Building a Financial Foundation for Real Estate Investing with Andrew Giancola

Many aspiring investors want to jump straight into buying properties, but the truth is that long term success in real estate starts with a solid financial foundation. On the Lifetime Cash Flow Through Real Estate Investing podcast, Andrew Giancola shares practical strategies for managing money, overcoming financial mistakes, and creating the financial stability needed to invest confidently.

Andrew Giancola is the host of The Personal Finance Podcast, which reaches hundreds of thousands of listeners each month. His mission is to help people build wealth, manage their money effectively, and ultimately create one million millionaires through financial education and disciplined investing.

In this conversation with Rod Khleif, Andrew breaks down the exact framework he teaches for building a financial foundation for real estate investing, along with lessons from his own journey from corporate finance to real estate and entrepreneurship.

Andrew Giancola’s Journey from Corporate Finance to Real Estate Investing

Andrew began his career working in corporate finance for a large healthcare company. During that time, he became fascinated with wealth building strategies through podcasts, books, and investing education. Like many aspiring investors, he spent years learning before finally taking action.

Eventually, Andrew partnered with investors who had capital while he provided the operational work as the sweat equity partner. Together they built a portfolio of single family homes and small multifamily properties before selling the portfolio just before the COVID market boom.

The experience taught him a key lesson that many new investors overlook. Knowledge alone does not build wealth. Real progress happens when you combine education with action and real world experience.

Why a Financial Foundation for Real Estate Investing Matters

One of the most valuable insights Andrew shares is that many high earners still struggle financially because they lack a clear system for managing money.

He described working with professionals earning hundreds of thousands of dollars per year who were still living paycheck to paycheck. Without a structured plan, even large incomes can disappear quickly.

Andrew emphasizes that before aggressively investing in real estate, investors should first build a financial system that reduces stress and creates stability.

His framework includes several core steps

  • Build a starter emergency fund

  • Eliminate high interest debt such as credit cards

  • Create a larger emergency fund for financial security

  • Develop a clear plan for investing and asset building

Once this financial base is in place, investors can take calculated risks without fear of financial collapse if something goes wrong.

Financial Foundation for Real Estate Investing FAQ

What is a financial foundation for real estate investing?

A financial foundation for real estate investing refers to the core financial stability and systems that prepare an investor to successfully purchase and manage real estate assets. This includes having strong personal finances, reliable income, savings reserves, and disciplined money management habits. A solid financial foundation helps investors handle unexpected expenses such as repairs, vacancies, or market shifts. By building financial stability first, investors can pursue real estate opportunities with less risk and greater long term confidence.

Why is a financial foundation important for real estate investing?

A financial foundation is essential for real estate investing because property ownership often involves leverage, ongoing maintenance costs, and occasional income fluctuations. Investors who have savings reserves and organized finances are better prepared to manage these challenges without putting their personal finances at risk. A strong financial base also improves the ability to qualify for loans and secure favorable financing terms. This stability allows investors to focus on growing their portfolio instead of reacting to financial stress.

What steps help build a financial foundation for real estate investing?

Building a financial foundation for real estate investing typically begins with creating a structured personal finance plan. Investors often start by establishing an emergency fund, paying off high interest debt, and building consistent savings habits. Improving credit scores and maintaining stable income are also key components. Once these financial basics are in place, investors can begin allocating capital toward real estate opportunities while maintaining financial security.

How much savings should you have before starting real estate investing?

The amount of savings needed before starting real estate investing depends on the type of investment strategy and property being purchased. However, most experts recommend having a personal emergency fund that covers several months of living expenses in addition to capital for a down payment and property reserves. These reserves can help cover unexpected repairs, vacancies, or operational costs. Having sufficient savings strengthens a financial foundation for real estate investing and reduces the likelihood of financial strain during market changes.

How does eliminating debt support a financial foundation for real estate investing?

Eliminating high interest debt is a key step in building a financial foundation for real estate investing. Debt such as credit cards or personal loans can reduce cash flow and limit borrowing capacity for investment properties. By paying down high interest obligations, investors improve their debt to income ratio and increase their financial flexibility. This stronger financial position can make it easier to qualify for real estate financing and manage investment risks more effectively.

How does credit score impact a financial foundation for real estate investing?

A strong credit score plays an important role in a financial foundation for real estate investing because lenders rely heavily on credit history when evaluating loan applications. Higher credit scores can lead to lower interest rates, better loan terms, and increased borrowing power. Maintaining on time payments, keeping credit utilization low, and managing accounts responsibly can help investors improve their credit profile. Strong credit allows investors to access financing opportunities that support portfolio growth.

Can beginners build a financial foundation for real estate investing without a high income?

Yes, beginners can build a financial foundation for real estate investing even without a high income by focusing on disciplined financial habits. Consistent saving, careful budgeting, and eliminating unnecessary expenses can gradually build the capital needed to begin investing. Many successful investors also start by partnering with others, contributing skills such as deal analysis or property management while capital partners provide funding. Over time, these strategies can help investors grow both their experience and financial resources.

How does a strong financial foundation help investors scale a real estate portfolio?

A strong financial foundation for real estate investing makes it easier for investors to scale their portfolio over time. Lenders and partners prefer working with investors who demonstrate financial stability, responsible money management, and reliable reserves. With solid finances in place, investors can reinvest profits, qualify for additional loans, and pursue larger opportunities. This stability supports sustainable portfolio growth while reducing financial risk.

Disclaimer: This summary was written with the help of AI and reviewed by Rod’s Team.

 

01:20:07:24 – 01:20:20:24
Rod Khleif
Welcome back to lifetime cash flow through real estate investing. I’m Rod Cleef, and I’m thrilled you’re here. I know you’re going to get tremendous value from the gentleman I’m interviewing today. He also has a kickass podcast. And, and it is called The Personal.

01:20:20:24 – 01:20:22:07
Andrew Giancola
So call the personal finance.

01:20:22:08 – 01:20:40:22
Rod Khleif
The personal finance podcast. There you go. It’s actually, he’s killing it. Almost a half a million downloads a month. And, and he lives close by, but, teaches people about personal finance. His name is Andrew Giancola. And, we’ve had a really nice conversation already, but, I need you to buckle in, because I think you’re going to learn a lot today.

01:20:40:24 – 01:20:41:22
Rod Khleif
Welcome to the show, brother.

