Cause I used to go to school hungry, I'll go to the auditoriums and take, look at auditoriums that have events. And I'll just take those lemonades and those crackers. And I'll just eat those that's lunch and dinner and everything. Welcome back to the art of connecting podcasts. This is your host here. Haydynn Fike back with another episode. And I am so, so excited today to have my friend Yamu joining me. Me and Yamu got connected through Shane So's event who I actually should have had on this podcast. Me and Shane recorded an episode, but we had some audio issues that disappeared. So we got to rerecord an episode. Shane, if you're listening to this anyways, me and Yamu met at Shane's event and I was completely blown away by her story. And as we got to go to the mansion party afterwards we really connected and my mission right now to help Yamu get a TV show. So that's something that I'm working on currently. But yeah, me and Yamu connected through Shane and I always like to tell the story of how I met the guests, the amazing guests that I have on. So I will be quiet now and I'll let you, Yamu, introduce yourself to the audience. Of course. Well, thank you so much, Haydynn, for having me. It's a pleasure to be on this platform and just to be invited to come and talk to your audience. So for everyone listening, thank you for joining and thank you for listening. My name is Yamundao, but I go by Yamu for short. My friends call me Yamu. I'm from West Africa, a small country called the Gambia. I moved to the US in 2016 through a scholarship. I grew up as an orphan in Africa and it's a long journey and I know most people actually how real estate from an African village, but I am seven i'm the seven the last kid of seven and usually in Africa We have like a family will have 36 kids because the husband will have like three four wives like that's so normal. So My family is really small to my, that only had my wife, my mom as his wife, but I lost my mom when I was two and my dad when I was 11. So in our culture, a girl child school is not, and we talked about, I talked about this a little bit in the in the event that we met at, but I didn't go into detail. So I hopefully I have time to go into detail and give your audience, you know, more more information on how it all started. But in our culture, a female child's school is not an option. If you're lucky, high school is the max that you could go to. So And we don't have a voice. So mostly all the decisions are made by the elders. By elders I mean, quotation, the main elders. So, a girl child, 14, 15 years, you're ready to get married. So for me, I, I was lucky enough to have my my aunt push, like say, well, she does, she have scholarship. So what happened is, Even though I'm the abused girl, that's abused kid at home. So my sister had to get married. So when she was getting married, she had to take me and my, my brother, who's five years older than me. So we have to go live in her husband's extended family. What that means is this is the two kids that don't belong here because they have their own extended clan. So we went through abuse, sexual abuse for me, sexual, physical, emotional, physical, especially, but for my brother, from what I've seen, it's physical emotional abuse i'm not sure about the sexual abuse, you know boys He might never tell me but I told him like what I went through sexually and all of that But yeah, that was our life. But my brother used to rebel i'm gonna try not to cry. So He he would steal because he was rebelling. You know boys with hormones and stuff He's five years older than me So he would always go and steal and get in trouble and he'd get beaten from me I remember one time he was beating until he was unconscious And for me, it was like, I'm the good kid. I don't want to get in trouble because I'm embarrassed enough. So I used, I'm a bad, I was a bad weather because for those of you who know kids that go through that kind of abuse, I have high anxiety, social anxiety, and whatever anxiety that was that made us wet in bed, I used to wet in bed a lot. So they would let me sleep on the bed. They will have me sleep on the dirt floor. And when you Google African villages, when I say dirt floor, I mean, like, not carpet or tiles or nothing. So for me, what I used to do is I'll go to the local shopkeeper at the corner and I'll babysit for him. And he will give me boxes. Like the moving boxes you use here to move, like the one you get from Home Depot to move your stuff. I'll just cut them in rectangular shape and weave them. And that's what I'll sleep on in the morning. I'll go throw them out. So the abuse wasn't physical. Every morning I have to be beaten. So I can stop peeing all the way to school. So what happened was even though I'm the abuse kid at home, I don't have a voice with the friends at the village. I can't talk. When I say something, you shut up, you the bad weather. So you, your self confidence comes down. However, God has always been there for me. So when I go to school, I'm that smart kid. Because that's where I get the love from the teachers like you're going to put our school in the map principles looking for scholarship for me, the teachers are buying me shoes because I'm going to school with no shoes or they buy me uniform. Some parents will give me their kids use uniform that they're not using or is bigger or smaller. And I'll just take that to school. So when I go to school, I'm this, you know, kid. But when I come home, I'm this quiet, shy kid. So I don't want to get in trouble. So I read all the books. I bring the books from the library. My country is colonized by the British. So we get a lot of British books, sponsoring colleges and schools. We have non profit organizations send books to our library and stuff. So I'll read any book. So that's, I guess, where the reading came from. Well, fast forward. For us in our culture, every girl child, when you get, when you, when you are born, you're assigned a husband. So it's called the shortest. So by the time you're like three months, the other family come and tie a rope on your hand, this is going to be our wife. So they will decide who in their family date you're going to be married to. So by the time you're growing up, you already know who your husband is going to be. So for me, I already knew, but remember the man could have up to four or five, six four wives. So for me, I already knew who I was going to marry to. So by the time I'm like, I want to go to high school, it's time to get married. My friends are already baby number one, baby number two. So they were like, it's time for her to get married. My auntie started for me. I was like, well, my auntie is older, but because she's a female, she can't have the voice as the male. But she has some influence. So she would say, well, we're not paying for school or anything, and she's doing great. The principal says she's doing great. She's taking force in the whole region. She's on the news sometimes for best results. Why can't we just let her continue and he can just have a a wife that's, you know has education, some form of education. So he can marry someone else when she's ready. He can marry her at whether that's second or third or whatever level that would be. So for me, when I went from the village to go to high school, to go to high school, I was like, I want to be like this, this city kids that are going to Thinking of going to college and stuff. I mean, I beat them in school. Like our grades are far apart. Like I'm taking first