like the Fox Business morning show. Jump in as he shares his journey from realizing his poor financial management skills during marriage and turning his life around through real estate.
[00:01] – [03:42] Opening Segment
- Henry on starting with one single-family then closing up to 70
- Realizing poor financial management during marriage and stumbling upon real estate
- 0 to 90 days turning his life around through mindset shift
[03:43] – [10:14] How Real Estate is a “People Business”
- The people aspect in real estate – finding the key persons and providing solutions
- The empowering position to be of help in the community
- Surrounding oneself with investors and picking deals based on personality
[10:15] – [13:41] True Liberation Behind Financial Freedom
- Henry shares his strategy on growing his real estate business
- The liberating aspect triggered by financial freedom
[13:42] – [15:00] Closing Segment
- Reach out to Henry
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- See links below
- Final words
Tweetable Quotes
“I put myself around other investors, I had no idea how to do it. I just knew I sounded like I could do it well. And so the way I figured out how to do it was I’ll just find a bunch of people who are doing it where I’m at. And I’ll just hang out with them until I figure something out.” – Henry Washington
“I’m not going to go broke trying to help somebody out of a tough situation. But if I have to spend a few dollars to help you with a tough situation, and keep you in your home and not buy it, I’m absolutely gonna do that. This is a people business.” – Henry Washington
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Connect with Henry Washington on Instagram. Visit his website and email him at henry@henrywashington.com
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Want to read the full show notes of the episode? Check it out below:
Henry Washington [00:00]
I’m able to take these things and improve the neighborhood, but at the same time still provide affordable housing for the people in that neighborhood. So I’m not pricing people out, right? I’m able to take something that’s been a problem in your neighborhood, turn it into something beautiful, and then allow you to live in it without having to leave your neighborhood because it’s not an overpriced asset because it’s still in the single-family of small multifamily space right.
Intro [00:26]
Welcome to the How to Scale Commercial Real Estate Show. Whether you are an active or passive investor, we will teach you how to scale your real estate investing business into something big.
Sam Wilson [00:37]
Henry Washington is an author, entrepreneur, and real estate investor with more than 68 rental units and dozens of house flips under his belt. He’s been featured in numerous online and television publications like Fox Business morning show, Henry, welcome to the show.
Henry Washington [00:50]
Hey, man, thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here.
Sam Wilson [00:53]
Hey, man, the pleasure is mine. Three questions I ask every guest who comes on the show in 90 seconds or less. Can you tell me where did you start, where are you now, and how did you get there?
Henry Washington [01:01]
Probably four years ago, bought my first property. It was a single-family, buy and hold. Right now we’re at about, I’d say about 70. I’m closing on five doors today. And let’s see, where am I going? Was that the last part?
Sam Wilson [01:17]
Yeah. Where do you start? Where are you now? And how did you get there?
Henry Washington [01:19]
Oh, how to get there. I had a panic attack as I got there. I got married and realized that I was very, very bad with money and finances and couldn’t afford to give my wife any of the things that she felt like she deserved. And I felt like she deserved to say that differently. And so I knew I needed to make a change. I had a panic attack worrying about it overnight, I started Googling how to make extra money, found a bunch of articles about real estate, and decided I’m going to do that and be good at it so that I can provide a future for my family. 90 days later, I bought my first house. And then I got a line of credit on that house that gave me another 25k to go repeat the process. And we never looked back.
Sam Wilson [01:55]
Now a guy who’s bad with money, right? What does the guy do who is bad with money in zero to 90 days to find enough money to go buy his first house?
