what's up y'all so it's a big week here earn your leisure as we have officially launched ey l université that's right all online educational platform is here and on ey Lu we're gonna provide you with courses taught by some of our alumni and experts in the field we're gonna give you live access to our monthly workshops and we're gonna give you weekly webinars and we're not playing around with starting that right now so this Wednesday November 6 the good brother Andre hatchet is gonna teach us all the tools and knowledge of how to make six figures in a Mobile Notary game so head to earn your leisure comm hit the e ylu tab and log in and that's not all we're gonna continue our hometown hero series by releasing two episodes this week that's right two episodes Tuesday and Friday episode 46 will feature Chicago's own firemen turned real estate TV celebrities the downing brothers in episode 47 will feature our hometown Greenberg New York's own superstar NFL agent Greg Barnett so make sure to tune in to both the one you're gonna watch now and Friday f5 peace [Applause] alright guys welcome back you il hometown heroes addition the shot-shot-shot tale was going on so yeah so you know the first hometown heroes that we did was in Houston that's true shoutout to H town shot to a stop to Mike Brown a shout-out to Chris syndergaard Oh blah first hometown hero so if you if you know uh Alicia will be traveling around all of our major markets and we touching it to people and when we when we touch the town we try to do a couple of interviews with people that are doing big things in the community out the mic man you got a big campaign and everybody that supported his win-win foundation yeah that was dope yeah yeah for sure that's a fact so so alright we're in Chicago and we had to tap in with the good brothers down and brothers outside to be exact Southside blow up so Anthony and airtime say that correctly right that's right okay so just left out at H and a why jump right into it as I said we got Anthony and Anton downing first and foremost thank you guys man we appreciate be yeah absolutely listen to the podcast I dream one day that dreams come so we're Chicago win we own the selfsame in 79 79th Street right right delayed 1139 she shot shot the chance to rapper he said 79 sending nine so yeah we out here we out here so all right these guys are legends in the community so they're firefighters by trade and they are celebrities because now they are on HGTV they have their own showing HGTV and their real estate investors they're very interesting guys and so we're gonna talk about a lot of different things with them but before we start well the first segment I want to talk about is that a lot of times we talk about entrepreneurship and business a lot of times what stops people from being an entrepreneur being business owners that they you know it's kind of risky to just jump out there and you know you have a nine-to-five job or a regular job one of the things I like about you guys is that you do both right so you're firefighters and you're still firefighters all right then you're on TV and your real estate investors so we haven't covered this is a very interesting job because I'm a financial advisor and I work with some firefighters in New York in my fires have been good they make they make money oh they they have strong unions especially in New York Chicago fire they get a pension and they only work like two days a week I know it is like you're they work like 24 hour shifts like two 24 hour shifts and so what happens is now you have like five days where you're not working which leaves a lot of time where you can do other things right so is that how it is in Chicago yeah that is a great synopsis it definitely is a work to our advantage to have that time off because I mean essentially you work eight eight to nine 24-hour shifts a month so we had like 22 days off and the question is what are you gonna do with that within those 22 days that you are free to do what you want and eventually real estate enters the picture for us so all right so tomate the fire department this is something that we especially in our community is not enough black firefighters right so what a what got you guys into the fire department and like what are the steps that people can take because I think even stuff like that is there you go [Laughter] what got you to the fire define some of the steps that somebody can take to become a firefighter because like I said it is a good profession it's an honorable profession as well yeah I mean the origin story for the fire department part of our story is back in 2006 I was fresh in fresh out of college I was actually an educator I started off in education yeah um and I was coming driving home and I still lived at home my mom no shame in that you know I'm saying I was out of college had my first job and I was saving up money and she said can you get a got on the milk on the way home so I stopped and then I was at a red light and I saw this big CTA bus with a sign on the side of it said answer the call it's like it had like the website and had a firefighter on it and you know in education at least especially during that period of time and even right now um you know they do these like big layoffs and you know I'm like hey well if I get if I lose my job because you know the youngest people on the job are the ones to go first you know and I was like well I need a plan B or something and when I saw that I was like that's interesting never thought about becoming a firefighter player maybe I'll check it out I look at the website I go into the parking lot of the Jules grocery store I walked in and right on the on the door the automatic door was the same side it was an 8 by 11 on the door I answered the call so it was kind of like it was kind of biblical almost home I got home I looked it up I looked it up and I saw you know I saw the union contract I saw the pay um I saw check mine on you know it was look like an adventure cuz I'm you know I'm physically gifted so I was just like you know it'll be you know something fun but also you know I can pay the bills and on top of that we talked about this they got a strong union you know you never see you know firefighters getting laid off or whatever so um and I asked my mom I said mom let me just sign up all all my brothers like give me the social security numbers she's doing laughing you know I ain't even asked none of us Oh smiles usually has everybody so mom my mother came up with this little ten thing they had all my information in it and I signed up all my brothers to take me public you got it so it's it's five down there brothers I mean it's - are you guys the twins yeah we have our older brother and we have two younger brothers yeah Tony and wah Andre but out there that twins alright no nothing so oh yeah I was the only one that was too young to take the exam so I signed everybody up to take the exam mom unfortunately my twin brother and his wisdom oh look