in the school and all. So my goal changed. I was like, I want to go to college. And I was like, well, I know they would not pay for it, but I need to find a scholarship. So I need to do extremely, really good. to get that scholarship because the government in Africa, usually very corrupt for you to get into anything. You have to have a connection. You have to have the scholarship in the city or something. Your uncle has to know somebody at the office of the ministry or something like that, ministry of education or something. I don't have any of that. So my results have to show that for me. So I did extremely well and I was ready to go to college. And again, Marriage came up again. They were like, well, it's already have two wives. Now, why can't you just let her finish? And then the bride price will go up because we give they're given bride prices. And then I made it to college fast forward in college. I wanted to, my family, my aunt wanted me to be a doctor. And I was like, doctor is not for me, I can't do blood. But fast forward, I came across computer science because I was really good in maths already. I already had that as a minor, but I wanted something as a major What am I supposed to do when I graduate as a mathematician, except teach? So I was like, okay, let me find something else. So, one of the professors, at that time, the university was very young, so we had to exchange professors from the UK. And this professor came, I guess it was the summer, and he introduced computer science and introduction to proofs. I loved it. It was like, this is good for you. That's how I did computer science. So I ended up graduating as a bachelor's in computer science and minor in mathematics. In my final semester, I was one of my friends had a connection to work at a software company, actually also only software company. And her, her, her boss was like, do you know anybody else that might be interested from the university to work here as an intern? He was like, well, there's my friend. She's really way better than me. They call me. I went into go. I was like, First of all, I don't have money to come to the city. If I come, I only have fare. I will not have money to go back. They say, don't worry, my boss will give it to you. Because when I go to work, school, sometimes I don't eat. Not sometimes. 99 percent of the times, I'm not eating. I only have transportation fees because that's the most I can get. So when I went they did the interview and he hired me as an intern right at the spot after I finished the interview So it was giving me like some money for transportation to go back and forth So once I graduated completely he hired me full time So me walking there and I was like, how do I give back because in my class it was just me and another girl who were just it so I started a non profit organization that teaches girls how to pay write computer codes are basic steps. Most of these girls have never seen a computer. So what I did is I started in the different villages. I recruited some of my co workers, the main co workers. And I was like, well, my boss said we could use this old computers for this project. And I'll just take them in a week and I would just go to different, different regions. I have to get some of them to create a folder, some of them to even touch a computer. So they're not in my village, there was no electricity, even mostly in some villages, there's no power as well. So I would take generators with us and we do this events and it kind of blew up and it was on the news and everything. So people keep sending me this link, say apply, apply for this, apply for that. And I was like, this is, it's a link for a Nelson Mandela fellowship. It's called Mandela Washington fellowship for young African leaders. It was created by president Obama and he named it after the late Nelson Mandela of South Africa is for young African leaders that are making change in their communities. So I'm like, this is what people that are fighting violence and doing amazing thing war. This not for me And I was like, you know, I'll apply it's free when I go to work. I have internet. I have power So I apply and we go to the interview to american embassy So I went for the first round and then the second round and the third round I was like, oh This might be going somewhere I finally got an email from Washington that I was selected to come as a Mandela Washington fellow out of 40, 000 applicants. And that's how I came to the U S. So I was like, I need to, I need to be, when I come here, I need to, I can't go back to that lifestyle. So by then I was already, when I was going through the interview, I already, I was, I was having hope. I was like, I might get it. Let me apply, you know, just in case if I go, I can't, I don't have to come back to this life again. So I applied to different universities. Okay in the U. S. And I'll get the school. I'll get the admission. I'll even get partial scholarship, but I'm not getting full school. I'm like, who's supposed to pay the rest of the money because I don't have the money. So I found one university apply for it, apply for graduate assistant program. And I got full scholarship to study there as well. So that would be full scholarship. They waive my tuition fee. I work for the university for 20 hours and analyze their data for them So I was like, okay, but my auntie did not tell the family that I have two visas just told them Oh, even the first one they have to beg it's like no, but the government is paying for it the us government She's already been announced. There's nothing we can do. Like how can we not let her go? This is a huge but when she come back now, she can get married Well, we never told them. So I came, never went back, but that's how I came to the U S yes. Such an amazing story. And everyone has an amazing story. I feel like, like we all have these, these amazing stories, but like, especially with yours, like. I really just reflect on how many things fell into place perfectly for your life to be what it is today. It's truly, truly amazing. So, I want to talk about too, you met someone pretty special when you came into the U s. I think you know who I'm talking about. What was that like when you came in on the program and you got to be introduced to some of these influential people in the United States? Yeah. So when I came to the U S I was placed at Northwestern university, and then I was flown to DC to meet president Obama and he gave me a certificate. So during the interview process at home, you know, you're trained how to stand up, how to greet when you're in front of the president, all that stuff. When I met him, everything just went off my head. I don't remember any, any, any of the training, but I don't remember how I even acted, but yeah, that was, that was the first influential person I met. But the I would say what the one of the biggest connection I have made right, not just not just here, but back home is my teachers and the principal. And, and those are the people that will go and apply on my behalf at, at, at, at scholarships in the city. Those are connections I can never pay back, right? It's like, they don't have to go and apply on my behalf. They know this kid. I was like, well, if she doesn't come to school, she just doesn't come to school. If I don't come to school, they follow up. Why does she have so much work to do? Like, why, why you, why are you grades down on this project or this subject is because I'm having so much labor work at home. Like we go to work, fetch