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Hello, what’s happening everybody? This is Kevin Clayson and welcome to Replace Your Income with me and with of course, Steve Earl. But Steve is actually not going to be here today because we thought we’ve been getting so much positive feedback from a couple interviews that I was fortunate enough to do that we’re going to play one of them for you today.

So this is an interview with me and a good friend of mine named Chris Miles on his podcast called the Chris Miles Money. Now Chris owns a company called Money Ripples. Chris considers himself the anti Financianal advisor. He has been in financial services in the financial industry for a very long time.

He has very wealthy and well to do clients from all over the country. He knows that as he works with clients, they always have a need for real estate. So he asked me to come on and talk a little bit about the kind of real estate that done for you Real estate does specifically to talk about if somebody is going to look to work with a company, a turnkey real estate investment company.

What are some of the things they ought to look for? What are some of the things they ought to consider? So, just so you guys know, my purpose in doing this interview was not to say done for your real estate. It’s the only name in town. It was really just to give advice to anybody saying, if you’re considering working with a company, These are the things you should be looking at.

These are the things you should be evaluating. These are the red flags you should look for. These are the bits of proof that you should look for so that you can be sure that you’re working with an excellent company. So we’re gonna go ahead and play that episode. I hope you enjoy it. Chris Miles does a great job as an interviewer.

We talk about a lot of really cool things that I think you’re really gonna enjoy. So enjoy the episode with me and my buddy, Chris Miles on his podcast, The Chris Miles Money Show. What would your life look like if you could replace all of your working income with simple and conservative investments?

That could do it for you. Over the last 13 years, we’ve helped thousands of clients transact over half a billion dollars in simple and conservative real estate transactions, allowing them to begin replacing their work income with real estate investment income. Each week we’ll be pulling back the curtain on the ins and outs of real time retirement based real estate transactions that will transform your financial future.

Even if you have no real estate experience, this is replace your income with. Kevin Clayson and Steve Earl. Hello, my fellow Ripers. This is Chris Miles, your cashflow expert and anti financial advisor. Guys, welcome to show today. I’ve got a special guest with us. Uh, this is Ga Ashley, one of my best friends.

You know, just so you know. I tell you, like this guy is awesome. We’ve had him on this show before. We’ve had him talk about gratitude. We’ve had him talk about real estate before, but we’ve got him back to talk about more real estate and specifically right now, because I know so many of you’re wondering, okay, is it now just a ridiculous time to buy?

Should I do it or not? And if I do, how do I avoid some pitfalls, right? Like, what can I actually do to make sure I’m buying the right properties in the right places at the right time? And so that’s what we’re here to discuss today. Let you know a little bit about Kevin Clayson. So Kevin, like I said, besides being just an awesome guy and uh, just full of energy and powerful, the thing is he’s also co-founder and owner of D FY Real Estate, where it’s actually a turnkey company that helps you guys find properties not just in one market, but multiple markets around the country.

On top of that, this guy’s been doing real estate, not only just for more than a decade. In fact, I met him during the Great Recession and they were one of the few people that actually had happy clients during that time. So, Definitely excited to have Kevin here today. Kevin, welcome our show. Chris, thank you so much.

Hey, you talk about being a riper. I just want your audience to know like, I don’t know how often you have people coming on here and talking about how amazing you are, but you guys, if you are listening, I hope you feel tremendously honored and blessed to be in Chris Miles tribe. And here’s the reason why.

Chris, I have watched you at your highs and your. And I have seen that you have always been the man that you are on this show. You’ve always been this man full of integrity, full of a desire to serve others, and you live your principles and you do what you teach. And that is what’s rare. Dude there, you and I both know Chris.

There are so many people in the industry who talk a big game. But rarely do they do what they teach. They love to tell you about it. So they can sell you stuff, but they don’t actually, they don’t embody the thing that they stand for. You do. My friend and I can never thank you enough for that. And I remember Chris the first time, Do you remember the first time you ever did an interview with me?

Man, you had me on a show. Do you remember where it was? Oh yeah, I was actually on uh, actual AM talk radio. It was radio dude, and I dunno if that was 10 years ago or what am radio. And so to continue to be with you today, I’m so thankful for your friendship and all that you do, my friend. Thank you for having me.

Aw, man. Appreciate it. I really do make me all blush. That’s awesome. Awesome. Well, well tell more about your journey, man. Like tell us like where you came from. You know, I , I wouldn’t consider myself an entrepreneur, right? Mm-hmm. , I, I don’t know how many people out there are in a similar boat, but like, yes, I own this company with my partner and, and we’ve grown this company from just a couple guys trying to help people do real estate to, We’ve done over half a billion dollars in transactions now.