01:20:41:23 – 01:20:43:22
Andrew Giancola
Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here.

01:20:43:23 – 01:20:58:00
Rod Khleif
Oh, thanks. So you host this podcast, and you, you teach people how to get their finances in order. Well, why don’t you give us a little background on you and where you came from and why this? And and then let’s dig into the meat of it.

01:20:58:01 – 01:21:12:08
Andrew Giancola
Sure. So my journey is, got a lot of twists and turns from when I started, but I started off in corporate finance, so I worked for a very large health care company, starting in corporate finance. And what I would do is create these special reports for struggling locations and trying to figure out, hey, what’s going on with these, these struggling locations.

01:21:12:08 – 01:21:30:12
Andrew Giancola
Let’s fix them. And kind of go from there. And as I was working in corporate finance, I started to listen to podcasts about building wealth and finance and real estate. And I got really, really interested in investing. So I started to invest my money into the market and then got really invest or interested in investing in real estate as well.

01:21:30:15 – 01:21:46:00
Andrew Giancola
And so I was the guy who would I was working in corporate finance and I would just listen to podcasts after podcasts. And I had analysis paralysis where I was thinking about, hey, I want to get out there and I want to start investing in real estate. But it took me three years before I actually took the plunge and started doing it.

01:21:46:02 – 01:21:59:21
Andrew Giancola
And the way that I started investing in real estate is I don’t recommend this whatsoever for most people out there, but I was working that corporate job and I went and found, a couple of cash investors who were willing to put up the cash, and I was gonna be the sweat equity partner. And instead of kind of doing this on the side, I.

01:21:59:21 – 01:22:00:16
Rod Khleif
Don’t you recommend that.

01:22:00:23 – 01:22:10:15
Andrew Giancola
I read this thing? Oh, okay. I reckon I love it, which I could do that if you want to. But I, I love that strategy for a lot of people, but I don’t recommend is I quit my job and just jumped.

01:22:10:18 – 01:22:25:13
Rod Khleif
Oh, yeah. No, no, no, I get asked I get asked all the time. Should I quit my job and do this full time? I’m like, well, no, unless you have a steady source of income, like you’re a military retiree or you’ve got a big nest egg because, you know, when you don’t make something happen for a little while, you fear, fear paralyzes.

01:22:25:19 – 01:22:27:26
Rod Khleif
So. Exactly. No. Keep that. Keep the money coming in.

01:22:27:27 – 01:22:48:02
Andrew Giancola
Exactly. So when I started that, the only reason why I could even do that is because I set up this financial foundation to have in place where I had, you know, a long runway of cash that I saved up in order to even do this. And so, it was one of those areas where once I made that leap, you know, myself and these business partners, we started to buy up some real estate, and we built just a small portfolio of, single family and small multi-family homes.

01:22:48:04 – 01:22:55:16
Andrew Giancola
Then from there, you know, we we kept that partnership going in about 3 to 4 years later, we sold the entire portfolio. And it.

01:22:55:16 – 01:22:57:09
Rod Khleif
Was when was this historic?

01:22:57:12 – 01:23:01:14
Andrew Giancola
This was we sold it right before Covid. So right before Covid is when the sale happened for the perfect time.

01:23:01:14 – 01:23:02:22
Rod Khleif
Folio.

01:23:02:24 – 01:23:19:06
Andrew Giancola
And we had just, like, interesting ways that we, we acquired those homes that we could talk through to if we want to, but sold that portfolio. And then I got really interested in buying businesses and so, and so when we started to do that, I went out and bought, this local pickleball facility next to me, myself.

01:23:19:06 – 01:23:21:14
Andrew Giancola
Pickleball. Pickleball. Yeah. Interesting ball.

01:23:21:15 – 01:23:22:27
Rod Khleif
Okay.

01:23:22:29 – 01:23:35:26
Andrew Giancola
And so I was looking for business for a long time. I was looking at laundromats and all these different businesses found this location of this pickleball facility. And the guy that started it, him and his son started it, and he was trying to teach his sons about, you know, business and investing in that type of stuff.

01:23:35:28 – 01:23:54:13
Andrew Giancola
And, and they were looking just to find a partner. So we came in kind of partnered with them. We bought the facility together, grew to six locations, and then from there, he actually bought me back out back in October. So like, it was a very interesting kind of sequence. But the, the overall thing now is that, you know, I learned so many different lessons from doing these three different things.

01:23:54:18 – 01:23:58:15
Andrew Giancola
And then our goal now is to kind of build a forever real estate portfolio is kind of what we’re doing now.

01:23:58:15 – 01:24:20:04
Rod Khleif
Oh, nice, nice nice nice nice. You know interesting that you said buying businesses because I’m actually going to start teaching that okay. Yeah I you know I’ve, I’ve built 29 businesses so far in my career and, and you know, bought businesses and I, my students are buying businesses and, you know, and and it just it’s just as an aside, just bear with me one second.

01:24:20:04 – 01:24:23:05
Rod Khleif
You know, there’s a I is going to eliminate a lot of jobs.

01:24:23:07 – 01:24:23:23
Andrew Giancola
I agree.

01:24:23:23 – 01:24:45:22
Rod Khleif
And and you know, a lot of a lot of tech jobs and these people have some money and they’ve got to reinvent themselves. And, you know, there’s 10,000 people a day turning 65 in this country. And they will be for the next decade. And they have businesses. And so this is an incredible opportunity to buy businesses very often, very little, if any, money down, because, you know, an owner will carry it because there’s they’ve got to find people to buy these businesses.

01:24:45:22 – 01:24:54:08
Rod Khleif
So, you know, I’m, I’m very interested in, in, in that potentially and potentially teaching that I’m pretty sure I’m going to.

01:24:54:15 – 01:25:07:06
Andrew Giancola
I think it’s overall the greatest opportunity that’s, that’s around right now because there’s a lot of folks and even like the baby boomer generation, right, who have no idea they could sell their business. Right. And those businesses are sitting there right now, and they are just.

01:25:07:08 – 01:25:26:21
Rod Khleif
And very often and very often they have a maximized, you know, online social media, they haven’t maximized air for sure. And, and so there’s just real opportunities to, to take these things, turn them around, and really turn them into something, you know, today and, and buy them for little or no money down because these people they want to sell, they want to retire.

01:25:26:21 – 01:25:33:13
Rod Khleif
They, you know, they’ll very often they’ll carry. And so yeah, I’m kind of excited about that. So it’s just funny you brought that up. So you’re obviously analytical.