water from one village to another. Like all those things that I have to do more than any other child because I was the orphan child and nobody really cared. What I was doing so the teachers always followed up and the teachers always will buy me uniforms. They don't have to buy me shoes. They don't have to apply scholarship on my behalf. They don't have to. So I am so grateful for those connections. But when I came to the US, that connection with the Obama Fellowship, that was amazing. But at Northwestern University, I had to leave with the visa that I had to come back in a student visa, because the first visa was a presidential. So it doesn't matter where you go. I could have gone to Canada and came back into the U s., but it has to be a re entry. So I have to leave, leave U. S. and go one day and come back the next day, so the family doesn't know I'm there. But then I came, so I left on Thursday, arrived in Africa Friday night, and Saturday I'm on the flight to come back in the U s. So by the time they know she's back, she's already gone. But the connection that I had, what made it easy was the Northwestern, the scholar that we were assigned to, to help me with all the stuff, she was like, well, since you're coming back in a few days, don't take all your stuff, I can hold them for you. And when you come, I can help you settle into your college because it's two different colleges. So imagine that when I was leaving, I just had my little purse. That's it. When I was coming, nothing. Cause I was, it's just one day, the clothes that I wore, the same, I came back. So it was like, if I didn't have the connection, I wouldn't know where to put my purse, my, my luggage and all of that. So that was great connection. We're still friends still now. And yeah, that's one of, one of the connections. I'm so grateful. She's like a sister to me now from Northwestern. Yeah. She works at Northwestern. Yeah. Did you go on to get your master's as well? Yeah. So once after the fellowship, I continued to do the master's. I did the master's graduated 2018. And while I'm in my master's program, that's when the real estate came into play. So my scholarship was that with my tuition fees, I worked 20 hours for the university. And they give me a 1, 000 stipend. That's where all the other expenses have to come. Of course, 1, 000 is not enough after student insurance. Especially international student insurance is kind of expensive. And then housing, and then food, and then transportation. So I was like, okay, this is not gonna, I need to find a cheaper roommate situation. So I went to the university student website and where students are like, Oh, I'm looking for two roommates or we're looking for male roommates or a girl roommate, that kind of stuff. And I look for a roommate that's like cheaper cause I think I was paying over 200 and the other roommates are paying the same amount, but it was too high. So I was like, let me look for something cheaper, like 150 max. So I find a situation where it's a three bedroom, but each room, when the person that owns or parents own the home. So, so this is what I found out. The parents will go buy a house close to the college, have their kids live in one bedroom and then rent out the other two bedrooms. The kids in turn will take each of the bedrooms and rent a mattress. So in one bedroom, in that three bedroom home can have four twin mattresses. And that's special work for me because it was cheaper. And I'm at the university the whole time. Anyways, I only have to go home to go sleep, use the toilet and come home. It's come back to school. So it worked for me. And I was able to shave and all of that. Cause I used to go to school hungry, I'll go to the auditoriums and take, look at auditoriums that have events. And I'll just take those lemonades and those crackers. And I'll just eat those that's lunch and dinner and everything. I'm, I'm ready to start eating something. So that worked for me. And to say, but my mind's brain was like, wait, hold on. So how much is the house again? And I calculated it. And I was like, and then I found out even though if the house is a hundred thousand, this is the Midwest, so houses are cheaper. And I'm like, even a house that's a hundred thousand, They don't even have to pay the whole hundred thousand. They have to pay a sitting amount. And I was like, okay, how much rent? And then, okay, how much is the mortgage? How much expense? And I was like, Whoa, this is what I want to do when I grow up. I was like, the first time I get my job, this is what I'm going to do. And that's how real estate started for me and fast forward, 156 rental units. So I'm grateful to God. So amazing. Oh, I wish we had an unlimited amount of time to dive into this. Okay. So I want to talk about like, so we just fast forwarded a lot, right? So let's rewind a little bit and talk about how I really kind of want to listen to your bigger pockets episode. I really want to talk about that banking relationship in the beginning. I want to go into the bank story and to hear about like, so you had this vision of like, I know I want to buy real estate. Like I I've seen it. I've seen the power of real estate. It's incredible. You can make money. Just on houses. So what, what did that process look like? So you know, and, and maybe we can talk about like working for the CDC and like, you got your job. But yeah, let's go into that. Let's dive into the bank. So fast forward, I saw, I saw that, that real estate strategy. I was like, this is what I'm going to do when I grow up. So all I'm doing this time is researching. I'm reading, I'm listening to podcasts. I, everything real estate, I'm invested. Like I don't have the money, but the knowledge was there. Like every day when I'm cooking, when I'm, when I'm at school, when I'm coding, whatever I'm doing, I'm listening to real estate, right? Podcasts, people's stories, how they got started. And I'm finding out what some people even buy houses without no down payment. I'm, and I'm interested wholesaling. I'm learning all these things. And I'm like, yeah, I'm ready. So fast forward, I graduated, I got a job at CDC. And even with the job at CDC at the beginning, it's like a grace period because they give you like a six months period to see to prove yourself. So you're not paid amount that you're supposed to be paid fast forward. I don't have the paperwork. So this is how it started first. I was like I need to get the money first then I start investing in real estate So when I Got that job. This is 2019 around September within few months. I was able to save 8, 000. I'm like, I'm ready to start So from all the podcasts I listened and all the real estate information I was like, they always say go to the local bank where you're going to invest in first. First of all, I I, that CDC is Atlanta and I live in Alpharetta in an apartment. So I was like, I can't afford houses here. Let's go find, let me go somewhere where I saw this happen. And where did I see it in the Midwest? So I was like, I'll go to smaller towns and do that. So I fast forward, looked at all the local banks cause all the podcasts and all the research I've been doing saying, look at work with local banks. They're going to help you. They're going to, you know, they have funds. They, they understand everything. I was like, okay, fine. Okay. So I went and checked out all the local, but middle east start calling. Most of them will hang up on me because my accent is so thick by then, still thick, but back then it's