now I know what to take our dad with CPD he was a cog Oh police officers so I was thinking like and that's what we know I'm gonna take police exams well I'm not gonna take no exam I was I was up here waving my degree like I'm gonna use this to grieve what was a degree in history okay so you know what I was it did not work that way I ended up working for the Illinois Lottery he was experienced of marketing for $32,000 with no health insurance whether you that degree man say he should have took my advice and sat down next to be man exam and I walked into a McCormick Place it was 20 something thousand people there to take this exam how many people were hiring um they ended up hiring I would say about a thousand people out of 20 off of that particular list well you know and this is back in 2006 um I had to send the list for two years but I was number 554 out of like 17,000 plus they actually passed the exam so I mean it was just a blessing like I didn't realize well thanks guys actually I actually you know got that got the score so two years later I got the letter saying if I was interested right on the date of the bud Billiken parade which is a big deal in Chicago the Billiken parade is the second largest parade in the country and it's actually the largest african-american parade in the country so I was actually doing a little sign also driving in there and then when I went out to the mailbox I saw the letters hand and I got the thumb then I got the job when I was sick then I was sick when he got that letter I was like I can't believe I didn't take that test and my social security number is like almost exactly the same as his so I would have been in the same class with him right so then I was like okay it's time for me to start taking exams you know but that you talking about the written exam right but people kind of overlook the physical exam because I know we have a lot of we have some friends in our town of Greenburgh that I've been volunteer firefighters for years and they just can't pass the physical hi man that um the exam be it actually has changed in the last ten years because now they've gone to a national call to see Pat mm-hmm everybody tell you but it was a different candidate with Steve had a candidate physical ability test right and it actually is rigorous like because I mean you have you have to walk with a weighted vest looks like a seventy of fifty pounds seven pound weighted past one a what am I think about right now track no one I don't attract one the treadmill on a treadmill and that's actually the hardest part because after you get done with that with that no no no it's the Stairmaster don't mean the Stairmaster right yeah after you get done with that Stairmaster with the weight of this you're so tired even though the rest of the course is relatively simple as far as you've been able to raise the ladder and use a Pike pole and crawl through a tunnel through a tunnel all of that stuff is super hard after you've had that weighted vest on and you've been on that on that for three straight minutes right yeah so but so you I mean everything like everything else in life though you go on YouTube is there so you can train for what you need to do hmm um when it comes to the written exam they actually give you the source material so you can actually study for that so what's on what's on there rittany what's not like the written exam is it like science stuff well that written exam is not hard man well look we talking about Chicago Chicago's exam is literally know you read it you answer the multiple choice questions you if you can read you gotta try that's half the barely graduate high school can definitely pass that exam if you can read a comprehend but that's not but that's not don'ts like - y'all know place or you go to you know other municipalities they do have math questions on there they have friction loss and things that I gotta feel that like the exams are a lot harder because that's what I ended up doing is taking the Dalton fire exam and on physically board of chicago to the south so you know that exam was way of isentropic centrifugal pump what the hell it was not like this one on this Chicago is now Lisa according to Anthony but but the blessing about it is Windows list came out unlike Anthony being 535 37 37 like this guy right here and I wasn't 138 hmm I wasn't 50 that I was number as a four oh four out of nine ten ten thousand and they were hot no no it was oh it was only like three hundred and fifty poker okay there's like the suburban exam but then they they were only hiring six and I was number four and I was that okay guy you wanted me to answer the call do you need a college degree to be a firefighter no you need a high school diploma or a GED so well how much money can you make it in New York I think you make like 100 over $100,000 Michael hundred I think a lot but a lot of money comes from over time correctly how'd it yeah how's that yeah how much Mike you expect to make an acog oh your starting salary today 2019 as a candidate first day in the Academy is uh fifty six thousand okay so you start at fifty-six thousand you get a paper um at 12 months of $10,000 or so now you had 66 after you made your probation which is one year okay you know I'm saying and then you get steps every year from that point well yeah yeah every year from that point so basically I've gotten a raise every year for ten years so yeah you hit the lottery um the thing is though as much as we're talking about money right now it's all about the downside that you actually do risk your life oh yeah you died yeah so my firehouse is literally just right down the block is ten blocks down right here on Sunday 9th Street and um two men that I have worked with um died in the line of duty not to carry their cash god bless god bless these oh I do want to say that you know it's a great job no great money we enjoy ourselves we laugh have fun yeah great food at the firehouse all this and I had a similar experience because one one of my actual classmates has general 10th to 2017 mmm line of duty so the it's jarring sometimes in sobering as is dope as the salary is or the people that pat you on the back when you're at the grocery store and all that type of stuff yeah but at the same time we have to deal with that reality every time we go to work we might not come home yeah you said in Chicago y'all are like first responders right to any type of any type what happens with the first ones then somebody gets shot a fire truck or fire engine is pulling up you know that's the car accident we're pulling up anything that happens in the city because we're medically trained we're the first ones for everything this a hazmat incident somebody spills oil all over the expressway we're there so I mean they call us the fire department but we're really in all hazards department ok all hazard yes so we do everything so all right so okay so you guys are real estate investors right so wait as I said we've been with the