How Brandon Buys Real Estate With Credit Cards

How Brandon Buys Real Estate With Credit Cards | Disruptors Podcast

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Brandon Elliott: Was in a coma for seven days. I was in the kitchen. I was kneeling down. Boom. And all the windows exploded.

I got tossed into the living room. It was about five feet. I got up, and I was on fire. Every every other area of me was, like, red or it was just peeling off. Adrenaline's, like, pumping.

Helicopters over. It was crazy. And all the smoke was, like, getting, like, close to their head. I was like, like, enough is enough. I just gotta surrender.

I gotta give up. I can't fight this anymore.

Steve Trang: Welcome, and thank you for joining us for today's episode of disruptors where millionaires are made. Today, we have Brandon Elliott with Credit Council Elite, and Brandon flew in from San Diego to talk about how he buys real estate using credit cards. Now, guys, I'm on a mission to create a 100 millionaires. The information on the show alone is enough to help become a millionaire. In the next five to seven years, if you'll take consistent action, you'll become one.

And, guys, if you're already a millionaire, we want to recognize you here. So please scan this QR code, to let us know. And, also, if you want help become a millionaire even faster, you can also scan that same QR code. And before we jump in, if you're here to learn how entrepreneurs are building real empires, hit that subscribe button because every week we're dropping lessons that can help you create your first or your next million. And, guys, our AI lead manager is now up and running.

So if you want to hear what our AI lead manager sounds like, text AI caller to the phone number 33777. That's AI space caller. Ready?

Brandon: Let's go.

Steve: Alright. Excited. So, yeah, I'm excited to have you on as well. You know, we were trying to figure this out. There were a lot of logistical challenges.

And even it was it was even hard for you to get here from San Diego, which you shouldn't.

Brandon: Which is close enough. So it shouldn't have been. But, yeah, I'm here, baby. So I appreciate you having me. Thank you.

Steve: Of course. Of course. So let's go ahead and talk about it. What was what was your life like before you got into real estate?

Brandon: I grew up, I always say, American poor. Mhmm. Because when you get to travel the world, you start seeing what other countries poor look like. Yes. Completely different.

So, very blessed, but grew up on section eight food stamps, low local help from, schools and and churches. Right? And so my mom, a single parent mother, raised three misfits. Right? And, and I I'm the middle child.

I was the only boy in the house. And so at a very young age, because I was being told, like, hey. You're the man in the house. You know? You gotta

Steve: Oh, right.

Brandon: Yeah.

Steve: My mom. Yes. Right?

Brandon: And so, my mom was diagnosed of of being manic depressive bipolar at a at a young age from just some childhood trauma that just never got over. And, and it turned into, just a little bit more chaos in the house and drugs being in the house and other things like that at a at a young age. So, I met my father when I was 18 years old in court so he could stop paying child support. Oh. And, and so never really had that male guidance or father figure or any of those things that as you get older, you're like, oh, maybe you don't know what you don't know.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: But, you start realizing over time, like, hey. That could've potentially could've helped.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: Right? It could've hurt too if I had the wrong. Right? So, very blessed, but, I just I feel like at that young age, I was, as any typical kid that, you know, when you're growing up, you keep begging your parents for something. Like, I want a dirt bike.

I want a quad. That's what I kept on asking my mom for because other people in the area had that those types of things. I realized one day after begging her so many times that she just that pain on her face of, like, I can't get you these things. Oh. You know, like, I I'm not gonna be able to supply that.

So, overall, I realized if it was up to if it was up to, me to actually make this happen, it it just had to be in one of those situations. Right?

Steve: Right.

Brandon: So, so, yeah, I just started trying to get out there and try to figure out how to get a job at, nine. It was my first time trying to get a a job. So when she

Steve: told you, like, hey. Look. This isn't gonna happen. Yeah. We were, like, eight or nine.

Brandon: Yeah. Got it. And you could just see, like, the pain on her face. Right? I started at a young age just getting good at reading body language, and it's like, this isn't gonna happen.

So I gotta I gotta stop begging her for it. It's not gonna like, it's not in her possibilities.

Steve: Yeah. I mean, I wonder it's hard to say, and how much emotional awareness you actually had, like, at an age. Because, like, at what point do you realize, like, okay, this is not gonna be, you know is it eight or nine? Is it 13? Yeah.

But, yeah, you you figured that out at a very, very early age. Yeah. And so you look for work at nine years old? Yeah.

Brandon: Yeah. Crazy stuff. Right? So I was, doing some yard work in the neighborhood, cutting grass, pulling weeds, like, random stuff like that. Right?

And then, eventually, I started going to golf courses in the in in the area because there were several Mhmm. Like, close by. At nine years old. Yeah. And so I I was begging them to and I was trying to sell it.

It was a good young young kid. It's kinda funny to think back now, but I was positioning it as a proposition that, like, hey. I'll run around. I'll collect all the balls, and people can I'll put on, like, some hockey gear, and people can aim at me. Like, it'll be awesome.

They're gonna love it. You know? Yeah. It's like happy Gilmore times thinking of it. You know?

And, and they were kinda just laughing back at me saying, like, you need to be 18 and have a driver's license to drive the car and collect the balls. Mhmm. So, anyway, gave up on those things.

Steve: You were denied?

Brandon: I was denied.

Steve: Oh, man. I was denied. Rejected.

Brandon: I was rejected

Steve: Okay.

Brandon: For the first time. Right? Well, many times by my mom, but first time by outsiders. Yeah. So I finally got my first job, legit job at age 12 from a, at our at our church, there was this amazing woman that had a business, a a seafood restaurant Mhmm.

In the family, and she basically brought me in as if as if I was family because you still had to be 18 to work there.

Steve: Mhmm. And

Brandon: so I was working under the table in the back, and it was awesome. You know? Like, I was I was actually getting paid and making money, and I wasn't used to spending money, so I just kept on stacking up money.

Steve: What were you doing?

Brandon: At the restaurant?

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: I was, it was, like, parfait bar. It was, like, desserts and coffee. Okay. And then, eventually, I did, like, the dish machine. It was a huge restaurant that there was just a ton of glasses.

There was, like, three bars there.

Steve: Oh, okay.

Brandon: Yeah. So I was I just the glass machine and another scrubbing dishes. Like, I was going backwards, I think. Right. But that's what happened.

I stayed there for several years. Mhmm. And she really blessed me in so many different ways and taught me a lot of, things to just support myself over time.

Steve: Right. Okay. So you're working in the back of a kitchen

Brandon: Yeah.

Steve: Under the table. Yeah. What'd you do after that?

Brandon: So I, I started, you know, like, I I really wanted to become a, a chef. And so all the chefs there, there was, like, a line of, like, 30 different chefs. It's

Steve: a big restaurant.

Brandon: It was a big restaurant. I'm telling you. It was a lot. And, I don't think

Steve: I've ever seen 30 chefs in the kitchen.

Brandon: Yeah. It was a lot. Yeah. It was aggressive. And they they ended up having they just hated their lives.

Like, they they weren't satisfied with cooking and being a chef, and so they were trying to talk me out of it. But a lot of them did drugs. Mhmm. And so I ended up one of my best friends at the time, he was smoking with some older girls, and I I found out. And it was, like, devastating at first because you grow up in, like, you know, Dare and all these other things.

Like, no. You're not doing that over you. You know, it's bad.

Steve: Those are bad. Yeah. Bad. Yeah. Right?

Brandon: And so, they were smoking marijuana. They invited me too. And the peer pressure, I ended up doing it with some older, beautiful girls, and I was like, yeah. My best friend, them. So, we Pretty hard

Steve: to say no to you. It was

Brandon: pretty hard to say no. Yeah. So I did that, and we just left the whole the whole night. And I realized quickly, like, hey. This was the first time at a young age that I was able to kinda, like, release and, you know, not worry about, finances.

Because at a young age, I was wearing, like, are the lights gonna get turned off? Are are we gonna have the rent money? Are we gonna have these type of things, taken away from us? And so it was just scary. And, and being able to laugh for the first time and kinda relax, and it was it was like, hey.

I like this. I wanna do this more. I wanna be around these girls more. And, but I knew naturally, like, instantly that I wouldn't be able to afford it, and I didn't even know how much it was. I was just like, I probably can't afford this.

This looks expensive.

Steve: Oh, so they were, also spotting you the

Brandon: Yes.

Steve: The marijuana. Yeah. Yeah.

Brandon: Yep. And so when I thought I wanna do this again, but they're gonna ask for money or chipping in, I was like, maybe I can get it, and they could pay me, and I could smoke for free. It was just naturally.

Steve: You're just gonna source it.

Brandon: Yeah. I became a wholesaler really quick. Like, it Right. It was the wildest thing. Yeah.

And, and that's what happened. I ended up, buying from some of the, people at work.

Steve: Like So you went from church boy to getting a job in the kitchen. Yep. So, like, why might as well, like, supply this?

Brandon: Yeah. I might as well supply this. Yeah. It was a it was a hell of a journey Yeah. Really quick.

Alright. Okay.

Steve: Yeah. So but you found the supply, coworkers Yep. To go so I guess your best friend at the time you're saying that he didn't work at the restaurant.

Brandon: He didn't. No. Okay.

Steve: I see. Alright. I for some reason, I I thought that was from the restaurant. Okay. So so then you got some and then you brought it to them Yep.

And had had them

Brandon: They paid me.

Steve: So that plan worked exact it executed well.

Brandon: It executed well, and then I just became in this routine of who else in my circle or other friends. Mhmm. And slowly but surely, it turns into, like, now I'm selling marijuana. Mhmm. And, again, because I wasn't used to spending money or having money, however much I received, I just put into this, you know, this, like, under the mattress type of approach.

You know?

Steve: Very cliche. Like, you just put it in the shoe box.

Brandon: Yeah. Exactly. It was yeah. Exactly this. And so I'm just putting it in the shoe box away in my closet, hiding it from mom Mhmm.

And going back to my drug dealer and saying, like, how much can I get? Mhmm. And so it just get bigger and bigger. And over, like, a few years, it just kept on turning into this that I'm walking away with, you know, briefcases at first with several, you know, four or five pounds in there and then duffle bags, and it turned into ten, fifteen, 20 pounds. Mhmm.

And then it's like you start knowing, like, what you're doing of, like

Steve: Or context. Yeah. Because maybe not everyone knows. I don't know. Yeah.

Fifteen, twenty pound bags.

Brandon: Is that multiple duffle bags? It's like two duffle bags. Yeah.

Steve: Two duffle bags. Yeah. Okay. And, again, it might be exposing, you know, some ignorance here. It's just not from that world.

Brandon: No. It's okay. It's I I appreciate you not being from that world. Okay. I try to keep my surroundings not in those worlds anywhere.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: But yeah. So that's that's what took place, and, and it turned into a circle of people that I couldn't trust. Mhmm. I had, it just turned into a bad lifestyle. You know, I've I've had guns to my head.

Steve: At which point you're like, hey. This is the wrong path. Yeah. Was it that moment?

Brandon: Well, I've I've had guns to my head, knives to my throat. I've had best friends that I hung out with for every single day for two years, you know, plus. Every single day, group of them, five of them, plotted against me and robbed my house a couple days before Christmas. And once I found out, you know, within a a week or two, it was them.

Steve: That it was them?

Brandon: Yeah. It was like, okay. Like, this is wrong. And I also had friends, I would call them more acquaintances, but people in bad neighborhoods that I hung out with frequently that, were getting going to jail or getting murdered in New Jersey. And so it was just one of those situations that it's like, this is becoming way too dangerous.

It's getting too crazy. And I I I fully felt like the path that I was taking, I was going to go to jail. And, and I was just risking too much, and I didn't want that. You know? Right.

I would I could've been killed. You know? There were so many different circumstances that I just wasn't happy with the direction in my life I was going.

