Build WealthAnd Build a LifeYou Actually Want.

Before the crash, I had built a portfolio of 28 properties. I thought I had it figured out. Then the market fell, I lost more than $3 million and eventually filed bankruptcy. My parents had invested with me. They lost the home they had built in Georgia. That was the hardest part.

I had just gotten engaged to Eliana. For about six months, the two of us and my parents shared a roughly 1,400 square foot apartment. I worked showings, open houses, rentals and whatever legitimate work I could find. At one point, I drove from Weston to downtown Miami five days a week for about $500 a week because I wanted to learn from investors who were doing more than I was.

I invested more than $50,000 in a national real estate education program. I learned, but I also discovered how much I needed people who understood my local market. That led me to my local REIA and the mentors who helped me put the education to work through wholesaling and rehabbing.

I became one of the top students. In 2014, I bought the REIA from my mentors. Years later, I started BPM REIA. Today, I serve as President of National REIA. I still remember what it felt like to walk into that first room needing help.

I bought my parents a home in Davie, Florida for $303,000. They thought Eliana and I were buying it for ourselves. The closing papers were already waiting inside.My dad asked, “Can I afford this?”I told him, “Can you pay the electric and water? Then you can afford it. And if you can't, I'll pay those too.”My father cried. My mother passed away about nine months later. I'm grateful she got to see that home.

One of the best parts of this work is watching someone become more confident and more capable. Then seeing them do something they once thought was out of reach. I know what good mentors did for me. I get to help someone else take that next step.