worse. And then I will call, some will hang up. Some will say, ma'am, I can't really understand what you're saying. Some will like call back. Some don't want to even hang up. They probably thought it was a scam and all of that. But I got one back to listen to me. And this lady was like listening and everything. She was like by then, she was just a walker there. Okay. Fast forward. She's the vice president of the bank, but by then she was like, I see, I, I have so much, like she's, she says she's seen something or heard something in me that she trusts. Like she just has that feeling that she wants to help. So she was like, but, but looking at you, everything that you have, it's like you are newborn baby. I was like, because my credit score, I was just came to the country. It was like, you're a newborn baby. They require this amount, this amount. Yes, you have tax, tax record because I worked for two years at university. Even those 20 hours a week, you're still, I still file taxes. So you do have the two years taxes, but your credit score is very small. It's very little. So what you can do is go get a, you work for CDC, right? Get a CDC secure line of credit, put 300 there, use it for utilities, get a discover card, do the same thing for little bills. Mind you, I don't have any loans because my scholarship was paid off. And I don't have no car loan because I don't have no car. So I don't have any expense. I'll take Uber to the, to the bus station, take the bus to the train station at Sandy Spring from Sandy Spring I take the train to Lindbergh in Atlanta, and then the CDC bus waits for me at Lindbergh to take me to campus. That's like two hours long every day. So like four hours out of my day. So imagine I'm up at 4 a. m. to go to work. So I don't have any, I save everything. My expenses did not go, because I'm, I'm like this, I need to save as much as possible. So it was like, go do that and come back in one or two years. I was like, okay, I'm going to do all of that. Cause she's really, she really didn't even have to help me, but she's telling me all this stuff. So I went and did everything she said, but I was like, what if I find a deal that's so amazing that when I, when I present it to the bank, they're not going to reject it. Since I have her email and phone number, I presented everything. I'm a data analyst. I presented everything. And I was like, I found this property in the Midwest. The owners are going, I gave her like a backstory and everything. Like, So the owners are going through a divorce. They really just want to sell and settle. Their house was actually listed for 65, but I got it. They said they would sell it to me in a contract for 52. I said, it's three units. Each unit is bringing in seven, something, seven, something. And I put the numbers there and I was like, worst case scenario, my mortgage estimate and expense would be this. The tenants are paying all of this. And if I rent on section eight, One, one unit will pay all my mortgage and still cashflow, even if it's one unit. So I sent her, I sent it to her and I called her to follow. And she was like, I'm not promising anything, but I'll let you, I'll send it to the underwriting team and I'll let you know, fast forward this, they liked it. They were like, we'll do it. So they took a risk on me, bought the property fast forward. You already know how it happened, but she's been, we've made millions together with that bank. They've been number one lending and have amazing relationship with her. And now she's the vice president of the bank. So that's cool. And she's introduced me to the auto sector of the bank, the commercial site. So when I, my first sales story is financed by the bank as well. Something that Ben Mollis said and we got to meet and hang out with Ben together and Ben just so awesome, man. But Ben talks about how like the bank is the reason why he's been so excited. Successful. He's like, I owe my success to the bank, which is kind of counterculture. Right? Like, like now the culture is like sub two, like seller financing don't use banks. But like in reality, he's like, yeah, I've been sits up there. He goes, yeah, I've got about 500 million in real estate and I owe the bank about half of it. And it's like. That's like it all started with the bank. That's where his portfolio started. And that's where he's kept it. Yeah. I mean, all the other strategies, sub two and all of that amazing, but that not everybody's going to have a subject to the bank is there for everyone too, if you, if you qualify. So from your perspective today I actually have a friend he's, he's Indian. He, he came here from India with his family and he was talking about the same thing. He has a big business back in India, actually with the textiles business. But he struggled with not having any credit. He'd go to banks and companies and even though he had an Amex in India They wouldn't even consider His Amex here. So it's totally different. What would your piece of advice be to people coming in from other countries into the U S that want to be successful? Like you have in real estate, how should they get started? Like, like who should they talk to? Yeah. So I, and I get this, this is a good question. I get this question a lot. People tell me, Oh, I've been in the U S for 10 years. I always wanted to invest in real estate. I never knew how it started. So when I hear the story, I want to do it too. And how do I get started? I have this and this and this. So a lot of people think, oh, if you have student loans or if you have, you know, other kinds of loans, you're not qualified. And I think for most people, what holds them back is they always look at it as where I leave, I have to buy property there. So you need to understand that I wanted to invest in real estate. I don't have any money, but I know I wanted to do it. So I have to figure it out. Okay, fine. I can't afford Atlanta or where I leave. And I don't really have to see my property or the property that hasn't been next. It doesn't have to be next to my house for me to go around and watch the property because it doesn't make sense that investment. So I was like, I have to remove all emotions, right? This is the same America. America is like a bunch of countries put together in my mind. So, and it's accessible. Like, so in Africa, it's different. You can't go from one country to the other. I mean, you can, but it's a whole different culture. In America, it's the same. I can buy a house in Chicago and live in Atlanta, and it's the same culture, the same everything. Does that make sense? So, I was like, what's the difference? Like, when I was in Chicago, it was the same as when I'm here. Nothing changed. The same dollar, the same everything. The same people. So I was like, let me go and start buying where I can afford and start there. So a lot of people, what holds them back, especially like immigrants like me, they're like, I live in Cleveland. How am I supposed to buy in Atlanta? Yeah. As an investor, I also remove the emotions. There is the money. 