#58 Don’t Trade Time for Money with Eric Martel
Eric purchased his first apartment building at just 18 years of age while still at university. After graduation, in his position as an actuary, he was dismayed to see hundreds of company pension plans being rolled over into 401(k)s shifting the retirement risk to employees. This made him reconsider traditional beliefs about retirement savings. It also made him question his role as an actuary so he joined the lucrative technology industry.
A few years later, he lost a fortune during the Dotcom crash of 2001 and started looking for ways to earn passive income and stop trading time for money. He started various businesses, including a gourmet sauce company, but eventually came back to his first love, real estate investing, and formed MartelTurnkey. After just a few years of rapid success, he was able to retire from his day job.
Now he wants to share what he’s learned so you don’t make the same mistakes he did.
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Itunes – www.TonyJavier.com/itunes
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Show Transcription:
Eric: (00:00)
I was inspired by them and, and I was really interested in business. Do
Tony: (00:04)
You teach people how to do this themselves so they can do it themselves? You,
Guest: (00:07)
Like I said, you can turn a lot of those so-called negatives in, in positives.
Tony: (00:14)
Welcome everybody to another exciting show. We have another exciting guest for you guys. It’s doing a lot of great things. Before we start, we’d love for you to like, subscribe, give us a review and share this with anybody else that you know is looking to create financial freedom through real estate or just financial freedom in general. Our goal is to help you guys get further faster and get you guys financial freedom and get you making more money and getting you back more of your time. So guests like Eric are here to help you do that. So Eric, welcome to the show. Well,
Eric: (00:48)
Thank you for having me, Tony. Pleasure to be here.
Tony: (00:51)
Absolutely. It’s great. Great to, great to have you on. We were talking before I hit record here about all the cool things that you’re doing. So for those of, uh, do not know you give them a little bit of a backstory of how you started. You bought your first apartment at 18, right? Mm-hmm. , which is pretty impressive. I bought my first residential property at 20 people Think is cool, but buying an apartment building in 18 is pretty impressive. So tell us the backstory and how you got started at 18 and then how you got to where you are now.
Eric: (01:17)
Yeah, I mean my, uh, I just grew up in a lower middle class family. My family was living paycheck to paycheck, uh, just like so many other people. So nothing too special about that. But I knew, uh, when I was talking to my parents, there was a couple of business entrepreneurs in my little town that they were doing very well. This is like disconnect between their perspective or their point of view on the world, how the business world was working or how the world was working, how money was working, how banking and all that was working and other people were were doing business and how they were thriving and how my parents kept like they were very stagnant in the same place or going backwards, still living paycheck year after year, after year and didn’t seem like we were moving forward. I became very interested in business and I knew from a very early age, I was probably like nine or 10 years old where I thought I, I wanted to know more about business.
Eric: (02:10)
I want to to be in business and I want to, uh, to do that. But it’s only when I hit university that I met a real estate investor and that was, I had built a 36 unit department building, was thinking about buying, had like bought a piece of land and was planning to, uh, build a shopping center, had a nursing home and all that kind of stuff. And the thing is that this guy was just a regular community college teacher. He wasn’t teaching real estate or anything like that or investing or anything about money. He was just a regular guy at a community college teacher. Not smarter than anybody else, just very average guy. But he was, he was able to do that and it was just like, Yeah, so it is possible I can do this. And, and uh, so he basically mentored me through this process and, and yeah, at, at 18 years old I bought apartment building an 18 at apartment building.
Eric: (03:01)
And that was cash flowing, no money down because I had no money. So I got a, a mortgage basically from a credit union and then the second, uh, mortgage from the seller as a vendor take back. Nice. And that’s, that’s how I was able to finance it. And that went pretty well. Cash flowing and no money down. So that was really kind of like the first proof that hey, you can make money without having to work at the nine to five you have now I have the way to do this and I was able to do it at 18. The thing is that I didn’t have like a grand vision of, hey, I wanna achieve financial freedom or whatever. I, I didn’t have that concept yet. At 18 you have the, you know, your life in front of you, so you kind of like, that’s great.