firefighter is that you you work on today you only work two days a week so it leaves a couple like five days but you're not working which leaves a lot of time to be creative and do different things right so what made you was that one of the things that encourage you to become real estate investors being that you has free time on your hands or like what got you into that yeah it was a challenge for my mom yeah I got my first paycheck and I came home came home happy yeah and I think about this this that first paycheck it was eight hundred and fifty four dollars I thought I was a baller a month ago I was in college at the university llinois getting 150 dollars every two weeks from our little student student job so I got this first paycheck and I think my mother felt that energy and was like nah you need to pull that back and she said that she said sit at the table don't move from that spot right he got his first paycheck do you have a 401k I was like well we can't start a 401k until cuz I actually I was that I was working a job where I was a career counselor for okay that was the first job Shaza job the job cool ten months but was not able to shop other schools but you know you have to be there for 12 months to get to start a 401k and she was like well I want you to start you know in an investment so she was like you know I want you to start with a MetLife I want you take $100 of paycheck and put it into this retirement account and I'm like $100 only made Elgin at 54 and she was like no $100 has created this and she pulled she pulled out all of it she was really transparent first time I like I'm you know I'm 22 she put all of her papers for each one on her retirement accounts out one of them had 150 thousand hundred sixty thousand in another one I had like 50 grand in another one had like 25 grand her mom was and plus yeah she had four different accounts and she showed me the statements and the balances and she said a hundred dollars a month from every job I've had since I moved to the United States has gone into it and no matter what job when I transferred the job I continued paying a hundred dollars into that one and now I had 100 I was into this one and this one in this one so like you know 400 ollars a check over the course of your entire life since you've been here has gotten me to this point so when I'm asking you to do is only what I've already done I was like okay mom I'll do it maybe the number I'll call instead of my first you know retirement account but then in the same conversation she said I'm here don't here come you're not a real man whew until you hone the floors you walk on damn I said tell you I felt some type of way bro it is from that point I said so much I must show you I'm gonna show you so I started not only did I start at the retirement account I started putting money away cuz you know I'm living at home and she only asked me to pay for like the utility bill you know whatever the electric bill and the rest of it I was able to just put away I put that money away and over the course of 18 months I saved up $6,000 and I had I got my credit scores are like 666 80 something like that before I left and got my first apartment you know just I needed my own privacy my own space whatever but because of that conversation it put us to put me on track to have the ability to my first crib which I did at the age of 25 that's powerful so I mean y'all are born and raised in Chicago yeah but mom's from the Bahamas right Nassau Bahamas so I mean the mom sound I see been on a point right with your mom things like when you have an immigrant parent man you realize that they're gonna tell you stories like we had to walk all the way to school tell me about it walk back we had to help with my what what you know aren't Grace's store you know we didn't get to go do whatever yeah the beach was right there and we saw the beach we didn't go to the beach until Saturday you know like the job land out there as well yeah will do okay we're building new construction on there right now well shower to the Bahamas to we know that they you know they're recovering from the primeira King last event that we have we were able to put together a pallet and together with other Bohemians from the Mirage yeah The Promise Association in Chicago we were able to put eight thousand eight hundred pounds worth of water non-perishable food and clothes and send it to Grand Bahama yeah so if you are listening please they still need your help sure for sure god bless god bless so alright so now the second segment we're gonna go into your star level show about that and how that came about for sure yeah alright so now we're gonna go into you know yeah your local celebrity status and shout out to my god Jamal Jeffries he's from Chicago and he's a friend of awesome we got before we got in I'm like you know these guys are downing brothers oh yeah the guys they they from the Southside guys how was that Chicago impression that was good event and there it goes like yo man like them gym shoes you got on like some gym shoes like all the kicks they like the gym shoes man definitely college the guy everybody like you're the guys you mean the guys did I so yeah shot the shot Sam but um but yes so alright so your fire fighters right then you start you're gonna stay invested career but they how did you get picked up to do a TV show like how did that work out man let me tell you it didn't happen on purpose we were helping our cousin rehab this six unit apartment building when we got a call from Troy Pryor who who runs the creative cypher here in Chicago and we went to college with him and he said yeah I got this director that wants to do this torch is saying and we need like like a basement or something like that are y'all working on any properties where y'all haven't finished a basement yet it was like yeah man come on over to this building that we're working on right now you know over here yeah and sound sure and some he comes and they look at both of the basements cuz he was a section of the building so they kind of have like separated basements and as he's getting ready to leave he turns to us and he's like man y'all ever thought about doing a show on HGTV not at all but he was being this he was seriously and then he put he literally pulled out his phone and said nah man I want you to talk to Craig Harris man that's one of my frat brothers and you know he's really serious and this and this TV industry yeah yeah he has a show out now and inside the other and he actually put us on speakerphone I he didn't give us a choice mhm he put us on speakerphone and now we just like oh hey how you doing no time like now so we started talking to Craig asses all these questions about what we do where we're from so on and so forth you know what properties we working on um and I guess the kids get to know our background and our personality and then after that he was like any well you know what I did send me some pictures and a bio we did it that