We’ve been around for 13 years. We have 20 W2 employees. Um, we’ve conducted over 4,000 transactions with clients in all 50 states. And, um, you know, I. Feel so blessed to have written a book. Cause you talked about called Flipped Gratitude Switch that sold copies in over two dozen countries. But none of that was really on the radar for me, Chris.

I was just a guy trying to figure it out and go to college, let me go get a job. I didn’t really know where that would lead. I had no idea would lead me down a path that would have me starting a company with some friends and then trying to figure out how to grow that company and serve more people at a greater velocity.

And uh, so now we’ve had this company for 13 years. Done for you real estate, like you mentioned, we’ve got a podcast called Replace Your Income and uh, man, it’s been a huge blessing and an incredible journey, but one that like yours has been filled with plenty of peaks and valleys, for sure. Well, and there’s no good story without those peaks and valleys, right?

I mean that’s right. And that’s the thing I tell people all the time is like, I don’t care if somebody even crashed and burned like, like I kind of did during the last recession. If you came out of it stronger and with better lessons and you come out. Actually doing something more. Yes. Hey, that’s invaluable.

There’s no amount of money that can teach you those kinda lessons. That’s so true, man. That is so true. Yeah. So tell us today, like, uh, cause I know like you’re in the, the Turkey real estate place and for those that maybe not be familiar with Turkey real estate investing, I mean, this is basically like you buy the property.

Everything else is handled for you. Like your job is just to say, Yes, I, the whole buffet suite of, of options. You’re like, I’m gonna pick that one, but your company, Kevin, like you guys help them find the properties. Like you have a list of properties they can look at and say, Any me money, Mo I like you Joe, or whatever, you know, like Yeah.

That kind of thing. And then of course you may hook him up, property managers, helping them get financing everything else, right? Yeah. Um, so you mentioned like there’s some key things that people should look for. Yeah. Especially if they’re looking. Pick a, a turnkey real estate company, what are those things that they should be doing?

Cause right now people are afraid of risk. They’re afraid that it’s market high, but you and I both know it’s still a great time to buy real estate, so Oh yeah. What are some of those key things there? Chris, there’s literally not a bad time to buy real estate. And here’s the caveat. Yeah. As long as you are willing to be in it for the long run.

Right. And that’s the key. I mean, I think of it like this, Chris, my parents bought their home, the home that I grew up in, in like 1964 for like $35,000. Okay. Yeah. They hung onto it until last year when we sold it for around $450,000, okay? Mm-hmm. . Now, why do I share that? Because there’s been all kinds of peaks and valleys during that time.

There’s been financial ups, financial downs. There’s been Republicans, Democrats, and office and everything in between. But if you hang onto real estate over the long run, it always puts you in a better. Position now that’s assuming you do the right kind of real estate right, and the right kind of market with the right kind of strategy, it’s really easy to go out there and find real estate and feel really good about it only to find that you’re left kind of holding the bag and then you sell for a loss.

And so there’s strategy that’s gotta be involved in it. And one of the things that, you know, we were kind of early to the game as far as helping people do real estate, sort of doing it for ’em. Yeah. Um, and uh, we, we’ve learned a lot. You know, over the last 13 years and when it comes to turnkey companies done for you type companies, there are 100% some things that you gotta look at.

And just so everybody knows and is aware, that’s listen. Why should you be investing in real estate? Because real estate provides certain benefits that other investments frankly, can’t or won’t. Right? Sure. Uh, I know everybody listening, you know, we’re not here, we’re not fans of traditional retirement and traditional investments, right?

Because it can only earn you money, frankly, in one way. But the kinds of stuff that you do, Chris, Real estate, it earns us money in multiple ways. Uh, it allows our money to grow while sitting in an asset or out of an asset. I mean, there’s so many benefits to it, right? Mm-hmm. , with real estate, it produces cold, hard, spendable, cash flow, and that’s really critical.

The other thing that I love about real estate, Is, you don’t even have to, If you think of it like this, you’re not the one actually paying for real estate, right? , right? Um, if you think about it, if you go buy real estate with leverage, the bank makes up the majority of it. Yes, you have a down payment, but then you’ve gotta rent a tenant that’s paying your mortgage for you.

Then when you sell outta that property, if you sell it the right way and you bought it in the right type of market, not only do you get your entire down payment back, plus the appreciation. Plus you add cash flow along the way, plus somebody else paid your mortgage for you. So in a weird way, it’s almost like a, I mean, what else can do that where it’s like a net zero to you, but a net gain.

