Burned Alive, Facing Prison… Then Built Millions in Real Estate

How Business Credit for Real Estate Investing Can Accelerate Portfolio Growth

Building wealth through real estate often comes down to one critical factor: access to capital. In this episode of Lifetime Cash Flow Through Real Estate Investing, Brandon Elliott explains how investors can strategically use business credit for real estate investing to fund acquisitions, renovations, and growth without relying solely on personal savings or traditional financing. Throughout the conversation, he shares how understanding lender requirements, improving credit profiles, and building strong banking relationships can dramatically increase borrowing power.

Brandon’s journey makes his advice especially compelling. After overcoming an incredibly difficult past that included poverty, addiction, a devastating explosion, and legal challenges, he rebuilt his life through mentorship, personal development, and real estate investing. His story demonstrates how education and persistence can completely change someone’s financial future regardless of where they start.

Brandon Elliott’s Blueprint for Building Business Credit

One of the biggest misconceptions Brandon addresses is that banks simply approve or deny applications based on credit scores alone. Instead, he explains that lenders evaluate several factors, including banking relationships, account activity, and how applicants present themselves during the underwriting process. Learning these rules allows investors to position themselves as lower-risk borrowers while increasing their chances of receiving larger credit limits with favorable terms.

According to Brandon, investors should understand:

• How banks evaluate credit beyond the numerical score.
• Why banking relationships influence lending decisions.
• The importance of application strategy and timing.
• How multiple funding sources can be obtained through proper sequencing.
• Why understanding individual bank policies creates a competitive advantage.

These principles can help investors access substantial capital while minimizing unnecessary interest costs when executed correctly.

Using Business Credit to Buy Investment Properties

Rather than waiting years to accumulate cash, Brandon explains how he used strategically obtained credit to purchase and renovate investment properties. Beginning with the BRRRR strategy, he acquired multiple residential properties in Ohio while living in California. By using 0% interest business credit, he funded renovations, increased property values, refinanced when appropriate, and continued scaling his portfolio.

He also discusses practical lessons learned during those early investments, including contractor management, long-distance investing, creating repeatable systems, and protecting renovation expenses by paying contractors directly with credit cards whenever possible. Those systems ultimately allowed him to manage an out-of-state portfolio while spending only a few hours each month overseeing operations.

Scaling Beyond Small Properties

As Brandon’s experience grew, so did his investment strategy. After years of successfully operating smaller multifamily properties, he chose to sell those assets and focus on larger development opportunities in San Diego. Today his projects include luxury ground-up construction, accessory dwelling unit developments, and high-end rental properties designed to maximize long-term appreciation and premium rental income.

His evolution highlights an important lesson for experienced investors: as portfolios mature, focusing on fewer, higher-impact opportunities can create greater leverage than managing dozens of smaller assets.

Guest Bio: Brandon Elliott

Brandon Elliott is a real estate investor, entrepreneur, educator, and credit expert who specializes in helping investors secure business funding for real estate acquisitions. After overcoming extraordinary personal adversity, he built a successful investing career using creative financing strategies, the BRRRR method, and business credit. Today he educates entrepreneurs and investors on how to access capital, improve lending profiles, and scale real estate portfolios through strategic financing.

If you want to hear the full conversation and detailed insights, watch the podcast video or read the complete transcript below.

Frequently Asked Questions About Business Credit for Real Estate Investing

What Is Business Credit for Real Estate Investing?

Business credit for real estate investing is the process of obtaining financing through a business entity rather than relying solely on personal credit. Investors use business credit cards, lines of credit, and other lending products to fund property acquisitions, renovations, operating expenses, and portfolio growth while preserving personal capital.

Why Is Business Credit Important for Real Estate Investors?

Business credit gives investors greater access to capital, allowing them to move quickly when investment opportunities arise. It can help finance renovations, cover short term expenses, improve cash flow management, and provide flexibility when scaling a real estate portfolio.

Can You Buy Investment Properties Using Business Credit?

Yes. Many investors use business credit to fund down payments, renovation costs, construction expenses, or other project related costs. When paired with strategies like BRRRR, business credit can help investors acquire, improve, refinance, and grow their portfolios more efficiently.

How Do Banks Evaluate Business Credit Applications?

Banks evaluate far more than a credit score. They also consider banking relationships, account history, transaction activity, financial stability, business structure, and the information provided on the credit application when determining approval amounts and lending terms.

Does a Good Credit Score Guarantee Approval?

No. While a strong credit score is an important factor, lenders also review income, banking history, debt obligations, business profile, and overall lending risk before approving business credit applications.

What Types of Real Estate Investors Benefit Most from Business Credit?

Business credit can benefit investors involved in multifamily properties, single family rentals, BRRRR investing, fix and flips, new construction, commercial real estate, and long term buy and hold strategies that require ongoing access to capital.

Can Business Credit Help Fund Property Renovations?

Yes. Many investors use business credit to finance renovation costs, contractor payments, materials, and value add improvements before refinancing or selling the property. This allows projects to move forward without tying up all available cash.

How Can Investors Increase Their Business Credit Limits?

Investors can improve their business credit profile by maintaining strong banking relationships, making on time payments, managing credit utilization responsibly, providing accurate application information, and demonstrating consistent financial activity over time.

Is Business Credit Better Than Using Personal Savings?

Business credit can preserve personal liquidity while providing additional financing options for investment opportunities. Many experienced investors use a combination of cash reserves, business credit, and traditional financing to maximize flexibility and continue growing their portfolios.

Can Business Credit Help Scale a Real Estate Portfolio Faster?

Yes. Access to business credit allows investors to pursue multiple opportunities, complete renovations more efficiently, and respond quickly to new deals. When managed responsibly, business credit can become a valuable tool for accelerating long term real estate portfolio growth.

00:00:30:01 – 00:00:49:29
Rod Khleif
Welcome back to lifetime cash flow through real estate investing. I’m Rod Khleif and I am thrilled you’re here. And I’m really looking forward to this interview with my friend Brandon Elliott. So I was on Brandon’s podcast, Good God, a lifetime ago. And he’s got a very interesting story, which I’m going to make him tell you about because it’s on his fricking bio anyway.

00:00:49:29 – 00:00:57:01
Rod Khleif
But but yeah, now he’s doing some very interesting things that I want to share with you. I think you can get some value from. So welcome the show, brother.