Eric: (03:41)
I did it. You know, it’s kind of like, you know, you badge of honor and then you move on, you do something else and you forget about it. And that’s kind of how it was. I eventually sold that building. I was trying still to do deals in all the other places that I lived, but it were big cities and then I couldn’t find anything that cash flow or cash flow with of uh, you know, a good return on a cash, on cash return. So I kind of like, Okay, well this is not working, this is not working. And, and eventually only like, probably like 10 years ago, that’s when we realized that I realized that we need to go out of state. So if I need to go achieve passive income, I need to find properties that are gonna cash flow. Where am I gonna find these properties? So that’s when I started establishing criteria where we’re gonna be in landlord friendly state, We wanna be things that have like sustainable growth in terms of population and businesses so that we can find good deals. And then looking at the median house value, affordability and all of that, and then figuring out where that this particular city or this particular area, I will be able to find end of deals for me to build a passive income portfolio. That’s kind of how I, how I got started into the real estate that I have like
Tony: (04:50)
Today. So first question I have for you. So, uh, 18 years old you buy, buy your first apartment complex and you said you didn’t understand or think about financial freedom. Yeah. It’s kind of interesting, like the perspective and the mindset you have at 18 and then fast forward several years later of what that’s like. So tell us how much different that is, like what you have and where you are now, how much different you feel like you are compared to where you thought you would’ve been if you would asked yourself at 18. You know, doing a fast forward.
Eric: (05:20)
Yeah, exactly. So at 18, I mean, I was introduced to a lot of other investors in the area. People that were flipping properties, they were at doing value add on small apartment buildings and stuff like that. And I was just like, Oh, this is great. This, I, I understand this, or, or they were splitting these, uh, you know, like six or whatever, four bedroom apartment, they were splitting them in half and then making two, two apartments out of it. And then, you know, increasing their rent by like 45%, you know, their gross rent and how that all that worked. And so all kinds of very creative ways. So I was exposed to a lot of that at that age. But, and I was very interested in that. My point of view at that time is that I didn’t have any offer. I was 18 years old.
Eric: (06:03)
I thought I can’t, I didn’t even think that I could help these people in any way achieve their goal. Now that I’m looking back, I wish I told myself, I said, No, no, you can, you can, you can be a great deal finder. You were able to find this eight unit department building. I can do that. I can, I can find another deal with these guys. I need to connect with these investors. And then, you know, build a relationship and then say, Hey, you know what, what if I found you some deals or can you cut me into the deals? Can you give me a finder’s fee? Can you do this? Can you do that? I didn’t see the value at that. I didn’t see the value that I would add at that point. Uh, but now looking back up and say, I was like, Yeah, I should have, I should have realized that.
Eric: (06:40)
And I was too focused on the money, so I was too focused on, I, it took me a lot. I had to analyze like probably like four or 500 properties before I could buy that one property that I could do, you know, without, without any money. Cuz I had, I had no money. So then my, my focus was, I don’t have money. I need to get a job to get money instead of, I have skills, I have, you know, I have connections, I have a network. How can I make money with that? How can I leverage these people in order to, to, to make it in this business? So that’s kind of like, uh, how it was, uh, today I definitely see that, like now it’s very different. Now I’m thinking of it as, okay, well this is financial freedom. You know, I I don’t wanna have a nine to five job and uh, everything is basically has been elevated.
Eric: (07:26)
So everything is like, if I have my time back, if I have financial freedom, I have my time back. So this is kind of like the first level. You quit your nine to five job, now you have a lot of time that’s free. That time allows you to do unbelievable stuff that you cannot do without financial freedom with, if you have a full time job. There’s so much stuff that you can’t do. You know, some other, other businesses helping and coaching other, uh, businesses, other people to start their own businesses and you know, with like trucking companies with some other stuff at Title C and all of that. And if I had to work in nine to five, I wouldn’t be able to do all that. It would be, it’d be impossible, but financial freedom gave me my time back and allows me to be involved in all these, uh, all these kinds of businesses, all these kinds of endeavors and coach other people to do that.