Henry Washington [02:06]
Change of mindset, figure out how to not be bad with money, one of the first things I did was I knew I had to fix my credit. If I’m going to try to buy property at any time scale, I’m gonna have to borrow money and I can’t borrow money. If I’m not lendable, the first thing I did was I started fixing my credit. The second thing I did was I put myself around other investors, I had no idea how to do it. I just knew I sounded like I could do it well. And so the way I figured out how to do it was I’ll just find a bunch of people who are doing it where I’m at. And I’ll just hang out with them until I figure something out. And so I was in every investor Meetup group. If investors were in a room talking, I found my way into that room. And that gave me this network of investors. And so when I found my first deal, I didn’t have any money, just like you said, I was bad with money, I had to go find the money. And I didn’t know how to do that. But I surrounded myself with investors. So you know what I did? I just asked them, hey, I’ve got a deal. How do I find the money for it? And they helped me brainstorm and figure out that I can leverage my wife’s 401k borrow against that buy the property, that property paid us enough cash flow to cover the expenses on the house, and to cover what we, the payment for what we borrowed. And so then I had a cash-flowing asset. And then the bank said, Hey, you got equity in this house, want to take out a line of credit so that you can go do it again. And I said, haha. And so we went that route?
Sam Wilson [03:22]
That’s absolutely intriguing. I love your answer there, the change your mindset, right? Because there’s so much in today’s culture that will play victim that will play, you know, you’re a product of your environment. But for you, you’re saying, Hey, man, you’re simply a product of what you think it was for 100%? Man, that’s absolutely incredible. I love that. One of the things that we’ve talked about here before kicking this off, was the people aspect of this business. And talk to me about that. What does that mean to you? And why?
Henry Washington [03:52]
Yeah, man, what I learned early on was that you don’t have a business if you’re not good at finding deals, right? It doesn’t matter if you are going to flip houses, if you’re going to wholesale houses if you’re going to Airbnb houses, no matter the disposition strategy, if you don’t acquire it, right, you don’t you can’t do anything. Right. And so that led me down a path of figuring out okay, well, how do I find these good deals? And that led me down a path of saying, Okay, you’re not buying deals, you’re buying situations, right? You have to find people who need to sell not want to sell. And as I was finding these people that need to sell what I realized was that, like, I’m truly helping people in my community out of difficult situations, right? Because if you’re buying something under market value, especially in the market, we have right now where everything’s, you know, going over asking, there’s a 95% chance that that person is in a tough situation and has to sell quickly for some reason, and you’re providing them that service because not everybody can buy a home quickly and without an inspection or right buying it as it is right and so what I realized was that like, okay, so I’m helping these people, and then I spoke This huge obligation that’s what I needed to do, regardless of whether I’m going to buy a deal or not, because these are people’s homes, right. And sometimes they feel like they have to sell their home to solve whatever problem that they’re solving. And sometimes that’s not the case, right? Sometimes I’m able to help people out of a situation without having to buy their home. And I feel like I have a responsibility to do that, obviously, within means, I’m not going to go broke trying to help somebody out of a tough situation. But if I have to spend a few dollars to help you with a tough situation, and keep you in your home and not buy it, I’m absolutely gonna do that. This is a people business. And I’ve just found that instead of walking into a house and saying, How do I get this deal? How do I close this deal? How do I get this deal? I walk in the house, and I’m thinking constantly, like, how can I solve their problem? How can I be of service, and if I can be of service without buying your house, I’m gonna do that. We’ve walked into houses, where people, I had a lady who was trying to get me to buy her house trying and I told her, I was like, I can make you an offer. But he couldn’t read people I could tell she didn’t want to sell it. She felt like she had to. So like, as she’s showing me around the house like I can hear in the tone that she’s bombed. And so when we got down to time to negotiate, I was like, Hey, listen, I can make you an offer. But what’s really the issue what’s going on here because it doesn’t really feel like you want to sell. And what happened was they were behind on payments back a couple of months. This was before the pandemic when they were foreclosing on people’s houses when you were missing, they weren’t playing games. And they didn’t need to sell their house, they need time, right? They need the time to figure out how to stay in the house. And so I said, You know what, instead of me making you an offer to buy your house, we let me pay your mortgage for two months, and all your bills for two months, so that you can stay and figure out what to do next. And I bought them time. And then hopefully they still have their house, right. And that felt like the right thing to do to me to do rather than me making them an offer because she would have sold me her house, right. And I just didn’t feel like the right thing to do. So I’m trying to figure out how to help people. And I don’t want to just make money off my community. I want to help my community. And if we can all make money together also a problem and everybody wins in a situation. I’m all for it. If not, it’s not for me.