00:00:57:02 – 00:01:00:09
Brandon Elliot
Yeah. Thanks for having me. I appreciate you inviting me out here. It’s awesome.

00:01:00:09 – 00:01:20:17
Rod Khleif
Thank you, thank you. Now, you know, I know you’re all the way in San Diego, but you were out here to do some avatar work for AI, which we’re in. We’re embracing AI like freaking crazy. And I would love to get an avatar, so come on, you know. But yeah. So. And we’ll see if we’ll see if they can figure out if it’s me or if it’s somebody else.

00:01:20:18 – 00:01:27:17
Rod Khleif
Right. I’ve done the ape thing and I’ve done the little kid thing, but yeah, be if it really looks like me, that would really be something.

00:01:27:18 – 00:01:28:25
Brandon Elliot
Yeah, it performs better.

00:01:28:27 – 00:01:29:21
Rod Khleif
And no kidding.

00:01:29:21 – 00:01:34:03
Brandon Elliot
All the time. You know, the marketing team can just run it, so. Wow. That’s cool.

00:01:34:06 – 00:01:40:20
Rod Khleif
Yeah. We’re going to talk about that. But, well, why don’t you tell people your story, brother? Because it’s very interesting.

00:01:40:21 – 00:02:02:06
Brandon Elliot
Yeah. You know, I grew up making all the mistakes under the sun. You know, I grew up in new Jersey, met my father when I was 18 years old and caught so he could stop paying child support. Wow. He had another family. My mom, you know, raised three misfits. I was just the middle one. I was the only guy in the house, and my mom was labeled manic depressive bipolar at a young age.

00:02:02:06 – 00:02:13:12
Brandon Elliot
And so realizing at a young age that, like, she couldn’t provide the way that, you know, that financially.

00:02:13:13 – 00:02:15:23
Rod Khleif
You really went through it. Yeah. Like, yeah. Wow.

00:02:15:24 – 00:02:27:26
Brandon Elliot
I always say like American poor. Like when you travel the world, you get to see real poor. And and we are so blessed here. I grew up on section eight, Social Security. Wow. And powdered milk, you know.

00:02:27:27 – 00:02:36:02
Rod Khleif
Same here. Same here. Powdered milk, which tastes does not taste as good as regular milk. Just for those of you that know with my cereal in the morning too.

00:02:36:04 – 00:02:54:05
Brandon Elliot
But so so that really at a young age got me the drive to have to go out there and provide for myself. So at age 12, I got my first job and and that was a blessing. But I was also around older people that were doing in the restaurant industry. I was supposed to be 18 to work there.

00:02:54:05 – 00:03:19:02
Brandon Elliot
I was working there at 12. They were all older and smoking weed and doing drugs. And you know, I got invited by some older, attractive women that got me and my friend smoke weed for the first time. And it was one of those things that, you know, I, I just laughed a bunch and all the good things that I thought at the time from it.

00:03:19:04 – 00:03:41:06
Brandon Elliot
What that took me down was a path of using it for the good, the bad, the ugly, the everything in between, you know, really, truly addicted to it and ended up because I grew up that American poor. I realized right away that I couldn’t be the one to to actually pay for it. I needed to supply it to my friends, have them pay for it, and.

00:03:41:06 – 00:03:43:01
Rod Khleif
I became a distributor as well.

00:03:43:02 – 00:03:45:20
Brandon Elliot
I see, yeah, quickly into a wholesaler.

00:03:45:21 – 00:03:48:06
Rod Khleif
And, you know, wholesaling, just like in real estate.

00:03:48:06 – 00:04:06:05
Brandon Elliot
Just like real estate. That was the early days of that. So it really turned into one of those things, because I wasn’t used to spending money as much as I would make. I would just go back to the drug dealer, pick up as much as I could, and within about a year, I’m walking away with multiple duffel bags and not spending money making more of it.

00:04:06:05 – 00:04:30:01
Brandon Elliot
And it it took me down this path of. Of selfishness, of greed, of having guns to my head, knives to my throat, a bunch of horrible things that I was like, I need to get out of this area. And cops started knowing about me, you know? Long story short, I moved to San Diego, where history repeated itself just because I was in a different area.

00:04:30:01 – 00:04:31:14
Brandon Elliot
It didn’t mean that the routines were any.

00:04:31:14 – 00:04:32:20
Rod Khleif
Different yourself with you.

00:04:32:21 – 00:04:56:18
Brandon Elliot
Exactly right. Yeah. So I ended up growing over there, having my medical marijuana card, thinking I was doing everything legit, having, you know, being able to have the beginning product, the end product, that whole middle piece of making hash is what I didn’t realize was illegal and a very frowned upon. And one day it was, it was October.

00:04:56:21 – 00:05:02:05
Brandon Elliot
I’m sorry. It was September 24th, 2013. I had an explosion in my apartment making hash.

00:05:02:07 – 00:05:02:19
Rod Khleif
Wow.

00:05:02:20 – 00:05:23:04
Brandon Elliot
Complete moron. Like young dumb. I was trying to rush to go catch the surf at sunset and get a burrito with a friend. Wow. And I was making hash oil. I had an explosion in my apartment. I got knocked into about five feet into my living room. Jumped up, I realized I was on fire. Wow. All the windows in the house exploded.

00:05:23:05 – 00:05:40:11
Brandon Elliot
It was a mess. And so I quickly acknowledged I’m going to jail. Yeah, and something had to change. So I burnt 40% of my body. I was introduced into a coma for a week. I had to learn how to walk again. Went through three surgeries. Yep. Yeah. Crap. It was crazy.

00:05:40:12 – 00:05:41:17
Rod Khleif
Did you get arrested too?

00:05:41:18 – 00:06:00:24
Brandon Elliot
So about a month later, after I recovered, thankfully. And I got, you know, out of the hospital, they raided my house for the second time and they ended up arresting me at that point. And my bail was $100,000. I thought I was just going to be in and out. Right. You know, I got into a fight when I was younger and got arrested and I was out that night.

00:06:00:26 – 00:06:07:07
Brandon Elliot
Right. You know, that wasn’t the case there I was. I was in there for three weeks.

00:06:07:09 – 00:06:07:19
Rod Khleif
Wow.

00:06:07:21 – 00:06:17:12
Brandon Elliot
And luckily, the judge allowed me to fight my case on the outside, and it took two years.

