Ditch the Fear, Know Your Numbers, and Take Action With Paul White

Episode 115: Ditch the Fear, Know Your Numbers, and Take Action With Paul White

The Profit First REI Podcast

September 22, 2022

David Richter

Summary:

On this episode of Profit First, we’re going to dive in a bit on “Knowing Your Numbers” and more with Paul White!

Paul White is an orthodontist and real estate investor whose investment journey started the same way as most people’s – through passive investment. Paul didn’t realize how important knowing your numbers really is. So if you can’t do your due diligence, then at least find a way to have clarity over your portfolio to optimize your returns and make the best decisions possible.

This led to the creation of the RealNumberz app, designed to organize your investments so you can get full transparency with less work. 

Catch Paul’s insights on doing due diligence, why clarity over your numbers helps you have better control over your investments, and more!

Key Takeaways:
[0:46] Paul White’s Background in Real Estate Investment and Professional History

[4:32] The Importance of Knowing Your Numbers in Real Estate

[6:58] Building an App to Keep Track of Investment Numbers

[10:29] Why You Should Know Your Numbers

[14:39] How Profit First Helped Paul’s Journey 

[19:49] How Does Knowing Numbers Help Investors?

[24:08] Paul’s Investment Tips

Quotes:

[8:42] “There is a sense of chaos and unease that comes with not knowing.”

[8:58] “If you think about the money that most of us invest, it’s at least after expenses and sometimes after tax… It’s hard earned money… we just don’t treat it like we should.”

[13:22] “My experience with passive investors,they see a big return, and that’s pretty much the end of due diligence.”

[16:04] “Fear comes from lack of control. Fear keeps us from looking at numbers and from taking the first step.”

Links:

Get a free trial/demo at their website-realnumberz.com

Connect with him through his email at drwhite@realnumberz.com

Profit First Real Estate Investors FB Group-https://m.facebook.com/groups/ProfitFirstREI/ 

Simple CFO-https://simplecfo.com/ 

Tired of living deal to deal? 

If you are a real estate investor or business owner who is tired of living deal to deal, and want to double your profits, head over here to book your no-obligation discovery call with me. Either myself or someone from my team will hop on a short call with you to get clear on your business goals, remove any obstacles holding you back, and map out a game plan to help you finally start keeping more of the money you work so hard to make. – David 

Transcript:

Paul White:

Fear comes from lack of control, right? And so fear keeps us from looking at these numbers or even taking the first step. One of the things I noticed in, in the Profit First book for Real Estate Investors that you wrote is almost, I dunno, every five or six, seven pages says start now

Intro:

If you’re a real estate investor, who’s sick and tired of living deal to deal, then welcome home. Hear from everyday real estate investors, just like you and discover how they’ve completely transformed their business by taking a Profit First approach. This is the Profit First for REI podcast where we believe revenue is vanity profit is sanity. It’s time to start making profit a habit in your business. So here’s your host, David Richter.

David Richter:

Hey everyone. It is David Richter here with the Profit First REI podcast. Have another great guest here. We have Paul White, whom I’ve now known for several years. It’s been years that I’ve known him. He’s been in the real estate investing space. He’s been inside of he’s a professional he’s was a dentist. And it might still, I don’t know if you still have your practice or not, but you still, then he was that he also has software, which I want him to talk about today because it’s very cool. And it goes right in with knowing your numbers and the things that we preach over and over and over again on the Profit First I podcast. So just very relevant for today. So, Paul, thank you so much for being on the Profit First podcast.

Paul White:

David, thank you for having me. It has been so much fun to, to have known you for this time and to watch what I would call your meteoric rise in real estate, even though you’ve been in real estate for a while what you have been working on. I knew as soon as you said, I’m writing a book Profit First for Real Estate Investing. I said, dude, that is spot on and it’s gonna be great. And you know, the book I’ve read it and it’s great. Thank you for sending me a copy was awesome.

David Richter:

Awesome.

Paul White:

And and I, I just, I just can’t wait to see what’s gonna come from it.

David Richter:

Well, I appreciate that so much. I really, you know, this was definitely a labor of love to get this out the door. So I just, anytime I can, can bring that value, but it’s been awesome. And I appreciate you too. And your encouragement during this time, this has been a long road getting that book out. So I appreciate people like you that have always been in my corner. And then I feel like, how can we give back? But let’s, let’s give the listener. Who’s listening right now. A little bit of background about who you are, how you got started in real estate. What are you doing now? And just tell your story.