01:25:33:13 – 01:25:34:10
Andrew Giancola
Yes, I am.

01:25:34:15 – 01:25:40:12
Rod Khleif
Which is why it took you three years to actually pull that. Pull the pull the trigger. What you did, would you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert?

01:25:40:12 – 01:25:46:24
Andrew Giancola
I am definitely an introvert. I get a lot of energy from being alone. Right? But I love, It’s just weird that I have a pod. Yeah, that’s why I.

01:25:46:27 – 01:26:00:18
Rod Khleif
That’s right. Yes. Because it is unusual for an introvert to have a podcast, but, Got it. Okay. Very interesting. So talk a little bit about, your show number one. So what do you talk about on the personal finance podcast? Because I know you’re killing it.

01:26:00:18 – 01:26:15:03
Andrew Giancola
So the first thing that we started the show and my original goal was to just help people, that was the original goal, the same way we started. We still do that, obviously. And I didn’t know anybody was gonna listen to the show whatsoever. And so I just kind of started it during Covid. Had a little extra time, my hands and said, hey, I’ll start a podcast.

01:26:15:03 – 01:26:28:03
Andrew Giancola
And when we started it, I think my mom and my wife were the only people that were listening up front. And as we started to, to watch that grow, it was very cool. And interesting to kind of talk through this. We talk about investing. We talk about, starting either a business or a side hustle.

01:26:28:03 – 01:26:41:22
Andrew Giancola
We talk about growing those businesses and side hustles. We talk about managing your money and kind of the order of operations to think about that. And we talk about real estate investing. We’ve had tons of real estate investors on the air kind of talking through, you know, how to build wealth and, and generational wealth and things like that.

01:26:41:22 – 01:26:55:28
Andrew Giancola
So there has been a ton of different things. Our overall goal is to create a million millionaires. That was our original goal when we started. And it is one of those things that, is very fun to kind of watch people kind of blossom as we go forward. So we kind of talk about all things wealth building.

01:26:56:05 – 01:27:12:28
Rod Khleif
That’s that’s really cool. You know, it’s funny you say that too, because at some point, Matt, we’re going to have to count how many millionaires we’ve created because it’s, it’s hundreds. I don’t know, it’s definitely not a million, but but, I mean, that’s a hell of a goal, by the way. But but we’ve we’ve created hundreds for sure.

01:27:13:01 – 01:27:25:04
Rod Khleif
Which is I have a wall in my other building here for a member. I’ll show it to you with hundreds of thank you cards. Literally hundreds of them on the wall from students whose lives have been impacted. It’s for me, my my coolest thing here.

01:27:25:07 – 01:27:30:01
Andrew Giancola
That is so incredible. It’s the most rewarding part because when you get those messages, it it’s just life changing and it keeps you going.

01:27:30:01 – 01:27:41:07
Rod Khleif
Yeah. No, I, I get love every single day. Literally emails, cards, gifts. And I get hate every day to be sure, you know. Exactly. Nobody should have owned 800 houses. Yeah, well, stop whining, you little bitch.

01:27:41:07 – 01:27:41:22
Andrew Giancola
Exactly.

01:27:41:22 – 01:27:55:12
Rod Khleif
Good lord. But anyway. So. So, so talk about you’ve got a program as well, talk about your program a little bit as to. And it’s very reasonable when you say $49 a month, basically.

01:27:55:12 – 01:27:56:03
Andrew Giancola
Exactly. Yeah.

01:27:56:04 – 01:27:57:23
Rod Khleif
So and you help people do what?

01:27:57:28 – 01:28:13:11
Andrew Giancola
And so what we do is we take people from wherever you are with your finances. We have a lot of folks who will come to us. Maybe they’re in debt or maybe they make we have a lot of very high earners who come in, who just don’t know what to do with their next dollar. And what we do is we show them, hey, here is an operating system of how to set up your finances so you don’t have to worry anymore.

01:28:13:14 – 01:28:38:00
Andrew Giancola
A great example of this is I just had a guy, who joined the community, and he made $800,000 per year, but he also spent $800,000 per year. So it was a very easy fix for him. But we took him through the sequence of, okay, here’s the foundation of what you need to do, setting up an emergency fund, setting up and making sure you have all your debt paid off in terms of like the high interest at the personal debt, making sure that you are getting started, you know, with with your money and actually putting it into assets and buying it.

01:28:38:00 – 01:28:39:23
Rod Khleif
Investing, use this money to make money.

01:28:39:23 – 01:28:55:18
Andrew Giancola
Exactly right. And so we take him through those sequences. We kind of go through, hey, here’s the retirement accounts. Here’s when you invest in real estate, here’s when you kind of look at buying businesses if you want to go that route. And we go through this sequence of steps to show them exactly what to do. And then from there we can, you know, we answer the questions every single week and kind of kind of walk through.

01:28:55:19 – 01:29:14:25
Rod Khleif
That’s really cool. You know, as I was telling you, I usually don’t allow people to promote on this show, but I really love what it is that you’re doing. And I think it’s a great value. You’re not you’re not like gouging them. You’re just helping them get their, their, you know what? Together. Basically, financially and and there’s so many people that have never had any financial education.

01:29:14:25 – 01:29:30:24
Rod Khleif
They don’t teach it in school and which don’t get me started on that. But, you know, the fact that, you know, you’re helping to educate them, you know, get their house in order, you know, and and I’ve made it. I can’t tell you how many mistakes I’ve made over the decades, where I could have benefited from something like this.

01:29:30:24 – 01:29:50:26
Rod Khleif
So. Yeah. No, I totally believe in what you’re doing, and and, and so, you know, help them to to, really, you also talk about the mindset around money as well. I think, I think I saw that in your bio. Let’s let’s go there for a minute because, you know, I’m big on mindset and psychology. I believe 80 to 90% of a person’s success in anything.

01:29:50:26 – 01:29:54:01
Rod Khleif
Is that. So? Talk about the psychology of money for a minute.

01:29:54:01 – 01:30:08:07
Andrew Giancola
So you’re spot on. I think 9,090% of money. And even when you manage your money, when you talk about investments, it’s all psychology. And then 10% is kind of a know how. It’s kind of understanding what you do. And so a lot of the psychology side for us is we talk through a, you got to figure out where you started.

