From the Barber Shop and Back Again - Dennis Balonze's Journey to Financial Freedom

This is truly a story of Making Cents of It All.  Dennis Balonze joins the show to share his story of how he parlayed his career as a barber into a multimillion-dollar real estate portfolio over three states.  

He and his team currently manage a portfolio of profitable multi-family and
commercial properties. They are always looking to broaden the portfolio, which would include the continuing acquisition and management of multi-family units and commercial buildings, with regional expansion throughout the southern United States. 

Dennis also utilizes his talents area barber in putting together a very unique, interesting YouTube show, BarberUpp.  It's a great watch and it only lasts...as long as a haircut!  Check it out.  

Transcript

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Jesse Stakes: Hey, everybody welcome to this week's episode of making sense of it all with Jesse Stakes. So my guest, this week actually lives my title of my Podcast I think Dennis has made sense of everything he's done in his life. My guest is Dennis, Balanzi, Dennis. Thank you so much for joining us.

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Dennis: Thank you for having me.

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Jesse Stakes: So I think we'll probably touch base on, on kind of everything, everything that you have done through your career. But one of the biggest things that really struck a chord with me, and when we were having our initial conversation, and one of the things that I really felt like you could relate to my audience, and a lot of people out there is that you really turned your your profession into an into essentially an investment for your whole life

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Jesse Stakes: much

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Jesse Stakes: I thought that was, I thought that was a fantastic story. So I mean, if you would, you know. Tell my audience, you know we can. We can dive into every you know more details, but just kind of high level. Tell them, tell them a little bit about your story and what you like, how you, how you kind of took your profession and and turned it into something that's just, you know.

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Jesse Stakes: allowed you to live the life that you want to live.

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Dennis: So I guess we'll go back 30 years.

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Dennis: yeah, 30 years. So I started out as a small business owner when I was 23 years old. I started a barbershop in Montclair, New Jersey.

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Dennis: and I was, you know, just starting out. Didn't know much living home.

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Dennis: and it was probably like the best thing that ever happened to me, because I was able to see my future. When I took over that business. It was an existing business of 80 years. Okay? So I had a built in clientele already.

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Dennis: and it was a plug and play. You just hop in and start, you know, doing your thing. So it made me visualize now what my future is going to be.

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Dennis: So I was at a crossroads of what I want to do. Do I want to become a multi unit barbershop owner, or do I want to become a multi unit, real estate owner, like having multiple doors and properties all over.

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Jesse Stakes: And you were already thinking about that at 23.

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Dennis: I was thinking, at 23, yeah.

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Jesse Stakes: So was it like out of curiosity? Was it? Was it like somebody else who? Who kind of put that thought in your head like an inspit, like somebody who was an inspiration to you, or was it? That was just where you like? At that young age you were already thinking that real estate was where you wanted to invest your money.

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Dennis: Okay. So if you want to go back further, my uncle was a barber. Okay. He employed me at 12 years old, sweeping the.

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Jesse Stakes: Nice.

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Dennis: And his business model was, you know, he he came over from, you know, Europe, and that was his trade, and that's all he knew, and his business model was to cut hair and buy real estate. So when I was sweeping the floor I was watching this and seeing what he was doing.

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Dennis: and there was days when he would send me to go collect rent from his tenants, and I was seeing all this cash that he was taking back to the barbershop

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Dennis: that kind of rubbed off on me.

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Dennis: So when it became time for me to own my barbershop, I kind of liked that business model.

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Dennis: So so I was just when I took over that business. I was thinking about the exit. You know. What is my exit strategy? Where am I going to go with this? Am I just going to be a barber? Because that's what barbers usually do. You know, they'll just barber until they're 70, you know, until they can't do it no more. And I was young at the time, so I didn't want to do that.

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Dennis: So

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Dennis: so I was thinking about the end, the end in in sight. And I chose real estate because

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Dennis: it allowed me to keep doing what I was doing because I had to be at the shop and make sure everyone was satisfied.