Eric: (08:13)
And the nice thing about it is that I’m also building a legacy for my, my children and my grandchildren and all of that. So this is something that’s, uh, that’s also very important to me cuz I don’t think it’s fair that the kids have to start from ground zero every generation and have to build their own. You want to bring your kids, okay, well you, you keep going. You, you rise up, you rise up the whole family and, uh, you know, I, I’m gonna help you get there. So that, that’s the whole idea. And so I’m, I’m very happy the situation that I’m in right now and I’m looking at very bright future for myself and my family.
Tony: (08:46)
Yeah, one of the things you said was you surrounded yourself or met with other real estate investors and not only did you meet with them, but you also saw what they were doing and kind, kind of inspired you to do the things that you’re doing now. I think that’s super important for people to understand is that if you want to be somewhere, like find people that are already there or doing the things that you want to do or just in general, people that are doing big things. I remember, so I’ve been in, I’ve been investing for 20 years now, and it was about, I don’t know, seven years ago when I started, uh, discovering Masterminds maybe eight years ago. And I thought I was, you know, pretty hot, you know, doing some of the stuff I was doing. And then I got in this room with other people and I’m like, Oh wow, a thousand deals a year is really possible.
Tony: (09:28)
Like, that’s insane. Not saying I wanna do a thousand deals a year, but then it just raised my mindset of like, okay, the, you know, 50, 60, 70 deals a year, whatever I was doing at the time, you know, is good. What else is possible, right? And then other guys, other businesses and were making way more money or maybe had more time than I did and things of that nature. So, um, surrounding yourself with those people I think is, is super important. So I’m glad that you, that you touched on that. And then, you know, what I was getting to with that question was a lot of people underestimate what they can do. You know, when you’re 18 years old, when I was 20 get into this business, I was like, Man, if I could have 30 rental properties, like that’s cool and then I’ll pay ’em off.
Tony: (10:07)
I’ll pay ’em off when I’m, you know, 50 years old or 55 years old and I’ll have X amount of dollars and you know, passive income and all that. And I got 30 properties within like, I don’t know what it was, 3, 4, 5 years. It was a short, you know, pretty short amount of time. It’s like, oh wait, okay, what else is possible? And then five years later it’s like, oh, hit a bunch of other milestones. It’s like, Oh wow, I didn’t think I’d hit those. So it’s just interesting the evolution of what you do. You think, you know, you’re doing some pretty good stuff, but if you continue to surround yourself with the right people and do the right things, you can get yourself to a much higher level and do things you never thought you could
Eric: (10:41)
Do. Absolutely. I think, yeah, they talk about the people. I mean, this is what I’m doing now. I mean, I’m not investing so much into businesses. I mean, investing into the people. I mean the, the title company that we launched earlier this year, I mean, it was because we had one guy that we knew he was a hustler. We knew he hadn’t, he, he didn’t even know anything about title company. We had to explain to him what a, what a title company was. And he lives in California and then he was doing deals in, uh, Ohio for us. And that was the first market that we had selected, he said, but we knew he was a hustler and he, he got his, he pass his certification test, he did this, he organized everything, blah, blah, blah. And now he has like five, we have five employees in the title company and it’s profitable.
Eric: (11:22)
And it just started the beginning of the year. So it’s just amazing. Investing in people is, is great. And the same thing that, like, I was that kid at 18 years old, I was that guy that was, I’m still am today. I guess, you know, I was very eager. I was, I I would’ve done anything to, but I didn’t realize that, I mean, I didn’t have that thing that tells me that, Hey, you, you could do that. Why don’t you ask these investors to say, how can I help you? I like what you’re doing or teach me how you’re doing it. How can I do that? Or how can I help you? Or something like that. And, you know, that was, um, that’s what, what the thing that was missing at that point because I was focused again on money and that that’s not, it’s not about money.
Eric: (11:59)
I think it, it’s about finding the deal, finding the network talk, finding the right people, and then you can figure out the money. Mm-hmm. , I had the luxury of time at that, at that age also, so I was at university, but you know, university have a lot of free time. So I could have, I could have invested that time more wisely, I think, and, uh, take advantage of that. And nowadays I really appreciate that. I really appreciate the time that I have and you know, I spend my time very wisely. I don’t waste it on things that are not important.