01:30:08:07 – 01:30:13:01
Andrew Giancola
So your upbringing is going to have a big, big it’s gonna be a big deal in terms of how you think about your dollars, right?

01:30:13:04 – 01:30:20:27
Rod Khleif
Right. Like, like and I was saying this before we started recording, like, like your parents might say, money doesn’t grow on trees right off like that. Right?

01:30:20:27 – 01:30:33:17
Andrew Giancola
Or if you had a parent who, you know, every time you left the house made sure like every single light was off and they said, you know, we can’t afford to leave these lights on. That type of stuff is a big, big deal. And so for a lot of folks, recognizing this is super important, let me give you an example of this.

01:30:33:17 – 01:30:50:27
Andrew Giancola
So for example, when I grew up, my parents had this very strict budget for Christmas presents. And so when we were growing up, they would spend, you know, like $75 on Christmas presents. And if you know what, that was it. That was all they spent. And I remember thinking to myself, like, all my friends around me are getting so much more stuff on Christmas, why am I not?

01:30:50:27 – 01:31:08:04
Andrew Giancola
And so now what I did is when I had my first son. I have three kids now, but when I had my first son, I remember the first time we got him Christmas presents. I bought him so many different presents. It was unbelievable. My wife’s like, you got to stop. You got to figure out what this is. And so I look back and I said, I know, I wish I had more presents when I was younger, so I’m kind of just, you know, it’s really funny.

01:31:08:07 – 01:31:25:14
Rod Khleif
Really funny. You say that I, I had to take I got to go down a side road for a saying. I probably spent 30 grand on my ex for Christmas. Okay. On a, on a regular basis. Her closet’s a half $1 million with this crap. Shoes and freaking purses and all kinds of stupid stuff. They make for $30 and sell for $5,000.

01:31:25:14 – 01:31:42:27
Rod Khleif
But but, you know, gifts is my love language, so I go over the top with it. And I had the same upbringing as well. We hardly got anything for Christmas. In fact, I got to tell a funny story because it’s really funny. My dad, my mom and dad would gift stuff that they had in their closets.

01:31:43:02 – 01:31:58:15
Rod Khleif
Like, one time I got this thin, ugly tie for Christmas, and so I made a joke of it. The next year, I gave it to one of my brothers. The next year it came back and it had inappropriate writing on it. The next year. Next year it had boobs hanging off of it, and every year went back and forth.

01:31:58:19 – 01:32:12:09
Rod Khleif
The final year it was on a mannequin that came on the mannequin. It was the funniest thing ever. But yeah, I guess, yeah. It’s awesome. Yeah, it was, it was really funny. But, so, so, you know, how do you educate people to get past that, what you just described.

01:32:12:14 – 01:32:37:07
Andrew Giancola
It’s really important to recognize it first. So a lot of people don’t even know this exists. And when you think about it, there’s a lot of different aspects to money. There’s a great book called The Psychology of Money with with Morgan Howson. He wrote this entire book on it, kind of talking through how you think about this. And a couple of examples of this would be, say, for example, he and he uses this in the book, but he says, say, for example, you see someone driving a Ferrari a lot of times when you see that guy driving a Ferrari, you don’t think about how cool that guy is that driving a Ferrari.

01:32:37:07 – 01:32:50:05
Andrew Giancola
You think about what you would look inside of that Ferrari. If you if you actually own that Ferrari. And there’s a lot of different aspects like this that we kind of talk through and think through. Why do you spend the way that you do? Well, a lot of people need to figure out, okay, what are my big priorities?

01:32:50:05 – 01:33:01:22
Andrew Giancola
What do I actually value in this life? And what we want you to do is we want you to spend more on the things that you love, and less on the things that you don’t value. What a lot of people do is they just spend frivolously. They don’t really have a plan of how they’re going to think about this.

01:33:01:24 – 01:33:18:15
Andrew Giancola
And so yeah, exactly. It’s so instead they just kind of just kind of go about it, you know, go with the flow. And so for us, we want to be intentional about this. And your psychology matters with every aspect of money. Another big one is one of the first things I did when I graduated from college is I thought I was this finance guy who could figure anything out.

01:33:18:22 – 01:33:34:12
Andrew Giancola
And so the first thing I did was for a couple of months, I day traded full time. I went into the market to try to day trade full time. Well, I realized pretty quickly your emotions get involved. There’s a lot of things, you know, on the psychology side that that happen. And, you know, really quickly I realized, hey, this is one of those things that I cannot do.

01:33:34:12 – 01:33:43:12
Andrew Giancola
What most people cannot do, they cannot really tell you when to get in or out. Right. And so there’s just so many different aspects of this that we kind of go through that are really, really powerful lessons for most people.

01:33:43:14 – 01:34:06:11
Rod Khleif
And very interesting. So, yeah, I mean, I was trying to think I remember going to a weekend seminar and I finally remember the name was T Harvick or oh, he talked about this, the psychology of money and, and and how, how everybody, you know, growing up has a, has a mental box around their idea of how much money they can actually make, and they only make as much as they believe they can make.

01:34:06:14 – 01:34:18:22
Rod Khleif
And so, you know, it’s it’s an interesting dynamic. It’s absolutely accurate. You know, you make what you think you can make, and you’ve got to expand your, you know, your thought process around that to actually, you know, take your life to the next level.

01:34:18:25 – 01:34:31:15
Andrew Giancola
And this is the big thing, like the difference between the abundance mindset, right, and a scarcity mindset. Yeah, I have friends who it seems like, you know, and you probably do too, where it seems like they just never can get ahead. They can never, you know, move forward and get ahead. And a lot of times you look at their mindset.

01:34:31:15 – 01:34:56:13
Andrew Giancola
They had this scarcity mindset, oh, it’s the government’s problem. Oh it’s somebody else’s problem. And instead if they had this abundance mindset, they knew that they could create more wealth. They could go out and build more wealth. They can go and get it. I think that’s one of the most powerful things, a great example of this is like someone if you don’t if you want to invest in real estate and you don’t have a lot of money doing kind of what I did, finding those sweat equity partners where you can go and do all the work, and maybe you’re taking a small portion of those deals and you’re giving the partners, you know, a larger

01:34:56:13 – 01:34:59:03
Andrew Giancola
portion, but you’re getting in the game, you’re starting to build, you’re in it.