Steve: This movie does not play out well.

Brandon: Not good. Yeah. It's not it's not looking good.

Steve: So, obviously, the peers going to prison, getting murdered, like, that wasn't so much a surprise. It was just like, man, that is a real thing. Like, you always knew it was a possibility.

Brandon: You know, it's funny. It's because, like, when people try downplaying, like, marijuana or, like, weed, it's like, oh, it's just weed.

Steve: It's not a big deal.

Brandon: It's not a big deal. And, you know, it's just gateway drug or whatever. It's just, like, it's they play it down like it's just little stuff. You know? Or, like, oh, no.

I'm not addicted to it. You know? Things like that. I can stop anytime, but it's like, but I don't. You know?

And I'm, like, the first person to admit, like, you know, no. I was addicted. I I used it for the good, the bad, the ugly, the everything in between. You know? And so I think it's I didn't the naive in me of being young dumb, I just didn't realize that that could happen.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: I thought, yeah, I could get arrested maybe, and that wouldn't be good. Mhmm. But when I started seeing other people get killed

Steve: That was the wake up call.

Brandon: Yeah. It was extremely crazy.

Steve: And then, your friends robbing you. Yeah. What kind of trust issues? I guess, just walk through the show. What was you know, like, were it it's like a Netflix movie.

Like, what happened?

Brandon: Yeah. So I was out shopping, for Christmas gifts for, like, friends and family. A few days before Christmas, I was with my girlfriend at the time. In New Jersey, like, a mall is, like, forty five minutes away, an hour away. You know?

Everything's kinda more rural and further out. And so, they ended up just plotting against me. One person in the mix got more jealous and so forth because he saw some money that I had, a lot of money. Mhmm. And so they basically plotted against me.

He kinda orchestrated the other guys to do the dirty work, and, they broke into my house when I was gone. So while you were gone?

Steve: Yeah. Okay.

Brandon: Yep. And they stole my safe and a bunch of other things in there.

Steve: I see. Yeah. Okay. So then, how did you find out?

Brandon: I found out from, like, almost just, like, some detective work and just being able to read body language.

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: You know, I started having conversations with a couple of them. And

Steve: hide it well.

Brandon: They, you could just tell something was off Mhmm. And they weren't acting like a real friend of, like, oh my god. What happened? Tell me. Like so I started, just lying to them saying, like, yeah.

Well, I got the cops out there. They got some good fingerprints. You know? Like, we should know in the next day or so. And you could just see them, like, asking more questions about that and, like, sweating it a little bit.

Yeah.

Steve: You're listening, though.

Brandon: I was testing them, and they were failing miserably. And I was like, this looks really freaking suspicious. And before you know it, before I left their well, I did leave their home. Later on that day, one of them comes over, calls me, say, hey. Are you home?

Can I stop by? And he and I was like, yeah. I just saw you a little bit ago. What's up? He came by, and he, you know, returned as much as he could Mhmm.

And, and just started apologizing. A

Steve: fish here.

Brandon: Yeah. Exactly. Deal.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Okay.

Brandon: Yeah. So Good friends. Good friends, to say the least.

Steve: Yeah. I mean, he at least tried to recover something. Yeah. So what kinda how did this affect you, like, moving forward?

Brandon: Trust issues?

Steve: Yeah. Massive trust issues.

Brandon: Yeah.

Steve: Right? I mean, you gotta be a little paranoid after that. If not a lot, paranoid. Super paranoid. If you're a real estate investor with a sales team and you're stuck babysitting reps instead of growing your business, this is for you.

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Brandon: I I was already paranoid before that. Let alone now all my friends. Like, I, I didn't trust anybody. I had family issues as well. I had girlfriend issues.

I had 99 problems. You know? And all of them were a part of it. Yeah. And so it was just one of those it was a bad situation.

Steve: So and this is curiosity for myself here. Please. You bankroll your own operation. You are the bank. I am.

So getting robbed, how do you start over?

Brandon: Yeah. I had, I had certain things stashed away. I had some money. I also had really good relationships with my contacts that they I never had to, but if I was in a crazy circumstance like that, they would from me. There was one situation that when I actually moved to California, I not to fast forward stuff here, but, but I was growing marijuana, and I was mailing it to the East Coast Mhmm.

And and buying some as well. And there was one time that I did get robbed, and I didn't I didn't have anything to start over with. And this is how I accidentally got into credit cards in 0% interest.

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: I figured out how to utilize credit cards, liquidate it into cash, buy 20 pounds of marijuana, mail it. I flew back home because I was so paranoid of, like, I need to make sure everything's perfect. I need to micromanage this Right. And, and make sure that I collected my money so that I could pay back off the credit cards Mhmm. Without getting any fees and all this other stuff.

Yeah. So it was wild.

Steve: Alright. So we there's the titles, how to buy real estate with credit cards, but, really, there's other things you can buy with credit cards.

Brandon: Yeah. You can

Steve: find your your

Brandon: Oh, yeah. Please don't do that. Please buy buy real assets. Like, don't be a moron.

Steve: You know? That's so good. Then knives, you're throwing guns to your head. So let's talk about one each of those circumstances.

Brandon: Yeah. You you don't realize or I didn't. You know? Again, young, dumb. You don't realize the type of like, the decisions we make, it it takes us down a path, and you don't know who has jealousy, envy, or go whatever they're going through.

And, and I was meeting up with some new people at at different times in different weird places.

Steve: It's kinda par for the course, though. Right?

Brandon: It's part of the part of the part of the role. Right?

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: Yeah. And so, yeah, I had one circumstance where I pulled up in the middle of the night into this dark area. I had a dark car. I, like, you know, I pimped it out like a a typical young drug dealing kid would. I had a Mercedes.

I put rims on it. I tinted out the whole all of it. Stupid stuff. Stood out too much. That's why I got pulled over all the time.

Steve: But Yeah. That makes sense.

Brandon: Yeah. But I had, I had somebody get in the car, put a knife, like, right to me, and, and was demanding me to give all my stuff. And, you know, I've I was always very young, dumb, but also, like, the the principle of any certain situation, like, means so much more to me Mhmm. Which is really stupid. Because now it's like, if somebody wanna rob me over anything, it's like, dude, take it.

Whatever you want. Like, I don't care. Like, it's not worth it. Mhmm. You need it more than me, take it.

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: It's all good. I'll get it back. Money will come and go. But back then, like, over any little bit, just for the principle of it, my my ignorance was, like, I would die over anything. Really stupid.

Not like a hero brave moment, just, like, stupid.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: Like, you just don't know. And and so in that circumstance, I I was driving still, and so I was just driving. I started flooring it and starting, like, go like this. And, and so he started panicking and freaking out, and so I was able to, like, like, hold on to his hand a little bit, start pushing out and pushing this guy out of my door as I'm starting to drive, like, kinda crazy.

Steve: You pushed him out of the car.

Brandon: Yeah. Going fast too. It was wild.

Steve: So that's the part we can put in Netflix movie.

Brandon: That was a Netflix movie for sure. Yeah.

Steve: You gotta you gotta have Liam Neeson playing you.

Brandon: Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.

Steve: Alright. And then the gun.

Brandon: The gun situation, that was that was so much more terrifying to me because it it wasn't in a a car or anything that I could get out from. But this was in a bad area too. This was kinda like a hood area. It was more it was a sad situation because I knew their whole family. And this young kid, he was starting to, like, come up and trying to figure out how to hustle and do certain things.

But I knew his whole family, and I took care of like, I helped pay for, like, groceries and stuff at the time for their family in certain ways. And so he asked me to come over, and he asked for a lot, and it was, like, surprising. And I was like, okay. Well, let's see. Mhmm.

This is our first time doing business together, so I was kinda like, you wanna pound right away? This is kinda weird. And then, he was just acting weird with it. Like, it just didn't feel right. I had a gut feeling.

It's like, this doesn't feel right. Like, let me start getting organized cleanup and make sure that I'm not vulnerable here and, like, let me start getting out. And, when I started doing that, he was acting all fidgety. And then, he went in the other room and he pulled out, and he he had a gun. And I we're in the kitchen now, and, it was one of those situations kinda like, if you're gonna shoot, shoot.

And it was it was that was just the ignorance on my side. Mhmm. But I wasn't gonna give up the book bag that had everything in it. Mhmm. And then his his girlfriend was right there too, like, cooking in the kitchen.

Like, stupid stuff. Just like young, dumb, both of us ignorant. And so, it was just one of those situations that I, like, stood right behind her, kinda used used her as a shield and started walking back, and he starts freaking out. Once I got out of the, the the door, then he's just chasing the whole time. Mhmm.

But I didn't have anything. I got in the car. He just aims all over. He didn't shoot or anything, and I just floored the car getting out. I had my cousin in the car as well.

It was just a stupid situation.

Steve: So were which actual event was the one that's like, alright. I am done? That wasn't it.

Brandon: I know. I wish I wish that was that that one right there was, like, that was a lot Mhmm. For me. That was a scary moment. It really was.

I knew after that moment, I had to get out of that neighborhood because there's nothing good happening. Yeah. But that's I I did move to California. I moved to San Diego. I started doing, like, real wholesaling, but, you know, drug related industry.

And I was doing less hand to hand and smaller stuff. I was just growing and buying and mailing stuff Mhmm. To the East Coast and counting on people to do what they're supposed to Mhmm. And pay. Yeah.

But that was those were the circumstances that I realized. I I had my explosion in my apartment in, it was 09/24/2013 Mhmm. Where I was making hash oil in my apartment, and that was the moment that I needed. Like, with my personality type, if I woulda just got, like, a little slap on the wrist, a little rest here and there, something like that, it wouldn't have changed my life. I literally needed to be on fire, have an explosion, and facing all these criminal charges and everything else for me to be like, hey.

You're you're on the wrong path. You need to get off this, and you gotta do something else. I just didn't have any guidance or I didn't know any better.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: You know? Like, I was I had one foot in, one foot out the whole time selling drugs, but I also was in the restaurant industry.

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: And so I just my goals at the time were, eventually, when I moved out to California, it was like, I'm gonna grow so much, make so much money, and then I'll move up north, and I'll buy land where I can grow even more. And then if I make enough money from that, then maybe I can buy a restaurant.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: Now what I know about restaurants and making money with that, that would be the worst thing. Don't do that. Don't do that.

Steve: Just so for context, when you're at the point getting robbed

Brandon: Yeah.

Steve: What kind of money were you making?

Brandon: I was making about a thousand to $2,000 a day.

Steve: Okay. So quarter mil? Yeah. A little bit more. Yeah.

Little more. Okay. Once you got to growing in California Yeah.

Brandon: What

Steve: kind of money are we talking about? I guess, before I answer prefer to answer the question. For California, we're talking legal or illegal?

Brandon: So I had my card. I was doing everything legal.

Steve: On up and up. Yeah. Okay.

Brandon: So that's what made me feel comfortable too. I I was not around all the stinking thinking negative people in New Jersey. Yeah. I was like, everybody smiles over here. I blend in.

Like, no cops are getting me or anything. Yeah. Because I was pulled over, like, a 100 times in my crazy vehicle over there.

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: So I got a different car, got an Acura, didn't tint out all all the you know? Right. And I I blended in, went to the beach a lot, and I it was just one of those it felt like I was leveling up. Mhmm. But I I was probably making about $40,000 a month.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: So nothing, like, crazy, but because I was wholesaling at that, you know, I was I was growing. Mhmm. I was putting a lot of money into that, just keeping me busy.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: And I was smoking a lot. Mhmm. And I was, I was just sending it, you know, bigger packages back home.

Steve: Right. Okay. So then something changed. Yeah. So explain to me the explosion.