Tony: (12:29)
Mm-hmm. . Yeah. Investing in people, that’s, you know, that’s a, that’s a really good lesson there as well is, you know, if you have good people, like starting the title company, like back 20 years ago, maybe even 15 years ago, if I wanted to start a title company, I would’ve been like, okay, I need to get certified. I need to learn this, I need to learn all these things. Yeah. Yeah. But now it’s like, I don’t wanna learn everything. Like I’m gonna find someone else to learn a lot of the things that I want to do and want to implement and allow them to put it in place because, you know, there’s people that are way better what we wanna do than we are, right? Mm-hmm. , especially as entrepreneurs, when we’re all over the place, we can be pretty scattered. We can have a lot of different businesses, but we need those people that are focused on that business. And you even said he had no idea what a title company really was, right? Yeah. You, you just knew you was a hustler. Yeah. So it was like, Hey, let’s get that guy, find something for him. And you know, the title company was in
Eric: (13:22)
Yeah, I did the same thing with Rocket Offer, which is a wholesaling company. Two guys, I, we knew, we knew they were hustler, were friends of my, my son and then just, we knew they were hustlers and that’s just like, they would work and yeah, we just made them an offer. I said, you know, what would you like to do this? They didn’t know anything about wholesaling. We taught them about wholesaling and said, Would you wanna do this business with us? And, but said, You need to be full time. You’re gonna need to quit your job. We’re gonna pay you a salary and then you’re gonna quit your job. They quit their job that same, it was over Christmas, I think they job between Christmas and New Year and yeah. So they started working on that and they’ve been successful, took a year for them to be profitable, but uh, now they’re profitable and they’re doing very well. Awesome. But again, people, right, so the people, you know that they have the instinct, they have the drive to make it happen.
Tony: (14:07)
Yeah. So you’ve been in the business quite a while. What are some other lessons? So invest in people, surround yourself with the right people. Any other mistakes maybe you made or any other things that you would kind of tell yourself back when you were 18? Like, here are the things that I would avoid, or Here are the things that I would do, knowing what you know now. So
Eric: (14:23)
I think that the, um, not, not, so I don’t have any really things that I, oh, I wish I didn’t make that mistake, but I think that the things that I need to worry about is kind of like, where do you focus your attention? So I, I like to focus my attention on kind of like, what’s gonna give me, in terms of investing, I think it’s about the returns. Obviously looking at your, your return on equity and your returns. So I’m very focused on that every day. One of the things I wish that I, I wish I had done earlier was, uh, getting an executive assistant that was like, I had an executive and when I got the executive assistant, um, she was automatically, like, pretty soon, like she was fully booked and it was, I was still pretty, very busy on my own. Like, I kept myself busy on other stuff and it was just like, I got, how did I, how did I do all this before?
Eric: (15:09)
Not this, this, uh, woman is like a hundred percent like working like, you know, the full week. And then she’s just, she also does things on the evenings and weekends and stuff like that. And then, and on top of that, I was doing that and I was doing what I was doing today. So I was just like, the earlier you can kind of like identify these things that you can, you can delegate to other people and free yourself to end so that you can spend the time on things that you’re the best at. I think that’s the, that’s the biggest thing. So that I, so if there was a, a mistake or another mistake that I made was, was that is not realizing the importance of, of that. And um, I had tried, I had done like virtual assistant before and, and it kind of works, but it’s, it’s much better to have someone that is live in the same city as you and then that understands what you’re going through, that can really help you. You’re gonna pay a lot more money, but it’s, it’s totally works that my
Tony: (16:01)
Opinion. Yeah. People don’t understand how valuable it is that are loan entrepreneurs. Just to have that one extra person that takes that load off you, where you can work on things that are more, you know, dollar productive. So for me it’s return on investment, it’s return on time, and it’s return on energy, right? Mm-hmm. , what are the things that I can put in that’ll give me those three things back? Yeah. And I try and work on those as much as I possibly can and give, give all the rest to other people that are better at those other things that I don’t like, that aren’t gonna provide me energy or in a return on investment.