01:34:59:03 – 01:35:16:00
Rod Khleif
You don’t. You get started. I have students. Well, I personally when I was in my 20s, I bought millions of dollars with of real estate. I’m putting money in my partners put up the money, they signed on the debt, we split them 5050. Everybody was happy and, you know, I did millions that way. And I’ve got students that have literally taken down 1 to $2 million properties.

01:35:16:00 – 01:35:33:07
Rod Khleif
They don’t have a dime in them. The partner puts up the money, they find one joint venture partner, and they do all the work. And it’s a match made in heaven. If it’s a good deal, you’ll find the money. Exactly. And so. Yeah. No, that’s that’s a that’s a great strategy actually, to buy properties no money down.

01:35:33:07 – 01:35:50:02
Rod Khleif
And and like we just talked about as it relates to buying businesses, no money down, there’s just a lot of people that are going to want to retire at 10,000 people a day. Many of them own businesses and they want to retire. They have to sell the business, and they don’t know how to sell it, and they don’t know who they’re going to sell it to.

01:35:50:02 – 01:36:00:27
Rod Khleif
And so there’s a lot of opportunity to get these things nothing down. So let’s shift and talk about how you built your real estate portfolio. What did you do. You got in and out. You got out at the perfect freaking time I might add. But talk about that.

01:36:01:02 – 01:36:22:14
Andrew Giancola
Absolutely. So what we did is I had, again, I told you I had those cash partners. I was the sweat equity partner, and they basically told me, hey, I want to get involved in real estate, and I want you to kind of run the business or run the company. And so I did literally everything we we did everything from, you know, hiring contractors to doing all the, to making sure we maintained the, the units to finding the tenants and all those different things.

01:36:22:17 – 01:36:37:27
Andrew Giancola
And so this is one thing I think a lot of people out there need to know is I owned 20% of these properties so that a lot of people out there may say, hey, I would never do that for 20%. I would never do all the work for 20%. But what I would tell you is that if you can get started investing in real estate, there is nothing better than actual experience.

01:36:37:29 – 01:36:55:07
Andrew Giancola
Experience is you can read every book in the world. And I told you I had analysis paralysis. But if you don’t get started and actually get your hands dirty, you’re never gonna experience what it actually feels like to invest in real estate. And so the first property that I ever found was I found the single family house in Clearwater, Florida.

01:36:55:07 – 01:37:10:03
Andrew Giancola
So I’m sure you’re familiar with Clearwater right up the road. It’s, close to this area. And what I was doing was originally I was trying to find properties on the MLS, which is I don’t recommend people trying to do that, but that’s what that that’s one of the ways that I was trying to find properties. And I actually went out and got my real estate license.

01:37:10:03 – 01:37:11:08
Andrew Giancola
So I can make a high volume of.

01:37:11:15 – 01:37:12:21
Rod Khleif
Have access to the MLS.

01:37:12:21 – 01:37:27:29
Andrew Giancola
Exactly. And so what I did was I would make I figured out a number and I said, all right, if I make 150 offers a month, I’m going to get one property a month. If I start doing that and start to work the math backwards to see if this will work. And so I ticked off a lot of real estate agents by just sending out offers based on it.

01:37:27:29 – 01:37:44:29
Andrew Giancola
What worked for my numbers, and I was very strict on my numbers and how this place would actually operate. So my goal was to to find just single family houses that I could acquire, and they were going to cash out, refinance each one. And so we found this first one, and I looked at the owner of this first property, and it was this large hedge fund.

01:37:44:29 – 01:37:47:25
Andrew Giancola
And since I was from the finance world, I understood and kind of knew who this company.

01:37:47:25 – 01:37:49:00
Rod Khleif
Wanted to talk and all that.

01:37:49:01 – 01:38:02:10
Andrew Giancola
Exactly. And so I saw them and I called up the agent and I said, hey, does this hedge fund own this property? And they said, yes, and I represent them and all the other properties that they’re trying to get rid of right now. And I asked him a few questions. I said, why are you trying to get rid of this property?

01:38:02:10 – 01:38:23:25
Andrew Giancola
And they gave you a bunch of answers and basically they were trying to offload just a section of their portfolio, some of them that were underperforming for them, and instead they were going to sell them on the MLS. And so I said, if you can, you know, shoot me some of these deals over before they go on the market, we may be able to buy them because I have these cash partners, they’re worth hundreds of millions of dollars and they’re willing to to kind of dive in.

01:38:24:01 – 01:38:40:15
Andrew Giancola
And so me and this guy developed this relationship. So we bought this first property and it was the easiest transaction ever. We bought the property. The tenant was already in the property. They already refinished it for a rental. They already had it rented out. They had a great agreement in there because the hedge fund, and so everything was already ready to go.

01:38:40:15 – 01:38:56:13
Andrew Giancola
I was like, man, this real estate stuff is so easy. And so, I got this first property and I went and look for the second property. And so I started to make all my offers again, probably made another 150 offers on the MLS. This was just my strategy at the time. Yeah. And when we got that second property was a duplex, around the same area.

01:38:56:15 – 01:39:15:22
Andrew Giancola
And so acquired that duplex. And I was this was a, this is a single family, landlord. And so this landlord was, you know, sold the property and they had two tenants in there as well already. And so I met the two tenants, and I asked the, the agent, I said, what what was this landlord’s process for kind of getting these tenants in the property said, oh, he doesn’t have a process.

01:39:15:22 – 01:39:28:06
Andrew Giancola
He’s kind of new to this. And so he just, you know, put these two tenants in. I go, okay, well, there’s a couple of red flags that are popping up, but we’ll see what happens here. So I acquired the property and the first month goes by and no rent, no rent.

01:39:28:08 – 01:39:30:02
Rod Khleif
Any new year where you’re going with it?

01:39:30:04 – 01:39:43:19
Andrew Giancola
So, we had no rent for either tenant. Got the first, got a tenant on one side to pay the tenant on the other side wouldn’t pay. And so the tenant on the side that paid, all of a sudden they had this toilet that was just overflowing and exploding all over the place. And so I’m dealing with this.

01:39:43:21 – 01:40:03:29
Andrew Giancola
And the tenant on the other side, still was not paying, so I had to go evict to them. And so we went through this process of trying to evict them. The toilet problem was actually a $3,000 plumbing issue that we ended up having to fix. Wow. The tenants on the other side, we finally the sheriff comes, knocks on the door, open the door and this horrendous odor comes out of the door and look inside.