1, 000 cash flow in Ohio and 1, 000 cash flow in Atlanta is the same 1, 000 amount we're getting. If you live in Chattanooga, you're getting 1, 000. I'm investing in Illinois, 1, 000 is the same 1, 000, right? So that's how I looked at it. And I was like, then eventually I can buy anywhere I want. So if I eventually want to buy in Atlanta, where I live, I can come and buy it then. That's what I did. So I started investing out of state, take that money. And now I can buy in Georgia, in Savannah, I can go see the properties. So start with what you have. Don't say, I'm going to save this much to start. You can start investing, you can start reading now. You don't have to wait till you're safe to start reading, right? You can start doing other strategies. You can, you can go to real estate meetups. You can be in masterminds to learn while you're safe. But you say, Oh, I'm going to save. I'm going to save. Then I start. Then by the time you have the money, but you don't have the knowledge and you don't even know where to start. Now you have to go all Get all the knowledge. So it's no excuse to say there's so much resources. There's YouTube, there's webinars, like the event we met at, like we've seen teenagers come there. They paid$197 to come. You cannot tell me some$97, like there were a hundred dollars tickets to that event. A hundred tickets. So those kids just came just seeing all the people do it and seeing people like me coming out of the country that are doing it He inspired so now they want to go read all those books. They asked what books should I read? What should I do now? They want to go to real estate conferences, but if you sit and say, oh, I'm gonna go ahead. I'm gonna start investing I'm gonna wait till I can afford this area By the time you wait next year, even if you save extra 50, 000 next year houses might go extra 50, 000 So you literally know Wasted a whole one year, even if it's 10, 000, like you're like, Oh, I'm going to wait. I want to, I want a 200, 000 home or 300, 000 home. And you're going to save a down payment for that. You're like, okay, now I have the enough money by next year to do it. By next year, house prices is not 300, 000 again. It's 350, 000. So are you going to keep saving trying to say so you have to start to start and sometimes it's not even out of state is the same state like you can go and find I find properties out of state for cheaper like 50 60, 000. I can still find houses in Augusta, Georgia, Albany, Georgia, and I can find prices homes in that price range connect with wholesalers, start reading, going to real estate events, connecting with people. Like again, connection can change your mind, change, change your life, like drastically. Like so many people changed my life. Just meeting. I didn't meet them physically, but I get to listen to their podcast. When they go to events, they have recordings. I'm there listening. That changed my life. Right. And then those people meeting them now in life, like in physical, I'm like, I used to listen to you, Ben Mala. I told him when I used to be writing my course at CDC, you're all I listened to, even though you cost a lot and it's kind of scary. If he laughed and I was like, but it was still great to, you know, take the knowledge that you give out and doing it with your kids. That's something I want to do. And then I think, I want to do what this guy is doing one day, but he's involved in his kids. When he's not here, the kids can pick up the business because they already know in and out. So that's generational right there. For the, you, you sparked something in my head, like for those people that Are listening to podcasts. Like these people seem so big, right? Like brand attorneys got 150, 000 followers or like been with a million subscribers on YouTube. And it seems like when you're getting started, you're like, Oh, you know, these people are just like fictional characters. Right. It's like, Oh, I never met him. And now from my perspective, it's like, I've been doing real estate for a little over a year now, full time. And I've gotten to already meet like half of my heroes. You know, I got to go to Ben Mala's house. I have to go and hang out with him at his 30, 000 square foot mansion in, in Florida. And like, I've watched, I watched him for four years. I looked the other day, every single video he's ever put out, I've watched. Me too. And you know, getting to go and meet him in person, it's so It just makes it even more so much special than just like meeting that person randomly. Cause you, you feel like, you know them and it's so doable. Like, so I need to get to Maui to go meet with Brandon. He doesn't know that he's meeting me yet, but I'm going to meet Brandon cause I've got a bunch of mutual friends that that'll connect me to him. And so, and then my friend owns a hostel company in Maui and so I'm going to go and see his hostel and go Island hop and go and hang out with his staff and his friends. And like all this came from one year. Yeah. Imagine, imagine the next few years. Imagine 2025, what's going to bring and doesn't it feel real when you, when you, that, that you can achieve it. Like this is achievable. Yeah. Yeah. It's so achievable. You're like, Oh, that was me behind the screen. Just watching people on YouTube and stuff. And now I'm around him for me, it was bigger pockets, right? So Ben Mala, all those big, remember the bigger part, the events I tell you at the podcasts, I listened to bigger pockets was them, right? I have the best episode on bigger pockets. Ever. And this is a girl that used to watch BiggerPockets be before Brandon and David Green used to do a Wednesday webinar every week for free. Mm-hmm It's like a sales thing at the end. They have to just pay up and stuff. I don't have the money, but that's me taking all the information. Every Wednesday I'm there every Wednesday. Comment this, that's me right there commenting. And then bigger part was reaching out to me a few years later to say, we wanna do a podcast with you. And I was like, this is no joke. This is a joke. Right. I have to check com. I was like, this is a real producer from BiggerPockets. Okay, fine. Met with them. They said, yes, we want you did the recording. It went the first, the best in the year. It turned out it was the best in the whole episode that they ever had. I was like, you mean though, 2023, they said, no, the whole history of bigger, bigger pockets. Interviews like the real estate interviews and I was blown away. And they said, so we want you back. Cause everybody's requesting for you. I did a second, second interview with them as well to get an update. It was crazy. I bigger pockets interviewed amazing people, Barbara Cochran, all these amazing people. And I'm the best episode, the girl that used to listen that didn't have the money to subscribe. So the sky's the limit. There's nothing, the sky's no more the limit. There's nothing God cannot do for you. So waiting to say, Oh, I'm going to invest this or not going out to get those connection. You will never, never stop. So I'm looking forward to writing a book as well. And of course, you know, I'm trying to connect to get, you know, the the, cause I know the importance of, of connection. Like even if the person didn't, It did not end up succeeding just meeting that person what you learn from that is just it blows your mind So when I met you all the connection I already had like you connected with different people like instant. I was like, whoa I need to process all of this this happened so fast. But yeah, I cannot like Let me give you a little story that I never mentioned in the, in the event. So one of the biggest connection that I take, I don't do not take for granted. And that person has become family for me. And we were millions of dollars together is my contractor. Oh my God. I tell you how I met my contractor. So when I bought that first property, everything went wrong. Even though I told the bank, What was given to me on paper wasn't