00:06:17:14 – 00:06:18:07
Rod Khleif
To get through it.

00:06:18:08 – 00:06:23:14
Brandon Elliot
Yeah, it was a crazy experience, but luckily, the court actually made me get a mentor.

00:06:23:16 – 00:06:26:02
Rod Khleif
Well that’s good. It was crazy. I actually liked that.

00:06:26:03 – 00:06:26:16
Brandon Elliot
Yeah, it was.

00:06:26:16 – 00:06:28:21
Rod Khleif
It was. So you didn’t you didn’t have to do any more time.

00:06:28:21 – 00:06:39:22
Brandon Elliot
Well, I ended up fighting it in court and they were about to send me away. For three years, I was facing up to 12. Wow. And so it was the same charge as if I was making meth.

00:06:39:23 – 00:06:40:06
Rod Khleif
Wow.

00:06:40:06 – 00:06:57:29
Brandon Elliot
And and so that that situation ended up basically I ended up getting house arrest and six year or, sorry, three years probation, six months house arrest and a bunch of fees. Okay. And so that was.

00:06:58:00 – 00:06:59:07
Rod Khleif
And you had a mentor as well?

00:06:59:08 – 00:07:05:26
Brandon Elliot
Yeah. The mentor is what actually saved me from me going to jail because he prepared me for what to say and had a position myself.

00:07:06:02 – 00:07:20:24
Rod Khleif
Wow. Yeah. Wow. Wow. It was crazy, dude. Yeah. Wow. So. So I see God referenced in your bio here. Yeah. So did you have an epiphany and start embracing Jesus and God as well?

00:07:20:26 – 00:07:23:10
Brandon Elliot
Of course. So I grew up in the church.

00:07:23:17 – 00:07:24:01
Rod Khleif
Oh. You did?

00:07:24:03 – 00:07:47:06
Brandon Elliot
Yeah. My mom, that was like, one of the best things that she did for us and keep us in the church. But I definitely had a falling out with the church at a certain age. And, and that, that actually, like, the cocky confidence that I had of I would get away with so much bad things like on a regular basis that just by the skin of my teeth.

00:07:47:06 – 00:07:54:05
Brandon Elliot
And it was just one of those things like I knew God had so much favor in my life, but.

00:07:54:08 – 00:07:55:15
Brandon Elliot
But, you know, he allowed.

00:07:55:15 – 00:07:56:29
Rod Khleif
Me to get it caught up with you.

00:07:57:00 – 00:08:13:25
Brandon Elliot
Yeah. And that day, he still protected me. I was wearing baseball gloves, and I don’t like baseball. I’m not. You know that. Protecting my hands. It got skin, Graf. All the way up to my hand. Wow. And, And I was wearing socks that protected me like it was a. It was a crazy situation, but I needed to get off that path.

00:08:13:29 – 00:08:35:07
Rod Khleif
You know, it’s interesting. I was a faith based men’s group last night, and I’m struggling. I’m struggling with it a little bit, honestly. I’m struggling with, you know, the whole Adam and Eve story. And I just saw that article about a guy that they found in the ice 25,000 years ago. And, you know, just some things that that, you know, the whole evolutionary thing where they’ve got the skulls that go from apes all the way to human beings.

00:08:35:07 – 00:08:52:10
Rod Khleif
And so I’m struggling with some of it. But but it’s been it’s been nice to be in this group of guys and just shooting the shit and talk about it. But yeah, this is a brand new thing for me because I was like an agnostic six months ago. Really. So this is brand new. Yeah. I was on Ryan Panetta’s podcast, you know.

00:08:52:11 – 00:09:07:06
Rod Khleif
Well, I had an exporter who claimed to be religious, who embezzled a ton of money and just, you know, if someone says they’re religious, I put my hand over my wallet and I run at this point, you know, because, you know, there’s a lot of hypocrisy. But, you know, I went on Ryan Panetta’s podcast and he’s a real deal.

00:09:07:07 – 00:09:15:23
Rod Khleif
You know, he is the real deal and good man. Yeah. And we actually preyed on the show, which was very awkward for me. But but yeah. So that’s why I brought it up.

00:09:15:28 – 00:09:23:11
Brandon Elliot
I love that. Yeah. You know, I think the more that you search for the clues and you search and you really pray into it, like God will show up in many different ways.

00:09:23:12 – 00:09:42:14
Rod Khleif
I’ll tell you something I don’t, you know, usually talk about this, but I was on my bike and someone I was talking to said, you know, ask for God to show himself to you. So I’m on my bike and I did that. Yeah. And I go around the cul de sac and there’s this woman in her son painting this figure of Christ on the front and on the on the on the yard.

00:09:42:15 – 00:09:44:06
Rod Khleif
Yeah. Like, Holy crap.

00:09:44:07 – 00:09:46:22
Brandon Elliot
How many coincidences do you need to look back?

00:09:46:28 – 00:10:01:05
Rod Khleif
So that was that was something. But yeah, I’m I’m exploring it. And I think, you know, the exploration feels good. So, you know, it’s all. Anyway. I’m sorry guys. I digressed a little bit on the whole God thing, but. So keep going. So you got burned then what happened?

00:10:01:06 – 00:10:22:00
Brandon Elliot
So basically at that point after the explosion and me fighting it in court, I had to go to these pretrial services meetings throughout the week and just start changing my life. At that moment, I knew that I needed to get off the path that I was on of selling drugs. And also I always had one foot in, one foot out.

00:10:22:00 – 00:10:39:19
Brandon Elliot
I was working restaurants, dead end jobs, you know? So, at that moment, I wanted to start getting into real estate. You know, at the time, I was also doing door to door sales. Kirby vacuum cleaners I was selling. Wow. Yeah, I got good at that. And I knocked on somebody.

00:10:39:21 – 00:10:45:19
Rod Khleif
That’s real sales, though. I mean, that is freaking sales. If you can go door to door and deal with that rejection, you can fricking sell anything.

00:10:45:21 – 00:11:02:26
Brandon Elliot
Yeah. And I crushed it because we we ended up I got so good that I was knocking doors, getting a ton of my team in there, and then I would cherry pick the best ones I would close, I would get commissions off their closes. Nice. And so it was fun, but I knocked on the right door at the right time that he had an investment company.