Sam Wilson [07:03]
Right, that’s a very, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a story like that on the show where, as opposed to going and buying the asset, you just make a payment for them and say, Go get here some time. I mean, that’s a very empowering position to be in. Compare that to the Henry Washington that woke up one morning and said, I can’t afford to provide the things for my wife that I feel like she deserves right? Not only have you created a future for you and your family, but then you’re also able to turn around and bless other people in the process.
Henry Washington [07:33]
That’s what it’s about, man.
Sam Wilson [07:34]
That’s absolutely awesome. I love that. That’s probably one of my favorite stories on this show so far. And we’re 500 and something episodes in so that’s awesome. Hey, talk to us about how you are I mean, I know, you know, leading with the servant’s mindset, it sounds like is one of the ways that you’re finding opportunity. But talk to us even you know, maybe a little bit more tactically even than that. What are some ways you’re finding deals right now that make sense for you?
Henry Washington [07:56]
Yeah. 100%, man. So again, when I got started, I surrounded myself with investors. And what I realized when I kept getting in these rooms with these investors is everybody said, everybody had the same problem. This is pre the market going crazy. Everybody was like you can’t find deals, there’s no good deals, where are the deals I want to buy I can’t buy, right. And so I just said, All right, well, if I can get good at that, I got a roomful of people here who want to buy deals. So I figured I could make money no matter what, as long as I get good at finding the deals. And so I then this was four years ago, mail seemed like the most affordable strategy for me at the time, and it fit my personality. And so that’s what I tell people when you’re going to pick one of these off-market deal-finding strategies, like fit when you can afford the fund properly. And pick one that your personality will allow you to stick with, right? Like if you’re not a guy who can’t be comfortable making cold calls, like don’t make cold calls as your strategy cuz you’re gonna get you’re going to say I’m going to make 100 calls today and you’re going to curse down in the first two, and then you’re not going to do anything right then you’re going to stop right like so you didn’t make enough calls to get you a deal. Right. And so I knew I didn’t want to make cold calls that just it’s never been my thing. But I was okay sending mail and having people call me and then work now I still get cursed out. But it’s just easier for me to deal with when somebody is calling me because they’re interested in the piece of mail that I sent them. And so I knew I was like, Alright, I can do that strategy and stick with it. And I can afford to fund it properly. Right at that time. In my market, all you needed to send was about 1000 pieces of mail and you probably get a deal or two. Now that’s not the mean that the markets open, you know, more saturated, you got to send more some more later but and so I use direct mail when I got started and I still do direct mail I’m pretty real estate old school when it comes to marketing. I know in the past four years people have done the text messages and they did ringless voicemails for a while and you know, cold calls have always been a strategy and door knocking but I’ve just mail as worked for me in my market. And so I do mail and I’ve recently transitioned into cold calling now that there’s so many businesses out there who specialize in helping real estate investors find deals. And so I was able to connect with a cold caller who is a company that basically cold calls for you. They’re bringing me tons of leads. And so I’ve got a cold caller, and I do direct mail. And I’ve gotten more leads. And I know what the deal is.
Sam Wilson [10:15]
That’s absolutely fantastic. I mean, you said you’re closing on five more doors here, today. Yeah, no, I mean, it was all single-family? Is there ever any intention of going into small multifamily or kind of growing? That’s not the business?