really the truth. So I found out that the tenant, one of the tenant had already left, one of the tenant hadn't paid for months, and one of them was about, has also paid, or was about to leave. So the one that left, I torn out that unit, cleaned it up, and rented out a section A, so that will pay my mortgage and stuff. The other tenant in the basement unit, two bedroom, two bath, she hasn't paid eight months, she owed the previous owner, but because they're distressed, they want to sell, this is COVID time, what happened was, the tenant There was a nonprofit organization that was helping people to pay people that have behind rent for months. But you, the tenant has to apply with the landlord and the money will go to the landlord's bank account, not the tenant. So mind you, she's, she's, she has been, she hasn't paid for months and months. So that comes to me, not the previous landlord. So we apply the money comes to me and I take that money and finish up the other units. Now the property is supposed to cash for about 2, 000 to 1, 900 and something about 2000 at this point. Guess what? The property manager started stealing money. So she will, he would take a receipts of other properties, managing. And some of them are, he's like, when he goes to Lowe's or Home Depot and say, Oh, this is a maintenance for you. Or this is the, I bought this for this. So at the end of the day, I'm not getting anything. So, but he, one thing he always mentioned is, Oh, Chester said this Chester sent me this bin. I'm like, why am I paying for this? Like, I thought this was sorted out already, but why this bill? So every month it's like, Hundreds of deductions, hundreds of expenses that are not necessary. And it's not making sense to me, but it's COVID you can't get it. So I will send it to this real estate groups and I say, Hey, does this make sense for for a like a 700 square foot bedroom house like does it make sense? They were like, no, I did my task for this or I did this for that, whatever that maintenance was. So I knew something's wrong, but I couldn't figure it out. So I was like, okay, I need to get to work. So he always messes Chester said this, just that that's his contractor that he used. So most property managers, they have their own handyman and contractors they use. So I was like, how many chesters can be in a small town? I got all that are connected to him. So I filtered the data, find out the data, and I came across two or three Chesters, and I filtered out the others, and there was this two, two Chesters that could be the Chester that's connected to him. So I check all the relationships and everything. I'm a data scientist, so I did one thing. I found out this Chester, and I sent a message to both of them, and the one responded was like, no. So I know that wasn't the person. So the chest, I was like, Oh, I'm on a roof job right now. And some Facebook I'm on a roof job down now, but you can leave your number. I can call you when I get up. It's going to be late, though. I said, don't mind. I work late and I work for CDC at a time was COVID. So I was analyzing data till, you know, 4 a. m. in the morning. So he was like, OK, I will call you. So he called me. He was introducing. So I said, hey, I'm the owner of property so and so and so and I know you work with I said the name of the property manager And he was like, yeah sure and I was like I just wanted you to tell me if these receipts are mine because I felt like something is wrong I just want if it's true if it's you if it's mine, I understand He looked at everything. He was like, this is for property. So this is a property. So this one is your property property, but the rest are not for you. So he was taking receipts from other property that he's managing and taking money from me basically as you get mine. So he was my contractors, older guy, he's like, I don't do any scam stuff or anything. I work honest truth. I learned this skill from my father. We don't walk like this. I don't mind doing a three way call to clear my name because I don't know what arrangement you guys have. Like, no, no, no, it's fine. Fire the contract, the property manager. And I went to him and I was like, if I find a property, would you help me fix it? He said, yes, we have been fixing homes since 2020, since 2022. Now. Yep. I just saw the the hoarder house on your Instagram. It looks so, so good too. He did that too. Made millions together. I trust him with my right hand. Like he's so trustworthy and he has my credit cards. That's how trustworthy he is. He actually saves me money. Like he will go and say, Oh, the renovation was supposed to be 10 grand. But I was able to get it at 8, 000 because I got the flooring for cheaper at this distance. Like he will literally save me money. He will go and see, Oh, I saw a bunch of backsplash. I just bought them so we can put it on the next project. Wow. That relationship, that man wakes up, he lives in a different town that I invest in. So I invest in the town that he lives in, but also the the surrounding towns. One time I had a a pipe boss in one of the property, the basement, he left at 2 a. m. to walk their tip. I called him, the tenant called, I called him. He's like, Oh, I'll go in the morning and fix it. Then he said, when I went to sleep, when I went, I went up to go pee and I remembered that the, what the, we have to turn off the water. So he said, I just, just let's go. So when the morning, when I call him, he said, Oh, I'm done. Cause I was calling him to say, Hey, don't forget to go. He said, Oh, I slept over there. I was like, wow, yeah, I'm sleeping. He went and fixed that. He left at 2am, left, left at 2am to go fix that until morning. When I was calling him, he was already done on his way going home. Like that relationship. I don't play with it. Like, I don't care. Like. Oh my God. That's so difficult to find. Like that, that's definitely like, that would be my biggest concern, investing out of state is like, it's so hard to verify, right? Like, how do you verify that you're not getting scammed? Because there's so many people out there that prey on real estate investors, especially new people. Yeah. Especially people from, you know, maybe out of the country that don't necessarily understand how all of this works. It's so easy to get screwed over. And so that's like, what's kind of held me back from investing out of state is like, I don't, you know, I don't have anyone that I can trust in that area that I know yet. Yep. It is important. So how did you, you know, it sounds like this was a kind of happened since in, in your Midwestern market, how did you build a contract relationships in the other markets where you didn't necessarily have that person where you just happened to call them and were able to build the relationship? So I put system in place. So for example, my contractors, you don't get paid until the work is done, right? Cause he kind of got, he's my first contractor. He kind of got me used to, you know, not paying until cause sometimes he would do the work and I'll just wire him the money. He would take his own money and do the work. And then I'll wear him afterwards, especially when we're working with the bank, he would just use his own funds because he want to be done. The most of the time he actually move in to the property and complete it. So if it's an apartment complex, they would take him and his guy would take one unit that's almost complete. I stuck the fridge, put all the food, everything they get their bed mattresses and get it set up. So even when I'm setting up with my midterm rentals, I'll order stuff from Amazon and ship it and they'll put everything under my property manager will buy the little things that's needed, like carpet and all of that and set it up. So I have systems in place on how to pay contractors. So for like out of state contractors, right? I'm not going to go if the renovation is going to be, let's say for example, a little renovation like 10 grand, just for numbers sake, right? You quoted me, it's a bathroom and kitchen remodel. Bathroom 5, 000, kitchen 5, 000, for example. I'm not going to pay you 5, 000. Quarter, it's gonna be half of that. So let's start with the kitchen. The kitchen you say is 5,000, 2,500 material. 