Eric: (16:29)
Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, so the return on energy is a good one for sure. So I’d like to, uh, implement that a little bit more return on time. Yeah, that’s true. I mean, I do spend extra time, I mean, you have to spend time, you have to invest your time in order to kind of like define what the process is or automate certain things and then so that you can get some of that time backward delegate and all of that. So, but as, yeah, there’s kind of a science into delegation that you have to, to think about. And there was one book, I think it was, uh, Thinking in Systems. I think that was very good. And then that was really about creating how do you create the processes so that you can delegate that to someone else. It was very important. And even if it’s these are, you don’t necessarily delegate these processes right away. Maybe you kind of like keep them, you know, to yourself for now. And then you can kind of like eventually delegate them to someone else and figure out that there’s a role here for this, for someone to do all this stuff. And then you, you realize what you’re doing and the stuff that you could be offloading to somebody else. And that could be a, the, the, the, uh, the kick that you need to hire someone and realize that yeah, there’s enough stuff for someone else to, uh, to be helping here.
Tony: (17:38)
Mm-hmm. . So tell us about some of the other things you’re doing. You kind of touched on the apartments and you know, a little bit of what else you’re doing, but you have a turnkey real estate business you’re doing in multiple cities. You mentioned a fund, you mentioned you do some coaching and mentorship. So kind of touch on those things. So start with the turnkey investing. It sounds like you wanna provide fi more financial freedom from other people. I think that’s why you said that you started the turnkey real estate business.
Eric: (18:01)
Yeah, exactly. So I, it started really when we started this business, uh, as a family. We, it was about building a passive income for us. So that’s how it started. And then a lot of our, uh, friends and family that would ask us like, you know, what, what are you guys doing? Like, it’s like, while we’re investing in, you know, rental properties, so really, okay, where did, in Memphis and Cleveland’s, like, Why, why are you investing in Memphis, in Cleveland? What’s going on? And then we tell them, you know, Oh, it’s cuz of this, and look at this property, this cash flowing, and it’s like doing, at that time it was like 12, 12% cash on cash returns. Uh, and then they would say, Wow, okay, well this is, this is interesting and can I buy one of those? Like, and then that’s kind of like we, then it was, we sold a couple and then we say, okay, well then more and more people were interested and said, well maybe this is a business for us to do.
Eric: (18:52)
And, um, so yeah, so Martel turned was created at that point. And then, uh, now we’re doing 200 flips, uh, a year. We currently have in our balance sheet about like 200 and just over 200 properties in, uh, in different stages of development. And so things are doing very well and we have like a team of about 10 people kind of like for acquisition, for sales and you know, project con, project management and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, it’s pretty good. And the goal was really to help people achieve financial freedom by building a passive income portfolio. So far has been, has been working very well. I also wrote a, my book, Stop Trading Your Time for Money to kind of like tell people how to achieve financial freedom. So part of it is about mindset, part of it is about alignment of your goal.
Eric: (19:36)
So if your number one goal should be to achieve financial freedom, so that should be everyone’s number one goal. And then there are different strategies. Real estate I think is the best way to invest in real estate and to build that passive income portfolio. But you have to find the right strategy and that the right strategy for you depends on how much time you have to invest in that or how much money you have to invest in that. And if you have any kind of special skills that you can bring to the table. So once you understand that, that’s gonna determine kind of like which of these, which are the strategies that I identified in my book makes sense for you. I basically have like the, a quadrant, a strategic investment quadrant, and you pick that and then you pick one of the strategies that work for you and then you invest in that.
Eric: (20:17)
Uh, single family rental is probably one of the best. Turnkey single family rental is probably one of the best. And this is why Mark turnkey so is so successful right now. And then, you know, just that after that just keep going at it. And, and the reason why I’m offering the mentorship is that some people even, so I put everything in the book. So if you can, if you read the book, you should be able to do your transactions, but there are people that still need additional assistance. So if for, for those people, I can do, uh, I can offer mentorship. I know that the, the mentor that I had to my first apartment building was, uh, was instrumental. I, I wouldn’t have done this deal without, without him just because he guided me through. But he also told me that it’s okay, just keep, keep going.