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Dennis: and it allowed me to just have that run in the background while I was doing what I was doing. So I like that model

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Dennis: so chose real estate.

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Jesse Stakes: Okay.

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Dennis: Joe's.

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Jesse Stakes: In any type of real estate like did you have like like when you were like? Was it residential? Real estate, commercial real estate?

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Jesse Stakes: Certain, you know. Was there any thought on that as far, or was it just kind of whatever was a goodbye.

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Dennis: So at that time my funds were very limited on what I can invest in. So I was looking for the lowest hanging fruit, and that was residential real estate. Okay? So my 1st purchase within, like the 1st 6 months of being in business.

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Dennis: was my 1st money. I I saved.

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Dennis: and I wind up buying a two-family house in New Jersey.

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Jesse Stakes: Okay, so like a duplex.

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Dennis: Yeah. So while I was living home, I bought a 2 family. I put 10% down. It was like 20 grand and rented it out, and I managed it.

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Dennis: and I just made sure that it was collecting rent and stuff.

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Dennis: And that's how I started.

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Jesse Stakes: Very cool.

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Dennis: So.

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Jesse Stakes: And so go ahead. I'm sorry.

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Dennis: Yeah. So that 1st purchase was probably my worst purchase.

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Dennis: It was the most informal purchase I made. I learned. That's how I learned everything I know now probably learned a lot from that one.

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Jesse Stakes: I think we all learned a lot from you know what we would consider mistakes versus versus if you were just. Have instant success with the 1st duplex you bought, you'd have probably bought nothing but duplexes for a while.

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Dennis: Exactly

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Dennis: so. I guess the the biggest takeaway from that would be if you're just getting into real estate, or

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Dennis: it's probably my my biggest thing was like, Okay, I limited funds.

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Dennis: So I always thought the of the investment from.

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Dennis: you know my perspective. I didn't think of it from the tenant's perspective much

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Dennis: because I had a limited budget. It forced me into a certain price range.

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Dennis: Certain. It forced me not on the most desirable property for a tenant.

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Dennis: It was desirable for me, because the numbers worked. You know the gross rent minus my expenses. I was making money.

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Dennis: but I never accounted for size of the bedrooms.

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Dennis: you know. Do the you know. Will the bedrooms fit a king size bed that was important to attend? And I didn't know that.

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Jesse Stakes: And

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Dennis: It was a 1 way street.

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Dennis: and it had very limited parking. They didn't like that. We had shared driveways. We had shared driveways, so there was no off-street parking

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Dennis: didn't really consider that one.

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Dennis: No closet space tenants want closets, they need. They, you know, got to store their clothes. I didn't account for that, so it wasn't the most desirable

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Dennis: rental property, but that made me learn from my next purchase what to look for.

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Jesse Stakes: Right.

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Dennis: So those little nuances that you pick up on could save you a ton of time, you know.

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Jesse Stakes: No doubt. Well, and I'm sure someone like there may be somebody who's listening to this, who's kind of in the spot where they wanted to get started. But you know some of those things may not have been places where their mind went either, but listening to you and hearing you describe what you know, the the hard, the hard learnings that you had, you know it may maybe it makes them make one less mistake than what they would just thinking on their own. So I think that that's I think that's fantastic.

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Dennis: Exactly.

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Dennis: That's why.

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Jesse Stakes: So what?

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Dennis: These podcasts because it's you're able to pick up on those little details that help you.

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Dennis: you know, on your adventure in the future. You know.

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Jesse Stakes: 100%. No, I think it's fantastic. And I love. I mean, that's 1 of the one of my favorite things that I've that I've done with this podcast is is, I get to hear, you know, hear other people's stories get to hear. You know, people like yourself, where you're telling your story and it. And it gives my audience.