Henry Washington [10:28]
Phenomenal question. These are today I’m closing on to the questions in a single, and I’m keeping a single I may sell down the road, there’s a tenant in it that’s paying and takes care of the house. I don’t plan on doing anything with them. But if they move out, maybe I’ll sell it. So yeah, man, I love the small multifamily to single-family space. Here’s why. Again, it kind of ties into what we talked about earlier. Like, when you get into the large multifamily space, it becomes less about people and more about the p&l, right. How’s the asset performing? How do I decrease expenses, and increase income to improve my NOI, right, because you’re selling you’re basically buying a business. And then people are looking to sell that business to the top bidder to somebody who wants to plant money and just live off that cash flow, and it shouldn’t be treated like a business. I’m not saying it shouldn’t be. What I’m saying is that doesn’t give me the warm fuzzies. Right? What gives me the warm fuzzies about real estate is being able to take these small Maltese to single-family homes that are embedded in these neighborhoods and these communities. And sometimes they’re eyesores, right, right. And I’m able to take these things and improve the neighborhood, but at the same time still provide affordable housing for the people in that neighborhood. So I’m not pricing people out, right, I’m able to take something that’s been a problem in your neighborhood, turn it into something beautiful, and then allow you to live in it without having to leave your neighborhood because it’s not an overpriced asset because it’s still in the single-family, the small multifamily space, right? It’s not valued based on the income it produces value based on comps. Whereas large multifamily, if I increase the value, that price is going up, and it should, right. So I love being able to provide affordable housing for my community. I love being able to fix the problem properties in my community, and then give people another place that they can enjoy. I love driving by the houses that we’ve renovated and sold missing families playing in the yards. Like it’s just to give me the one perfect man.
Sam Wilson [12:31]
That’s absolutely fantastic. I love that it goes back to the conversation. We keep repeating but it’s the giver’s game.
Henry Washington [12:37]
Yeah, absolutely.
Sam Wilson [12:38]
That’s fantastic. What would you say has been the most liberating aspect for you personally, becoming financially successful?
Henry Washington [12:45]
Oh, man, the most liberating aspect is, you know, I tell people, the best part about financial freedom is the freedom is not the finances, it’s liberating not having to, like I don’t have to worry about like, not spending time with my family if I need to travel, just take them. Right, right. And so like, before, in my nine to five days, if I had to travel for work, you know, it was just me. And I wasn’t even thinking about well, let me fly my wife and my two kids and a nanny to watch my kids out. Like that goes from one ticket to five tickets, right? Like, that’s expensive, right? It’s not even an option. But now if I’m like, Man, I gotta travel. Know what, Hey, yo, let’s go right. And we all just go, you know, I’ll bring my wife, my kids, my sister-in-law, she watches the kids, when we travel, we pay for that. And so everybody just goes and then we all get to enjoy traveling and seeing the country. And, you know, the financial part of it affords us the freedom to do that as a family. And we don’t have to be a part. It’s pretty awesome.
Sam Wilson [13:42]
Man, Henry, that’s great. Thank you for taking the time to come on today. Share a little bit about your business and a lot about the mindset and kind of the ethos that you adhere to that apparently keeps your business running in a very efficient manner. So I love all that. Thank you. Thank you. And the last question for you is this if our listeners want to get in touch with you, or learn more about you, what is the best way to do that?
Henry Washington [14:03]
Yeah, man, the best way to get ahold of me is to find me on Instagram at the Henry Washington on Instagram. And then, you know, I kind of hang my hat on being able to buy deals with banks money, and so I use my local banks for everything. I can finance them pretty much at 100%. And it’s not a, it’s not some like super, you know, secret and hard thing to do. And so, if you want to learn more about that, I’ve got a whole free book at Henry Washington calm that’ll show you exactly how I finance deals at a 100%.
Sam Wilson [14:30]
That’s awesome, Henry, thank you again, have a great rest of your day.
Henry Washington [14:33]
Thank you very much.
Sam Wilson [14:34]
Hey, thanks for listening to the How to Scale Commercial Real Estate Podcast. If you can do me a favor and subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google podcasts, whatever platform it is you use to listen If you can do that for us that would be a fantastic help to the show it helps us both attract new listeners as well as rank higher on those directories so appreciate you listening thanks so much and hope to catch you on the next episode.