Paul White:

Wow. How much time you got I

David Richter:

<Laugh> right. We usually do 25, 30 minutes on this podcast.

Paul White:

Yeah. Yeah. Alright. I think I, I can make it fit. Yeah, I I’ve been in, I’ve been an orthodontist for 30 something years graduated dental school in 1984. So it’s been a while. I was a dentist for a while and then, and went back to school and became an orthodontist and have done that for a long time. And it’s been my passion much like what you’ve been doing. And and so I really hadn’t done much in the way of real estate other than what other dentists do and that’s buy something here or there and it all fails and you, and you never do it again. So and, and I think what, what happens with most of us is we don’t know enough, so we just trust people. Yeah. And which is great if you’ve got somebody that’s trustworthy, but I’ve learned to that.

Paul White:

Not everybody is trustworthy, you know, for a doctor they’re pretty much gonna do whatever it takes to make a patient happy E even if it costs us money. So, you know, we just assume that’s same mindset going into real estate and, and it’s a different thing. And so your, your admonition to all of us to know our numbers is so spot on and, and you, you and I are, you know, sole brothers in that one. So mm-hmm <affirmative>. But anyway, so I’ve been investing actively for probably five or six years now. And I guess for me, the, the realization originally was, you know, Warren buffet famously said if you don’t make money, while you sleep, you’ll work till you die. And that was like a just, oh my gosh, cuz you know, you know, doctors and dentists and professionals, you know, make a pretty good living, but they make income. Right. And when you finally understand the difference between income and wealth, you know, a light bulb goes on, you go, oh my gosh, I gotta do something different. Right. Cause I love what I do, but I don’t wanna do it till I’m 90. It’s a pretty physically demanding, you know, profession. So. Yep.

David Richter:

Yeah, no, I, and I love that and it’s the journeys that we all take and how we get into real estate. And you know, like at which stages we get into it and whatnot to it’s, it’s always amazing that, you know, this is the one asset class that I feel like is, you know, it definitely will be around until there’s just no more real estate or what until the earth is totally populated with that or whatever. But thank you. I, I love hearing people’s journeys and how they get into there and then what they’re doing now. And like you said, we are soul brothers when it comes to knowing your numbers. So can you talk about that then, because with your real estate journey with where you are now, how did you get into like the importance of knowing your numbers and like why, why do you preach that so much as well?

Paul White:

That’s such a great question. I, I guess when I first started, you know, I was on this quest, you know, I’d, I’d save money cuz you know, you know, one of the things we talked about before we got on the call was what about mindsets? Right? And so the mindset that I was raised with was, you know, get a good, you know, get, make good grades, go to school, get a good education, get a good job and then pay off, you know, make a good living and then pay off all your debts as soon as you can. And so debt to me was a bad word. And and so that’s just a mindset that was a huge mindset shift for me. And you know, for years the model for guys in my generation was you would give some guy your money and he would manage it for you.

Paul White:

Right, right. And he managed to lose a lot of money for me. And yet he managed to make a pretty good commission off all of that. So I, I, the example used to use years ago was I, as you know, when you’re little kids and we used to go out and find Coke bottles and we’d go change ’em in for 5 cents or 10 cents for a Pepsi bottle and we’d take ’em to the, to the drug store. And they had a fountain where you could buy candy and sodas and stuff and just hold out your hand and go, is this enough money? And he would just take, you know, money from your hand and you know, you’d just put the rest in your pocket and you’d go eat your drink and leave. And I think we’d take that with investing. So many of these people that invest, especially in the stock market or all these other things, they just, you give ’em their money and you go, okay, invest it for me and do a good job.

Paul White:

And you just, you know, that that’s all we know. And a lot of us like that because we just, we don’t wanna be actively involved until you realize you need to be, know your numbers and know what’s going on. So that’s how I got when I understood that the difference between income and wealth is how I got into real estate. And so I’d started, I had some money saved up. So I started acquired a bunch of assets right at the beginning. And just, you know, for the first time in my life, I felt like I was in control cuz no one else was making decisions about my money. I was and it felt awesome. And then the phone started ringing and the email started coming in for more money and more this and more of that. And I went, whoa, whoa, whoa. You know, so, so that piece was short lived. And so what I did was I, I, I was in a mastermind with a bunch of other professionals and, and I said, you know, guys, what are you doing? And I was shocked to find that most of ’em were doing nothing, you know, to say they were doing this right. <Laugh>

David Richter:

Right. So yeah.