Eric: (21:00)
You know, because after like 200 analyzing 200 properties and talking to my real estate broker, my real estate broker was telling me, Yeah, you’re never gonna find it. It doesn’t exist what you’re looking for. You know, kinda, you had a slightly different voice but uh, and then, you know, 300 properties. And I would look at my co my mentor and say like, Are you sure? Like 400 properties? And eventually I found, I found the property that I was looking for, but the mentor really kind of like helped me continue on this difficult path, uh, forward. So hopefully the book is gonna help a lot of people achieve financial freedom. If not, I can help them with mentorship and I can also help them with, uh, with Martel turnkey to help them build their portfolio very
Tony: (21:46)
Easy. That’s great. Sounds like you’re real giver. I mean, uh, you know, doing the turnkey stuff, I know that’s a lot to be able to find the properties, fix them up, you know, get the management in place and then perform on the back end for your clients. So there’s, there’s a lot of moving parts there and I, I think people don’t understand how much there is to that. Right. And then That’s
Eric: (22:04)
Right. That’s right. So many people are trying to do what we’re doing. Yeah. We make it look so easy and all of that. And, but yeah, there’s, there are a lot of moving parts. There are a lot of problems to solve along the way, that’s for sure.
Tony: (22:15)
Yeah, cuz we, we we’re pretty much keeping everything we buy right now. We used to flip and you know, luckily we’re able to keep most everything and even for us, like for us to put our management in place. And then I’m the client and I, you know, so I’m not having to deal with outside clients, so I can only imagine all of that interaction and all the reporting and everything you need to do for, for clients
Eric: (22:36)
Involved in that. Yeah, I mean, we help them, we help the, our clients actually get the financing, get the insurance, and then also, you know, introduce them to the property management company and then of course you have to have to deal with the appraisals, the, uh, the inspections if they wanna do an inspection, all that kind of stuff. And then that kind of kicked back some other issues, problems on their own. So, yeah. So it’s a, it’s a little bit, it’s a, it’s challenging, that’s for sure, but it’s also very rewarding, I would
Tony: (23:04)
Say. Awesome. So we’ll start wrapping up here. What’s, uh, what’s next for you? What, like, you’ve, you’ve created a lot of success doing 200 deals a year. I mean, there’s, there’s a lot that, you know, you’ve accomplished over your career. Is there something else that’s next? Are you looking to take what you have now and just completely optimiz and focus on it? Or are there any other big things that you’re looking at kind of in the future to expand on what you’ve already done? The
Eric: (23:26)
Big one right now for me is, uh, is Martel and Invest, which is our tokenized real estate funds. So, you know, there’s a lot of investors that are working with us that they don’t have that they wanna buy real estate rentals, but they don’t wanna be a landlord or they, they, they can’t get conventional lending for whatever, whatever reason. It could be people that have a lot of money still that are, you know, accredited investors, but they don’t have a regular w2. Or it could be people that don’t have regular income and they have lower salaries or they, but you know, there’s a, there’s a broad, uh, range here, but can’t get a loan, can’t get conventional loans, don’t wanna be a landlord, don’t wanna deal with that. They don’t, they wanna minimize risk. They don’t wanna put, let’s say $30,000 down payment on one house and then hoping that everything goes well.
Eric: (24:12)
They would like rather spread their risk across a portfolio. And this is what Martel invest is about. So tokenized portfolio of single family rentals and people can buy into that portfolio with as little as $50. So the advantage of that is on the blockchain. So it’s, everybody can see it’s a secure system basically to keep track of all the transactions, all the purchases that you’re doing with your tokens if you wanna sell your token to someone else or transfer them. This is also kind of, uh, all tracked in the blockchain. And eventually, uh, what, uh, right now we are accepting, uh, funds from ex accredited investors. We’re working on the next phase, which is accepting money from everybody and then also opening up in about three to four months, we’re gonna open it up on open exchanges as well. So you’re gonna be able to trade your tokens at market value on open exchanges for, uh, security tokens.
Eric: (25:07)
Nice. So, so we’re pretty excited about that. I actually think that this is gonna be the future of, of real estate. There are, so real estate investing, at least maybe not uh, everything but for real estate investing because it’s, there’s so many move, uh, movements or experiments right now about bringing real estate, investing to the masses, all kinds of different ways to kind of like fractionalize real estate into little pieces so that everybody can invest and have a piece of that everybody realize the importance of real estate as a part of your investment portfolio. And I think that the real estate on the blockchain is gonna be the next step to achieve that.