same night he got real special because that we're so serious we will be serious so ey yo is the educational platform when we kind of like dig deep and I think this is a good segment to talk about as far as like people that might be in a situation right what does it look like like what is the offer do they come with a first offer you counteroffer do they just say okay this is like the flat rate we give people like how does that look how do you know you're getting a good deal like you have a lawyer like yeah how's that work out so yeah we had to go get a lawyer right away yeah we got an entertainment lawyer and then he explained to us what the industry standard is that's like a key word industry standard for when you get paid for someone who's in your exact position someone who's for us no TV experience never done any of this stuff before and he actually was able to tell us exactly how much few people get paid right and um but it was a unique situation for us because we weren't just getting paid for as for being talented in front of the camera we also see a paid actual is all true true right you know and in all the resources that they give you when you're actually explain that explain that so you're giving you deals no no we had we had to find a property ourselves okay we didn't have a hundred percent of like everything that the HDTV you know gives their talent because it was no island yeah because you don't get all the net stuff until you go to series man they give you a much bigger budget so like the property brothers their budget is out the wall oh yeah all right but what do you mean a budget like well they have a budget for how much they will help to pay for the contractors they usually materials that they can contribute to through their sponsors and things of that nature so so like let's say that they all right so they give a salary let's say $100,000 and they give a budget of two hundred thousand two hundred thousand dollar budget you find the properties they give you a bunch of two hundred thousand and you use that two hundred thousand actually fix fix up the home right now you got to secure the property yourself though and still own you you have to secure one of the things I like about what y'all was doing it was like opposed to that other show was like they were every time I watch it it's like they find a property seven hundred thousand is gonna be 150 to renovate 850 man well y'all looked at it you're like you listen man no we're not even we don't do that like one we wanted to do properties in our own neighborhood right and we want it to be authentic this is so you would I read that I was just like look man yeah we're looking for properties obviously in your neighborhoods right and it was like the properties are gone for like two hundred thousand two hundred fifty thousand that's more relative but we can having a property that's what million dollars is not attainable for us at this moment it was more people can do the two hundred thousand at the 150,000 yeah I think you know I'm listening to like you know they don't have callers like we've been on radio shows callers call in and I think or we've had people you know jump on and make comments on social media and I think the thing that they appreciated the most is like man just being everyday people being sincere being honest about what we're doing where we're doing it and why you know and they're not just being transactional but being transformative right you gotta be like we have to actually care about our neighborhoods and not just try to get over you know and then on top of that you know if anybody listens to you know listen to our podcast or or sees us at a seminar we actually tell the actual numbers this is how much the property costs yeah this is how much we had to bring the closing cash this was the interest rate you know all of those different things because we want people to learn from our experiences so it's not just oh it's not just entertainment but we want to educate so a TV deal um is it like one year or is it like per season how do they how do they and how do they gauge like okay this is we're gonna renew this for a second season like how did that work the TV deals are much like the NBA or like more more like the NFL you know the dairy trying the the pilot was the only part that was guaranteed even though we signed a contract for the full season but it is no he had the option yeah how many episodes is the season generally ten or twelve okay so what you got paid for the whole season even if they didn't know we only I'm paying for the the pilot episode oh right pilot was one episode in one episode yeah so I have to after the pilot depending on the ratings of the pilot they we're gonna pick this up for a season right well the ratings and the politics okay yeah now something else y'all do that that is a very intentional right you hire people that look like this right and not just us but I'll I saw it like women specifically women that look yeah yeah yeah man I mean all of that was intentional because we knew we only had one shot like you you really feel that way yes so we've been watching HGTV since you know forever you know since we were in college and things like that we wanted everyone to see that we really actually work with people that look like us that the neighborhood was our neighborhood and things like that like you know you know it was super important right and we even asked people were riding past whenever they saw all of those TV cameras in front of our in front of the house were working on they would stop and say hey what's going on guys what y'all doing here done it up we spoke to him we weren't trying to act all high and mighty and I'm like that we let him know what's going on I don't know what's going on why we doing it so on and so forth so I mean it's like so we can have that that positive social impact yeah and people feel included and they understand like yo what we're doing is actually gonna make the neighborhood better and on top of that we like we're not pushing you know taking a two hundred thousand dollar house and making it into a five hundred thousand one and now nobody can afford to live in the neighborhood like overnight you know you know so I don't know it's just common sense type of type of things you know even with them the Ottoman just City Councilmember you know we got got her involved let her know what was going on and be inclusive of everybody so I mean that's why I Chinese it's kind of different so either all right so we talked about the publicist right was that part of HGTV packaging or was that your own Brown publicist so what what made you or made you decide you wanted to get a publicist well what we wanted to take control of my own narrative and take control of you know the direction and opportunities right because you know when you get an opportunity like this and you're on national TV not just local TV but national TV you know you have to start thinking about like you know how