2,500 labor. I'm gonna buy the material. You do the labor once the work is done. After the one week, if you say the kitchen is gonna be done in one week, after the one week you get your 2005. Doesn't make sense.'cause I already came out of pocket to buy the material. So it's anything. I'm only gonna lose the 2000. So if I'm not gonna pay, I'm not gonna buy material for 2005 and not pay you. So obviously, you know, you get the 2005 back after the one week. So it's almost like a down payment. Yeah. Your materials, you're, you're basically, you're telling your contractor that the materials that you're buying are like a down payment. Yeah. That's me. That's me. That's my skin in the game for me. I use contract to fix this toilet or this bathroom and then you get in 2005 after day six, you tell me it's done. Yeah. We inspect it. I have my property manager go there. Look at it. We look at it. Sometimes I fly there. Most of the time. It's a new contract. I fly there. So if the contract work is going to be two months, I'll probably go four times. But with my contractor now, some of the projects I don't have to go because I built, I built, they all know what I. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So in the beginning, you're investing in your time into doing this. Cause that's, that's a lot of, I was just on a, I was just spoke on a my friend Aaron, he has a group that he teaches people out of state investing. And I was like, I don't know how I ended up in there, but they wanted me to talk about the Chattanooga market and investing here. And I was like, personally, you know, if I, I wouldn't invest in a market that I haven't seen before, right? Like if I've. If I've never been to a place and I don't know what it's like, I, I, I wouldn't invest. I was like, if you're investing, like I would go down and spend a week, you know, in the place you want to invest or spend some time at least seeing the feeling of it. And then like, you got to verify stuff sometimes with your own eyes, right? It's necessary, you know, cause there's sometimes where people will miss things and it can cause a lot of issues. Yeah. It's awesome. I go, I go check on the project, even though I trust my contractors that I have already, they still need to know I'm going to check in. Not that the optimizer, I'm going to check in, I'll pop by. And when I come to check in, I also have scheduled all the showings with my agent. To go look at other properties or off market deals as well. So I'm killing multiple birds with one stone. But for me, yeah, for me, the thing is like, it's not like I started where I don't know, because that's where I used to live for two years. So I understand the area, Central Illinois, I understand that area. Right. I know the market rents. I know the towns. Most of the times I've been there as a student, you know, we've been seen to the shopping center or something. So I know the area. I know which ones have higher crime, lower crime. So I know the market as well. The same thing with Cleveland, Ohio. I, I studied the market. It's not like I just jump in it. And every time I have a renovation, I go there. I don't just leave it on somebody's hands. Now, now I have property managers do everything. I have contractors, they know what they have to do. Some renovations like, okay, if I bought a home and I only have to update the kitchen, I really don't have to go. Because by the time I bought my ticket, they'll be done with the kitchen in two days. And the property manager is listing it and it's already rented. I mean, when I go, I still want to see it if it's not rented, but if it is, I just pass by the home. I put in the time at the beginning. You need to understand the time to work with investment on time, not just money. Yeah, I love that. So I want to hit on the section eight how you ended up in section eight and this will kind of be like our last discussion topic, I guess. And then we'll go to the last question. But why section eight, how did you end up doing section eight? And I know that's kind of like your bread and butter. So let's dive into that a little bit. So Section eight is a, a, a program that's introduced by the US government to help people that are making below average on income. So every state have a average raised somewhere 30, somewhere 40,000. So people that are making below can apply and the government will subsidize their rent. So this could not be just somebody who needs help, but also a va, like somebody who needs house housing that had serve the US government before so they could apply and get this, vouchers So some of the vouchers will cover all of their rent and utilities for some people it will cover half of it or 75 Or percentage based on how much you make so if you don't work at all Maybe it's 100 if you have a job, let's say you're making like 10 15 000 a year You have a certain amount. So it's based on your income, what you report. And for some people, they will get higher vouchers because they have a special need kid or they're taking care of special need person. So those people, the government paid their rent or portion of their rent. So for me, starting in 2020 investing, we know how the shutdown happened and you can't evict the tenant and landlords are Still viable to pay mortgages. That's not pause, but they're not making money because the tenants are paying, not paying, but they couldn't also evict them. So I was like the best. And I started in April, 2020, that's my first investment property. So I was like, okay, I need to do a strategy. That's going to bring me money. So I did section eight as well. So all my tenants were sectioned at the beginning. So I was cash flowing and I was able to buy more properties as I scaled. But that's how the section eight started. Yeah. And I loved it with your first property section eight that you did. Yes. Yes. So the first, the first unit, remember the first unit I had to clean out after section eight, the second order, the tenant downstairs already had months of rent being paid for them. So she was safe. And then the upstairs unit, I converted that to a section eight. And even when I buy the property, it has a tenant in a converted Section 8 tenant instead. I know that like the, the way that you invest, you're, you're basically taking a house, renovating it and putting a Section 8 tenant in. But you're, you're not just doing like the Slumlord thing where you put it to like Mediocre standard, right? You're, you're taking this and making it a nice, clean, almost like brand new house. So as a property owner, myself, when I look at projects, I would love to put more section eight tenants into my properties and actually put a section eight tenant in the house in front of my storage facility. And it's been great so far that I walk, I