Brandon: The explosion is the thing that changed my life completely. It was like you're at this fork in the road. This is where totally like, God took me off of this bad path and put me on a different one. Thank God. Because it was on that day, I was just trying to rush and, so I could go, surfing.

Mhmm. And then I wanted to get a burrito with some friends afterwards. That was my goal. But I was making a bigger batch.

Steve: Goals.

Brandon: I got big goals. Like, that's what I was trying to do that that evening.

Steve: And surfing.

Brandon: Yes. Alright. Important. Alright. In this order.

Yeah. And and so I was grow or I was, making, hash oil and with, like, trimmings and other things, and, you I was using butane as one of the methods. And so I knew that it was dangerous, but I also felt like I've always been like, I've always felt like God has protected me in so many different ways Mhmm. That it's like But

Steve: you've probably done this, like, a thousand times.

Brandon: I for the hash oil, I've done it it was probably, like, twenty, thirty times.

Steve: Yeah. So it's not, like, something that you've never done before.

Brandon: But it was always smaller amounts. This one, it was like a bigger amount, but I was like, ah, it's okay. Mhmm. You know? But it wasn't because, all the fumes built up in the in the room.

Mhmm. And even though everything was turned off, the stove behind it was a electrical stove. That wasn't on, but I guess something behind it sparked with all the fumes, and it popped out of it exploded. It it popped out of the, the wall. Mhmm.

And I was in the kitchen. I was kneeling down. I got tossed into the living room into the living room. It was about five feet. I got up, and I was on fire.

And so I naturally Literally

Steve: on fire.

Brandon: On fire. Yeah. And so I was wearing a white t shirt. It was hash oil. Yeah.

Oil. Yeah. But, basically, it it's like, fumes from, butane cans. Yeah. I just went through a lot of butane cans.

Mhmm. And I was wearing a white T shirt. I was wearing basketball shorts, and I was wearing socks, the socks. And then, also, I was wearing, baseball gloves, which I don't like baseball. But they were just laying around, and I put them on to to, so that I could throw them away after so my hands didn't get all sticky.

And it actually protected me. You can see, you know, skin graft there.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: Right?

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: So my hands could have really been mangled up. My feet, same thing. Every every other area of me was, like, red or it was just peeling off. You know? And so my shirt, I ripped off, but it also burnt into nothing.

It totally disintegrated. And then my shorts turned into almost like a plastic, just, like, small, like, tar. Mhmm. And so I'm naked. I put it back on clothes, And just from the I wanna say the excitement, but the adrenaline's, like, pumping.

And so now I go back to the kitchen. I'm putting out the fire. It it

Steve: was just You were conscious. Like, you didn't, like they didn't knock you out. You were, like No. Dealing with it.

Brandon: I I instantly knew I'm going this is what I was thinking. I'm instantly going to jail, and, like, this is really, really bad because all of the windows in the house, it made a huge pop, a huge boom, and all the windows exploded. Mhmm. There were, like, old windows to this old like, like, this old apartment building. Mhmm.

But I heard the neighbor screaming. There is eight units there, and I'm just in this one corner unit. And so, the whole neighborhood starts coming out. One of my neighbors comes up and gives me a fire extinguisher. You know?

Mhmm.

Steve: And

Brandon: so it was just a crazy circumstance. I see my two dogs. I'm running around, like, trying to get all my paraphernalia into, like, a, a duffle bag and try to, like, throw it somewhere, and I was unplugging all my, plants and my growing, you know, to make it look like, well, it's not related to that because I knew they would be blaming it on that. And I basically got everything all organized. I put it down on my on my, on my couch in the living room, and then I see in my bedroom, my dog's just, like, standing on my bed, and all the smoke was, like, getting, like, close to their head.

And I just, like my heart just melted. I was like, ugh. I'm, like, putting the dogs at risk and, all these people, and it's like like, enough is enough. I just gotta surrender. I gotta give up.

Yeah. You know? Like, I can't fight this anymore.

Steve: It blows my mind that you're conscious Yeah. And aware, like, hyper aware this whole time.

Brandon: It's a unique thing because I've been in other random wild, type of, like, moments where, like, you gotta think quick.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: And I actually do very well in those circumstances, but it feels like time slows down. Right? But you gotta yeah. Like, this is

Steve: your skin's peeling off.

Brandon: It was. So I didn't realize that it's peeling off until I actually settled down, and I went outside. And I had my two dogs on, like, the chains just outside and the ambulance. There was, firefighters as well, but there was, helicopters over. It was crazy.

Made the news for the first time, but it wasn't nothing nothing to be proud of. Not in the right direction. But that's when I looked down, and I just see my skin start, like, melting off. And I'm like, oh god. I you know, I should probably go to the hospital because they were telling me, like, you gotta go, dude.

But everything I smelled horrible. Like, you know, like burnt you've burnt hair before.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: It's bad. Like, the whole body is just like fried chicken. It was bad. Mhmm. It was nasty.

So that was crazy. You jump in the ambulance then and there? Yeah. They take me to the ambulance. They start arrested.

No. Spot. Thank God. Yeah. Okay.

But they start pumping me up with morphine, and they get me to the ambulance. I'm trying to, like, crack jokes with people, like the EMTs and the, ambulance firefighters because we're all in an elevator going up, and, I just smelled horrible. And I

Steve: You're awake this whole time.

Brandon: Yeah. I just felt so bad that they had to, you know Mhmm. Do this. You know? Yeah.

Good people handling this. And so I was making jokes like, you guys should have saw my hair before this and stuff. You know? But once once we got in, they started doing all their stuff. They were putting me down within a few minutes, inducing me into a coma.

I didn't realize, but, they told me I had to go through surgery to start scrubbing off all this stuff. Mhmm. And I would need to get donor skin and, other, attempts to try to make the skin start growing.

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: But before that, the cops came in, a detective, and was asking me questions about the circumstance and so forth.

Steve: It's a bad time, officer.

Brandon: Yeah. Bad time. Bad time. Yeah. And so I was just playing dumb and, like, I don't know.

It was crazy. You know, I was making pasta.

Steve: I'm gonna sue the landlord for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

So they put you in a coma. They used surgery. So how long were you in a coma?

Brandon: I found out I was in a coma for seven days, when I woke up, excruciating pain. So induced coma for a week. They put me through three surgeries. I had to learn how to walk again, which was wild. Like, three weeks bedridden, your legs just give out.

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: And so I started, like, standing up and all, like, all the pins and needles go down, but it's, like, excruciating. It's wild. And, eventually, I got my strength back. And after all the surgeries, all that stuff, I I got released, and, that's when a couple weeks later, I found out that they raided my home, and so it was trashed. My best friend

Steve: Understandably so.

Brandon: Yeah. Because they trashed it, they weren't organized with their raid, and so they missed a lot of areas, where they you know, I found an extra pound of weed in there. I found a bunch of money. Before I left, my apartment too, when I'm chaining up my dogs, I also took, like, two stacks of money, and I put it underneath the sole of my shoe. Mhmm.

So right when I woke up, that was the first thing that I asked for. Like, where's my clothes at? Where's my shoes?

Steve: Mhmm. And it

Brandon: was still there, so that was kinda cool.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: But, yeah, my my friend, organized my home. He started selling off all my stuff, and, and the plan was in a couple weeks, we would move to Colorado.

Speaker 2: Mhmm.

Brandon: Try to just, like, skip town and be done with this because they still didn't never charged me with anything. They weren't they didn't serve me or anything. Until about a couple days before we were about to move, they, it wasn't like a raid, but they came to arrest me

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: At night. And so I was just about to go to bed. They they arrested me as if they served me papers, but they didn't. So I didn't know like, I missed court, basically.

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: And so they came to arrest me. And, that's when I was arrested once when I was younger and got, you know, a little slap on the wrist, went home, had to show up to court couple months later. I I thought it was gonna be something similar. It wasn't. It was, hey.

Your bail is a $100,000, and there's no 10% of that. Like, a 100 thousands owe that's what you and you got these felony charges over you, and you're sleeping here tonight. And I was like, oh, wow. And it was just a it was scary. It was crazy.

It was very, like, jailhouse political.

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: You know, like, jailhouse rules. So that was terrifying because they segregate you in different areas. Wild. And so I stayed in there for for three weeks.

Steve: For them to figure out the trial?

Brandon: I had to go to court several times. I went to court three times. And, the last time that I went to court, it was about a day, maybe two days before Thanksgiving. And the the judge had, just grace for me and just lenience and allowed me to, get released on pretrial services. Mhmm.

So I had to I had to fight it. I had to take it to trial. It was a wild situation. I was fighting five felonies and, and a misdemeanor. It was as if it was the same charges as if I was making meth.

Steve: I see.

Brandon: And so that was very wild to me. Mhmm. But it's also the same type of thing that so many people out there for marijuana, like, downplay. Oh, it's just marijuana. It's like, well, it was I coulda hurt a lot of people.

Yeah. I hurt myself.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: You know? I made a big mess here. So so, yeah, I was facing up to twelve years in prison, and that was wild to me just because the ignorance, I just didn't know.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: And so, I had to go through daily call ins. Monday through Friday, I had to call into the courts and just check-in. Mhmm. And I also had to go to three meetings per week and get signed off, and I had to find a mentor. While that that whole time, I also had to get some money together and, and find a lawyer that was willing to help me out Yeah.

You know, because it was wild. You beat the rap. I did. It was it it was two years later. We kept on postponing it.

Two years later, I had a mentor that guided me and said, like, I have to be prepared for this, to to speak when the time came. They were about to sentence me to five years or I'm sorry, three years. They're giving me five. The the, the judge, she was gonna give me three. The DA was proposing five instead of twelve.

She was gonna give me three, and they gave me the opportunity to speak. I just ranted on for five, ten minutes and then telling my story, and then she ended up having leniency on me, and she just totaled $1.80. She was like, that wasn't it wasn't malicious. You're not gonna do it again. So she gave me house arrest Mhmm.

And, three years probation. Wow. It's crazy. I I was, like, literally about to go in right then and there, and then, yeah, it was just wild experience.

Steve: It's very, very fortunate. Yeah. What was the mentor for?

Brandon: The what? Mentor. The mentor? Yeah. So, basically, because I went to those meetings, it was, like, NA meeting, and, AA or MA.

So they have a marijuana anonymous one, which they a lot of people just made a joke out of it. But I went seriously, and, and I ended up finding a mentor at, like, the AA meetings. Mhmm. And so this was, like, the first male figure that actually, like, saw something in me more than I saw in myself. Yeah.

And so it gave me some hope, and, he gave me some work. And he would just, like, sit there as I'm, like, doing some stuff, and he's just speaking life into me. And so it was, like, what I needed at that time.

Steve: Oh, good. Yeah. So we finally turned into a new leaf.

Brandon: Yeah. Finally.

Steve: Alright. So turning new leaf. Is this when you get into real estate?

Brandon: This is when I got into real estate.

Steve: Yeah. Alright. So when was this all going down?

Brandon: So this was, 2013 is when I I started, working because because I was doing, Kirby vacuum cleaner sales as well, doing door to door, and I got good at that, because my past experience. Yeah. Yeah. It's not a surprise. Right?

Steve: So 02/2013, and you you got all this experience. So, you know, I had a video that went viral a couple years back. Yeah. And the video was basically me talking about, like, my favorite people to hire

Brandon: Oh, yeah.

Steve: Are the people that dealt drugs and never got busted. Never got busted. I talked about, like, what are all the different skill sets that you have. Right? They're good at sales.

They're good at collections. Yeah. They're good at conflict resolution. Yeah. Maybe through force, but we resolve conflict.

Yeah. Yeah. You understood accounts receivable. You understood networking. Yep.

Not afraid of work. Yep. You know how to find the right people as well as the right materials. Yep. A lot of valuable skills.

Brandon: Value stuff. I've never had somebody break it down so eloquently like you have.