01:40:03:29 – 01:40:11:11
Andrew Giancola
They had 15 different fish tanks that they left. They had seven cats and dogs that they left inside of this unit. There was feces everywhere. And it was.

01:40:11:15 – 01:40:28:07
Rod Khleif
Like of I’ve seen it, I’ve seen it before too. Yeah. See it. So you got, you got a, you had a seminar, you basically had a seminar, I call them seminars and, and I’ve seen bodies and I go on and on. But but how did end up how did end up though. Do you make money on it?

01:40:28:14 – 01:40:42:00
Andrew Giancola
We did, because I was so strict with my numbers. Right. And this was the big thing is obviously everybody you know who listens to this podcast knows this, but you make all your money on the by. And so when you’re looking at this, a lot of times I was just so strict on those numbers. I had an unlimited, to be honest.

01:40:42:00 – 01:40:57:29
Andrew Giancola
I had an unlimited amount of capital. I should have bought everything in sight. But at the same time, I was so strict on my numbers that I didn’t buy a like, I didn’t buy as much as I could, right? But every property that we ended up getting out of, we made money on even the one that that duplex made 40,000 on that I think in the end.

01:40:57:29 – 01:40:58:27
Andrew Giancola
But it was still just.

01:40:58:27 – 01:41:00:24
Rod Khleif
You made 40 grand profit. Pro profit.

01:41:00:29 – 01:41:02:09
Andrew Giancola
Nice, 100 profit.

01:41:02:11 – 01:41:19:09
Rod Khleif
I want to circle back to what you just said about getting started, because, you know, I teach my warriors, my coaching students, the same thing. I don’t care if you only end up with 10 to 20% of your first deal. Freaking do it, you know, because in this business and I mean you did it just to to raise money and you had you had capital partners.

01:41:19:09 – 01:41:39:28
Rod Khleif
But you know, in the, in the, in the multifamily world or the commercial real estate world, you syndicate a deal and to to syndicate a deal, you need somebody that’s got a net worth requirement. They’ve got a liquidity requirement. They have an experience requirement, which is why my warrior coaching program so successful is there’s dozens of those teams that you can they can align with you bring them a deal.

01:41:39:29 – 01:41:57:10
Rod Khleif
You’re in, you bring a money you’re in. And so who cares if you only have 10% of your first deal, then you’re off to the races, right? Would you agree? Then it’s on your resume and you’re ready to rock. And that’s the way most people get started in what we do, which is the larger commercial real estate is they they partner their first deal or two.

01:41:57:10 – 01:42:07:13
Rod Khleif
They, they bring in what they call a sponsor, which in our case would be a another warrior team to to step in and help put the deal together. And then it’s on their resume. They can do it themselves 100%. Yeah.

01:42:07:13 – 01:42:19:03
Andrew Giancola
And I think that’s the cool thing for a lot of people is you can almost turn it up slowly. Like, yeah, I tell a lot of people, you know, if you’re looking at investing in real estate, go find a cash partner. Yeah. And you can start at 10 or 20%, and then maybe the next one’s 30%. Sure. Maybe you own 40.

01:42:19:03 – 01:42:39:29
Rod Khleif
Then you give it, you get them a nice return back, you make them some money. You’ll ultimately be at 50%. I promise you. Exactly. So you know it. It’s it’s a phenomenal way to get going. And that’s on a smaller level where you, you know, you do a deal in a joint venture relationship, but you can do it in a larger, you know, on a $10 million property as well, where you syndicate and, and you, you align with somebody that’s done it.

01:42:39:29 – 01:42:55:29
Rod Khleif
And, you know, you either bring the deal or you bring money and you’re in and it works very, very well. So as it relates to either real estate or personal finance, you take it anywhere you want, talk about some good decisions you’ve made in some maybe not so good. Sure. Maybe I, I call them seminars, as you’ve learned.

01:42:55:29 – 01:43:02:05
Rod Khleif
So talk about that too, because I think you learn more from the mistakes than you do the, the the success 100%.

01:43:02:05 – 01:43:10:04
Andrew Giancola
And I think like for example, that duplex example is a great example of something that I think still was a mistake, even though I made money on it. And like you said, it’s a seminar and you kind of just.

01:43:10:04 – 01:43:15:25
Rod Khleif
Because of the time value of money. Yes, exactly. The the stress and the pain in the ass and all the stuff you had to deal with.

01:43:15:25 – 01:43:30:17
Andrew Giancola
Exactly. And I think that’s the biggest key overall. I think one of the things that one of the the mistakes that I made that, you know, I kind of talk through is it’s the day trading thing that I started with where I went full time day trading. That was a mistake for sure, because I thought I could.

01:43:30:17 – 01:43:31:15
Rod Khleif
Just kind of lose some money.

01:43:31:20 – 01:43:43:28
Andrew Giancola
And so, yeah, I lost a lot of money and that was very early on. And it was one of those things where that was the moment that I felt as though, okay, I got to figure this stuff out because I hit rock bottom at that point in time. And I said to myself, I got to figure out what I’m doing.

01:43:43:28 – 01:43:57:19
Andrew Giancola
And I remember there was a moment in time where I went to go fill up my tank of gas. It was right when I got my first job in corporate finance. And when you were an entry level person in corporate finance, you don’t make much money. And I got to the point in time where I went to go fill up my take a gas, and I looked at my account and I didn’t have enough to fill up my take a gas.

01:43:57:23 – 01:44:08:11
Andrew Giancola
Well, and this was the point in time where I said, hey, I understand how finance works, and I’m the guy who has $0, set up. And so that was the moment where then all of a sudden I change my entire financial life and I.

01:44:08:12 – 01:44:08:22
Rod Khleif
Funny.

01:44:08:27 – 01:44:24:05
Andrew Giancola
Exactly. And I could have, you know, got mad at the world. I could have gotten frustrated, but instead I got mad at myself. And I said, I’m going to figure this thing out. And so decided to to get the ball rolling and, went through a sequence of events that kind of took me from where I was to, to where I am today.

01:44:24:05 – 01:44:39:10
Andrew Giancola
And it was starting off by just building up that financial foundation. So my financial foundation, what I tell a lot of people is to set up first, before you even look at anything, make sure you have a month of cash, you know, set aside at least so at least. And that’s kind of where you start is like the starter emergency fund.