much exposure you can get how many opportunities you can you know basically create out of that like partnerships endorsements business deals because other thing too is you got what happens on TV and you got what's happening in real life and you know we want to continue to grow and create more in actual transactions for you know our real estate business because we want to flip as many houses want to scale scale is a big word like scaling means you go from we're doing just one house at a time to doing or three houses to go into commercial properties and you know now once we were made aware because awareness is like the biggest thing that's why this podcast is so awesome because it's like it may raise our awareness of all of that available to us so we can start pursuing those thank you those really yeah the appreciate you know I mean I think about access over liabilities like we were like what assets can we create and what partnerships can we create and that's why the public is getting us all that exposure open all of these doors that we currently have and our publicist understood that we wanted to be on black platforms just as much as we were gonna be on ABC or WGN those things of course you want to be on those too but we need we wanted to be on WGCI you know a black radio station we wanted to be on wvo in to reach parts of our community like WV Lane kind of caters to like them like middle-aged you know African Americans and one night so we wanted our publicist was able to get us into those spaces as well as like the big station yeah it's crazy because like what y'all doing and my man Mike shout out to Mike like he always has a word that he sticks away so narrative is was it's like usually his word because I know y'all are changing the narrative cuz when we think especially from New York when we hear the south side of Chicago we think vomits but y'all a changed it in narratives are y'all seeing the impact and people are trying to continue like down your path as well mm-hmm speaking to that the neighborhood we pick Hill Hill was one is one of the best black neighborhoods in Chicago so like when people got to see that they got oh yeah you're right for the first time got to see wow they didn't go to Englewood was where the people are shooting this stuff I thought black folks lived in bad neighborhood it's not we are good we have neighborhoods important oh yeah and then um seminars right we are in position now shout out to to Jerry Greer and guarantee rate making it available for us to have seminars to educate people about home ownership and how to get financing and how to buy properties and do everything that they see us doing and that that's the thing making it available to people yeah with corporate sponsorship we were able to get so many more people an opportunity to get in on real estate the way we're getting in on real estate it's a big need for people are super excited I mean just think about I mean just last night we were at the networking social how many people came out because they're really serious about starting a business to owning property like there's a big niche that it needs to be filled there's a there's a problem that needs to be answered how did you get how'd you get the corporate sponsorship actually kind of filled my accident so Jerry right happens to be having a business meeting here now you know how you say your Jamaican right that's a we headed to me we were at JA Grill and it was just like the second time my show was coming on TV and we didn't want to be at home and this one you know any of that type of stuff we wanted to sit and eat you know some West Indian food we're Bahamian we wanted to eat some West Indian food and watch ourselves on TV and then Jerry and one day his uh co-workers or colleagues they were there for some type of lunch my business lunch whatever and he walks up to the bar we were eating at the bar and he looks up at the screen and he looks at us like is that y'all exactly the greatest thing about it is it's not like we did business immediately like we exchanged information it was like five four or five six months or something like that before we actually reconnect it and then we you know kind of exchange ideas this is what we want to do we want to start having these live seminars they people what we doing and I think that it would benefit you know his business and guarantee rate and so on and so forth and it's just it naturally um it was a natural fit let's go yeah so when you um alright so as far as this is an interesting conversation because when a day and age now we're TVs kind of dying we talked about this off camera right and it's streaming but even not YouTube right so it's like for you you're on you're still on you're on TV right but you have a podcast and you do stuff outside of that as well so for somebody that may want to follow your footsteps right is it more beneficial to be on a network or is it more beneficial to start your own thing too independent on YouTube or the stream like what what's the differences in wish you wish your personal take one because you actually have a TV show on the network so right so I think really you got to start somewhere I mean starting your own like a lot of people are becoming famous now you think about like little knives X he was on tick tock and blew up because he started his own content you gotta create your own content and create your own exposure and create your own opportunities we our story it was different because we weren't trying to do this and we kind of fell backwards into it and everything that even now we're continuing to just like be ourselves and then opportunities come to us and that's other thing to be true to yourself don't try to be anybody else and create your content and be good and be of service to people yeah hell that's the biggest part we're gonna charge you doing don't tear people down be of service and try to help be helpful and bring joy into this world so I think create your own content and then start networking go to the conference's start meeting people who work in the industry publicist people who work in the MPR there are people who are already doing the things and already working in the spaces and you just got to figure out how you can develop relationships because relationships are everything everything that's happening in our lives because if you have a conversation with us a year from now when I don't think we're really prepared to talk about what we're doing right now but a year from now you're gonna see it and it's all because of the relationships that we have yeah they are creating opportunity for us to move from residential to commercial I think the big thing is is that oftentimes when you look at it at hip-hop or if you look like a black folks and other aspects of entertainment we're big upping ourselves constantly look this cristão look at this mansion I'm living in or all that type of stuff but until your conversation is about how you gonna tell other