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Jesse Stakes: you know, a conversation that they get to have a peek into that they probably wouldn't, you know. Maybe they don't even think to to. You know they don't know you. They don't have the opportunity to meet you, but now they get to hear your story they get to hear your you know your trials and errors, your successes, and it's maybe it inspires them, or it's something that they already thought about. But it's something that gives them that you know that

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Jesse Stakes: like you said just that that one thing where they didn't think about it. And now it's in their mind, and so they make a better decision on whatever whatever choice they were going to make. So no, I think it's I feel the same way. I think it's fantastic.

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Jesse Stakes: You get past your you get past your 1st duplex, and you had all of these, you know, kind of things that you learned what was? What was the second investment? Was it? Was it a did you feel like it was a, you know, quote unquote, better investment, smarter investment at that time.

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Dennis: Yeah. So this was early, 2,002. So you know, I was. The market was going up in my favor. Luckily.

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Jesse Stakes: Just a little bit.

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Dennis: Yeah. So in 5, it basically doubled in value without even doing anything to it, just because of the market was going up.

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Dennis: So that was my opportunity. I saw it as a liquidity. Event.

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Jesse Stakes: Yes.

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Dennis: So I saw that as an opportunity to sell it, I learned how to do a 1031 exchange.

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Dennis: For those of you who don't know what a 1031. It's a tax deferred strategy. When selling real estate

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Dennis: you could take the profits

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Dennis: tax deferred and buy a light, kind property within a certain amount of time period. So I did that move.

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Dennis: and probably my biggest thing that I did was when I was

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Dennis: figuring out what I want to get and where

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Dennis: I want to know where jobs are going.

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Dennis: because I didn't have a huge amount of pool tenants wanting the property.

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Dennis: but if I knew there were jobs around I would then

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Dennis: have a better. You know. More more tenants wanted to come. Look at the property.

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Jesse Stakes: Yes.

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Dennis: So

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Dennis: I read a book a long time ago, and I remember this phrase, and I still remember it till today, and I still follow it, it says, live where you want to live, invest where it makes sense.

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Dennis: So that was my approach. That was my approach.

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Dennis: Where I was in New Jersey.

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Dennis: It was very expensive.

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Dennis: And you know, my money couldn't go really that far.

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Dennis: you know, I want to scale out and leverage more.

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Dennis: And I remember this other thing he wrote in the book was this, if you have a hundred $1,000

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Dennis: and you buy a hundred $1,000 property, you're worth a hundred 1,000.

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Dennis: But if you take that same $100,000 and you buy 10 properties with 10,000 down, you're now worth a million.

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Dennis: And not only are you worth it, but you also are leveraging

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Dennis: and controlling that amount of real estate, so that stuck with me as well.

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Dennis: So are you still there.

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Jesse Stakes: I'm here.

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Dennis: Okay. So

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Dennis: So what I did was, I went out of state.

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Dennis: I went to Alabama

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Dennis: because at the northern Alabama, because this was the fastest growing, one of the fastest growing like the top 5 fastest growing in the country for job growth.

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Dennis: And I kind of like the affordability. You know you could buy single family homes at that time, for, like 50 60,000,

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Dennis: which was great, 3 bedrooms, nice backyards, had everything

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Dennis: that I didn't have in that 1st property off-street, parking, nice sized bedrooms, closet space, everything a homeowner would want.

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Dennis: for you know, small amount of money. 50 60,000 was a great was my sweet spot.

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Dennis: So with 10,000, with 10% down, that's only like 5 grand, so

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Dennis: your money can go a long way there. And at the time lending was kind of easy, you know, if you had good credit, Banks were willing to lend you. So I took advantage of the situation.

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Jesse Stakes: You, could you? You at that point in time you could do stated income, stated assets. You didn't exactly.

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Jesse Stakes: You didn't even have to prove a thing other than like you, said Credit, pull, and as long as you were above a 6 or 7 30 you were golden.

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Dennis: Exactly so I kind of had. I was in the right place at the right time.

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Dennis: so I took advantage of the situation. I hired a realtor, and I said, Let's drive around.