01:44:39:17 – 01:44:54:19
Andrew Giancola
Then looking at that on the personal side, if you have credit card debt or if you’re sitting in credit card debt right now, you’re paying 20 to 30% in interest. Crazy. And so it’s the one thing you definitely don’t want to be doing. So if you have a month of cash on hand, then go and attack that that high interest at any of that personal high interest debt.

01:44:54:19 – 01:45:03:11
Andrew Giancola
Yeah. And get rid of that. Then we go on to the emergency fund again, but go back and I’m a big proponent. I know where you are. Right. But I’m a big proponent of a six month emergency fund.

01:45:03:11 – 01:45:04:05
Rod Khleif
I have a three year.

01:45:04:06 – 01:45:04:18
Andrew Giancola
Okay.

01:45:04:18 – 01:45:12:29
Rod Khleif
So you mean I just, you know, I’m I, I, I have the Boy Scout motto is be prepared. I take that to a whole nother level. So. Yeah.

01:45:12:29 – 01:45:27:17
Andrew Giancola
And so the number you have is what we call the swan number. This is your sleep well at night number. So I think six month is the minimum. And then beyond that you need to go for as long as you can sleep well at night. It’s a you have that perfect amount. Where that’s where I’m going to is my goal is to have 3 to 5 years of cash on hand.

01:45:27:17 – 01:45:30:19
Andrew Giancola
If people think I’m crazy, you got to put that money to work. But it is to work.

01:45:30:20 – 01:45:46:18
Rod Khleif
I have it in gold, and gold is gold right now. Yeah, gold and silver. And I’ve got a vault downtown in it, you know, and and that’s my. I should hit the fan fund. Exactly. And I don’t want to ever touch it, you know, it’s just there. It’s it’s it’s growing, which is phenomenal because if it’s in cash, it’s not.

01:45:46:24 – 01:45:48:06
Rod Khleif
Right. But. Yeah.

01:45:48:09 – 01:46:00:13
Andrew Giancola
And so that’s kind of where we start is we have this baseline okay. So now we have this foundation where if you do those three things you’re out of debt and you have this cash on hand. Well now all of a sudden you can really get aggressive, you can take some risks. And I was able to jump from my job because I said.

01:46:00:14 – 01:46:26:15
Rod Khleif
You’re not afraid to take risks at point. And that’s so important. And so you want this love that this is why I’m okay with pushing your system, honestly. Because this is what people need. They need to have that set up so they’re not afraid to go get that side hustle going. They’re not afraid to go do something outside of, you know, what they’re already doing because, because of fear, because you know, and when you’ve got that a little bit of a nest egg, then you don’t you don’t have that fear any longer.

01:46:26:15 – 01:46:27:27
Rod Khleif
And you can you can take risks.

01:46:27:27 – 01:46:39:08
Andrew Giancola
Exactly. And I think that’s the big key is once you have that foundation and then your stress melts away, your anxiety melts away. And there’s so many people out there, they’re just stress about money. Well, you get rid of your you know, if you get rid of your money problems, you know, you have a lot less stress. And you were like.

01:46:39:13 – 01:46:58:00
Rod Khleif
Exactly in it. And it helps with the relationship as well. You know, with the intimate relationship, you know, money is a is a huge cause of problems there as well. Exactly. Yeah. No, I’m really an advocate for what you’re doing, brother. I really think it’s much needed. And, you know, and for frickin $49 a month, guys, it’s a no brainer.

01:46:58:05 – 01:46:59:11
Rod Khleif
What’s your website?

01:46:59:13 – 01:47:00:28
Andrew Giancola
If you go to master money, eco.

01:47:00:28 – 01:47:20:27
Rod Khleif
Master money, eco master money eco, if you have, you know, crazy, in my opinion, not to do it. Okay. Seriously. Because that is the foundation to everything else you do. You got to invest in real estate, you know, if you want to do that, if you want to buy businesses, which I’m going to be teaching you, you know, you’ve got to have your house in order before you can start 100%.

01:47:20:27 – 01:47:35:22
Andrew Giancola
And then and when you have that foundation set up, then you can make a choice. You can go down a couple different paths. You can say, hey, I want to invest in real estate. Well, then you’re going to be saving up for your first deal, or you’re going to be finding those partners. And if you find those partners, you know, even when you’re saving up, maybe you’re trying to save up for your own property that you’re gonna you’re going to buy.

01:47:35:22 – 01:47:43:25
Andrew Giancola
Yeah. During that time frame, that’s a great time to find those cash or partners where you can then do the sweat equity work and be able to kind of go out there and get the, you know, you.

01:47:43:25 – 01:47:57:14
Rod Khleif
Have to have some congruency and some competence before you can do that. But, you know, so I would tell you to learn the business, you know, I is extraordinary in helping with that, obviously. And get your ass to one of my boot camps if you want to do multifamily. But whatever it is, you need to go learn it.

01:47:57:19 – 01:48:14:07
Rod Khleif
But once you once you’re congruent enough and you can talk about it confidently, it starts with competence. That equates to confidence and then your ability to influence. And you can find somebody. There’s a lot of people out there would love to get in on a deal. And, you just have to network and start those those relationships 100%.

01:48:14:07 – 01:48:26:29
Andrew Giancola
I think that’s the that’s the biggest key. And then then from there, if you want more diversification, you can go that direction. If you want to buy business, you can go that direction. And it kind of takes you from your starting point to to what goals you have in place. And I think that’s the kind of thing that we do.

01:48:27:01 – 01:48:27:08
Andrew Giancola
And.

01:48:27:08 – 01:48:30:12
Rod Khleif
You’re not like advising, you’re just helping set up the framework. Is that.

01:48:30:12 – 01:48:44:17
Andrew Giancola
Correct? Yeah. We have the frameworks to kind of talk through this and it whichever avenue you want to go. So we talk through, hey like the next step for someone who wanted to kind of like has a 9 to 5 job, right. Hey, get your 41K match because that’s it’s 100% free money. Your employer is trying to offer you that match and get that free money.

01:48:44:23 – 01:48:55:20
Andrew Giancola
And then if you are going to go aggressively into real estate, then, you know, you save up for your down payment. If you want to do a hybrid method, we say, hey, go Roth IRA in real estate because your Roth IRA, you can invest. Exactly. Oh yeah.

01:48:55:23 – 01:48:59:16
Rod Khleif
We get tons of investors that use their Roth to invest exact syndications. And you can get.