Paul White:

And, and I, a couple guys are using spreadsheets and that was about it. And even the two guys using spreadsheets, weren’t even using the same spreadsheet. And I was like, you know, as an orthodontist, we like things nice and uniform and straight and organized. And I was like, this is chaos. Right. So my organization at the time was I had, you know, folders of assets sitting out on my pool table and that was it. Yeah. And then the chaos started and that’s when I realized I had to do something different.

David Richter:

Yeah. And you, you took it 10 steps further than most other people cuz you didn’t just build a spreadsheet for what you needed. You build actual software and something that I think can be beneficial to a lot of people to get a grasp around their numbers. Especially if they’re especially, I would say if they’re in that passive investment and they’re getting, you know, like knowing their numbers and really knowing those returns on them. So what, so what, what, where did you go for that leap from, you know, on the pool table? Like files there too now having your own software?

Paul White:

Well, well stress will make you move right? You, you either, you know, stress out or do something about it and I’m, I’m not a guy that likes to sit still. So I started looking for way solutions. And so I tried spreadsheets and I’ll be honest with you. I, you know, most of the software I use, I just sort of taught myself and, and spreadsheets still intimidate me a little bit. When I start opening up the cells and doing the formulas, like, nah, maybe not. So my son’s a programmer and just an incredibly smart kid and I hope he’s not gonna hear this cuz I’ll give him a big head. But anyway I, I said, Hey, can you make him a spreadsheet? He goes, sure. And so he said, what do you want? And I started saying some things and then as he’s working on the spreadsheet, I’d come back and go, oh yeah, can you add this and this?

Paul White:

And he goes, okay. And about the third time I did it, he goes, Hey, wait, I’m not gonna keep doing this. Make a list of all the things that you want and we’ll get it done. Right. And so I sat down, you know, bunch of hours and just maybe a few days. And I wrote down all the things and I handed him my piece of paper and he looked at us, he goes, dad. He said, spreadsheets, can’t do most of what you’re asking for. I said, so what do we do? He goes, you need an app. And I went, okay, what’s, what’s an app. <Laugh>

David Richter:

So,

Paul White:

And you know, so we, we looked on the, on the internet for software and there’s just nothing out there. So that’s what, you know, made us to realize that, you know, I wasn’t the only one having the problem as I’m talking to people and that’s been, my mission is to help other people know cuz there, there is a sense of chaos and unease that comes with not knowing you just put, I, I think in your book you write, you said most investors, you know, have their head in the sand, you know, and 95% of, of ’em don’t know their numbers and that’s been my experiences I’ve talked to people. I’m shocked because yeah, if you think about the money that most of us invest, it’s it it’s at least after expenses and sometimes after tax that we’re investing. Right. So it’s hard earned money. It’s not free money and it’s not easy to come by. It’s comes by after putting other things first or does she should be. And so, you know, and we just don’t treat it like we like we should, we don’t, we don’t respect it. We wouldn’t run our businesses the way some of us run our personal investing. So

David Richter:

Yeah. <Laugh>, that’s so good. I like that. Yeah. It’s it is incredible that what we’ve seen and behind the scenes, just how many don’t know the numbers, but, and I feel like a lot of people are intimidated, you know, by that they don’t have the background or whatnot. So I get, I get that feeling and I think you had some great nuggets there too, of like, like you went from the documents on your table to then, you know, spreadsheets and then an app and you know, that’s where your son, you know, it’s who is that right person, you know, to help you and to get that in this case, it was your son and he was a programmer to help with that. But I think that’s such a, a great lesson in the who, not how, and like we’ve heard that book, you know, by Dan Sullivan. Yeah. You know, things like that. It’s like having those right people and having those right. People then go out to help other people. I, I love this too, because it is, it is just an epidemic of, we don’t know the numbers, we don’t know the power that it gives us. Once you finally have that, that’s when the light bulbs click on. But until you don’t have that, you don’t know what you’re missing. Like you don’t know that like, oh wow. Like this is just unlocked a whole new world for me.