00:11:02:26 – 00:11:19:10
Brandon Elliot
He said, dude, you got to stop selling vacuum cleaners. You got to work for me. And and I loved it. I ended up getting in there. I got some education, but I got way more motivation. Yeah. And that took me down the rabbit hole of, hey, let’s, let’s do this real estate thing. But I was still broke. I had no money.

00:11:19:16 – 00:11:34:05
Brandon Elliot
And so I figured out how to use credit cards, because I didn’t think anybody in the right mind would ever give me money or I’d like, you know, I came from poverty mindset. And so I just figured the banks give out the money. But I also didn’t want to pay any fees. I didn’t want any interest, you know.

00:11:34:06 – 00:11:38:18
Brandon Elliot
So I looked at 0% interest credit cards. And that’s how I started buying real estate.

00:11:38:19 – 00:11:58:03
Rod Khleif
No kidding. Yeah, I actually bought credit. I bought houses on credit cards back in 1978, before you were gleaming your dad’s eye and and they were 18% credit cards. I didn’t know about zero. I mean, the deals were so good I could still make them work back then. By the way, the interest rate was 18% as well. That’s what the interest rate was.

00:11:58:04 – 00:12:03:22
Rod Khleif
I mean, people complain about the interest rate. I remember doing backflips when it hit 7%. Holy shit. At 7%. Yeah, yeah.

00:12:03:23 – 00:12:05:22
Brandon Elliot
But in any market you can make money.

00:12:05:23 – 00:12:27:27
Rod Khleif
Yeah. So I know that you’ve got a service now where you help people build their credit and get credit so they can buy property. It’s credit counsel elite. Yep. Forward slash discover. So we’ll put that in the show notes. But credit counsel elite forward slash discover. And you basically talk about what you what you do I don’t usually allow that but I like the idea of it.

00:12:27:27 – 00:12:28:22
Rod Khleif
And I know you’re a good guy.

00:12:28:24 – 00:12:38:02
Brandon Elliot
So yeah it so when it comes down to really just learning how to talk to the banks, that’s the biggest key component here. The banks have to lend to you and I. That’s the business.

00:12:38:04 – 00:12:38:17
Rod Khleif
To make money.

00:12:38:18 – 00:12:55:07
Brandon Elliot
Yeah. If they’re not lending out they’re going out of business. Right. But they are looking for high risk and low risk. And so we simply just teach our members the checklist, if you will. It’s the rules to the game on how the underwriting is judging you and I. And so we’ve identified there’s 45 different rules to the game okay.

00:12:55:08 – 00:13:12:19
Brandon Elliot
And it’s really broken down into three categories. One is your score. And you know there’s about six boxes that make up your score ten boxes in total that that associate it, you know, with the 45. And then it’s the bank relationship. How long have you been with the bank? How many products and services you’re taking advantage of the bank.

00:13:12:21 – 00:13:16:29
Brandon Elliot
They have a lot of data on all of us and all their members. They’re good members. They’re bad members.

00:13:17:00 – 00:13:17:15
Rod Khleif
Interesting.

00:13:17:15 – 00:13:25:05
Brandon Elliot
So the longer you’ve been with them, your internal rating, how much money is going in versus going out over the last 30, 60, 90 days, etc.?

00:13:25:06 – 00:13:26:18
Rod Khleif
What do you mean going in versus going.

00:13:26:18 – 00:13:39:24
Brandon Elliot
Out like your average balance. And they don’t want just stagnant money sitting there. They want to see transactions. So about 17 plus transactions per month. Because if it’s just stagnant sitting there, they know that you’re basically cheating on them with another bank.

00:13:39:25 – 00:13:40:17
Rod Khleif
Oh I see.

00:13:40:18 – 00:13:42:09
Brandon Elliot
And they’re very territorial.

00:13:42:11 – 00:13:44:04
Rod Khleif
Interesting. Yes. Interesting.

00:13:44:06 – 00:13:50:01
Brandon Elliot
So and then lastly that last category is what you say on your applications. Okay. It matters. It matters.

00:13:50:07 – 00:13:50:26
Rod Khleif
An example.

00:13:50:27 – 00:14:07:25
Brandon Elliot
So a lot of people you know God bless teachers for example. But statistically their numbers we know where they’re at like annual income. Got it right. And then if you live in New York, you’re a teacher and your rent is extremely high, right. And your income is low.

00:14:07:27 – 00:14:09:16
Rod Khleif
They know you’re going to struggle. Yeah.

00:14:09:18 – 00:14:27:22
Brandon Elliot
They’re going to give you low limits if approvals at all. Right okay. And so the simple truth is you want to be in a low risk industry okay. You want your entity to not be a high risk, you know, or you don’t want to put like investments or homes or properties. And I know that sounds crazy really because.

00:14:27:24 – 00:14:28:27
Rod Khleif
They consider that high risk.

00:14:28:28 – 00:14:31:04
Brandon Elliot
Yeah. Real estate is considered high risk to these banks.

00:14:31:04 – 00:14:31:14
Rod Khleif
Interesting.

00:14:31:19 – 00:14:34:29
Brandon Elliot
Which all of them you know, majority of banks lend on real estate.

00:14:35:01 – 00:14:35:19
Rod Khleif
Right. Okay.

00:14:35:20 – 00:14:36:24
Brandon Elliot
But you know in the.

00:14:36:24 – 00:14:38:28
Rod Khleif
Role they want to see a W-2 job.

00:14:39:00 – 00:14:52:22
Brandon Elliot
No not not always W-2. But if you are going to put real estate it would be better if it’s a property management company or like a holding company. Okay. You know, and so because it’s more consistent, it’s more.

00:14:52:28 – 00:14:57:25
Rod Khleif
Sure just yeah, it’s lower, probably more reliable in their view. Yes.

00:14:57:26 – 00:14:58:25
Brandon Elliot
Instead of investing.

00:14:58:26 – 00:15:00:00
Rod Khleif
Or interesting.

00:15:00:01 – 00:15:00:15
Brandon Elliot
Yeah.

00:15:00:17 – 00:15:09:02
Rod Khleif
So and you’ve helped people get as much as $1 million in credit that way. I know at 300,000 is not out of the realm of reality.

00:15:09:02 – 00:15:26:15
Brandon Elliot
And oh heck no. Yeah. Our whole tagline, our elevator pitches, we teach our members how to get up to 500,000 with interest rates as low as 0%. The cool part is, every six months you can actually repeat the process. And the reason for that is whether you go after one application or you go after 50, it makes the same impact.