01:48:59:16 – 01:49:14:22
Andrew Giancola
Custodial Roth, or you can do all kinds of different things with your Roth, like a self-directed Roth. If you wanna invest in real estate. Right. And then we tell them, hey, then you can go if you want to go market, market route, you go to the 401k, taxable brokerage, those types of things. And even, you know, real estate investors can take a 41K loan out.

01:49:14:22 – 01:49:16:03
Andrew Giancola
The interest goes back into their four one.

01:49:16:03 – 01:49:24:05
Rod Khleif
So what I love about your program is you’re not trying to push something. You’re just helping them get the framework done. Which is why again, master, what is it?

01:49:24:07 – 01:49:26:22
Andrew Giancola
It’s master money dot master Monte-Carlo.

01:49:26:22 – 01:49:33:09
Rod Khleif
That’s a no brainer, guys. So did you have any mentors in your pathway to to to your success here?

01:49:33:09 – 01:49:53:06
Andrew Giancola
I did, so there were a number of folks that, I learned from along the way. A lot of them were, you know, podcast, just like this one where I kind of listen on that front. But I had a lot of I had one specific mentor who changed my life. So he is probably a billionaire now. And is someone who kind of taught me all the things about business, about finance and those types of things.

01:49:53:08 – 01:50:04:10
Andrew Giancola
He was absolutely amazing. Another big thing is on my real estate journey, and you may be familiar with this group two there’s a group in Saint Pete that meets in the back of a Denny’s. And they do these swaps of deals all the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:50:04:10 – 01:50:11:03
Rod Khleif
There’s a real estate investor association meetings. They’re meetups now. Yes, I’ve spoken at that one. Okay. Actually, believe it or not. Okay. Couple of times actually.

01:50:11:03 – 01:50:12:22
Andrew Giancola
And like Pete Fortunato and. Yeah.

01:50:12:24 – 01:50:29:11
Rod Khleif
Yeah, all these guys that teach teach what I do, what I do for more for single family. But yeah. And and you know, that’s a great place to network. Great place to meet people with money. Great place to start wallowing in this business. So, you know, if you’re listening, go to your local meetups like that. Go to your local real estate investor.

01:50:29:12 – 01:50:43:01
Rod Khleif
They call them Reia groups, but their real estate investor association meetings and and I speak at my student ones. I just went to Vegas and spoke at one of my warrior ones. Because I do it for them, but, but yeah, great place to go and learn.

01:50:43:05 – 01:50:49:12
Andrew Giancola
Exactly. And you meet so many people who can kind of mentor you if you have questions and kind of talk through those things. So I think a lot of old, old.

01:50:49:15 – 01:51:05:20
Rod Khleif
You know, long of tooth people there that just love helping young people exist. Some of them are crusty. But yeah, it’s it’s, it’s, it’s it’s interesting and it’s a great place to start is to go to one of those meetings for sure. For sure. Going to those. Yeah. There’s one in Sarasota here too. And I’ve spoken at that one many times.

01:51:05:20 – 01:51:12:18
Rod Khleif
One in Palmetto, you know, the area here. See, I’m nobody listening to us, but these are. Yeah, those those are really good.

01:51:12:21 – 01:51:21:25
Andrew Giancola
And then and then from now, there’s a lot of folks that I talk to now, like the industry that I’m in where we kind of kind of learn from them. But it’s I think it’s so important to have mentors and people you can learn from and ask questions.

01:51:21:25 – 01:51:39:18
Rod Khleif
It shortens the learning curve. It it cuts. It cuts. You know, your time to success. Because you you can lean on their mistakes. You can lean on, you know, they can give you one little tip that can make all the difference in the world. And, you know, this is why I, you know, I’ve, I’ve I’ve been in many masterminds.

01:51:39:18 – 01:51:54:01
Rod Khleif
I’ve formed mastermind. I actually was the largest in the world for multifamily and, being, like, herding cats. So I had to let it go. But, you know, there’s about 40 billion in assets in there at one time. But just because I want to be around people that thought what I thought was hard was easy, you know.

01:51:54:01 – 01:52:11:15
Rod Khleif
And so I started it here at my compound here with 16 people and ended up being very big. But I’m thinking about reigniting it. I’ve been given that some thought. It was called the Multifamily Boardroom. But yeah, you want to be around people you know that you can grow from and learn from and and you know, and seek out these people.

01:52:11:15 – 01:52:22:17
Rod Khleif
And so, you know, that’s that’s one again, not to tout my warrior coaching program, but that’s a big piece of it is everybody’s helping each other, you know, that rising tide lifts all ships. And it’s just very, very powerful.

01:52:22:17 – 01:52:35:04
Andrew Giancola
And that’s what I love about what you’re doing is because overall, like, you got to get in rooms like that, you got to get networks like that because that’s going to help you tremendously. You feed off each other. You’re talking to other people who actually know what you’re talking about. We’ll actually have conversations.

01:52:35:06 – 01:52:51:12
Rod Khleif
And they want more out of life. You know, there’s so many naysayers out there, it’ll try to hurt your dreams. You want to be in a group of people that want more out of life. And I’ll just brag for a minute. My students now I believe on around 300,000 units, which is more than every Wow competitors combined. Something I’m very proud of.

01:52:51:14 – 01:53:14:02
Rod Khleif
And that’s just multifamily. There’s tons of senior housing now. I’m in senior housing now, too. Mobile home park, student housing, self-storage, you name it. It’s it’s very exciting. It’s kind of got a life of its own. Well, listen, I really appreciate you coming down, buddy, and, and adding some value. And I highly recommend people consider your program because it’s, to me, it’s a no brainer.

01:53:14:05 – 01:53:19:05
Rod Khleif
If you feel like you need it, which a lot of people do. So thanks for adding value, my friend.

01:53:19:05 – 01:53:21:24
Andrew Giancola
Thank you so much for having me, and excited to have you on my show too.

01:53:21:24 – 01:53:24:11
Rod Khleif
So. Oh, yeah, that’s that’ll be fun. Thank you. Thank you for.

01:53:24:11 – 01:53:44:08

Listening to the Lifetime Cash Flow Through Real Estate Investing podcast. If you’ve enjoyed the show, please take a minute to visit iTunes and leave your comment. For more resources or to connect with us further, please visit our website at radcliff.com. Tune in next week for our next show.