Steve: But those are the valuable skills. And I figured this out because, you know, I had my brokerage. Yeah. Right? Stunning Homes Realty, we were up and running.

We were we were around for ten years, like, about ten years exactly before I shut it down. And there was a day where I looked around. I was like, all my best realtors have something in common. They all dealt in high school or college. Yeah.

Right? So I was like, okay. So there's something here. So what is it?

Brandon: Ask, you know, ask each one of them.

Steve: Like, yeah. What were you good at? What do you do? What did you deal? Yeah.

Right? Most of them was marijuana. Yeah. One guy went a little harder. Yeah.

Yeah. Right? And he actually had a similar circumstance where, like, he got out just in time.

Brandon: Right. Because he stopped, like,

Steve: a few days before his house got raided.

Speaker: Yeah.

Steve: Right? And so, like, there was nothing in his house because he had just stopped.

Brandon: Thank god. Right?

Steve: Right. And so, yeah, there's that commonality. It's like, it's no surprise the success you have Yeah. Because you have the relevant experience.

Brandon: Yeah. It definitely comes with drive.

Steve: Experience that helps

Brandon: Yes.

Steve: Transition. Sure. Right. Yeah.

Brandon: I would you know, with the door to door sales, it it helped out drastically, and it got me really excited because now I started getting training for, like, door to door sales. Yeah. I was like, what? This is powerful. Yeah.

You know? And so that was really exciting with all my experience for ten years prior of doing things illegally.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: But, eventually, I knocked on somebody's door, and it was somebody that owned a real estate investing company. And he was like, dude, you gotta work for me. Mhmm. And so I was like, shoot. Okay.

So I checked it out, and and it was the first time that I saw, like, really great amazing systems in place. And it was organized. There was real good money coming in. We there was, like, a whiteboard and just you see all these projects and all the money coming in, and it just felt good. I was like, wow.

This is so inspiring. Mhmm. And, they fell apart about six months later because of, management and money. You know, people getting jealous over money. Mhmm.

So that fell apart.

Steve: You know that experience.

Brandon: I knew that experience, so I saw that coming. So I was like, alright. We're backing up. But it it got me the motivation that I needed. So afterwards, I went down this rabbit hole of all the books, all the podcasts, all the YouTube of trying to figure out, like, how do I actually do this real estate thing?

Mhmm. And I fell in love with the BRRRR strategy. Yeah. And, and so I spent two full years, like, four hours every single day while working two restaurant jobs. So I had one day off a week, but I I managed to put in four hours every day on all that knowledge and, like, focusing on my education.

And that's where it was the first time in my life as I'm reading. Like, I only read a few books before that Mhmm. In my life in school or anything. It was just a couple. And so, when I was actually reading about BRRRR and real estate, it was like I was getting so excited.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: I was like, I know I'm on to something.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. When did you so working for this investment company Yeah. Were you buying properties for them?

Brandon: It was, back then, it was a lot of, notice of defaults, a lot of preforeclosure, so modifications. And, so I was basically going door to door. They would give me a list. I would drive around, go door to door, and try to get them to talk to us Mhmm. And, and sign, you know, an agreement to, do a short sale or anything.

Steve: Okay. So did you buy did you help them buy houses?

Brandon: I didn't I don't think I was that successful with it, honestly. I didn't get too many deals done. It started falling apart. I I was kinda a lone wolf doing it on my own. They didn't give me too much guidance Mhmm.

At first, but I I it was enough motivation when I was in the office seeing the team

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: And seeing how things were going and how to get leads. Like, that was exciting.

Steve: Right. So then how did you get your first deal?

Brandon: My first deal, part of the reason it took two full years is I submitted about 30 I think it was, like, 38 offers Mhmm. On, In two years? In two years. Yeah.

Steve: Not a very good rate.

Brandon: Yeah. Not a good rate. But I got none accepted.

Steve: Even worse rate.

Brandon: Even worse rate. Yeah. These numbers aren't looking good, buddy. Yeah. So it ended up being you know, when you're in San Diego, it's you're going against people like me now.

You're going against people that are sophisticated and all cash, no contingencies, and close in five days.

Steve: Right. You

Brandon: know? Yeah. And so if you find a deal, that is. Mhmm. Otherwise, I was trying to get some, you know, regular FHA financing.

I was trying to do a forty five day close, on the market. So I was just getting beat out by by real investors. You know?

Steve: Got it.

Brandon: Lack of education.

Steve: So then when did you get your first deal?

Brandon: I in 2015, I got my first deal. It was I think it was July 21.

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: I got my first deal, and it was over in Ohio. So there was about In

Steve: San Diego?

Brandon: Yeah. In six months, like, towards the end there of the two years, I started looking in these other states, Colorado, Arizona Mhmm. And then New Jersey because that's where I grew up. And, and then I had three people in one week recommend, yep, check out Ohio. It it cash flows there.

And so everything that I was running numbers to just seemed like a cash flow.

Steve: Well, for about MLS.

Brandon: Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Especially back then.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: And so there I I was looking for something, like job growth, population growth, and then something unique about the area. And so there was a a famous Catholic university that people all around the world would come to. And so it was kinda just a a wild opportunity. They just announced the semester before that they had no more room for juniors or seniors Mhmm. So that they would have to get housing outside.

I was like, perfect. And so there's other a couple investors in that area, two that were elderly, like, eighties and nineties, that their family was trying to get them to sell before they pass, and then another one that was he was, like, forty, fifty, but he, he was getting a divorce and his court ordered to sell, like, 50 of his properties.

Steve: Got it.

Brandon: 50. 50. It was a lot. So it was just like it was a buyer's market, hardcore in this area, and nobody knew about it. And it just it made sense for me to go after it.

Steve: Did you buy all 50?

Brandon: No. No. I I, you know, I started off with a big list. It was, like, 200 something. Got it down to $1.20.

Got it down to 60. Viewed 30. And, and I had a list at the end of, like, five that I was submitting offers on.

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: I purchased one. And then two months to the day, I purchased and closed on a triplex. Mhmm. So out of those five.

Steve: Got it.

Brandon: And so I made all the mistakes on the first one.

Steve: Like what?

Brandon: Contractors, specifically. I even though I was using credit cards to purchase and fund the renovation, I liquidated the cards in cash and gave the contractors the cash instead of paying the yeah. They're just like, alright. See you. Yeah.

Yeah. So, but luckily, that triplex ended up saving me on all the mistakes that I did, you know, at cash flowed. It needed very little work. Yeah. So that saved me.

Steve: So right off the bat then, going to Ohio was a success.

Brandon: It was it was you know, it takes there's a lot of roller coasters of, like, ups, downs of, like, is this right? Is it you know, fear because you don't know. And I didn't have a coach or guidance to say, like, oh, it's okay. Trust the process. Mhmm.

So there's a lot of ups and downs. But within the first six to, twelve months of stabilizing it

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: I'm like, cool. This works. So I can do it again now.

Steve: Okay. So this whole time you're working in a restaurant two restaurant jobs

Brandon: Yeah.

Steve: And you're buying these things off the MLS. Yep. Okay. So then how many did you buy before you

Brandon: The next the next year, it took a a year to stabilize those two. The next year, I bought 10.

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: And, and that just went a a heck of a lot quicker. I bought four, basically, at a time. Got it. And, yeah, it just started setting me up for, building systems, building people. Mhmm.

And it also forced me to systemize the process behind it because I'm naturally a little bit more of a control freak. And because I was 3,000 miles away in San Diego, like, it forced me to systemize it because I couldn't be there all the time. If it was right down the street, I would have been there every day.

Steve: What were some of the biggest challenges, as you're buying the portfolio? I mean, like, four to 10 to Yeah. I mean, these are big jumps.

Brandon: Yeah. It was just realizing when I did the refinance and I got all my money back and it's still cash flowed, back then, I was I was making, like, $1,900 a month off the restaurant. Mhmm. I'm giving forty hours a week. Yeah.

So when I got a triplex, and I'm making 21,000 a month Mhmm. And it pays for the mortgage, and I also got all my money back

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: From doing the BRRR.

Steve: 21,000 a month?

Brandon: 2,100 a month. 2,100

Steve: a month. Okay. So 2,100 a month. So yeah.

Brandon: It's already making more, and it's just one property.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: And that one was easy. Mhmm. The first one, ton of mistakes. It took a full year, five contractors. I lost 35,000.

Like, I made mistakes on that one, but the second one gave me hope. Yeah. And it was like, oh, I put $7 into it. It already had one tenant. It already paid the mortgage.

The mortgage was, 450.

Steve: Really paid the mortgage?

Brandon: It it paid so one the first, unit already had $600 a month, and I knew I could increase it. Mhmm. So, eventually, once I rented out the other two, I was like, oh, this is great.

Steve: Yeah. It's easy.

Brandon: It's easy. I can do this.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: So once I I just realized that that motivation, I just hustled and I got the, you know, bunch of opportunities in that area. I started looking for the best ones and building, the right people to be able to get it done. What do

Steve: you mean the right people?

Brandon: Just realizing, like like, I needed to get the right connections for contractors because I was doing the BRRRR. I had all of these properties had renovations that were needed. Mhmm. You know? Got it.

Steve: I needed manage the properties on their on their rehab.

Brandon: Yeah. I needed boots on ground to help me fill the vacancies too. You know? And I I tried getting property management companies and realized, like, in that area, they were all just criminals. They were crooks.

They were bad. They're bad.

Steve: Why I why were they bad?

Brandon: The reviews, the not just pocketing money, not communicating properly. And even back then, like, I wasn't a great leader.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: You know? So it's like, I wouldn't have known. I definitely would have gotten manipulated in those situations.

Steve: Yeah. Product management is funny. It's just one of those industries where, like, everyone hates you. It doesn't matter

Brandon: It's tough.

Steve: Doesn't really matter how good you are.

Brandon: Well, if you could get good. I you know, I've heard of, some really good companies that for property management. Yeah.

Steve: You know? But even when you're great, someone hates you.

Brandon: Yeah. Somebody does hate

Steve: you. Is this right? Landlord or the tenant?

Brandon: Yes. Yes.

Steve: Doesn't matter. Someone like I don't know if it's possible to have, like, five stars from the landlord and the tenant. That's so true. That's tough. Okay.

So then you get this going. You're up and running. I mean, how long did you go down this road before you start looking at, like, credit cards as a way to service your goals?

Brandon: Well, that that was actually in the very beginning. That was the two years test. Like, once I've read and realized BRRRR was gonna change my life, I was like, cool. How are we gonna do this?

Steve: Right.

Brandon: And because I was broke. I was in $10 it was $11 worth of debt for the very first time in my life because I blew up that apartment. And so that was terrifying, being in $11 worth of debt. Mhmm. Terrifying.

Steve: That was the first time you were in debt.

Brandon: That was the first time I was in debt. Something powerful there. It is. Yeah. So But I didn't go to college.

I I, you know, I hustled in I always had a job. I never didn't have a job, and I was selling drugs.

Steve: Right. Well, I just think, like, we were such a consumer driven society. True. Like, you know, right now there's a lot of arguments about the tariffs and this and that. Yeah.

Right? And the one leverage America has, which isn't a good thing, is that we are a consumer society. Yeah. Everyone's up to their eyeballs. But

Brandon: we buy.

Steve: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, every other country is like, why are you why are you in debt? Yep.

Here, it's like, how much debt do you need? Yeah. Right?

Brandon: Again, back then, I grew up poor.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: Like, we didn't have money to spend money. So, therefore, when I started getting money, I just hoarded it.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: I would just buy more.

Steve: I think that's what you did.

Brandon: I'm not sure What I did.

Steve: I'm not sure that's necessarily normal. I don't know.

Brandon: True. There there is a lot of people when they start making money, they start blowing money.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: For sure. For sure. That just wasn't and and don't get me wrong. I definitely spent money too.