I mean, it’s insane, right? Yeah. And that’s why we love real estate and why we advocate it so strongly. Amen, man. And when it comes to turnkey companies, here’s the thing, turnkey means, okay, I don’t have to do a lot of work, right? Most of the work is gonna be done for me. But there’s some challenges there.

So there’s companies, you can go online and you could say, I want a property, and they’ll show you a big laundry list of properties. Mm-hmm. . But you know what? Wouldn’t it be better if somebody could give you a property that’s a hand selected property for your fit, for what you’re trying to accomplish, for the price range you need to be in for the market that’s gonna be a good fit for you for all of the concerns and thoughts to what you are trying to accomplish?

And Chris, there’s a lot of companies out there that are like the Netflix of real estate and they claim to be turnkey, right? It’s like, Hey, buy this property. We’ll do everything for. But have you ever been on Netflix, Chris? And you just keep scrolling and scrolling and you just can’t find something that you like.

So you end up watching something and it’s like a less than wonderful experience, but you’re like, Ah, I just wanna watch something. You ever done that a few times? Yeah. Yeah. , Well, a lot of people end up doing the same thing with real estate. They go to these companies, Oh, I have all these choices, but those choices were bought so the company could sell them.

Those choices, they didn’t go and get found. For you as an individual who’s the hero of your own story with you as the principal in this entire deal, and that’s what we do. We try to go and find handpick custom properties. So if you’re considering working with a turnkey provider and you’re listening.

Number one, work with somebody that can help you invest in multiple markets simultaneously, right? That can help find properties for you that are a good fit for you. You shouldn’t have to fit into their property. The property should fit into what you’re trying to accomplish and what sort of cash flow numbers you want to hit and returns that you wanna hit.

So that’s really the first big thing that I think everybody should be looking for as they’re potentially considering a company to help them do real. Especially when inventory’s so low. Like I, I reached out to one company where they were a specific market and I was like, Hey, I’m looking at the specific market.

What do you got? And they said, one property. And they’re like, We just got today. And, uh, you know, and I was like, Cool. Well, I have some questions. I said, Well, by the time you ask these questions, it’ll be gone, right? Yes, that’s right. Especially this market. Oh yeah. So if you have multiple markets, you have less chance of that happening to you.

Yeah. That’s such an important point. And that really is, the inventory thing is critical. There’s a lot of companies out there that do a great job, great experience, great real estate, but you may be sitting twiddling your thumbs, sitting on dollars. Yeah. That you would like to be growing in real estate, but you can’t deploy them into real estate.

Mm-hmm. , because there’s an inventory problem. We have been approach. By multiple successful, even other turnkey companies recently, because our model virtually guarantees that we don’t run out of inventory. Right, right. I know we don’t have time to go into it, but I’d be happy to go into it some other time of what that is.

We create what’s called an on demand inventory or just in time inventory. We are not deploying, you know, millions in capital to hold properties, and then you have to pick one. It is a much different process than that. So if you can work with somebody that can help you invest in multiple markets simultaneously where inventory isn’t gonna be a problem.

We have people that come to us all the time, Chris, they’ve got all this money into 10 31 exchange, and they’re like coming up against the deadline and they’re like, Oh, I guess I should have found a property before now. And we’re like, Hey, we got you. Right. Because there’s ways to guarantee that there’s inventory available even in a tight market like.

So that’s another one. Work with a company that has virtually unlimited inventory of the right types of homes and across multiple markets simultaneously that could be custom fit to what you’re trying to accomplish. Great. Awesome, man. What’s another point? You know, another one, and this is kind of a big one, the companies that our turnkey companies should be willing to give you, uh, just a few pieces of really critical information.

Things like how much real estate have they’ve done, are they willing to open the books and show you how the deals work and show you how much real estate they’ve done, Just as an example. Yeah. And, and by the way, if you’re listening to you guys, I am not operating under any kind of assumption that you’re gonna come and work with our company.

If you ever did, we would be so thankful to serve you. But I’m just saying, no matter what, if you’re gonna use real estate, this should be part of the equation. There’s a lot of companies that tout big numbers, but they don’t tell you how they got those numbers right. We publish an annual report every year, every single transaction that we do.

We put partial addresses on there, how long it took to get ’em leased out, what the purchase price was. We show you the snapshot. All of our clients together, we show you individual deals and we have that on our website back the last seven years. so that somebody can go and say, Wow, you guys really do what you say.

The other thing is they should be upfront about how they make their money. And you know, Chris, there are people in the financial world who love to sound real good. Maybe they look real good on their YouTube video or on their Instagram or on their TikTok, but you’re like, Dude, how is this guy making money?