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Dennis: and I want you to find me any $60,000 house. I'm interested in it.

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Dennis: because at that time, too. The inventory was kind of tight as well. Because, you know, yeah, a lot of investors buying up stuff.

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Jesse Stakes: Yes.

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Dennis: So

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Dennis: we drove around, and I was just picking off properties and putting them under contract and putting 5,000 down, going to the bank

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Dennis: showing them. Hey? I got these homes here, they said. No problem, they were added. They were actually adding on more to the loan.

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Dennis: They were asking me if I had any repairs to make, or if I had any A/C repairs, I'm like, Yeah, I had a couple 1,000 for repairs. Why not?

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Jesse Stakes: Right.

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Dennis: And then, so I just locked them up that way. And that's that's how I I took it to the next level.

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Jesse Stakes: That's very cool.

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Dennis: Yeah.

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Dennis: yeah, so.

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Jesse Stakes: Fast forward a little bit like when you say the next level. What do you mean by that?

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Dennis: So I was able to scale it from 2 doors to like 20 doors.

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Jesse Stakes: Nice.

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Dennis: Very, quickly, so.

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Jesse Stakes: All, all single family residences, all duplexes, or did you? Did you? Have you ever done any type of multifamily stuff as well as far as like apartment buildings.

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Dennis: Yeah, earlier, earlier, you know, as I was investing, I was focusing on the single families as I was getting more

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Dennis: comfortable with everything started getting into the fourplexes and stuff.

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Jesse Stakes: A lot less risk, a lot less risk when you're talking about single family residences as far as an investment versus versus, you know, when you start adding adding doors to that single investment, it starts to become a little bit bigger nut to crack.

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Dennis: Yeah. So, depending on where you are. So you're saying that less risk for single family home. Is that what you said.

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Jesse Stakes: Yes, I did, just as far as, and I'm selfishly I'm looking at it from a from a lending perspective, like I mean, that's when you look at it, as far as the risk that you put into put into a single investor. When you, when you have to fill, you know when you have to worry about, consider vacancy rates on multifamily versus like versus, you know, somebody who's, you know, single family residences are typically easier to turn or easier to put somebody in there.

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Dennis: Yeah.

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Dennis: Yeah. Good point. That's probably why I focused on single family in the beginning, because lending was easy. And that's how lenders viewed us, viewed the investment as safe.

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Dennis: But I could. I can say that is very safe for the investor. If you, if you are in a job growth area.

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Dennis: You're not in a job growth area. You're going to really suffer.

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Jesse Stakes: Right.

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Dennis: You're not going to have the pool of tenants that you need to fill in

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Dennis: the vacancy. And how long are they going to stay there, for you know, if you're in an area where job is grow, where jobs are growing.

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Dennis: I find that the tenants stay there longer and

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Dennis: you know, value the property more than

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Dennis: the opposite. If there's no jobs then.

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Dennis: like I invested in areas where there was no job growth, and I was getting tenants like.

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Dennis: Oh, I'm building a house. It's gonna take me a year. I'm going to stay here for a year, and then they're going to leave.

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Dennis: And then where's my next tenant going to come from?

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Jesse Stakes: Right.

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Dennis: You know where, if there was job growth.

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Dennis: Okay, I got all these jobs coming from everywhere. There's a lot of demand, you know. You got part timers you got.

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Dennis: You got seasonal ones or full time ones. So you got more of a pool of

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Dennis: tenants to choose from. So stick. I think job growth should be your number one criteria when wanting to choose single family or multi as well.

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Dennis: but more so. Single family.