Steve: Yeah. You know? Spent cash. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Brandon: I did.

Steve: Okay. So right off the bat, we're gonna BRRRR with credit cards.

Brandon: Yes. That was my only way. Yeah. I I ended up, getting out of the drug game. And for the two years when I was out and like, I was done and I was fighting the pretrial services, I was, getting out of 11,000 worth of debt.

I did that within one year.

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: They were shocked from that. And then afterwards Who

Steve: were shocked from that?

Brandon: The property management company. Mhmm. And then after that, I ended up saving 35,000, all just, like, you know, wouldn't say slave labor, but, like, I was just, like, working around the clock, you know, for minimum wage and and so forth. And so I saved up 35,000, and and that's all I had to get started in real estate. But, again, it doesn't go far, you know.

Steve: For down payments and repairs and everything else. Yeah. Yeah.

Brandon: So I I still knew I would need to utilize it made me go back to the time where I remember when I got robbed, and I used my credit cards to be able to do a balance transfer and and get kinda like a cash advance into my bank account. Yeah. And I was like, I wonder if I could do that again. Mhmm. Because I still had a very poverty mindset around money.

I put it on a pedestal. It controlled me all the time. So it's like, I I was cheap. I wanted to pay nothing for the money. I wanted to borrow the money, but, like, you know

Steve: Don't pay interest on it.

Brandon: I was thinking, well, look. I'm gonna I just need the money temporarily. I'm gonna buy it. I'm gonna renovate it, and then I'll refinance it. You know?

Whatever. Like, don't charge me that much. But, that's that's where I started figuring out going down this rabbit hole, not just real estate, but also credit and finances and, like, you know, how to how to be able to capitalize off of this.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So then, you know, we talk about the title of the show is, you know, how you buy real estate or credit cards. Yeah.

How do you go about buying real estate with credit cards?

Brandon: Yeah. Simple. Right? So everybody asks, like, alright, Brandon. Well, you can't actually utilize a a credit card at escrow.

Right? Yeah.

Steve: It's on merchant processing.

Brandon: Yeah. Yeah. So there there are, merchant processors. Right? And then there are also, you can call like, what I did initially was the very simple methods.

Call up your bank and ask them, is there a promotional rate with either a balance transfer or a cash advance? Mhmm. Those are the two terms that they're gonna be educated and aware on. So if you say, like, hey. I need this money, liquid, into cash Mhmm.

From this credit card, balance transfer, cash advance, but I don't wanna pay crazy fees on it.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: Is there a promotional rate behind the scene? And, with big banks, you'll see that more commonly. But nowadays, they'll they'll charge you, you know, one to even 5%. Mhmm. So it's just flat fee, but zero percent for six to twenty four months, typically.

Usually, 18 is the average.

Steve: So you just call your banks

Brandon: Yeah.

Steve: That you bank with or you have credit cards with.

Brandon: Correct.

Steve: Yep. It's that simple.

Brandon: That would it was that simple of all the methods that I've ever done. You can also use different websites like plasticmhmm..com or, milo. Mhmm. And so there's different resources like that. There's other ones too, like bill.com or Zill Zill Money.

Steve: This is basically in lieu of private money for the BRRRR model.

Brandon: Yeah. Yep. I didn't have faith at all that anybody in their right mind would ever lend to me some young kid that had, like the DA said a bunch of horrible things about me, and I'm believing it. I'm like, yeah. I am a criminal.

I did all the wrong things. I'm not a good person to be you know? Yeah. And so I had a low self esteem. I didn't come from money.

I didn't have any friends that had money at the time, you know, and so I didn't even think it was an option.

Steve: Right. So how much credit card were you able to pull? I mean, like, if you don't have much debt, the other thing too Yeah. Is your credit score is normally not very good either.

Brandon: It no. So I did all the right things, by every six months requesting credit limit increases. Mhmm. So I had decent sized limits. I had 65, 75 k credit card limits

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: At a young age.

Steve: Right. Crazy. So you were always just already back then calling to extend your line.

Brandon: Yes. And I also did use my credit cards daily Mhmm. For most things except the drug stuff back then.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: But I would pay it off at the end of the day Mhmm. Because I didn't wanna go into debt. I didn't wanna pay any interest. So I was taking advantage of it. And, and, again, cheap mindset.

So I was like, I get 3%, you know, cashback for the gas station. I'm using it there. You know? Just whatever I could to save money. And so that's where I had decent sized limits, and that was the first thing that came into my mind is, like, why I have this big credit card limit.

I'm not using all of it. Zero right now, but I have 75,000 available. How do I actually use it all? Right. And so that's where, because I already had a bank relationship, because I called in, I knew what to say.

I ended up getting it liquid into cash into my bank. Mhmm. And at first, they're always gonna tell you, you know, ways to do, like, a mortgage or, but I didn't qualify for any of that stuff. Or if I did, it was very low limits. You know?

Steve: So So are you saying then that you bought the entire house on credit cards?

Brandon: My I purchased several properties with credit cards initially.

Steve: We're talking like, what's the what's the purchase price on these houses?

Brandon: My very first one, it was $9,000.

Steve: How much? 9. $9,000

Brandon: Yes.

Steve: Per house.

Brandon: So it tells you a couple things here. Back then, it was 2,015. Yeah. Also, it's Ohio. Yeah.

Also, it's in the hood. Mhmm.

Steve: What part of Ohio?

Brandon: It was, it's called Steubenville, but it's it's about thirty minutes away from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Steve: Got it. Yeah. I was, for a period of time, I was looking at buying just basically everything in Toledo. Yeah. Because Toledo is so freaking cheap.

Yeah. Yeah. Why is it so cheap?

Brandon: Well, because people don't wanna live there. Be no. Because it's, it's a different world in these areas. It really is. The population, it was, like, eighteen, nineteen thousand

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: People. And, it's just a lot of dilapidated properties

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: Because people hung on to them. They were doing their own maintenance work or not. Yeah. And people were getting old and you know? So it's just kinda it was bad in many ways.

Steve: Yeah. Because the house I was looking is like, alright. Well, these houses are great prices, but, like, the rehab is always more than the house.

Brandon: Yeah. Of course. Yeah. Was that For sure.

Steve: When you're buying all these houses, it was basically, like, I'm gonna buy this house, but the rehab is gonna be more.

Brandon: Yeah. My second property I bought, it was $60,000 it was 60,500 for a triplex. I put $7 into it. It was good to go.

Steve: Mhmm. K?

Brandon: But it started pumping money for me. These places don't appreciate like crazy, but they, cash flow like crazy.

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: And so that's I was I was pumped for that. Another property down the street, couple houses down, I bought a triplex for 20,000, and I put 90,000 into it. Yeah. Yeah. But it appraised for $1.50.

I got all my money back for all these. You know? I just sold all my Ohio properties actually this this year.

Steve: Really?

Brandon: Yeah. Just this year. Why? Because last year, I read the book, 10 x is easier than two x. Mhmm.

And it just were anybody that didn't, you know, read that book, it comes down to the eighty twenty rule. And it's just, you know, realizing, the 20% of what's making me money and keeping me happy and, you know, feeling good, it's getting it's getting, you know, the 80% is sucking up and and wasting my time. So even though we systemized it, and I'm only putting in a couple hours per month towards that, I don't need $10,000 in cash flow anymore. Mhmm. That's not the season I'm in anymore.

It was great back then. Super needed.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: But I need less distractions. I need laser beam focus on this over here. You know? What's this? This is Credit Counsel Elite.

It's what I'm most passionate about in addition to our real estate in California in general.

Steve: Okay. So we just sold everything in in in Ohio. Yeah. So you say you're focused right now on Credit Council Elite and your real estate in San Diego.

Brandon: Yes.

Steve: Talk to me about your real estate in San Diego.

Brandon: Real estate in San Diego, I'm not taking down a dozen properties per month. I'm taking down one or two properties per year, but I cherry pick. Mhmm. Like, I'm looking for the best of the best that I'm gonna make a minimum of a quarter million, but ideally closer to a half 1,000,000. Mhmm.

And so we've done this numerous times where I'm walking away within ninety days, you know, $475,000. Yeah. Or we just did another property that I had a million dollars in equity. So I was like, yeah. I'm refinancing it.

I'm taking all the cash flow, like, the the tax free money.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: And we're doing Airbnb. And so doing cost segregation, taxes, you know, all all the things. And it just appreciates so well in California. You should never bet on that, by the way. But if I can get all my money back doing the BRRRR strategy, get paid for doing it, short periods of time, have a beautiful product, and, like, get the tax benefits, which I need Mhmm.

And it's like, why not? Hang on to it for a few years. It's it's been awesome. We're about to do, ground up construction too because of ADUs over there.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: Yeah. And so I can build for $300 a square foot. Mhmm. But it call like, that's how much it costs me. It's gonna be valued at, like, 900 a square foot afterwards.

Steve: Yeah. ADUs is insane. So for those that

Brandon: Why not?

Steve: Don't know Yeah. About ADUs, I want you to get everyone up to speed.

Brandon: Yeah. So ADU, it it stands for excessive dwelling unit. Mhmm. Basically, it's just if you have the land Mhmm. And, on the parcel.

Right? Backyard, side yard. In California, they'll get away with, like, a mini junior ADU where they're putting a couple 100 square feet. Like, it's basically a, a, like a shed. You know?

Treehouse. It's crazy. It's a treehouse. But, but luckily, some of the properties that we own, we've been able to have decent amount of land Mhmm. Which is great because I'm about to build four units on one and, turn turn into, like, the projects.

You know? It's in a beautiful area, though. It's great. And then I'm building three in another. Mhmm.

You know, converting a garage and then doing two units in the back. Yeah. And so it's, you know, ground up construction. I haven't done it yet. So, it's just from what I understand from my knowledge in it, but it's gonna be faster.

It's gonna be cleaner and easier, you know, because it's not you know, we've done so many renovations. Mhmm. This is starting from the beginning, and and, you know, it's gonna be a four to six month process.

Steve: So we're not gonna do the deal unless we make a quarter mil. Yeah. Where are you finding these deals?

Brandon: Yeah. It's it's building relationships and letting people know that I'm serious, and this is my criteria that I'm looking for. So we get bunch of agents and wholesalers sending me off market pocket listings and so forth. And so it's it's, like I said, we get several across my desk per week, and I'm only taking down one or two per year. But I see people making mistakes in real estate, especially in California.

It's like it's a 7 figure price tag to be able to get in and play around, and then you're okay with making potentially, you know, penciling out numbers $50. But what about the miscellaneous or when, holding costs take longer or anything?

Steve: Shifting the winds.

Brandon: Everything. You know what I'm saying? Anything could happen. And that's why for me, to make it worth my time Mhmm. Because we do very well with Credit Council Elite and other our rentals in general, like, we collect 50,000 a month off of that.

Yeah. So super blessed. I don't need to do those things. I don't need to put myself at at risk of you know? So I'd rather go for a quarter million on the low end, but aim for half a mil you know, half 1,000,000 per project.

Steve: So what is a project like where you're clearing let's talk about a half a mil. You clear half a mil on a project. What what is happening in this project?

Brandon: We do the full renovation. We're doing, you know,

Steve: usually deal someone sent someone else sent to you? Yeah. Someone else sends a deal. Yep. You look at it.

You underwrite it. Yep. And then you

Brandon: We do all cash, no contingencies, close in five to seven days. Mhmm. We beat out 20 other people that are on, and I'll I'll go hard right away, and I'll put anywhere from 20 to 50,000. I put a 100,000 down in the past Mhmm. Just to show, like, oh, like, he's serious.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: You

Steve: know? That's very serious.