Paul White:

It’s incredible. We, one of the guys in our group was sort of my big brother. And so he was sort of showing me the ropes as far as getting started. And, and I said, so what are you investing in? And he had substantial money invested, I mean, significant money. And, and he showed me the things I said, well, what kinda returns you get? And he goes about 15%. And I go about, what do you mean about, he goes, well, I said, where’d you get that from? He goes, well, that’s what they told me. I’d make dentist. Right. We just,

David Richter:

Oh wow. Yeah.

Paul White:

And I said, well, don’t you think you oughta know? And you know, I, I really wanted to know for him, but I didn’t want to, if he was making 15%, I was gonna do exactly what he was doing. But if he wasn’t, I was gonna do something else. Right. So right. I had a selfish reason for wanting to know, and I didn’t see him for the longest time. I thought maybe I upset him with that comment. Right. And, and I guess at our next meeting, there was a presentation that he did and he and his son had taken hours and hours and hours to go back and get spreadsheets out and put all the expenses for all his assets and investments. And at the end of the day, when the dust settled, his 15% return was really 3.7%. Ooh. Which made a several hundred thousand dollars difference every year that he thought he was making that he wasn’t, but he had money coming in, see cash flow can, can cover up a lot of, a lot of UN underperforming or non-performing assets as long as we see money coming in. Right.

David Richter:

Huh. That is so good that it, it covers up mistakes. It covers, you know, like that’s where, yeah. In the active world it’s doing that next deal. That next deal covers all the mistakes of the last one of where we spent the money. And so I, yeah, I, I love that that point is a great point and you, we could park there for a long time,

Paul White:

You know, we could, I mean, you know, cuz because the active investors get on a hamster wheel and just keep doing it over and over and then look back and there’s nothing in the, in the bank and they’re go what the heck’s going on. Right. Right.

David Richter:

Yes. And then the passive investors sits there thinking they’re getting this great return and then they’re not really, and they’re losing out on literally, like you said, hundreds of thousands of dollars and,

Paul White:

And, and wonder when they can retire cuz they don’t have enough cash flow to, you know, to, to cover their burn. Right. Much less, any kinda lifestyle above that. So it’s, it’s amazing. Right? Yeah.

David Richter:

It really is. And I don’t think that’s why we get so much information on like self-directed IRAs or how to save money on taxes, but there’s not really the push of like knowing the numbers and just managing what you have. Like here’s a simple either tool like real numbers or like a system Profit First, you know, like to just manage the cash that’s coming into your business. So that’s where I love what you’ve done. Put an actual system in place because you’ve gotta have something to be able to, to actually take that to that next step and be able to see this is what I was, you know, this is how we’re able to analyze it. Now does that story continue at all? Did he, you know, did he finally, you know, get a better return or whatnot or

Paul White:

It, it dramatically changed the investments that he had. He sold most of the investments off that he had because he had one of those guys that wasn’t being exactly straight up with him. And he didn’t really understand the expenses, my experience with a lot of passive investors, they see a big return and that’s pretty much the end of due diligence and they sign up. Hmm. And you know, there’s lots of software. I mean, I’m sorry, not software, there’s lots of education. Let’s call it out there to help you acquire property or acquire investments notes and get into funds or syndications. There are very few there’s very few very little training that shows you how to manage it once you’ve got it. Right. So you’ve, you’ve got this thing and now you don’t know what to do with it. Right. It’s like having your first kid, they don’t come with instructions.

Paul White:

So you just gotta figure it out. Right. Yes. And sometimes that works really well for the kid and sometimes it doesn’t, you know, and, and there’s more, there’s more help for raising a kid afterwards than having an investment. Okay. Now what do you do with it? Right. So right. And, and so having a system like, like Profit First is so critical and having a, a way to manage it that takes the least amount of time and gives you the best return. And the best results is what we all want. Because really, as far as passive investors are concerned, we don’t want another job. We’re trying to get rid of the one we have.

David Richter:

So. Right, exactly. So then let’s park there a little bit with Profit First. I mean, I’ve seen you present on it before and how it’s helped your business. So why, why don’t you tell the listeners here, how that system and how Profit First has really helped you with your control of the business?