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Jesse Stakes: I think it's a fantastic point, and I think a lot of people when they especially if they're if they do something else, if they're trying to take their career and turn it into

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Jesse Stakes: an investment

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Jesse Stakes: as you have. I don't think that they think about those things. I don't think they think about, you know, as far as. And and maybe in today's world it's a little bit different, because there's so much information out there. I mean, my God, you can type in. You could type it into Chat Gpt or into into one of these AI Search search engines, and they probably spit you back a lot of different bullet points that you wouldn't think about, and especially and back. Then you didn't have that so much. But it's a it's a you know, in today's world. Maybe maybe some of that stuff is at your fingertips, but it didn't used to be so.

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Dennis: Yeah.

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Jesse Stakes: You guys are. I think that's fantastic.

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Jesse Stakes: One of the things I wanted to talk about, too, is, I thought you know you and you had shared it with me, but I thought you really turned your previous profession, or what you did when you started your your life into something really cool. Now, can you tell my audience a little bit about your show your podcast that you do, and.

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Dennis: Oh!

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Jesse Stakes: And and kind of how you started that.

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Dennis: Yeah, so you know, I realized.

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Dennis: you know, over the 20 years of me cutting hair.

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Dennis: The the conversations I had were amazing the people I meet are amazing. I I love what I do. I've learned so much from my customers and a lot of things and a lot of stuff I have in my life now are

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Dennis: inspired from my customers.

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Dennis: So for that reason I wanted to start publicizing

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Dennis: what we're talking about in the barbershop, and it doesn't have to be about a particular

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Dennis: niche, or whatever it's whatever

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Dennis: my client has to say I want to. I want to show it off. So I started a podcast on Youtube called Barber up

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Dennis: barber upp, it's 1 word. You can see it on

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Dennis: Youtube. And it's just casual conversation, as if I'm just cutting their hair, and we just forget that the microphone is there.

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Dennis: and we just talk about what? What my my biggest question is, why do you? What do you do, and why you do what you do.

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Jesse Stakes: Yes.

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Dennis: That's how I started off.

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Jesse Stakes: My favorite question.

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Dennis: Yeah, why, what do you do? Why do you do what you do? And then.

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Dennis: so my topics are like, all over one's about health. One's about. Yesterday. We just filmed

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Dennis: an Italian immigrant who came 3 generations ago, and he just spoke about how he came to New York from Italy

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Dennis: and ancestors, and what they went through, and what they, what adversities they had, and how they overcame them.

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Dennis: So that was a good one.

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Jesse Stakes: One was an investor out of Miami.

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Dennis: He owns many

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Dennis: commercial units, you know, retail units up and down Florida. So I had a great conversation with him while I was cutting his hair.

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Dennis: So I got them for about 20 to 30 min.

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Dennis: And you know, when I'm cutting their hair, they just open up and we just talk

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Dennis: casually. So that's been a great thing.

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Jesse Stakes: Absolutely. No, I think that's fantastic, and it's kind of a cool kind of a cool peek into, you know, a little piece of somebody's life like an intimate conversation that you wouldn't. Typically you wouldn't typically be get to be a fly on the wall for it.

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Dennis: Yeah.

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Jesse Stakes: I like that a lot.

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Dennis: That's fun! That's been fun.

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Jesse Stakes: We'll make sure everyone has links to it so they can check it out because it's nice short conversations. Like you said interesting. It's not, doesn't take up a ton of your day, and it's it's a like. I said. I enjoyed it when I checked it out, so thank you very much for sharing with me.

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Dennis: Awesome.

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Jesse Stakes: So you're now. You now live in Florida. Correct.

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Dennis: Yes.

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Jesse Stakes: Don't?

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Jesse Stakes: How did what? How do you like, Florida, compared to living up in up in the up in the northeast.

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Dennis: Well, I'm definitely saving money. I'll tell you that.

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Jesse Stakes: For a minute here it feels like we're getting closer and closer to their cost of living.

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Dennis: Yeah, it is. Yeah. Cost of living definitely has gone up. But the state income tax is great.

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Dennis: We saved about

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Dennis: $2030,000. I was paying like $25,000 in property taxes alone in New Jersey.

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Jesse Stakes: Exist.