00:15:26:15 – 00:15:46:00
Brandon Elliot
Your profile, your credit profile, when it shows up on your account, like on your credit profile. So but the banks are very territorial of each other. So whether it’s one on their or it’s 50, they’re going to say you’ve been searching for too much credit. So you don’t want to go after just one account. You want to go after as many as you can.

00:15:46:01 – 00:15:56:22
Brandon Elliot
Now, a lot of these banks will remove that excuse around three, 4 or 5 months, but all of them at six months will drop that. You’ve been searching for too much credit. I see. Yeah.

00:15:56:23 – 00:15:59:10
Rod Khleif
So you can hit a whole bunch of them at the same time?

00:15:59:11 – 00:16:20:00
Brandon Elliot
Yes. So you don’t necessarily. A lot of people get this confused thinking, okay, I need to blast out 50 applications in one day, right? You don’t need to do that. Okay. We’ve had members do 20 in a day. You don’t need to. I recommend over 30 to 60 days typically. Okay. And yes, anywhere from 10 to 50 plus applications when you put it in the right order.

00:16:20:03 – 00:16:21:25
Brandon Elliot
Okay. This is very, very crucial.

00:16:21:26 – 00:16:22:14
Rod Khleif
What do you mean?

00:16:22:15 – 00:16:41:00
Brandon Elliot
So there’s bank rules like Chase for example. Number one you want to focus on big banks. First regional Bank second small local credit unions last okay. In that order. Now the big banks, they have rules. Bank rules. They’re like Chase for example they have a two and 30 day rule okay.

00:16:41:00 – 00:16:41:22
Rod Khleif
What does that mean?

00:16:41:28 – 00:16:59:14
Brandon Elliot
That if you’ve gotten approved with two cards with them in the last 30 days, you will not get a third one, okay. Or they also have a five and 24 rule. Okay. Meaning if you’ve gotten approved for any credit cards and last like five credit cards in the last 24 months, last two years, they are not willing to.

00:16:59:17 – 00:17:00:26
Rod Khleif
You know, get another one. Yeah.

00:17:00:27 – 00:17:04:15
Brandon Elliot
And that’s just with any banks. Why? Because they’re territorial of each other.

00:17:04:16 – 00:17:04:28
Rod Khleif
Okay.

00:17:05:00 – 00:17:26:04
Brandon Elliot
There’s other bank policies, such as if you like Navy, Federal Credit Union, if you are applying for their elite credit card, their flagship credit card, you must have their elite flagship checking account. You can’t have their basic tier one. And so there’s little rules like that that you’re going to want to understand before you apply. And also where they pull from.

00:17:26:06 – 00:17:29:27
Brandon Elliot
And you’re going to want to remove hard inquiries as you go.

00:17:29:29 – 00:17:34:29
Rod Khleif
So you can you can you can write to the credit bureaus and have those removed. Yes.

00:17:35:02 – 00:17:36:18
Brandon Elliot
You can either write or call in.

00:17:36:18 – 00:17:42:23
Rod Khleif
I used to have it. This is really funny. Yeah. I lifetime you know, I’ve had 30 businesses that I’ve started. One was a credit repair business.

00:17:42:23 – 00:17:43:18
Brandon Elliot
Really? Yeah, yeah.

00:17:43:19 – 00:17:59:16
Rod Khleif
Come on. We called it. We called it Harrison, Bain and Decker. Just a sound. Cool. Yeah. This is this is like, fricking 30 years ago. Yeah. Harrison, Bain and Decker. Credit repair. Yeah. It was, it was a. Yeah. I didn’t lose too much money on that. You know I call them seminars when I lose money. That wasn’t a very expensive seminar but good.

00:17:59:22 – 00:18:21:12
Rod Khleif
I’ve tried it all, but yeah. Student student loan assistance company. I’m just trying to think of the financial ones. Big mortgage company had 80 loan officers. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Anyway, wow. Well, that sounds very interesting. And I was telling you, you know, I got my ass handed to me in 2008, which destroyed my credit. I have I have a black card, American Express Centurion card.

00:18:21:12 – 00:18:40:02
Rod Khleif
And they, you know, I was putting 100 grand a month on it when I was single and stupid. Now I’m still single and stupid, but I. But they dropped my credit. I was telling you, they dropped my credit limit after the crash to $2,500, and that was as painful to me emotionally as losing $50 million. That sounds crazy, but it really it really hurt me.

00:18:40:03 – 00:18:41:26
Rod Khleif
It was like identity crisis.

00:18:41:27 – 00:18:43:04
Brandon Elliot
As a man. It just hits you.

00:18:43:06 – 00:18:54:23
Rod Khleif
Yeah, yeah, it hurt and and now it’s up to half a million. But come on. But but I do want to work on my credit. So I’m going to talk to you offline. And I want to get it even higher than I have it right now.

00:18:54:24 – 00:19:00:13
Brandon Elliot
You know what’s cool? You can actually get to the 800 club in 30 days or less. Guaranteed. Step by step. How to do so?

00:19:00:15 – 00:19:01:03
Rod Khleif
No kidding.

00:19:01:05 – 00:19:08:03
Brandon Elliot
After the fixing is done. Okay, so as long like if you’re in the low seven hundreds right now, it’s actually very easy to get to the 800 club.

00:19:08:04 – 00:19:24:15
Rod Khleif
Okay, good. Yeah. Good, good. Well, you’re gonna you’re not. I’m gonna fucking chain you to the couch until we. Until we talk about that. But. So talk about talk about what you did with your credit. Yeah. Once you started going. I mean, this is a real estate show, for God’s sakes. Talk about this.

00:19:24:15 – 00:19:25:11
Brandon Elliot
Talk about real estate.

00:19:25:11 – 00:19:28:21
Rod Khleif
So what? What? All you do. Did you did you flip? Did you?

00:19:28:22 – 00:19:34:23
Brandon Elliot
I focused on the burr strategy initially, and that’s still my bread and butter. It’s all about value ads. And try to keep the damn property.

00:19:34:24 – 00:19:35:04
Rod Khleif
Right?

00:19:35:06 – 00:19:44:14
Brandon Elliot
Right. Good. And so I was trying to do it desperately for two years in San Diego. I literally studied for hours every single day to. But I was going against real investors.