Brandon: Yeah. Because it it anybody else, there's only, like, out of 20 other offers, there's maybe one or two people. Instead of putting 5 or $10 down, they're putting $20 down to make themselves look serious. Yeah. When I come in at 50 or $100, they're like, oh, he's, like, serious, serious.

Mhmm. So it just it puts all the nonsense in the you get more of their attention.

Steve: We had, long, long time ago when I was doing, realtor stuff. Yeah. To get our contracts accepted, our earnest money was the purchase price. Power. Right?

It's like, hey. Look. We're going to fund you the purchase

Brandon: price Yeah.

Steve: As soon as we open escrow so that you know we're not messing around. Yeah. Like, we are closing on this deal. Yes. Yeah.

Brandon: Because you always gotta put yourself in the in the seller shoes. Yeah. They have fear. Are you going to perform? Mhmm.

They don't wanna waste their time.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: They wanna know, like, hey. We're closing on this if I'm signing on it, and I can start planning my my getaway. Like, I'm going to whatever's next for them.

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: So they don't want any of the BS Yeah. Which is cool. I don't either.

Steve: So it's a complete remodel?

Brandon: Complete. Yeah. Gutted you know, opening up walls, kitchens, bathrooms, trying to add rooms or add bathrooms

Speaker: Mhmm.

Brandon: Paint, flooring, all the all the things.

Steve: Yeah. And then when did Credit Council Elite become a thing?

Brandon: Credit Council Elite became a thing in 2017. 2015, I started doing the real estate, and throughout the next two years afterwards, I started networking a lot, going to, you know, networking meetings and, investing in some mastermind groups and started realizing that when I'm networking, everybody hears my story about real estate. They're like, wow. That's awesome. You have no money into the deals.

You're making this much cash flow. Great. That's crazy. I wanna do that too. Everybody says they wanna do real estate.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: And then I'm like, cool. So what's like, when are we gonna do it? You're gonna do it? And they're like, well, once I make money over here. And I was asking I was, like, thinking to myself, like, what if you don't make money over there?

Like, well, like, how long is that gonna take? Yeah. Because it didn't take me long. It took me a while before I, like, finally got the guts to actually, like, buy real estate. Right?

Mhmm. Took me two years. Yeah. But when I started doing it, it was like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And so I was just asking myself, what if that isn't successful?

Or, like, I didn't have the money either. Mhmm. And so I ended up using credit cards. And so I started just, like, holding them for a second, like, what if you just use credit cards? They're like, what are you talking about?

You know? And so it just turned into something that I started, like, coaching a couple people just free, just like anybody that cared to listen.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: And they started doing it, and they started getting results, like, quick. Mhmm. And within a couple weeks, people are getting contracts under, you know, deals under contract, doing the same process that I did. It was working. They got credit cards.

They purchased it with credit cards. They were doing renovations with credit cards. And I helped out probably, like, a dozen people. And then I went to this one, mastermind. It was in Tulum or sorry.

It was, Cancun. And there was, like, a 160 other real estate investors there. And we were all just networking by the pool. It was for a full week. And I was telling my story how I was doing it with credit cards, and everybody asked so many questions that went around to the to the host.

And they asked me privately to, like, come up on stage and talk about it. And I'm super introvert naturally, and I was like Really? Yeah. Yeah. I've got I push out of my comfort zone after a lot.

But they asked me to come on stage and, just, like, q and a about credit cards, and I started teaching people and every a 160 people there. They all got super excited, started learning about it. And, we had 30 people reach out to me afterwards saying that they wanted to pay me to to learn this stuff. So I just threw out a number. Yeah.

And I had 20 people say yes to $5. It was crazy. It blew me away. That's where That

Steve: was a good mastermind.

Brandon: That was a great mastermind. I paid 10 k to get there. It was all, like, high level people.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: But it was one of those situations that I realized right then and there that I didn't need to have the the restaurant job, and I still didn't leave right away. It took me a while. Still working the restaurant? Still working the restaurant.

Steve: You're doing all these deals.

Brandon: 2017 is when we stopped the restaurant. Yeah. Yeah. But that's because, like, slightly after that, I was doing, I'm not a quitter naturally, so I ended up getting fired because I wasn't showing I was still taking, like, all these calls, like, real estate.

Steve: Yeah. We need to focus on the

Brandon: Yeah. Like, we got dishes over there, homeboy. Like, you

Steve: gotta The food's getting cold.

Brandon: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So, it was just one of those it was a crazy situation. I I'm still mind blown just thinking about it because that's what that was, like, the big pivotal moment.

Steve: I mean, that's proof of concept. 100 20 people give you 5 k.

Brandon: A lot. That was a huge that was way more than I could have ever imagined. Yeah. You know?

Steve: So alright. So then, boom. This is happening. At this point now,

Brandon: are you married? No. I we just got married actually, last year in October, 10/12/2024.

Steve: Awesome.

Brandon: We've been together since 2015, since the very beginning. I was on house arrest.

Steve: Okay. She didn't know. She was the one. Oh, she didn't know?

Brandon: She didn't know at the time Okay. Until, like She's

Steve: figured this out.

Brandon: Yeah. She's figured it out. Yeah. She's she's noticed now. I'm not on it anymore, luckily.

Steve: Alright. So she's on this journey with you then on Credit Council Elite.

Brandon: Oh, yeah.

Steve: Alright. So then and and and and growing Credit Council Elite, like, what have you figured out along the way, like, as far as, like, people's beliefs, systems, credit cards, this and that? Like, what what has surprised you in doing this?

Speaker: I'm filming this video for the man himself, mister Ian Ross. So Guy Croft, he's the guy's the best person in sales I've ever seen. I've invested elsewhere, and

Brandon: I haven't

Speaker: got the same results. I've gone from being a seller, making 5 k a month, to being a hybrid role, making 11 k a month, to now be four months down the line from 5 k to on a closing opportunity, inbound, full calendar with the best opportunity, the best offer in my space. OTE is around 20 k a month from month two.

Steve: So I've

Speaker: gone from 5 k to 20 k. If that's not a return on your investment, I don't know what it is, man. If you're a salesperson, you don't invest in sales training, you're gonna get left behind because your job is to be better sales, and sales training directly makes you more money.

Speaker 3: If you like what you just heard and would like similar types of success, text close to 33777, and we'll see if you qualify to join objection proof selling. We're taking good sales reps, and we're making them objection proof.

Brandon: Yeah. There's number one, there's there's tons of myths out there about credit and what we grew up believing to be true about financial literacy or the banking system in general. So, there's a lot of nonsense with that. And I've also noticed that it is a real life game. Like, Monopoly, like, when we play the board game Monopoly, when you pass go, you're supposed to collect what?

Steve: $200.

Brandon: Exactly. We all know this. Mhmm. Right? Because it's the rules to the game.

If you're playing Monopoly, but you don't know the rules to the game, you're not collecting your $200. Right. And if you're playing with my family, they're not telling you. You know what I'm saying? So so it just it started breaking down to me that all there's all of us have, like, some bank out there that we have a pet peeve with.

Like, Wells Fargo sucks. Bank of America, the worst. Definitely Wells Fargo. That's what I

Steve: was saying. It's like A 100% Wells Fargo. There there's

Brandon: no argument here. There's no argument. There's no argument. But this is the thing. We we think that the the banks don't want to lend to us.

Mhmm. They have to lend to us. Yeah. That's the business that they are in. Right.

They're looking for low risk Mhmm. And high risk and avoid the high risk. Right? Right. And know, like, and trust factor.

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: So so many people apply to banks, but don't even have a bank account with them.

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: Yeah. It doesn't it's like there's there's rules to the game that they're judging us by that they didn't teach us in school. They didn't teach us at at the dinner table growing up. But it's important for us to know because they have algorithms to see if we're going to be low risk or not.

Steve: Right. Likelihood of getting paid back. Yeah. Yeah.

Brandon: And so once you understand some of those rules, you understand that it's real life monopoly. There's a real life game here. Mhmm. And to be able to fit within their box of lending, you wanna say the right things. You wanna position yourself properly.

And so we've come up with 45 different metrics that we've noticed that the banks are using to to judge us. Mhmm. And, and once you understand them to a core, then you can actually start positioning yourself to you know, it's not just about your FICO score. No. It's not just about your FICO score.

Steve: So what are some of those metrics?

Brandon: So at at first, it it's broken down into, like, three pieces here. Not just about your FICO score, it's about your six boxes. That breaks off 10 different pieces of, that make up your FICO score. Mhmm. You know?

So that's very important.

Steve: But you

Brandon: could have we've had stories of, you know, this one member. He came in brand new, started getting some education, but still brand new, you know, fresh. Looking at his sister's credit profile, she had an 840 FICO score. It's like, well, it doesn't get much better than that. It goes up to 850.

Right? Yeah. So he he's thinking because it's we grew up thinking it's about your FICO score Mhmm. When it's not. He's thinking, cool.

She'll get a she'll get approved for everything. They applied to seven different applications one after another, denied, denied, denied, denied, denied. And so it tells you it's not just about your FICO score. It's it's about the bank relationship second. So six boxes, bank relationship.

How long you've been with them? What are you you know, what's your entity, the industry? How many products and services are you taking advantage of? What's the internal rating, how much money is going in versus going out over the last thirty, sixty, ninety days, or even six months, some banks will judge. You know, all of this matters.

And then last is what you're saying on these applications.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: You know, it's, if if you're shooting yourself in the foot saying, hey. I'm a I'm a, you know, I love teachers, but it sucks because it's not in teacher's favor. But if you say I have my teacher, making $40.50 grand a year, and then, oh, oh, by the way, I live in New York, and my rent is, you know, like Yeah. All of that Mhmm. Then they're gonna be like, high risk.

Steve: Alright.

Brandon: Good person, probably good steward of the fund. Yeah.

Steve: But you. I'll give you $20 on my own to lend you.

Brandon: Yeah. Yeah. Like, they're gonna give you small limits if they approve you at all. Right. So to be able to say get them to say yes a majority of the time Mhmm.

And, and be able to get the best terms, best conditions, and highest limits, we've come up with, basically, we we call it a mass apply. A mass apply is simply just an application sequence. When done correctly, you'll be able to get up to 90% approval odds. Yeah. And that's where we teach business owners how to get up to 500,000 with rates as low as 0%.

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: And they can actually repeat this every six months per person. They have the option for that.

Steve: Like, 500 k every six months?

Brandon: Up to 500 every six months. We've had people get higher than that as well.

Steve: But You're saying in a year, someone can get to a million dollars Yeah. Credit. Yep. Wow. So it it's interesting you talk about, like, you know, the relationship with each bank.

So I have a interesting history with, you know, with Chase Bank. Yeah. I had a a business credit card with them. Yeah. That was pretty high.

Right? Like, I I was pretty close to maxing out.

Brandon: High balance.

Steve: Yeah. High balance. But I never missed the payment. Not once, ever. Always made more than my minimum payment.

Right? Sure. It wasn't paid off, but it was always more than minimum payment, and it was really high balance. Yep. As I was a realtor, this is, like, you know, '20 2009, 2010, not a good time to be a realtor.

Brandon: Was it a personal or business? It was business.

Steve: It was business card.

Brandon: Good.

Steve: And so what was interesting was at this time so it was 2009 because I was letting my house go into foreclosure Yeah. Because the only way you can get a loan mod done Yep. Was you had to miss payments. Yeah. You, like, you could not negotiate in good faith Sure.

With a current mortgage.

Brandon: So what happened though is your score starts going down. Right?

Steve: Right. Which is not what I wanted, but, again, they They

Brandon: had to.

Steve: They won't negotiate with you if you're current on your mortgage. So, alright. Well, then let's let's let this house go to foreclosure.

Brandon: So let me read your mind. So, basically, they either closed out your account or they cut your limits down to nothing. Right? And said, you owe it all now?