Paul White:

Well, you know what, I read the book and there was a big, huge light bulb on top of my head because I did like everybody else, I had a bank account and money went in and money went out and money, went in and money went out at the end of the year. I, I had to find money to pay taxes and whatever was left over was mine.

David Richter:

Yep.

Paul White:

And you know, and there’s sort of a humility about that because you say, well, you know, you know, I’m not wor I’m not here for money. I’m not doing this for money, but at the end of the day, if, if a business is not making money, it’s not gonna be around very long. Right. Right. And if you’re really good at what you wanna do, you wanna be around longer so you can help more people. And and so I did none of that. Right. And so I just started off with, okay, well, let’s just make a couple of buckets. Right. You know? And so, you know, that, that the owner’s compensation and the owners tax were two important ones. And then I still had sort of money coming in and out of this same bucket, you know, but then we moved some money over and that was a great first step, you know, for what we were doing. Right. And then I sort of eased into profit from there. But that, that was a good transition for us because I didn’t wanna change the one bank account that I had money coming into, cuz I just didn’t wanna, you know, disrupt that. But then I did start moving money in other places. And it’s so easy to look into one of those accounts and see how things are going, you know? Yeah. You don’t have to go look at it spreadsheets to see what what’s happening there.

David Richter:

Right. Yeah. I love that. It gives you that control right from the right, from the screen <laugh>

Paul White:

Well, you know, people, fear comes from lack of control, right? Yeah. And so fear keeps us from looking at these numbers or even taking the first step. One of the things I noticed in, in the Profit First book for Real Estate Investors that you wrote is almost, I don’t know, every five or six, seven pages says, start now, start now. Yes. Start now. And it’s like, it is cuz you know, it’s paralysis by analysis because you just, well, what if, what if, what if, and you just gotta take that first step. I don’t know. I’m sure you could add tons to that, so oh

David Richter:

Yeah. Then that’s what it is. It’s that first step taking that action set up that one profit account transfer 1%, you know, like just do something in order to get you where you need to be. And I love, I love hearing people’s descriptions or like what it’s done for them. Like you Paul, like here, this helped me gain that clarity. Help me get that confidence. Cuz like you said, that was, you hit the nail in the head that most people don’t look at it because they don’t have that control or they’re scared and they don’t have a system and it’s like, I don’t even know what I’m looking at. You know like especially if you just have one account

Paul White:

Well, and, and I’ll tell you at, at our level, most people have a bookkeeper or an accountant. Right. And they just go here.   

David Richter:

Yes. That is so good. There’s no one there talking to them about the actual money, the man, the management, you usually got the CPA talking, you know, way above the head or like things that don’t really matter to you, you know, like they’re just working for the IRS and then you’ve got the bookkeeper that’s, you know, just putting the transactions in and doesn’t know how to speak business owner, you know, they’re just there to help you put those in. So yeah, I, that’s why, that’s why we started the company that I have simple CFO. Like we needed to fill that gap in between like here’s how to make business decisions because so many people don’t have that. They don’t have that being that outlet to be able to talk about the money in a safe place while they get it set up and running. So yeah. We just see that over and over again.

Paul White:

Yeah. I, it, it really is. It’s almost an advocation though. It’s like, I’ve got somebody that’s responsible for it, so I don’t have to be.

David Richter:

Right. Exactly.

Paul White:

And, and I think for me real estate was the first opportunity for me to take control of my investments and be charge of them. You know, stock market’s so far removed and I still have money in the stock market, but it’s so far removed. I have no control over that. I just put money in and take it out. That’s the only decision I have. And with real estate, I have a lot more control of who I’m in, in business with what I wanna invest in and then watch it move and then take actions that can change those numbers. So, but again if you don’t know the numbers, you can’t take action. And I, I remember something in your book, you said it’s lost opportunity. If you don’t know your numbers, you, you might have an opportunity to make something better or take something that’s not performing and, and, and either shed it or make it, do something to make it do better as well. So yeah.