00:19:44:15 – 00:19:51:16
Rod Khleif
We’re not going to we’re not going to talk about California investing versus red states just because I’ll trash it, but.

00:19:51:22 – 00:19:52:04
Brandon Elliot
I’ll trash.

00:19:52:04 – 00:19:53:26
Rod Khleif
It with you. So where do you invest then?

00:19:53:27 – 00:20:01:21
Brandon Elliot
So I initially started investing over in Ohio okay. And yeah, it was great. It you know cash flowed.

00:20:01:22 – 00:20:02:15
Rod Khleif
What cities.

00:20:02:16 – 00:20:04:15
Brandon Elliot
It was Steubenville, Ohio.

00:20:04:16 – 00:20:05:09
Rod Khleif
Steubenville.

00:20:05:10 – 00:20:06:05
Brandon Elliot
Steubenville.

00:20:06:06 – 00:20:06:24
Rod Khleif
Steubenville.

00:20:06:25 – 00:20:07:20
Brandon Elliot
Not stupid ville.

00:20:07:22 – 00:20:08:07
Rod Khleif
Yeah. Well.

00:20:08:07 – 00:20:08:22
Brandon Elliot
Yeah, everybody.

00:20:08:22 – 00:20:10:17
Rod Khleif
Thinks that could be synonymous, but. Yeah, I’m just kidding.

00:20:10:22 – 00:20:17:20
Brandon Elliot
It’s about 30 minutes away from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There was a famous Catholic university there. There was some job growth. Population growth.

00:20:17:21 – 00:20:36:26
Rod Khleif
What an interesting choice. Very. Cincinnati’s not bad. I know Cleveland’s not bad. I mean, there are areas. I mean, there are rough areas in both. Yeah, I own apartment complexes in Cincinnati and sold the one in Dayton, but I just bought a senior housing facility. And did you say Pittsburgh?

00:20:36:27 – 00:20:38:17
Brandon Elliot
It was 30 minutes away from Pittsburgh.

00:20:38:23 – 00:20:49:11
Rod Khleif
Yeah, but I just bought an assisted living in Pittsburgh, which I never would have thought would be a market to be in. Yeah. But, but it’s a great market for senior housing, but. So why’d you pick that small town?

00:20:49:12 – 00:20:51:10
Brandon Elliot
So it was.

00:20:51:11 – 00:20:53:14
Rod Khleif
Just a fluke. You just came across something, and.

00:20:53:16 – 00:21:16:07
Brandon Elliot
Yeah. So I was doing a bunch of due diligence in a bunch of different cities over there. I found this one, and I saw that the the university, there’s it was a famous Catholic university that people all around the world were coming to. Okay. And they just announced that they had no more housing for juniors or seniors. And so I just started looking in this, this mile range away from it.

00:21:16:07 – 00:21:29:25
Brandon Elliot
And then I saw that there were three investors that had a ton of properties, like 60 plus properties that they’re all offloading. Two of them were in their 90s. Wow. And so the family just wanted.

00:21:29:25 – 00:21:33:02
Rod Khleif
Hey. They want out. They want. They want it. Show me the money.

00:21:33:04 – 00:21:42:01
Brandon Elliot
Yeah. And then the other one was having a divorce. That he was court ordered to sell everything. So the market was saturated and they weren’t getting picked up.

00:21:42:03 – 00:21:42:29
Rod Khleif
Yeah. Okay.

00:21:43:00 – 00:21:59:14
Brandon Elliot
So I knew like hell. And I was using, you know, credit cards, and. And we ended up just buying up over a dozen properties within two years using credit cards, completing the renovation, saving myself with contractors because I was paying with credit cards and getting protection.

00:21:59:15 – 00:22:00:02
Rod Khleif
Oh, good.

00:22:00:03 – 00:22:02:27
Brandon Elliot
Yeah. Getting enough points to go on free vacations after.

00:22:02:28 – 00:22:03:07
Rod Khleif
Nice.

00:22:03:10 – 00:22:24:01
Brandon Elliot
And and you know, I, I ended up quickly getting to about 12,000 a month in, in cash flow while I was still working my, my restaurant dead end, you know, serving job making 20. San Diego. Yeah. I was making $2,900 a month. They’re making 12,000 in real estate. Wow. And I started putting more time towards the real estate.

00:22:24:02 – 00:22:26:13
Brandon Elliot
I was self-managing and were.

00:22:26:14 – 00:22:30:03
Rod Khleif
I was totally shit. Long distance self-managing. That’s challenging.

00:22:30:04 – 00:22:39:22
Brandon Elliot
You know, the best part, though, is that because of the long distance, I had to build systems. Yeah, it forced me to build systems. I couldn’t, I wanted to.

00:22:39:24 – 00:22:41:03
Rod Khleif
Of some systems.

00:22:41:05 – 00:23:00:17
Brandon Elliot
Just like at first I was paying contractors with credit cards and getting protection, but I wasn’t having people to check out the the property itself. And so at one point, one of my first deals, the contractor staged it all and.

00:23:00:19 – 00:23:02:08
Rod Khleif
Oh no shit. Yeah. And then faked it.

00:23:02:09 – 00:23:08:20
Brandon Elliot
They took pictures, sent it to me. I paid them, but I liquidated the card into cash and paid him like a moron.

00:23:08:21 – 00:23:09:02
Rod Khleif
Oh.

00:23:09:03 – 00:23:12:01
Brandon Elliot
And then I never did that again because they ran off with the money.

00:23:12:02 – 00:23:18:27
Rod Khleif
Wow. Yeah. Contractors, guys. Be careful with contractors. I love the idea of using credit cards. And some of them don’t accept them, but.

00:23:18:28 – 00:23:19:15
Brandon Elliot
I make them.

00:23:19:15 – 00:23:20:05
Rod Khleif
Accept it. You make.

00:23:20:08 – 00:23:26:04
Brandon Elliot
I was like, if you want to do business with me, you have to accept it. That’s good. I sell them on the idea of, hey, you’ll get business credit. I can show you how.

00:23:26:07 – 00:23:29:07
Rod Khleif
Sure, sure, sure. So I’m on that too. Good. Yeah. Good.

00:23:29:09 – 00:23:33:18
Brandon Elliot
And so I do it with all my. You know, we’re doing ground up construction now, and. Yeah.