people how they can get what you got you know it stalls like our biggest thing that we're doing right now is telling people how to get the multi-unit buildings that we have that translated into flipping the cash flow and cash flow and all those type of things and showing people the numbers and saying you can do this as well this is not about us China's flossing y'all right you know I mean I'm looking at how you guys shot to the to the top my observation of what's happening what are your leisure is that you are providing a service and education to people and people become supporters of you and they reshare repost and share everything that you got going on but the facts because you're helping people like it's through it's like what is it it what's in it for me and if you can answer what's in it for me for the person who's sitting across from you or who's on the other side of the TV screen or or phone and that's how you get where you want to be as far as if you're trying to land a TV show be on radio or whatever your dream is hashtag big fax this is a public service announcement yeah that's a perfect segment our next topic I new cabinet what you gonna talk about what you guys are doing and you're gonna break down some numbers hopefully so sure alright so now we're gonna go into what you guys actually are on TV for as far as you know fixing up homes and flipping homes in Chicago specifically in Southside Chicago right that's good area to focus on alright so okay so what's the real estate opportunities cuz in Chicago we're in Chicago so I think it's important to talk about how like that yeah before we start anything with how is this with Chicago real estate look like and what's the real estate opportunities in Chicago there are a lot of opportunities in Chicago man we have one of the hottest markets in the country right the question is you know it's just how are you starting I mean if if you do have your um your credit and your and your and your money saved up you know I'm saying as a first-time homebuyer this is an enormous amount of opportunities and we advise people that are starting off to go for cash flow go go get that three or four units of property or go get a 203k renovation loan or some kind of Fannie Mae construction loan so that you can get a properties below market value because there's thousands I'm not talking about hundreds probably this thousands of properties in the Chicagoland area yes that you can get below market value and renovate and then turn that into a cash flowing property or a property that you live in for a couple of years you know people talking about house hacking now you know living for a couple years and ink you know sell it after two years and now you got this check and now you got Capital to start a business or get another property or doing multiple things so you say below market value like what do we talk about as far as numbers like something what's an example of like a home that you just recently flipped or something that you could like expect like okay this is something that is typical I mean tell him about the wine house well I do use this example um a lot so um so I got a 3,000 square-foot Greystone single-family home with Graystone Graystone what is that like a brownstone okay great stone in Bronzeville which is a neighborhood on the south side got that for two hundred thousand got it below market value because the recession was going on and the guy was trying to sell it because he was in pre foreclosure so got it for two hundred thousand and I'd used a 203k renovation loan for that property so and that allowed me to have the money to purchase the property for two hundred thousand and I also rolled in 30 thousand and renovation now this property didn't require a gut rehab I mean thirty thousand I did a couple of the bathrooms redid the porch and in the kitchen and that's what I initially did made all of those things look brand new didn't touch any of the drywall throughout the house none of that type of stuff this is not a fixer-upper so this yeah so this was just updating a great opportunity and you only put three down three percent down the front three and a half percent so I came to that closed in with $7,700 so seven thousand seven dollars and the reason why is because it I couldn't negotiate because it was the bank and it was a foreclosure I wanna I wanna I want that to go with people says because we talked about two or three K loan actually with J Morris him but we didn't go through a real-world example so this is good so you got a $200,000 property and then you had thirty thousand for renovation costs right so is two hundred and thirty thousands the full along the 203k loan allows you to put three to three point five percent down but the 30 K gets wrapped into the mortgage right so three percent of two is like 707 so you got the renovation and the home for it's not including closing costs but out $7,000 is how much the down payment was I think we'll close the course how much was it would close the course I mean I came to closing total total all in for 7700 how um did you roll that into the more yeah because it was our old in okay he rolled it in so alright that's good to know actually actually rolled in three of the first month payments incident into the loan also so I have to make my first payment and so I was actually moving into the property which was 90 days later that's because you there was gonna you was updating the bathrooms okay I'm sorry I got you all right so now speed it up so all right you got the property for seventy seven hundred now you have it now what now having renovation needs to start just about immediately so in that process I had already got three different contractors to give scope of work so that I can decide which one I wanted to work with as far as you know just completing the work and how much the materials would cost you know any and you make the contractors very honest when they know that they're there one of three indicating what was that process like dealing with contracts because a lot of times people going to these deals and they said that's the toughest part is writable contractors i we always push doing these on these two or three k renovation loans because when you do a renovation loan there is an inspector who comes behind the contractors on each drum or phase of the other project the money comes each draw let's say thirty thousand you get ten thousand three times mhm the money comes to the homeowner at ten thousand dollars to pay the contractor the contractor for the first draw has to do that ten thousand dollars worth of work out of his own pocket okay the contractor has to put his own money up okay and has an inspector who comes to make sure that he's done to work up to code before the money is released to the homeowner to give to them for the next phase so they don't write their profit until they finished all of the work because they had to go through the first phase out of pocket so now the homeowners