go in the house is clean. They put a little pumpkin out front and I haven't noticed any issues at all so far. Yeah. But we went a little above and beyond on that renovation. Like, I mean, I put in nice LVP flooring, we fully renovated the bathroom. We made it, I mean, I made it so nice. Yes. And a lot of times when I look at renovations, though, section eight pays 30 percent ish less than what market rent would be most of the time. So how do you get around that where you're renovating these properties to be super nice, but also at the same time, like the rent section eight is going to pay you most of the time is less than market rent. Yeah, for my market, section eight pays a couple of 100 more. So it depends on the county as well and the budget that they're assigned. So sometimes if their budget is low, they have to cut down on rents. But for my area that I invest in the tenants, the The landlords, the traditional landlords don't want to rent to section eight because everybody's like, Oh, section eight tenants are going to destroy your place. Right? So section eight has to be competitive. So if rents are going for, let's say a two bedroom are going for like a thousand dollars section, it will pay me like 1315 if it's a four bedroom going for 1600 or section eight, I can get all the way to 18 something and I get the tenant to pay all the utilities. So it's on them. So even if the traditional landlord is getting, for example, Okay. 1600. I don't mind getting 1400 or 1300 because I don't have to worry about utilities. The tenant pays all of that. So for me it's guarantee money. 1400 for the next five, six years.'cause Section eight tenant, I gave you a home that you're not gonna find in the market. First of all, my, my light bulbs, my light light fixtures are gonna be nicer than what the traditional landlord will give you. I'm not doing carpets in the hallway. The living room or the kitchen or those stick and peel tile. I'm actually doing vinyl flooring. Yes, it's gonna cost me a couple of. 3, 000, 4, 000 extra to, to make it to that level, but I'm making sure everything matches, everything looks good. So when the tenant moves in, they don't go. So my section eight tenant, since I started doing section eight, they've never moved. I only had one move because their kid had a sports scholarship to go to another town. So she has to move her voucher, but, but even her didn't want to go because I know she's not going to find something that better. And she said, I've been looking and I can't find something. It's hard for me to move. Yeah. So for me, yes, that 3000 pays me back more, right? The maintenance is less, right? They're looking at it as my house. This is my house. This is my family home. They're not looking at it as, Oh, I'm going to stay here until a couple of a few years until I find something better. Oh, I'm going to stay. And when I list my properties, some of the section eight tenants that apply already has a home. They just say, I don't like where I live. I've been wanting to move, but I can't find anything. So I have the demand. I can get the best, highest voucher, and I could also get the best quality tenants from the lot because I'll get a lot of applications. So yes, that 2000, that 2000 pays me up more because I don't have to worry. I want to, I really would love to dive into like tenant underwriting, like how you, how you choose the best tenants, but we are out of time and I will be respectful of your time. So I will ask our last question and Yamu, that is, what is the connection to a person or maybe a group of people that change the trajectory of your life or business? Wow, that's a tough one because it's multiple. I would say, ugh, oh my goodness, for business, right? Yeah, I mean, life or business. I say both. For life, for life is multiple people. God has placed multiple people. Since I was an orphan girl, I would say first the shopkeeper who gave me the boxes to sleep on, right, that changed my life. My teachers changed my life. My principals changed my life. My aunt changed my life. She stood up for me. Mandela Washington film, Obama changed my life. If he didn't create that, he, he doesn't even know what he's done. For me, right? And then also the university scholars that came to our school to teach most of the time, my scholarship can't pay the tuition on time. So I get to be kicked out of class. So the professors will call me back. Do you know how embarrassing that is? The village got always being kicked out because the tuition fee is not paid or it's not fully paid. I still owe a little bit. So, and that's what, That they will kick me out from class and the teacher, the professors will call me back in cause I'm their best student. Right. And because they know there's potential. So I'm grateful for all these people God has placed in my life. And also the Chester, like I can't emphasize how much he's changed my life when it comes to business. And then the bank, let's not forget the lady at the bank, Natalie, Natalie changed a lot for me as well. Just believe in me. You didn't have, she didn't have to just think about it. She just hang up like everyone else. But she just listened and even though she said she didn't have hope that the underwriting would take my, my documentation, they did, still did. And mind you, I did this as an immigrant, as an F1 student. So a lot of people were like, I can't do this. I want to wait for my papers. I want to do it for this. I want to do at least start learning. So, yeah, I guess you wanted one, but I give you multiple because it's not just perfect. Yeah, it's always multiple. I mean, it's never just one. And you're going to help me get my TV show. You're going to get, you're going to get your TV show for sure. I hope to get to be that some of the episodes, that'd be really cool. I'm excited for you to have your TV show. So it's been such a pleasure to get to have you on YAMU and, and really just to get to learn from you and to hear your story multiple times now. It's just, it continues to amaze me. If people want to follow along with your journey. And want to see what you're building. Where's the best place for them to follow along with you? Yeah. So the best place would be on Instagram building wealth from rentals, or you go to subletproperties. com. All right. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show. Once you have your TV show, we'll, I'll have you back on and we'll tell the story about how we got you on TV together. And I'm so excited to watch you continue to grow. I'm just, I, I can't wait to see. What the next few years are going to look like for you. It's just going to be incredible. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure. That was a nice time flies by on a podcast. That's right. Well, guys, if you're still listening to the show here thank you so much for listening to the podcast. First and foremost, I just truly, truly appreciate you guys. One thing I do ask of you is the best way for a podcast to grow is by sharing it with your friends. So. So if you got value from this episode, please click that share button, send this to other friends, send it to the first person that came to your mind as you heard your story. And if you could just leave us a five star review on Spotify or Apple podcasts on Spotify, it's up at the top on Apple podcasts. You scroll down and click on that five stars and leave review mean the world to me. And I'll catch you guys on the next episode. 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