00:23:33:19 – 00:23:34:16
Rod Khleif
And it’s over there.

00:23:34:18 – 00:23:34:23
Brandon Elliot
In.

00:23:34:23 – 00:23:35:20
Rod Khleif
San Diego. San Diego.

00:23:35:20 – 00:23:43:10
Brandon Elliot
Okay. It costs 300 square foot to build. It’s worth 900 after ocean views, bay views, rooftop decks. It’s sexy, so why not?

00:23:43:12 – 00:23:43:23
Rod Khleif
Okay.

00:23:43:24 – 00:23:46:14
Brandon Elliot
But I, you know, it’s a 800.

00:23:46:18 – 00:23:51:22
Rod Khleif
You’re able to pull it off. I mean, even getting even getting permits there and dealing with the environmental shit and all.

00:23:51:22 – 00:23:55:09
Brandon Elliot
That, it’s taken two years on one of them. It’s taken almost five years on another.

00:23:55:10 – 00:23:56:03
Rod Khleif
That’s what I’m talking.

00:23:56:03 – 00:24:00:11
Brandon Elliot
But I’ve already had those properties locally flowing, so. Okay, somehow.

00:24:00:15 – 00:24:00:23
Rod Khleif
I don’t.

00:24:00:23 – 00:24:02:10
Brandon Elliot
Know how I’ve done it. Yeah.

00:24:02:17 – 00:24:07:10
Rod Khleif
Wow. Yeah. So so you did the Bir. So you still own some of these things.

00:24:07:11 – 00:24:16:13
Brandon Elliot
So last year I actually sold all my properties in Ohio, new Jersey. I’ve had New York as well. So I’ve gotten rid of all those stupid singles. Yeah.

00:24:16:14 – 00:24:17:17
Rod Khleif
Well they’re all bigger.

00:24:17:17 – 00:24:20:08
Brandon Elliot
Or they’re all residential multifamily. So for units.

00:24:20:09 – 00:24:22:21
Rod Khleif
Okay. They were for plexus. Yeah. Okay, nice.

00:24:22:23 – 00:24:31:11
Brandon Elliot
So I got rid of all that stuff just because. Why? Well, I read this book ten x is easier than two X is.

00:24:31:14 – 00:24:34:28
Rod Khleif
That’s not grants book. That’s something somebody else modeling. Right. Okay.

00:24:34:29 – 00:24:36:16
Brandon Elliot
No, it’s it’s.

00:24:36:19 – 00:24:38:23
Rod Khleif
Grant’s got the ten x rule. I’ve got that downstairs.

00:24:38:24 – 00:24:42:03
Brandon Elliot
But it’s basically like the 8020 rule.

00:24:42:04 – 00:24:44:15
Rod Khleif
Okay. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. The final principle.

00:24:44:16 – 00:24:54:01
Brandon Elliot
Yeah. And so it’s just like I wasn’t putting much time. We built great systems. It was ten years we’ve had these properties. And I was only putting in about five hours per month.

00:24:54:02 – 00:24:56:08
Rod Khleif
But then why’d you sell? I don’t understand what.

00:24:56:10 – 00:25:01:06
Brandon Elliot
Because I don’t need five hours distraction to get $12,000.

00:25:01:07 – 00:25:03:13
Rod Khleif
Okay. Okay. You’re in a bigger things. Yeah.

00:25:03:13 – 00:25:18:09
Brandon Elliot
I’m just I’m more focused in our real estate in San Diego. I’m more focused on our online education company. Like, we’re helping out a ton of people. That’s been a hell of a headache trying to build up leadership, right? UPS and.

00:25:18:09 – 00:25:19:08
Rod Khleif
Downs with that. Oh, sure.

00:25:19:14 – 00:25:23:09
Brandon Elliot
We’ve had employees up to 30 people. We just downsized a lot.

00:25:23:10 – 00:25:25:17
Rod Khleif
Wow. Yeah. Why so many?

00:25:25:18 – 00:25:32:12
Brandon Elliot
Because we were really a coaching program. Like we really overdeliver on. We’re not like some go buy a course.

00:25:32:13 – 00:25:32:26
Rod Khleif
You know?

00:25:32:28 – 00:25:34:01
Brandon Elliot
And God bless you.

00:25:34:02 – 00:25:36:04
Rod Khleif
Yeah. Like you hold their hand poor.

00:25:36:05 – 00:25:36:21
Brandon Elliot
Yeah. We dragged.

00:25:36:21 – 00:25:53:07
Rod Khleif
Them to love that mindset, brother. I mean, I’ll brag for a minute. I just got discovered my warrior coaching program. Come on. A week ago Wednesday. We’re counting. We know it’s a lot more than this. The people that respond were 305,000 units that they owned under my tutelage, which is more than everybody else combined by.

00:25:53:07 – 00:25:55:21
Brandon Elliot
A lot. And that’s just what you can count like that.

00:25:55:23 – 00:26:11:20
Rod Khleif
People know it’s probably 350 or 100,000. Yeah. And again, that’s more than everybody else combined by a lot. Let’s go. And it’s because we do the same thing. Yeah. As much value as you can. You help these people and you know you know me I’m about mindset as well. So we talk about you know they actually take action.

00:26:11:22 – 00:26:14:17
Rod Khleif
Yeah. But no I love I love hearing that.

00:26:14:22 – 00:26:24:06
Brandon Elliot
And some people initially they talk about it more versus you know, they self-sabotage in one way or another. And so you really have to do that like meet them where they’re at and drag them to the finish line sometimes.

00:26:24:07 – 00:26:29:25
Rod Khleif
Yeah yeah yeah. Love it. Love it. So you’re developing some freaking ocean view stuff.

00:26:29:26 – 00:26:30:14
Brandon Elliot
Yes.

00:26:30:14 – 00:26:38:05
Rod Khleif
How cool is that? Yeah, I mean, so so talk about it. Tell me, tell me what it is. So you had a property on this land and you’re you’re you’re redoing it basically.

00:26:38:06 – 00:27:00:00
Brandon Elliot
Yeah. So we’ve done, you know, the birth strategy in San Diego as well. And how we were making it work is we were doing more short term rentals. And so as we held some of these properties several years ago, they ended up allowing ADUs, excessive dwelling units, right on the on the parcel. And so it’s been a hell of a like it’s been a pain to get the permits approved.