Like, and he won’t tell. Right. Uhhuh or she won’t tell you. It’s kind of like, uh, I don’t really, We are super upfront. When somebody wants to work with us, we’re like, Here’s how we make money. Here’s the companies that we own. Here’s where the revenue comes from. That’s either a good fit for someone or it’s not a good fit.

Cause we are here to make money and serve clients. It’s gotta be mutually beneficial. And so if you’ve got a company that you ask, Hey, how do you guys make money? Break it down for me. And they shy away from it, They’re a little bit shady. Mm-hmm. , they’re a little like, well, you know, I’m variety of ways and they’re not really willing to.

You the, the goods. That could be a red flag, right? And then also, like we’ve been talking all the other things could be, could be red flag. So if they don’t wanna tell you what their results are, if you go to them and you say, How many properties have you transacted this month? And they’re like, I, I don’t know.

Probably like I, I, I don’t know. Maybe like 10, 10 or 20, or maybe we’re up to fi. I don’t really know. They should know their numbers and they should have ’em ready for you. That’s a huge critical piece. I mean, if they don’t have ’em right away, they should have a way to go find them and unlock that for you so you know that what they do is real.

That’s right. Amen. Man. What else? Where’s some other, What’s like another third point we could use here? You know, Okay, here’s another one. This is a really good one. There’s a lot of turnkey companies that will say, Hey, we’re gonna help you buy a property. But then what about when you close on the property?

Yeah, Dude. Here’s the thing, Chris, you and I both know. Buying the property is the easy part. Yeah. Transitioning from buyer to owner is an entirely different ball game. Mm-hmm. . And if you don’t have a company that’s willing to help you with that transition, smooth that out. Make sure that you’re working with a good property manager that’s getting the property leased out, and then even then they shouldn’t release and say, Let us know when you want another one.

One of the things that we do, just as an example of how we’ve tried to fix this very, very, very common problem with turnkey real estate providers. Mm-hmm. is every single year we proactively put together an annual property and market review. We pull up the numbers on the home, we pull up the comps, we let you know how much equity, how it’s performing, when it’s a good time to sell and do a 10 31 exchange, when it might be a good time to refinance, when it’s time to just sit and.

We want you to know what time it is with your real estate and how it’s performing, and we do that proactively. Nobody asks us to, but we do it around the anniversary of our clients’ purchases for their entire portfolios so that they always know what’s going on. Our job is to continue to work with our clients day in and day out throughout history until they have achieved what we call total income replacement or partial income.

Replace. Depends on what your needs are, but income replacement is the goal and we continue to work with them. There’s a lot of companies that are like, Hey, you closed on the property. I’ll introduce you to the property manager. Let me put in a call, shoot an email, and good luck to you. Let me know if you want another, and if it doesn’t work out, please don’t let me know.

That’s the wrong approach. The right approach is you should have somebody holding your hand and guiding you through every bit of the process, and then for every year after, until you’ve achieved your income replacement. To Infinity and beyond, right? Yes. . It’s a quote. A very wise toy. That’s right. Wise Toy here.

There’s a buzz out there, but I that something in there? Yeah. Yeah. That was horrible. All right. You know, quick question cause you kind of brought it up. I wanna bring this another little side, maybe fourth point for what you’re talking about here, but property management. Cuz I had a turnkey personnel here before that says you should only, only only work with a turnkey company that manages their own proper.

What’s your opinion on that? Okay, so look, there is value to that. I understand it, but let me tell you the downside, and this is where we’re really unique. All of the property managers that we work with are independently owned and operated property managers who existed before we ever came along. But because of the volume of business that we do, we now make up like over 90% or 95% of all of their red rolls and all of their doors.

Now, here’s what’s cool about. Having that little degree of separation means there’s increased accountability, right? If I own the property management company and I own the property and I’m selling it to you and you’re buying it from me, and then I’m managing it, if you’ve got a problem with anything that’s going on, you’re coming to me And look, I mean, you are the one who has to hold my feet to the fire, right?

Right. Cause I’m the one who owns it. Well, if you’re working with an independent property manager, who, frankly all of our property managers, the only way they put food on their table now is from done for you real estate clients, right? Right. So what that means is now there’s a relationship between the client and the property manager, right?

But there’s a relationship between us and the property manager, so that the property manager, stay honest. If you’re trying to get in touch with your property manager and you’re getting crickets, guess what? Our clients. We have an entire department and a liaison that is there to work with our clients and with the property managers so that when something happens there is now an 800 pound gorilla that can reach out to property managers and go, Hey, what’s going on?