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Jesse Stakes: Isn't that crazy? You think about it, I mean, just on the surface of it, like.

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Dennis: I got.

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Jesse Stakes: Insane.

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Dennis: I got 3 kids, and anything I could save for their future is better.

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Dennis: And the school system here in Boca is great, just as comparable as where we were, and we're paying a fraction of the price and taxes

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Dennis: and could put more towards their college savings, you know, with those with that.

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Dennis: plus we have better weather. And we're we're active all year. So that's a good thing. And we're close to the beach. So there's more activities.

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Dennis: So all in all, it's been great.

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Jesse Stakes: So let me ask you this, if you you know. And I know you said the weather's better, which I am. I'm never gonna disagree about that. I've got sand in my shoes, and I'm very happy when it's 80 degrees and above. But when you like, if if the money part of it would not have been

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Jesse Stakes: like a deciding factor.

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Jesse Stakes: Because it's because that was home, and because that was where you were from. Would you have? Would you have stayed there? Would you have thought twice? Would you have ever considered moving if it wouldn't have been for the money part of it, or was it always the plan to try to get somewhere warmer.

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Dennis: It was always the plan, and it kind of went circle for me when Covid hit, because they shut our business down the barbershop for like 90 days.

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Jesse Stakes: Yes.

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Dennis: So my, my oldest was just gonna start 6th grade that year. So it made perfect sense to move them at that point, because I would not want to move her any later than that.

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Dennis: So and my investments have matured in that time, and I've put 20 years in, and everything just came full circle at that point. So.

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Jesse Stakes: Nice.

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Dennis: So yeah, the weather. Everything just came full circle at that.

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Dennis: So.

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Jesse Stakes: No, it's a we've got a you know. It's crazy. I've I'm a i've lived in Florida. I've been a lifelong resident, but it's

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Jesse Stakes: but in the last 5, you know, 5 years, I guess it's been now like when you look at all of the people who came because of Covid Covid really did kind of kind of sparked that move, but it really has been. I think you know it. It wasn't something to where people came here for a minute, and then once things went back to normal. They they, you know, they kind of came, you know. They filtered back out. It's I think I think the secret got out. People love it down here, and I think most people who came are are here to stay.

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Dennis: Yeah, I think Covid was the rude awakening.

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Jesse Stakes: You know.

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Jesse Stakes: I I'll be interested. I'm I'm always curious, like all these States, that seem like I would think they'd be losing money hand over fist, with all, with everyone moving out of them.

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Jesse Stakes: I'm curious at some point. Do you see? States like New Jersey, California, Illinois, some of these places? Do you see them start to roll back some of these taxes or some of these. You know, these heavy, heavy blows that they put on their citizens to live there. I'm curious to see if they try to make it more attractive for people to stay or come back.

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Dennis: Yeah, I mean, it just makes the hurdle bigger. They lost a lot of wealth, you know. We're not coming here just seeing all the people. A lot of business owners come down here.

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Dennis: You know, a lot of wealth is migrating south.

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Dennis: So unless something really happens

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Dennis: up north that they got to start doing that I don't see anything happening anything in the short term.

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Dennis: But there's definitely it definitely is very hard for an investor

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Dennis: to, you know, to have properties and manage them up there because they're tenant favor laws.

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Dennis: Yes, and for the the expense to operate and manage them are very high.

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Dennis: So you definitely have some hurdles, you know, if you're if you're investing in that environment.

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Jesse Stakes: Yeah, it's very. I mean, it just seems to me like it, especially now in today's world. It's incredibly unattractive to be to be there, and I just don't.

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Jesse Stakes: I don't see. I mean 10 years from now. If if everything stays the same.

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Jesse Stakes: I don't see why people would stay there. I mean, it's unless you just have to, or unless it's just, or you know, I mean, I know I do know people who actually love living in New Jersey. Believe it or not. But I mean, it's just not. I mean, there's a lot like anyone who who's migrated down here. They're not looking to go back. So it's I mean at some at some point.