00:27:00:01 – 00:27:04:12
Brandon Elliot
However, at this point it just makes so much financial sense. Sure. You know.

00:27:04:13 – 00:27:15:07
Rod Khleif
Oh, sure, you can rent these things for big money. And they’re, you know, they’re small little boxes. I mean, what’s this face? Elon’s got one. One of them that they already made. I think it’s called box, actually. Yeah.

00:27:15:08 – 00:27:20:22
Brandon Elliot
Well, we they are like legit homes, like we’re building. You’re building 3500ft².

00:27:20:23 – 00:27:22:18
Rod Khleif
3500 square foot. Adu.

00:27:22:21 – 00:27:23:02
Brandon Elliot
Yeah.

00:27:23:03 – 00:27:25:16
Rod Khleif
Oh, okay. I was thinking little things. Okay, okay.

00:27:25:17 – 00:27:26:21
Brandon Elliot
No, no. Okay. No.

00:27:26:22 – 00:27:26:27
Rod Khleif
We.

00:27:26:27 – 00:27:30:29
Brandon Elliot
Got we got one that’s like 400ft². Another. That’s a, like, a garage conversion.

00:27:31:00 – 00:27:34:01
Rod Khleif
Okay, so you’ve already got a house and you’ve got enough room to put something else on.

00:27:34:01 – 00:27:34:11
Brandon Elliot
The back.

00:27:34:13 – 00:27:41:01
Rod Khleif
Yard based on the yard, based on the size you throw it on. So. So do they do they minimize the the what.

00:27:41:01 – 00:27:43:13
Brandon Elliot
Is they do they do about. Yeah.

00:27:43:18 – 00:27:46:18
Rod Khleif
What do they call it. Not easement. It’s the, the.

00:27:46:24 – 00:27:47:12
Brandon Elliot
It’s easement.

00:27:47:12 – 00:27:50:17
Rod Khleif
How far from the from the boundary you can go.

00:27:50:25 – 00:27:53:16
Brandon Elliot
So they base it initially setbacks.

00:27:53:17 – 00:27:56:29
Rod Khleif
That’s what I was looking for. Do they minimize those so you can put more property on.

00:27:56:29 – 00:28:22:02
Brandon Elliot
Them or. It depends on the location okay. And then there’s also the parcel. In general they’ll go off about 70% of the parcel total. And then however much square feet you already have on the existing home. Gotcha. So there there’s certain restrictions like that okay. But it it’s been awesome. Truthfully. Like because I’ve done 60 plus real estate deals in the past, we’ve done all types of renovations for everything.

00:28:22:03 – 00:28:24:20
Rod Khleif
You learn a ton when you do that. Well, when you’ve seen it all.

00:28:24:21 – 00:28:41:00
Brandon Elliot
Yeah, we’ve seen all of it. But it’s I wouldn’t call it Mickey Mouse, but it’s like you’re doing all types of random type of things to put to make that home beautiful. This is just you’re hiring on the professionals. They come in, lay the foundation. You know, two weeks later, you get the framing guys, three weeks later, that’s all done.

00:28:41:02 – 00:28:41:29
Rod Khleif
Are you a GC?

00:28:42:00 – 00:28:42:11
Brandon Elliot
No.

00:28:42:12 – 00:28:44:21
Rod Khleif
Okay, so you hire a GC. Philosophical.

00:28:44:21 – 00:28:44:25
Brandon Elliot
Okay.

00:28:44:27 – 00:28:47:23
Rod Khleif
I’m smarter than the general contractors GCP yeah.

00:28:47:24 – 00:28:57:02
Brandon Elliot
Yeah. It’s it’s one of those situations that it just it’s so much easier when you’re dealing with these professionals. It’s it’s been great.

00:28:57:03 – 00:29:02:11
Rod Khleif
Sure. Now you’re going to pay you’re going to pay a margin. You’re going to pay extra. But if the if the if the numbers make sense, the numbers make sense.

00:29:02:12 – 00:29:02:26
Brandon Elliot
They make sense.

00:29:02:26 – 00:29:06:00
Rod Khleif
The rents are there. Help. That’s. Love it, love it, love it.

00:29:06:01 – 00:29:08:10
Brandon Elliot
Yeah. And the rents are high in San Diego. So it’s.

00:29:08:12 – 00:29:09:08
Rod Khleif
It’s a it’s beautiful.

00:29:09:09 – 00:29:14:19
Brandon Elliot
It’s brand new rooftop decks. We make it sexy. It’s like we’re gonna get premiums for it, so it’s great.

00:29:14:19 – 00:29:18:20
Rod Khleif
That’s nice. Like, how many units? Just one at a time. Are you doing multiples?

00:29:18:20 – 00:29:33:16
Brandon Elliot
And we have three units. We just got done building. Okay. It’s going to be wrapping up in the next couple of weeks. And then we have we’re about to get started in about a month on in Old Town to build four units. Okay. Where do you have a duplex on it. Yeah. Okay. In the backyard. So it’ll turn into.

00:29:33:16 – 00:29:35:07
Rod Khleif
Just go up three stories or what do you do?

00:29:35:08 – 00:29:40:13
Brandon Elliot
No, it’s going to be two side by sides, next to each other, facing each other in the back.

00:29:40:14 – 00:29:41:12
Rod Khleif
Two side by side.

00:29:41:13 – 00:29:43:02
Brandon Elliot
They’re going to be upstairs and downstairs.

00:29:43:03 – 00:30:02:00
Rod Khleif
Okay. So two story but but side by side a little townhouses. Little townhouses. Got it. Very interesting. Yeah well very cool. So guys, if you want to build your credit credit council at least for slash discover. And. Yeah, it’s great to see you, brother. It’s been a lot of fun man.

00:30:02:02 – 00:30:02:28
Brandon Elliot
So I appreciate it.

00:30:02:29 – 00:30:11:07
Rod Khleif
Keep kicking ass and you’re going to help me get my score up a little bit. We’re going to talk about that. Come on. Right. All right. So if they want to find you on social media, where do they go?

00:30:11:08 – 00:30:23:06
Brandon Elliot
Yeah. So on Instagram you can follow us at my personal page it’s Brandon Elliott Investments. Otherwise our business page it’s credit council Elite. Okay. We have a bunch of free content on there to to help our, you know anybody get interested.

00:30:23:07 – 00:30:24:26
Rod Khleif
Perfect, perfect. All right.