protected so now that there's no contract to getting over on you or trying to convince you that the work good enough yeah did a quick question now cuz I'm thinking like you got the firefighters and obviously you guys must know cold right did that did your experience as being firefighters help you during that process yes because I mean well as firefighters to I mean we learnt we learn about building construction and we see a whole lot cuz we in the process of being firefighter you you see houses that are like burned down and destroyed so you see everything and we tear out a lot of walls and ceilings and things like that so we're kind of on the other side of it yeah and then we also work with a lot of firefighters happen to be in the trades so we you know you learn a lot through that process also so I mean so thing is it removed all the fear because you actually had this this inspector who comes and makes sure that the work is done and completed so all right so--okay so now you you get you started the bringing the contractors in what's the next steps after that like how long did it take to fully renovate it when we were able to get tenants in like what's the deal well well this was single-family home so I wasn't I didn't have to deal with tenants but I had 90 days to get the work to get the work done and actually you got done in a shorter period than that I think we were done and like you know 65 70 days or whatever so by the time I had to make my first payment mortgage payment I was able to move in move my front in front of chin and he was living there yeah I live it okay how long you lived there I was there for three about three and a half years my intention was to be there for two years because I knew that you know after two years I would be able to sell the property no capital gains and also I knew that my credit would go back up because I did short I did a short sale civilian conclude that the condo that I had I did a short sell on that after two years my credit went back up and it coincided with my ability to sell this property with no capital gains now I was enjoying myself so much that I see ended up staying for a little bit longer than animated we had so many poor she said toga parties and so you guys were both friend Boyles you guys are both living in the problem so keto about that capital gains you said two years you allowed you not to pay capital going right so you haven't been there 24 months that's the rule what is capital wounds a capital capital gains is the profit that you make on a property the difference between how much you pay for and how much you actually sold the property for so the profit is the capital gain and so the tax only capital gain happens on properties that are not your primary residence or you haven't lived in as your primary residence for at least 24 months so that's why I knew I needed to be there for at least 24 months in order to be able to collect those capital gains which in this instance was Katy thousand dollars cash and they be able to man have the capital to move on to buy a multi-unit property and then start flipping homes and then partner with my brother to really you know start to do more than we had ever anticipated so if you don't live in a property for more than a year and you sell it but you use their proceeds to buy another home you start to pay capital gains you know you can do what they call at 10:35 exchange [Laughter] yeah I answer my own question all right so okay that in the whole time that he was doing that man you are I'm also buying the buildings while he's doing that right so by the time he's sold that property three and half years later I already had two three unit buildings in a gas flowing it so it's like the two of us are like what like one person right because I'm implying one strategy and when his condo went from worth of 150 to being upside down to 30 thousand I lived in LA never buy the condo in fact I buy the house neither you know I'm going straight for the multi-unit apartment buildings thanks for making that mistake fuss over but I think is what we did learn though is we learned about the power of cash flow and we learned about the power of buying properties below market value and being able to get that cash and that leverage for us to then be able to go in now now I got this lump sum of money and now it's like okay now let's buy another multi-unit property so we put for cash flow now let's go you know we went hard money you know gonna flip that way and then you know from there now the wheels are turning now you the next deal and the next deal more confidence right more confidence right things you things go wrong and in those when you get burned when you touch that snow you don't have to touch it again so like you know different things that we learned about how we deal with contracts and stuff like that you know everything didn't just you know shoot perfectly but it still was you know enabled us to make us at a point where we ended up on TV how did you how much do you sell that property for um I understand that property for the three 15:36 it 315 and well you want to give the exact three thousand three hundred and sixteen thousand and five hundred whoever was but yeah in two years you held up to three guys so one hundred and sixteen thousand dollar profit that you mean right for three years and you got it for $7,700 how much was your monthly mortgage my monthly mortgage was like I think was like fourteen hundred that's powerful that's actually really powerful because especially in New York we paying rent put 1920 one hundred twenty two hundred dollars a month wait where's that it's like what 2021 is that okay oh no no way for bathro maybe nine hundred seventy seven hundred square feet one bedroom one bath broke man well you got your parking so you got you got a property for seven thousand dollars paying under two thousand dollars a month and you held it for a couple years and made one hundred and some odd thousand dollar profit I say that to say a lot of times people don't fully understand how attainable buying a home really is yeah Ken it's different programs in there's different ways you have to educate yourself that's one of the reasons of the podcast but it's not it's not as far-fetched as it may seem you know it's not I think I mean people I think people live in fear right because they've never seen it like we like I said earlier it like we've first generation so like we don't know what we don't know like people don't know that youth portunities are out there I had a question for you guys as I was driving in an uber and I was looking around in the cab driver I'm like oh the south side he's like yeah same thing it looked like 20 years ago and I was like alright well I see a lot of mom-and-pop stores my art so there's there's been entrepreneurs them in the community and in retail space and commercial types of space so what is the future for entrepreneurs are these opportunities out there for them to buy these