We meet with our property managers every single week, Okay, Every week to review things, to go through things with. There’s tons of of accountability there. We are accountable to our. We’re accountable to these property managers to continue to put food on their table by bringing them clients. They’re accountable to us to serve our clients, and they’re accountable to the client.

And then the, the client has multiple levels of accountability. It’s almost like there was this checks and balances. There was this thing that was written, it’s like this dust document hundreds of years ago called a Constitution or something. And in it there’s these things called checks and balances, and apparently it works well.

And so that’s the. Yeah, and here’s the other cool part about that, Chris, is that these are independently owned and operated property managers. That means they get to dictate their economies. Now, here’s what I mean by that. Mm-hmm. , take a look at one of our property managers who charge 10% of gross monthly rent.

Why? Because it’s lower price properties and lower rents. So they charge a higher amount for a greater degree of service, right? When you go to another market, higher rents, higher prices, they charge a little bit less because they can provide the level of. For that amount. So we let them dictate their own fees and dictate what they wanna make, which means they stay incentivized to do the work that you want them to do, which is to make sure that you’ve got a good tenant that’s paying.

And here’s the other thing with these property managers, Dude, they’ve gotta be accountable to the tenants. And accountable to you as an owner and accountable to us as a company, because if they’re not serving the client or the tenants well, then there’s tenant turnover, which has a negative impact for you as an owner, which then reflects poorly on our company.

So it all comes into one place and under one umbrella, we don’t. Own it, but we own every level of the accountability of it. Right? And that creates a really powerful, um, you know, it’s like a rope instead of one string that’s easy to cut. We wind two or three of them together, and all of a sudden it increases the strength of that entire relationship and process.

So that’s what we’ve come to believe and execute on, and it’s been really, really good. Awesome. Love it Kevin. Love it. Hey, so people wanna like follow you like your podcast or even get to like follow your real estate and things like that. How would they do that? How would they get in touch with you guys?

Yeah, thanks dude. And by the way, Chris, thank you so much for having me on. Dude, you’re so generous. I’d love you to pieces. Hey, Ripers out there. You are in a good place. Keep doing what you’re doing. Uh, I hope you feel very blessed to be with this man and to be on this podcast. If you wanna join us on our podcast, you can, uh, join us at Replace Your Income.

So Replace Your Income is the name of the podcast. It’s on Spotify and iTunes and all of the things. Mm-hmm. , Um, everywhere you get your podcast, it’s there. You could also visit our website, dfy, like done for you, dfy real estate.com. And the last thing is follow us on Instagram, DFY Real Estate or Twitter, DFY Real Estate or Facebook d FY Real Estate and we can connect with you there.

Happy to serve you. Happy to serve in any way we can. And Chris. Anybody that’s friends with you is a friend of ours and we would do everything we can to bend over backwards and serve them. But even saying that, Ripers, we don’t expect you to come and work with us. But I hope that as you’re searching out real estate companies are considering adding real estate to your portfolio, you’ll think of some of these things cuz I just wanna insulate and protect you from having a bad experience, cuz real estate could be a game changer for you and your loved ones and I just want you to be able to do it the right way.

So there you. Yeah. Hey guys, As a disclaimer, you know, of course we’re never giving investment advice on this show. I’ll just tell you though, that me personally, I love turnkey real estate. Like that’s my thing. I love to go, I like passive hands off. But I like able all the benefits of ownership, like you said, of it’s hard to be, to have such low risk with high returns.

And Kevin, like in d fy real estate, I mean they, these guys have been around a long time. They’re not the flash in the pan type turnkey guys. They only showed up cause the market was hot, right? These guys have been through the stick, The thin been through. The fire and the ice. They’ve been through it all.

So Kevin, again, I appreciate your time being on the show there. Thank you, brother. Thanks so much for listening to Replace Your Income with Steven. Kevin, if you’re not subscribed already, be sure to head over to your favorite podcasting platform and do that now. If you enjoyed this episode, we’d love it if you could do us a quick favor and rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcast.

This lets the platform know that we’re doing something right and that people. The content. It’d be a huge help and we would be super grateful. Also, be sure to head over to dfy real estate.com and request your free income replacement estimate. We’ll jump on a quick call and put a free and personalized income replacement estimate report together for you.

Your report will show you a step by step plan of how you can begin replacing your income one property at a time, starting right. With the resources you already have, it only takes a few minutes, but could change the trajectory of your entire financial future. So until next time, just remember income replacement for you and your family may only be one property away.

See you next week.