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Jesse Stakes: I just think they have to. They have to be flexible and change in order to to stay semi attractive for people to want to be there, to desire to be there. And then you have, I think, about even like New York City, or places like like a Chicago or some of these huge urban centers where people have historically, they've gone because they have more business opportunities. They have an opportunity to, you know, to quote unquote, make it.

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Jesse Stakes: But but the truth of the matter is is that I feel like you can do that from anywhere in today's world. You don't have to be in any single location to find success when it comes to the stock market, or when it comes to some of these some of these other reasons why people would have moved the textile industries, any of the retail, any of that stuff? I mean, it's global. At this point. You don't. You don't have to be anywhere.

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Dennis: I'm a good example of being a virtual landlord.

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Jesse Stakes: There you go!

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Dennis: I'm doing. I manage all my properties out of state and it's all done by phone.

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Dennis: A lot of it is systematic, you know

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Dennis: I have boots on the ground, for, you know, repairs

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Dennis: clean outs. If there's tenant turnover have a process for that.

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Dennis: So I mean with technology. Now, it's really amazing. You know, tenants can sell you now they could venmo you. Now.

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Dennis: you know, sending a check is like old school.

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Jesse Stakes: Right.

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Dennis: Where in the past it was. You had to wait a week to get your check, or whatever. Now you can get it instantaneously through a Zelle payment or venmo, or

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Dennis: you know, and with security cameras outside your properties, you can see everything on your phone.

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Dennis: So it's pretty amazing. Technology is awesome.

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Jesse Stakes: Absolutely. I can't agree with you more.

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Jesse Stakes: Do you feel like, like, as far as. And I know this is kind of a kind of a left turn here. But, like technology, wise like, I know, you're mentioning some of the payment platforms that you used and and like security cameras

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Jesse Stakes: like as far as is there any type of software within your industry, within the within. The real estate industry that you feel like has been a game changer, whether it's whether it's to find new properties or it's to help manage your properties like, is there some? Is there one piece of technology that you would point out where it really has. You know where you're like that changed my life. That allowed me to be a lot more, you know, have a lot more freedom.

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Dennis: Yeah, so I would. I would say this, my, this one platform

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Dennis: that changed the game for me. It was called prop stream.

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Dennis: Pr. OP. Stream. Are you familiar with that platform?

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Jesse Stakes: I am, I am not. Please share.

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Dennis: Absolutely amazing platform.

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Dennis: You could look up any property in the United States and figure out if it's a pre foreclosure, you could figure out the ownership of the property, you could figure out the equity. You could figure out the value. There is so much information on propstream. It's unbelievable, so that has never been available until like a couple years. I think, like 5 years now, prior to that, it's like flying blind.

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Dennis: So this software, you can look up anything you want a single family land

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Dennis: a little bit multifamily. But it's not like commercial. It's more for residential.

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Dennis: so I could give you a link to that. That's that's a very good one.

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Jesse Stakes: Yeah, absolutely. Especially if you get some sort of residual off of referrals.

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Jesse Stakes: No, I think that's fantastic. And like you said, I mean, it's I think, about every industry has really like. There's, I believe, like I used to. I used to say it about different things within the within. The financial world, like

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Jesse Stakes: like the iphone to me, was one of those things that changed life as we know it, because, like you said everything, you can do everything from the palm of your hand. But it was also so intuitive like when you if you hand anybody an iphone, they can figure out how to use it within a couple of minutes. And so like, I've always, I've always said, like anybody who can do that can do that in their industry. If you can make your piece of software.

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Jesse Stakes: or whatever you're offering to your clients if you can make it the iphone of your industry, if you can make it easy, intuitive, and just people pick it up like it and want to use it.

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Jesse Stakes: It's that's like you said. It's a game changer. It's what you know. That's a huge win for you and for the people who are utilizing it. So I think that's fantastic. Thank you for sharing.