Steve: Oh, no. They said, they they just froze it. They froze it. So they just said, like, hey. It's we're not gonna you know, you can't charge anymore.

Like, the house not canceled. It's not due in full. But we they just said, like, well, mister Trang, we don't believe you can ever pay this off.

Brandon: Back.

Steve: Yeah. I was like, well, that's unfortunate. Because, like, I had, like, a big month coming. Sure.

Brandon: And I

Steve: was gonna pay off half of it.

Brandon: Oh, of course. Right?

Steve: Yeah. That was my plan. That was the plan. But when they said, well, mister Trang, we don't think you can pay this Yep. My answer was, like, you're right.

Yeah. Right? It's like, okay. So what do you think I can pay? And so we settled.

Brandon: Yeah. We settled. You're right. You're right. I

Steve: had to pay this. Right? And I settled it. I wanna say, like, 10 k to settle, like, the 40 k on a credit card. Sure.

Their choice, not mine. Yeah. Right? But once I settled it, they killed my business credit, which I understand. For sure.

I don't, like, blame it for them. Yeah. It was irritating because I was gonna pay them off. But they killed it. And so this whole time with Chase, up until very recently Yeah.

I had a good business banking relationship with them, but I can never get approved for business credit.

Brandon: Unless you go back and try to pay that. Maybe.

Steve: But there's no reason to. Right? So, like, I had balances for, I think, at one point, like, 6 or 700 k at Chase Bank.

Brandon: Sure.

Steve: I have a personal credit card with them that does really well. Yeah. But I will never get approved Yeah. With for business credit card because of that one situation. It's just funny you're talking about, like, you know, here here are the things that There's rules.

Add points and rules. Yep. And it's like, this rule makes no sense to me. Yeah. Well, they the rules.

Brandon: There are a couple of rules even in this circumstance. So say you did pay whatever that balance was. They would start opening up business lending to you again. It would be slow and steady. Mhmm.

But you just gotta think about the opportunity cost there. So because at you're thinking, like, well, what's the point of paying $30.40 grand? Stupid. Right?

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: Well, if they open up hundreds of thousands or even down the road, millions potentially to you that you could leverage at best terms and conditions, then maybe. I don't know.

Steve: Maybe.

Brandon: But, again, there's 9,500 banks out there.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: So you don't need to lean on just one.

Steve: Exactly.

Brandon: But back then, also, when your score when you know your score is about to go down, what you wanna do is freeze the three bureaus, TransUnion, Equifax, Experian, so that because each month, the banks are doing soft pulls on you. Mhmm. That's where they can see obviously, the bank can see what balances you have with them.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: But when they start seeing your score drop or other bank balances popping up, they get scared. Mhmm. And then they're like, oh, this is terrifying. Like, we gotta cut our bets. Right.

And that's what happened. That's

Steve: what happened.

Brandon: And I understand why it happened. Yep. It was just like, mister Trump unfortunate. Yeah.

Steve: You're right. Like Yeah. That was the that was my immediate response.

Brandon: Yeah. You're right. I'm not doing it.

Steve: I guess. Okay. That's what we're gonna do. Yep. So, yeah, this is it's funny talking about the rules.

Now the other thing so belief system, I wanna hit into this because, you know, like, finances aren't necessarily, you know, taught. Right?

Brandon: For sure.

Steve: And, again, you know, a lot of our listeners are very well educated as far as finances and business and business and that. Right? If you're listening to the show, right, it's because you're you care about this world. You're not, you know,

Brandon: just Thank god.

Steve: Someone that went through a public system public schooling system with no financial information. Yes. So what are some of the biggest belief system, the the myths that you've seen for people that have gone through your program?

Brandon: Oh, man. So many myths. Honestly, like, we we've had a ton of people think that you gotta pay interest to be able to boost up your scores. Mhmm. Or, what other miss?

That they should only have, you know, what we grew up with. You should only have one or two credit cards and maybe a third one for an emergency Yeah. When in fact, they actually wanna see you have 21 plus total accounts.

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: They want mixed use, so not just all credit cards, you know, retail cards, personal loans, auto loans, mortgages, student loans, etcetera. But it's like, they wanna see that you can manage multiple different accounts, 21 in fact. Mhmm. You know? And so there's tons of myths out there that, it breaks my heart because people don't know the true rules, and they don't know how to fit within the box of lending to these banks.

Mhmm. So when they apply and they're just scratching their head, like, why am I getting denied, or why am I getting these low limits? Right?

Steve: Or how

Brandon: do I actually get these cards liquid into cash? It's it's just because the rules, they don't know. So then you end up hating the bank Right. And then thinking, you know, I'll just pay cash for everything, when, really, you're missing out on a huge opportunity of learning how to use what I always call OBM. Mhmm.

Instead of OPM, other people's money, like, when you borrow money from grandma or, like, uncle John, and then you gotta see them at Thanksgiving and it's awkward, or you're losing sleep over it because it's their retirement money.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: Like, you can use other banks' money

Steve: Right.

Brandon: And just flip the script on them. Because right now, like, you and I, we all of us out here, all the listeners, we put all of our money in the banks. You know, you just mentioned you have $6,700,000 in the past, like, 800,000 in the bank Yeah. Just in there.

Steve: Doing nothing.

Brandon: Doing nothing. Yeah. So how much are you gonna pay it on that?

Steve: I mean, it's business, so not very much.

Brandon: Yeah. So, usually, you know, point 001% if we're lucky. Right? Yeah. But even if you have it in a in a money marketing liquid account that you can move around, what, four and a half percent

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: If if we're lucky. Right? With that being said, though, the banks are like, we give all of our money to them, basically, at nothing. They lend it back out to us nine times over

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: On personal loans, auto loans, mortgages, business loans, etcetera. Right? Nine times over, and they're averaging anywhere from 500 to 3000% off of that money. Right. It's crazy.

Steve: Absolutely insane.

Brandon: Three like, 500 to 3000%. Yeah. And so it's literally just, like, success leaves clues, money leaves a trail. Just, like, follow the script of what the banks are doing and flip it. Yeah.

Because we can get introductory funding from these banks, and they can give it to you anywhere from six months to twenty four months. On average, 0%. If you you don't need to use it. You don't need to feel that stress of using it. But trust me when I tell you, when you actually know how to get it Mhmm.

And every six months, it gives you opportunity to start seeing the opportunity and capitalize off of it. If you can't make money off of 0%, it's a whole different it's a whole different conversation.

Steve: So I wanna hit something you you mentioned. Right? The nine to one. Like, they can lend it nine times. Yeah.

Right? So I believe the term is velocity. Right? So I was under the same impression too. It was nine to one.

Right? And then I invested in a bank. Yeah. Right? And and when we invested in the bank, you know, I go to the meetings.

And I was like, okay. So we have this much money cash on hand, and here's how much we're lending. And in my mind, I just kept thinking, like, that's not what I've heard. Yeah. Like, am I just this crazy libertarian reading about the Federal Reserve and all those other stuff?

And, like, that whole deal, like, with lawsuit of banking, was it all a myth? Mhmm. Right? That's what I kept thinking. Sure.

Right? And then in our last meeting, we're like, okay. We're getting close to the point where we hit the threshold where now we can lend it 10 times. Yeah. So I thought it was nine, so it was actually 10.

Mhmm. But I was like, oh. Crazy. So wait. So if we have a million in the bank Yeah.

We can lend 10,000,000. Like, yeah. It's like, cool. Yeah. Alright.

I'm glad I'm in this business.

Brandon: Yeah. There's there's some banks out there that can even push it even further. It's crazy.

Steve: Yeah. I mean, when you're hooked up with congress, you can do just about anything. Yeah.

Brandon: Yeah. Exactly. Let's not go down there.

Steve: But yes. With congress.

Brandon: You make your own rules. Supply. Yeah.

Steve: Right. Exactly. Most banks.

Brandon: Yeah. Most banks.

Steve: That's what I've learned is to have one. Standard. Yeah. Yeah. So but yeah.

I think I think they just like, for the Federal Reserve, I think they just went to, like, unlimited. For a period of time, I think they put the limits back on. But when things were crazy with COVID, they just

Brandon: took the Yeah. Yeah. They just take it off. Like, what wild wild west, baby. Yeah.

It's crazy that we get it.

Steve: Inflation, isn't it? That's that's weird. It's weird that we had inflation.

Brandon: Yeah.

Steve: Okay. So then let's talk about then tie it back to buying real estate. Sure. So you're saying that following a system correctly

Brandon: Yep.

Steve: We can get

Brandon: up to

Steve: half mil. Not guaranteed.

Brandon: Yeah. Up to. Yep.

Steve: Right? In a six month period.

Brandon: Come in to see $2.03, $4,500,000. If you do it right, like, you're gonna make the most out of it.

Steve: And then I can do it again Yeah. In six months.

Brandon: Six months?

Steve: And I can do it again in another six months.

Brandon: Yep. Per person.

Steve: So I can have, you know, over the course of a year, over a year Yep. As much as Yep. Million dollars as 0%. Yep.

Brandon: Now not all of it's gonna be 0%. You have options with that Mhmm. Because you can get loans as well and, you know, then they're not gonna be 0%. But but you can definitely get $3,400,000 in 0%.

Steve: So then this is why you preach other banks' money

Brandon: Yes.

Steve: Versus other people's money.

Brandon: Yes. Okay. It just it gives you and don't get me wrong. I love helping out mom and pops too Mhmm. Because it just feels good, but it's also it's a very big I wouldn't say burden, but it's a responsibility that most people out there, they don't take it serious enough, in my opinion.

Steve: I agree. Yeah. Right? Like, if I borrow money from you Yeah.

Brandon: And I

Steve: do a deal and deal goes bad

Brandon: Yeah.

Steve: I feel bad. I'm gonna find a way to pay you back.

Brandon: That's what I'm saying.

Steve: If I borrow money from Chase Bank, and, man, that deal blew us, like, Chase, I'm sorry.

Brandon: Yeah. But you also if we teach you how to fix credit too, and you're not, like, crippled from it

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: And they're writing it off on taxes anyway That's

Steve: what I'm saying. Like, Chase, I'm sorry.

Brandon: Yeah. I'm sorry. JP. Yeah. My bad.

That's on me.

Steve: I'll get you on the next one. Yeah.

Brandon: I'll get you on the next one. Yeah. But there's just ways to do it properly

Steve: Mhmm. Is what I

Brandon: would say. And so it brings a lot more freedom and, like, just it feels better to learn how to just use credit.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: You know? And in America here, they just give so much. Right. You just need to know how to talk to them. We're the only country in the world that they give, like, this, like, an abundance.

Steve: Right. Yeah. So then let's say I worked with you now. It's been over a year. Yeah.

So going back to the topic of, like, buying real estate

Brandon: Yeah.

Steve: Using credit cards. Yep. So how do what what is the mechanism now to access capital? Because I you were saying, like, there's a way to you're saying cash balance transfer or

Brandon: Yeah. I always recommend in this order. Call up your banks first. Call the number on the bank of the credit card. Ask them, hey.

Is there a promotional rate, balance transfer, cash advance that I can just get it liquid into my into my, bank account Mhmm. And make sure you have a bank account with them, you know, the relationship. And, and if they say yes, great, just make sure you're not paying an arm and a leg. Mafia rates. Don't do that.

30%, no no good. I don't give permission for that. Yeah. So make sure it's a a favorable term, ideally 0%. And if there is a flat fee, make sure it's low.

Mhmm. Otherwise, there's other online platforms that we mentioned earlier definitely are, a reliable source that you could utilize. Right? Such as, like, Plastic, Milo, Zillow Money. You could do Bill Pay, like, or bill.com.

There's a bunch of different resources. Right? And then, lastly, we also have a service where for our members, we we help liquidate some of their funds. Just easy, convenient

Speaker: Mhmm.