spaces like what does it look like you know we have a frat brother with a nail salon him and his wife have a nail salon and it's a mixed-use space they have a section 8 tenant upstairs that pays the mortgage for the entire property so what they make is pure profit mm-hmm and I think that that's that's the future there we need us to buy those mixed-use buildings whether there's two or three or four apartments above and then like - like storefronts you know in the bottom what we need to grab all of those yeah and the thing is there are city programs that you can get assistance for buying homes there are city county and state so yeah I mean the thing is you wherever you live you have to look and see what kind of homeowner assistance programs they are the fastest man I had to come with that $77 and downpayment there may have been some kind of assistance program but you got to be your own research and big field of paint that set me up you know that's $7,000 mm-hmm there are tons of those programs and then for business owners in right here in Chicago um I can't River they're able to program Chicago neighborhood is something or another program that actually helps with will they'll match how much money you need in order to renovate a property for your business okay right you know so there are these programs out there do the research because there are there's money out there from the government to help you create your business and buy your property so when we talk about Chicago unfortunately you know a lot of times we people think about Chicago they hear about like the violence right especially on the southwest so um but we was driving in the open and I was telling over driver like where we was going and he's like you know where you going like I'm like no I don't know where I'm going he's like all right you start laughing so what I mean to me it looks just like the Bronx is every neighborhood is similar so like what's one of the things that you can tell the people as far as like Chicago because you know when we come to these cities we just don't want to stay in downtown we want to touch like the real parts of the city yeah and we want to we want to give encouragement like we hear negative stuff but obviously there's your perfect example of positive stuff that's coming out of Chicago so like what is what it hopes to change the the narrative of Chicago specifically and what is the the direction that you see like as far as entrepreneurship or investing like is it something that is encouraging at the moment I think it is encouraging I mean I'm think about the building that were sitting in to do this pocket right we're in the wood line right now yeah so you know shafted I nailed to the width and all the ones' fine I mean he he used his money to buy this property he actually had there's a city assistance program to help fund this and he's an example and he's not the only one the thing is once you start to get it you don't think about what circles you in we're we're always in these circles where we're talking to other people who are great businesses and real estate and it's happening all around you right and we do see um people popping up with these businesses on this outside there are these pockets think about when you walk in here it's really nice and it's not the only one you there's a podcast studio in this facility there's a cafe downstairs and they do like pop-up restaurants in there and all of the pop-up restaurant owners are black you know like though that's what's coming now mm-hmm and this is just one of them I could think of so yeah I mean shoot lighthouse Mickey's grill you know they have multiple locations Sol Shack is or like soul food restaurant yeah shout to the bureau bar yeah a fly fly apparel so I mean they're they have these the oh sorry madam you know I focused or yes actually their clothing is Oh nuts with 2k 20 this is the basketball yeah their clothes is made of in there you can like the care do you create yeah you could put this there the sir and madam clothing on your character yeah oh so bright I don't shout out to y'all for doing what you're doing so yeah the entrepreneurs can succeed in Chicago there are great stories happen right in Chicago and when you look at the people that show up for you all networking social and different seminars that we're holding and there's a lot to be inspired and think that great things are coming that's powerful men so we want to thank you guys first and foremost for for joining us can you tell the people how to contact you how to watch your show any any initiative that you have going on yeah our Instagram is the downing brothers you know all one word the do WN ing brothers and the same thing with our website the downing brothers calm and you can catch us on you know Instagram Facebook and our podcast uh homecoming with the down there brothers you can apple with a memory your TV show elbow down that double down and so on and and be looking forward we end up next year because we will be moving around free agents perhaps Troy yes you out everybody on patreon.com backslash and your leisure that's how proud to pay program y'all know how this works man you up it's important it's so amazingly every time I we come on I'm saying a new person's name so shout out to y'all it allows the the podcast the show I should really say to travel to come to cities like Chicago and go around the city and interview some hometown heroes man shouts everybody and Houston who showed us love and laid shoulders love obviously Brooklyn that's home based a shoal of Atlanta show love so we want to go to your city minute so keep supporting that I just want to give a big shout out to David who just join at tier five so shout out to him in a Broderick who actually joined last night and we met him at the event so he was like oh that's me I was like I just do men here so shout out to Broderick and everybody that's been supporting that that's how product a program once again and shout to everybody that's been supporting the merch earn your leisure calm we have everything on there are torch t-shirts on there so Chicago tour that's up there people like how y'all picking the colors so usually we tried like we said we know we did with sports and entertainment in the business side so what we've been trying to do is match it with the football team or the basketball teams colors so we try to get both the best colors in there but we had a slight technical difficulty but shout out to everybody that that's was supporting on arm news.com and getting the merch yeah I need to get that access all over liability no you know what we got you we got you man we brought someone else so thank you guys for rockin with us we will see you next week shout out to Chicago be appreciated alright thank you all for tuning in and don't forget Friday at five we're gonna release episode 47 with superstar NFL agent Greg Barnett make sure you like subscribe and comment peace [Music] [Applause] [Applause] you