David Richter:

Yeah. That’s yeah. I wanna say that’s so good, but it’s like my word, so I don’t, you know, <laugh> so <laugh>, don’t wanna be like, oh my, if we’re like my good, so <laugh> it’s my podcast, Dana it. So no that’s no, I really, really appreciate you taking those nuggets from there because that is we see it all the time. Like just how many times as real estate investors passive or active, do we come across opportunities that we wanna take that we don’t know if we can, and then we go out on a limb and then that puts us into a stressful situation where now we need that next deal. And it’s like, now we gotta do what we do. You know, it’s like, it’s might be a slim deal or whatever. So it’s just, you know, that’s where I love this, getting this in place. How can we help get an actual system to manage this? Because it is, we see it over and over again. So let’s talk more about you Paul, and about the real numbers and like that side of things. So what does real numbers do for people? Like what, it obviously solves some of that, like the ne knowing the numbers. So what does it do? And can you just talk about that system a little bit?

Paul White:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, as they say, software’s never done and I have mapped out, you know, in, in the world of, so I’m living in two world, well, three worlds now I’m in, orthodon the world of orthodontics. Now I practice a couple days a week. I still love helping people there. And then I’m in this software world now where I don’t speak the language. It’s a foreign language that made my son opens up the computer. My parents used to talk about the new math, which meant they didn’t know math. Right. Right. And my son opens a computer. I have no idea what he’s doing with that. When you see the background of the, it’s just, it’s just gibberish to me. And I’m almost jealous cuz they didn’t have, you know, the internet was not a thing. When I was growing up, we had to use this thing called our imagination, you know? So,

David Richter:

So

Paul White:

And then I’m, I’m also in the world of real estate investing. So I’m trying to keep up with all those things. So I stay, I stay pretty busy and and so they call it wire framing when you sort of software take, take off where you want it to go. And so I, I call it wire framing. My son says, I’m writing a bunch of crap down on a piece of paper, but I’ve mapped out all these different avenues. Cuz I would say the first thing that, that real numbers does is almost what you’re saying. It’s a system, right? So it’s a built in system that you don’t have to develop. Cause I had no idea how to organize my portfolio and I had different buckets of, of investments. So I do, you know, private lending and I do rentals, multi-family single family, self storage, I mean funds and syndications.

Paul White:

I buy notes. Some, you know, either have real estate add or some, I don’t know, investing add or something, but, and those things have a place in my portfolio, but to have ’em all organized in under one umbrella and then be able to see the results of all that pool together is really where we started. So it’s organized for you. And then it draws analytics from a portfolio wide level and then down to an individual asset class level and then down to the individual asset. So you can see at, at whatever level you want, what kind of performance and know your numbers. And so I was at a meeting here in Richmond in in the fall and one of the speakers, somebody, you know, really well, rich Lenon, he said, most of you don’t even know the numbers on your rentals.

Paul White:

Don’t know this. And I went, I know, you know, and, and I told, I showed him, he goes, yeah. He said, you do know. And I said, that’s rare. And I said, yeah, but that it made me uncomfortable, not knowing, you know? Hmm. And so to be able to do that with very little effort is, is really where, where it’s about. So it’s, it’s still growing, but one of the neatest features we’ve just added is a way to organize your assets by either an entity or by a funding source because I have self-directed IRAs and I don’t go in there and open it up. And it says, your ROI is this, it just says, here are your investments. Right? Right. And, and so it’s a way for me to get an idea of what the returns are, how much money I have to invest, how much is invested and what the, what, how much of the, of the percentage of my money is, is deployed.

Paul White:

So I know whether I’ve got money sitting idle or not, and, and then it has alarms and alerts set to all these things so that it alerts you. So I don’t have to keep looking for things like, for instance, if I have a lending deal, that’s you know, a year out, well, 11 months from that date, it will start sending me reminders. This deal is come and due. Right. And then I send that note reminder to the, invest to the borrower to say, Hey, you know, what’s, what’s the plan? Are we gonna close? Or, you know, gimme a date. And if not, you know, we’re gonna extend, what do you wanna do? So, and I had to do nothing other than forward an email that came to me. So, you know, that’s really the, the point is to make I, again, I don’t want another job.