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Dennis: Yeah, yeah, definitely, utilize technology. You gotta definitely leverage that cause it's.

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Jesse Stakes: No doubt.

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Dennis: It's really it could really speed up whatever you're trying to do, whether investing or learning something.

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Dennis: You know, technology, the technology now is amazing.

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Jesse Stakes: 100%.

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Jesse Stakes: Dennis, I've really enjoyed this conversation. Is there anything that you would leave, you know? Leave my guests with something that you'd like them to know about you. If they're interested in getting in touch with you. If they'd like to learn more about, you know kind of what you do, we'll make sure they have links to your podcast, but then, you know, if they're if they'd like to learn more on the real estate side, or if they're, you know, if they're interested in maybe doing something doing something together or there. I know I get people all the time that have

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Jesse Stakes: that have, you know whether it's investments or opportunities like, is there anywhere we like? Is there somewhere? You'd point them to just to get to know you a little better.

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Dennis: Yeah. So I'm really big on coaching, especially having like a mentor by your side. If you're just starting, or if you want to take your, you know, investing to the next level so you could. So I started a little mentorship. You could see me on my website. It's called www.denniscellfl.com DENN IS cell s as in Sam ELLF l. Like Florida

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Dennis: dot com. You could see see me there. You could check out my website. And

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Dennis: if you're interested in any kind of mentorship, it's all there.

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Jesse Stakes: That's fantastic. I think that, you know. I think that's a that's a huge part. If I could reiterate this from my audience, if you're looking to get into investing in real estate, and you haven't done it before, or it's something that's fairly new to you.

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Jesse Stakes: like someone who's offering coaching someone who is offering to, you know, to help be a mentor in that. It's it's worth its weight in gold because

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Jesse Stakes: you you don't want to. You don't want to step in it. You don't want to make huge mistakes, especially upfront, because, you know, you're you're

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Jesse Stakes: you're you're taking a leap of faith in a way you're investing a lot of what your disposable income is or what you have saved. So so you know, if there's opportunities to gain some knowledge to gain some coaching and some mentorship take advantage of it.

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Dennis: Absolutely. It'll save you years of you know. Just time

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Dennis: like those little nuances I told you when I 1st bought my property. I wish I had a mentor to help steer me out of that. Sure. I guess that was something I had to go through.

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Dennis: But definitely, if I had a mentor to steer me away from that I would

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Dennis: I would have so much more.

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Dennis: But you have to learn what you have to learn right.

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Jesse Stakes: That's right. You gotta. You gotta get the education somehow. So but if you can, but if you can get less bruises doing so, I think it's I think it's better, but.

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Dennis: Exactly.

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Jesse Stakes: But the bruises create memories as well.

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Dennis: Anytime.

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Jesse Stakes: They're hard to forget.

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Dennis: Any top athlete has a coach.

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Jesse Stakes: That's true.

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Dennis: Right. It'd be weird if they didn't win it.

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Jesse Stakes: Well, you know, and I think that like a lot of it, it's it's thrown at you early in life. So people people look at it as part of it, like they look at it as saying, You know, if you're going to be in athletics, you get it. You get a coach like it's automatic, it's almost automatic. But when you're talking, when you're talking about, you know investing, or even your career, or any of that stuff you have to. Truly you have to seek out a coach. For the most part no one's no one's running to you saying, Hey, I'd love to be your mentor. I'd love to be your coach. It's something that you have to see. You have to learn that there is value there for yourself, and you have to seek it out.

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Dennis: Exactly.

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Jesse Stakes: So I think this has been fantastic, Dennis, I really appreciate you making the time to talk to me. I'll make sure that my audience has links to your website, to your podcast it's a fantastic listen, it's about, you know, like you said, 2030 min long, easy to listen to on your way to or from work, or watch it at home, since it is on video as well. And and Dennis again. Thank you so much for being a guest, and we look forward to catching you down the road.

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Dennis: Thank you for having me and keep doing what you're doing.