Brandon: Through merchant to be able to wire them the funds back in seven days. Yeah. It's just super simple. They don't need to do anything. You know, it's confidence.

It's bold. It's, like, just good. You know? So that's an option as well. So step one is

Steve: create a banking relationship. Yes. Yeah. Got it. Yep.

Alright. And then you have, a webinar coming up. Yeah. What's the webinar?

Brandon: So we we do, weekly webinars where we totally free, totally live, where we just break down all the myths, and we show people what is possible. Mhmm. I share my testimony. I share other people's, some of our other members' testimonies. We've helped out over 3,700 members to date.

And, and, yeah, incredible resources. We we show them the rules to the game, the 45 different metrics so they know how to play it. And, and then, yeah, once a month, we do a virtual event because I just think it's so important. And what you can learn in an hour versus what you can learn in a three full day at the comfort of your home, as long as you're, like as you treat it as if you're live in person, you know, you can have a collared shirt on, and you can keep your your boxes on underneath or whatever.

Steve: Do the Kevin O'Leary thing.

Brandon: Yeah. Yeah. You could do your thing. You know? You can, be relaxing.

But, but show up to, like, really play full out. People get the most out of it. It's it's very fulfilling. Mhmm. We just had our our last one, this past weekend, and it was incredible.

Yeah. Yeah. So

Steve: Yeah. I think it's great. I mean, getting access to capital. Like, that's one of the greatest challenges, you know, when,

Brandon: Yes.

Steve: Early on or even, you know, in the middle right now, like, you got some couple of floats that might have gone sideways. Right now, things are taking a little longer to sell. Sure. And access to capital will be tremendously helpful, so I highly highly recommend that. Yeah.

So going back to, you know, with everything you got going on right now, you got your real estate in San Diego. Yep. More clarity because you don't have your real estate in Ohio.

Brandon: Yeah.

Steve: You got your credit, situation figured out. Yep. How is your life different today? I mean, probably, it's most for you. How is your life different today than when you started than before you started real estate?

Brandon: It's, it is it's elevated in such a, like, a a wild way that I I can't even imagine. Like, looking back, like, to my 18 year old self, it's like, man. Like, you have no idea. It's just so wild to even think that this was that this is possible at this point. Mhmm.

Yeah. Like, we we set up Credit Counseling Elite as a for purpose business, so anywhere from 12 to 18% of gross income from the top, which is a lot. It it goes to nonprofits that we believe in. We've been helping out a lot of people. We have a team of 29 employees right now.

It's like, that's a headache all by itself, but great culture. So it's like, we're all doing good. Like, everybody's moving the boat forward. Just relying on our mentors. Like, we have several just incredible mentors that, have really changed the game for me in many ways.

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: And and, yeah, I you know, we're just it's kinda like wealth tools. Like, we have a family office now and all these other things to be able to start positioning ourself to save the most, make the most, set our kids up for generational wealth and infinite banking. We have all these things dialed in that it's just it's it feels really good knowing that, you know, I'm still 35 and and just getting you know, we're just getting started, it feels like.

Steve: Right. You know? Any particular mentor you wanna, shout out? Yeah.

Brandon: Kent Clothier has been, like, the one. Yeah. Yeah. Kent Clothier, I've I've done one on one with him for the last several years. And I don't know.

It's just, like, for me, he just he's really good at identifying problems Mhmm. When you don't know it

Steve: Mhmm.

Brandon: And also getting great solution and also just being, like, the raw Like, that's with my personality type. I I can't just have, like, a little, like I need, like, hey. You're an idiot. Don't do this. You know?

It's like He'll

Steve: shake you.

Brandon: He'll shake you up. And and you don't wanna disappoint. Yeah. And I don't wanna waste time, and I wanna, like, I wanna move quick. Yeah.

And so it just resonates with me. He's been able to help us out tremendously and, like, get us from what we thought was a company to, like, man, you realize now it's like that was not a company. That was a ultimate hustler for sure Yeah. To realizing, like, man, we got KPIs. We got a team working.

And if I went away for a full month or two, like, which we plan on doing soon, business is still gonna be afloat. We're still gonna be serving tons of people. If I die tomorrow, the team knows what to do. The the mission will keep going on. We'll still be helping people, and and I love that.

Steve: Kent's got an incredible, gift He does. To basically look past everything and sees the exact problem Yeah. Quickly. Quickly. Right?

Like like, no. No. No. No. No.

Brandon: Yeah. Forget it. Shut up. Yeah. Yeah.

Exactly. No. No.

Steve: Like, this. Yeah. Right? It's it's it's incredible because I see him do it over and over again.

Brandon: Yeah.

Steve: Right? It's like, alright. Here's the problem. Yep. Like, how did you know that was the problem?

Like, we haven't even talked about that part.

Brandon: Yeah.

Steve: Right? He's got incredible gift for discernment.

Brandon: For sure. It's incredible. And I love that.

Steve: Yeah. No. It's great. It's fantastic.

Brandon: He he's helped me, like, literally build my business, I feel like. You know?

Steve: It's good that you guys are neighbors.

Brandon: Yeah. I don't know

Steve: how far apart you guys live.

Brandon: It's close. Yeah. I just moved up to Carlsbad, so a little bit further. I was in Old Town, but yeah.

Steve: And then what do you want to be remembered for?

Brandon: That's a great question. I think I haven't ever given this too much thought. I I don't really care to be remembered. I'm an introvert naturally. You know?

I I'm I'm really passionate about this credit stuff. I really am because it's changed my life completely. You know, we have 14,000,000 real estate assets. We we collect 50,000 a month whether I wake up or not, and, and we have millions of dollars in in credit and Yeah. And favorable terms and conditions.

And if I want more, I know how to get it. Yeah. And so that brings a lot of freedom. And I think every a lot of people out there, they're chasing not just financial freedom, but, you know, time freedom as well. Mhmm.

And I think how how much that's blessed me, it's such a disservice if I don't share that with the world. So it's been very, very fulfilling to see other people start connecting the dots and have the moments and start experiencing, like, similarities.

Steve: Right.

Brandon: That that feels really, really good. So I would love to be known for, like, helping more leaders experience the same thing and then them teaching more people because I'm only one person. Yeah?

Steve: Right.

Brandon: Like, how many people can I really help out? I don't know. Sure. But, that would be cool to just see, like, that ripple effect of more leaders being inspired to do the same.

Steve: You could be the Dave Ramsey of credit. Yeah.

Brandon: Alright. Slightly different, same same, but slightly different. Yeah.

Steve: He's, though, like, no credit.

Brandon: Yeah. And and not not to bash on Dave Ramsey. There is definitely an avatar for him, you know. Just not ours. Just not ours.

Right. Not business owners, really. So, like,

Steve: he can do the the no Yep. Thing. Yeah. And he can do, like, here's how to build wealth using credit.

Brandon: Yeah. Yeah. We still need to know budget one zero one, and don't be stupid. I do not give permission to buy the $20,000 Gucci sweatshirt or buy the Lamborghini

Steve: Right.

Brandon: Or buy the asset that pays you dividends and makes the profits to pay for the Lamborghini if you want. Do whatever. I don't care.

Steve: Right. Yeah. So that's great. What is your superpower? Superpower?

Brandon: I feel like reading body language and being able to, hold our I don't know. I I guess, like, I would say probably on the the the credit side. That's like credit specialist is what a lot of people have called me in the past. So I've been able to geek out on this stuff and and find little things that people just don't know and are aware of.

Steve: But the body language thing probably is huge. Yeah. Helped you a lot in, you know, all the different ventures.

Brandon: It's helped me out in so many different areas, or, like, I can nudge, like, somebody that's in a crowd with me of, like, hey. Like, you're not reading the room right, and they just don't know how to, like you know, there's one person there that, like, we need to ask certain questions or, like, help them in a different way Mhmm. Or, like, support them or something because reading the body language and there other people aren't connecting the dots, it's like Alright. Let me help out here.

Steve: It is kinda funny. The power of body language. The the people that are blind to it, it's like it's so unfortunate. It is. Yeah.

Or it's like, you have no idea what's happening here. That you you did not

Brandon: blind to this. Yeah. You're not reading it.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. You're in

Brandon: a different world right now.

Steve: So give me your journey.

Brandon: Yeah. Any regrets? No. No. I'm not somebody that lives with regret.

I'm I'm grateful for every step of the way that that took me to where I'm at. I definitely took a lot of bumps and bruises and, like, headache along the way and pain, like, a lot of pain and, you know, depression and all these other things that it's like, man, I definitely took the hard way. Very adventurous route. Yeah. I took a adventurous route, a rocky road for sure.

But I'm grateful for all of it. It just aligns with my personality. Again, if I would have taken anything mediocre or something like that, it, who knows? I I could have found myself on that road at a later age. Like, I'm glad that I did it at a young age and got things corrected.

And now, like I said, 35, we're at this point in life. I feel like life's just gonna be, like, going. Yeah. Feels good.

Steve: We definitely had a spicy and flavorful life.

Brandon: Yes. Yeah. Spicy and flavorful.

Steve: Is there a book you've gifted more than any other?

Brandon: A book that I would recommend?

Steve: That you've gifted.

Brandon: Oh, that I've gifted? So we have a book, action driven that I've gifted a bunch in the past. But,

Steve: What's it about?

Brandon: It's about taking action. It's just about, like, moving forward. Don't overcomplicate. Don't overthink.

Steve: Yeah.

Brandon: Yeah. I'd rather you fail forward than not. Right. Yeah. So, so that was our first book that we came out with.

Yeah. I don't I don't have, like, a you know, the typical how I got excited about real estate was through, like, Robert Kiyosaki stuff, you know, Rich Dad Poor Dad, the typical stuff. There's some infinite banking books that are really good. Really into the Bible right now. There there's some good stories in there that you can pull apart, that are so relevant in today's day and age, like living, breathing.

It's wild stuff. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: So before we wrap up, if someone wanna get ahold of you, what is the best way for me to get ahold of you?

Brandon: IG is probably the the best, like, Brandon Elliott Investments or Credit Counsel Elite on on Instagram. Yeah. I don't know.

Steve: Alright.

Brandon: I I don't I don't think I should I give my number on this?

Steve: You don't have to. Actually, one of the other things you you brought it up earlier was it was creditcouncilelite.com/start.

Brandon: Yeah. That's gonna be a great platform. If if you go to that, there's a a free training that we can give Mhmm. To anybody on that, like our our live webinars or even access to our three day virtual event, which our next one's coming up September that weekend. Yeah.

So that'll be great.

Steve: Is there another weekend after that?

Brandon: Yeah. Every month.

Steve: Every month?

Brandon: Every month. So beginning of, of the month, the first weekend.

Steve: Got it. Yep. So creditcouncilelite.com/start. Yes. What are some last thoughts you'd like to leave all the listeners with?

Brandon: There there's ways to get creative, start getting yourself out of debt if you're in debt right now. When there's a will, there's a way. I've always been a big, big advocate of that. When there's a will, there's a way. Mhmm.

You know? So keep a a solid positive mindset and start focusing on if you have goals and you're, like, a big visionary person, a a big dreamer, we gotta get dialed in on the finance part and realize this is the foundation that's gonna set up everything else for success. Yeah. So dial that stuff in. You can get massive amounts.

I mean, hundreds of thousands from banks.

Steve: Alright. There you go. Perfect. Yeah. Thank you so much.

Brandon: Appreciate you. Yeah. Appreciate you. Thank you guys for watching.

Steve: See you guys next time. See you guys.

Brandon: Out to Steve train. Jump on the Steve train. Disrupt us.

How Brandon Buys Real Estate With Credit Cards

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From Owing $60M To Funding $4B In 2025

How Brandon Buys Real Estate With Credit Cards

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