Paul White:

And so, but, but just to organize things and put ’em in a way that, you know, everybody can have access to it, your accountant can have access to it. One of the things I didn’t think about was, you know, if something should happen to me, my wife wants nothing to do with this stuff. Right. She thinks, right. Even though we’ve making get a ton of money with it, she thinks it’s still focus, focus. She likes seeing a big bank account with money sitting in it with doing nothing right. That made her feel good. Right. But if something should happen to me, everything that’s real estate related is in one place. So it’s almost a legacy piece too, because it’s organized, it has contacts for who’s who all the documents are stored in. It everything’s there in one place. And so all you do is open up the app and it’s right there in front of you. And so that really has been almost a, a piece of mind for my wife, cuz I can come in and, and say, look, here’s how you open the app and here’s where it is. And it’s it’s right there. Look, we’re making money, see all these numbers.

David Richter:

Yeah. So that’s awesome. Yeah. Awesome. That’s well, I want to make sure that I have two last questions. So before we tell people how to get there and you know, all that first question is what is some general advice you would give to the listeners here, you know, in real estate investing in the listener base here?

Paul White:

Oh, that’s a great question. I, I I’m, I’m more focused on due diligence now than I’ve ever been. Hmm. You know, because most deals are made in the, in the acquisition of the, of the asset. Right. So, so making sure that you do the proper due diligence, I have gotten actually burned a couple times because somebody I knew or somebody really famous their number two, I just pressed them and took their advice and didn’t check behind them. And I got, I’ve gotten burned a couple times doing that. And so that’s been a, and I knew better. Right. But there was that big number hanging out and you go, oh yeah. So, so for me, just vetting the deal, vetting the, the, the deal maker and and making sure that you’re tracking and following along, most of us make a deal and close the book and don’t worry about it until it, until we get a knock on the door, our bank account said, Hey, our money’s coming in and that’s just not a way to, to manage your investment. So, yeah.

David Richter:

Nah, and that’s great. And that is so relevant to every single investor. Doesn’t matter if you’re passive active. Yeah. You’re listening to this due diligence is huge. Yeah. Then so how do they get in touch with you? Last question here, like how, you know, you provide a lot of value here, how do they provide value back real numbers or connecting or whatever you need.

Paul White:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I’m happy to, to talk to anybody about this stuff. I, you know, my, my new passion now is real estate, so I’ve, I’ve been a passion orthodontist for years. And you know, when you sort of master something, you’re looking for a new challenge and, and real estate has been just a exciting for me. I love learning and I love stepping in a new field. I love helping people. And so it’s, it’s, it’s funny that somebody that you know is relatively new to the space. I mean, I’m not new, new, but you know, is, is still able to help people that, so a lot of our users are, have been around for a while and they said, we’ve been looking for this kind of stuff forever. Where has it been? Right. Like, well, it’s been in my head for, for a while. But so they can contact me personally at Dr. White at real numbers with a Z. Are you in R E a L N U M B E R Z at, at Dr. White@Realnumbers.Com or you can go to our website, real numbers.com and you can do a 14 day free trial for a demo. I’m happy to do a demo for you. Just lemme know how I can help with that.

David Richter:

Awesome. There you go. So if you wanna check out that software and who would you say is the best user for that software? What type of investor?

Paul White:

Mainly we built it for people that are tending to be more passive. It’s not that we don’t have some more active people, but they’re usually the more active ones they’re having somebody in their family sort of run it for them. Yep. But, but a passive investor that really doesn’t wanna put all the work and effort and time that it, that it took to, you know, the app’s never done, but there’s ridiculous amounts of time built into it and complexity that you can’t imagine, but just the time to, it would take you personally do all these things yourself. Right. You know, why do it when it’s already done? So,

David Richter:

Yeah. Okay. Awesome. Well, there you go. Real numbers.com. So with a Z. So that’s where you can go and I’ll look at that software. And Paul, thank you so much. Appreciate your, that you’re out there as well and beating the drum, know your numbers and helping people get to where they need to be, and really get in control of their businesses and lives. So thank you so much for being on and providing that value today. Dave,

Paul White:

Thank you for having me. It’s been a pleasure. And like I said, it’s been been so fun to watch you grow. And like you said, know your numbers, that’s what we’re, we’re coming for. We need to get a t-shirt that says that.

Outro:

This episode of the profit first for REI podcast is over, but there are plenty more where that came from. Are you ready to learn how David and his team can help implement the Profit First  system in your business? Schedule a discovery call @ simplecfo.com right now. We’ll see you next time on the Profit First for REI podcast with David Richter.