Tony: (25:46)
That’s super cool. I mean that could be a whole nother podcast that we could dive in. But yeah, I invest with a guy that does multi-family retail stuff. He’s actually blown up pretty, pretty big. The last I think like five years I was actually lending money to him to float his business and then I, and then I started investing some of his deals and he went from like, you know, that to where he was just like, you know, and now he has like 300, 400 million in real estate. I mean he just totally, wow. But he actually did a, um, a fun with blockchain and I didn’t invest in it cuz I didn’t understand it, but now that you explained it a little bit more, I’m like, man, it’s a little, maybe I need to look into that a little bit more.
Eric: (26:22)
Oh, absolutely. It’s, it’s worth investigating. There is, it’s a little bit painful at the beginning cuz you have to set up your digital wallet and, and it’s a little bit, it’s a little bit different, but at the same time you have to correlate that to things that you have already. So your digital wallet is kind of like your wallet or your, your portfolio. It is gonna have everything in in it. Your money, your, your tokens, your, your share of different businesses. If you buy and if, if you buy art, it’s gonna be in there. If you buy, you know, everything you buy digitally, it’s gonna be in your digital wallet. So that’s very similar to something that we have, you know, we have in real life, uh, these tokens, these security tokens for Martel and Best for example, they’re just like shares of a company. You’re buying shares of a company and that company owns the real estate and invests the real estate for you. So you have active management cash flowing from day one, minimize risk, all all that good stuff that, uh, that you’re looking for when you’re investing in a company. So again, it’s very similar, it’s just that all that stuff now has been put in, in a blockchain and blockchain is a very secure system for keeping track of, uh, of all these kinds of transactions.
Tony: (27:31)
Awesome. And as far as setting up that fund, is it similar to setting up a, uh, normal syndication kind of fund or is it, is it quite a bit different cuz you have the blockchain involved?
Eric: (27:40)
It’s a little bit different, but it’s not that different. I think there’s, just like, when you create your PPM for example, you wanna make sure that you go through a lawyer that knows about security tokens. Uh, because as you probably read many ppms before, uh, this is, uh, private placement memorandum, uh, that basically outlines all the risk associated with the investment, right? So obviously with blockchain, they want to also outline some of the risk, that, additional risk that may happen with, with the blockchain and some of the currencies like cryptocurrency, if there are cryptocurrencies involved, we don’t, we don’t take cryptocurrency and it’s not a cryptocurrency, but they wanna idolize some of these risks that, that you don’t have necessarily in real life. Awesome. Cool. That’s the only difference.
Tony: (28:26)
So if anybody wants to invest, uh, if their, a credit investor wants to invest with you or take advantage of her mentorship or buy turnkey properties, what’s the best way to, uh, for them to reach out to you?
Eric: (28:37)
So the best way to reach out to me is, uh, martel eric.com. So this is where I have all the stuff that, uh, you need to know about me, the podcast books and all of that. And then, uh, in terms of the investment for turnkey, it’s Martel turnkey in terms of the, the tokenized, uh, real estate fund, it’s Martel Invest, so it’s pretty simple. Martel starts everything. And then you have Martel, Eric Martel Invest, Martel turnkey.
Tony: (29:02)
And that’s Eric E r I C for those you? Correct. All right, awesome. So if you guys like this episode, please like, subscribe, Give us a, a great review and share this with someone who you think could use turnkey properties, wants to invest in real estate, wants to get started. We’re trying to get as many people into real estate as possible and then take those that are into real estate and help them to think at a higher level to earn the time freedom like Eric has been able to do and start multiple things without having to necessarily work so many extra hours, which we didn’t even talk about that part of it. But maybe when we have you on again sometime in the future, we’ll talk a little bit more about that. So thanks for coming on, Eric. Any last words before we jump off here?
Eric: (29:44)
No, I think that’s, this is great. I’m happy that I was able to help, uh, help people. I mean, I’m, I’m here to share, you know, my experience and my expertise. Uh, so feel free to connect with me. I’m gonna do what I can to help you.
Tony: (29:55)
Awesome. Thanks again, Eric. Good luck to everything you’re doing and look forward to, uh, connecting against Zoom.
Eric: (30:00)
Great. Thank you.