What Is a Powerful Home?

Jun 04, 2021

Welcome Back to Powerful Homes Housing Literacy with Matt Guarino- the Mindset and Tactics to empower your dreams through Real Estate. Power is the ability to do good things for others – Anonymous

What is a powerful home?

The key that brings these two ideas together is YOU taking control of your life by owning it. How? By simply making the one decision that will inform and affect all decisions: committing to purchasing a home. Our vision is to empower dreams through real estate and to help AT LEAST 10,000 people join our movement in the next 10 years. HOW? Using the mindset and tactics from the Powerful Homes program to help you take it one step at a time and make the most important decision of your life to own a home as early as possible for as long as possible. In this video are the things that happen when you take the leap.....

As always feel free to text Matt directly at 303-885-1644.

Episode Links:

Powerful Homes: https://amzn.to/3yWyCIW
Born to Win: Find Your Success Code by Zig Ziglar: https://amzn.to/3phEKqI

Episode Transcript:

Welcome to the housing literacy podcast with host, Matt Guarino, founder of Powerful Homes. Matt's mission is to empower dreams through home ownership. We're here to help. We're going to do this together and now Matt Guarino.

My name is Matt Guarino and I'm the founder of Powerful Homes. Our vision is to empower dreams through real estate. Our mission is to help 10,000 people in the next 10 years purchase their very first home or investment property, because we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to do that regardless of their age, race, education level, or any of the other ways our current system may block them out of doing that.

So how do we do that? How are we going to help 10,000 people and empower their dreams through real estate? Well, we have a thing called housing literacy, which is simply the mindset, as well as the tactics, the ethics based tactics that I've paid dearly to learn by doing this for the last 25 years, buying and selling real estate all different types of real estate all over the country. And I realized that while I was doing that, there was a definite mindset in this process, as well as a set of tactics, a set of things that I can do every time to make it happen and be successful.

So that's what we're all about. It's a judgment free zone, not trying to sell you on anything, just here, sincerely to add some value to your process, whether you own property now, and you want to buy more, or you truly are trying to buy your first property. Our goal is just simply to provide this information and hopefully it's different than what you can get out there. I wrote a book last summer called Powerful Homes because basically I didn't find the book on Amazon or in books in the bookstores that about this real life process. There's wonderful TV shows and podcasts and websites that talk about how easy it is and how you'll never have any problems and they give you data and they kind of regurgitate a lot of the data that you can find. But what this is about is real life experiences, things that I've done well and not so well. And we're trying to just put it out there to help you give you the context and the confidence to make it happen for yourself.

So today's topic is lessons from inside the cave. 10 real life stories about home ownership that can change your life and why we say cave. So we always like to start with a quote kind of a theme for the day. And today is "that the cave you fear to enter holds the treasure that you seek.: Say it one more time. It's a Joseph Campbell quote, very famous quote been reams of information written about this fantastic mindset, but it's that the cave you fear to enter holds the treasure that you seek? I have absolutely found that to be true in my life. Kind of the things that are afraid to do are almost like the gatekeeper of what I really want.

I would even add onto this. I've heard this phrase out there and I believe it a hundred percent that if you put off or turn away from your fears or stuff them down and don't address them since we're talking about real estate, in my experience, they go into the basement of your life and lift weights. They become stronger and stronger and stronger each new season of your life. So you either you have to address your fears or they start to take over your life. So before we jump into the 10 stories, just a little background, a little context for this. So in the US there's about 65% of our country own homes and around 35% rent, it's been like that for so many years now.

So why is it, why are we 42nd in the world out of about 200 countries? I think it's exactly 195 in our ownership percentage. So we're the number one economy in the world, the richest country, if you will, or it's arguable, but I think we are with a $20 trillion economy, still a hundred million Americans are renting. Why is that? Why aren't we higher up? Why aren't more Americans owning? So I believe that it's because of the basics of understanding what it means to own a home versus the myths that are out there. That it can create fear and that fear becomes a cave that people don't enter for sometimes generations, they just don't do it. And that's where housing literacy comes in. The mindset and ethics based tactics can help anyone break through. Most people get stuck in the, how am I going to do it, or where do I start? Or what's the first step and what if something goes wrong?

Today's topic addresses all of those things with real life cases of what happens when you enter that cave of homeownership. And really the real answer to how to me is always yes, which means that you have to engage, jump in and get started. There's no substitute for what being an owner feels like. Let me give you a quick example of that. I love to walk my dog. I have the best dog in the world. I know every homeowner thinks that, but I definitely have the best dog. So we walk every morning, a couple of miles, maybe three miles and at night. I just like to do it. It burns off some nervous energy. I also like to bring a couple of bags with me and I like to pick up trash. If I see some things, I'll just pick them up. Not trying to get credit and not trying to judge anyone or you know, you know, for anybody to say to [inaudible] I just like to do it.

And I like to, as I walked by something, pick it up. So today on my walk, this day, literally this morning. I couldn't find two bags of trash. I only found one, but I was finishing up my walk and I was going by the rental portion of our neighbors. A little awesome little spot that you can rent. So what I did, and this is no judgment whatsoever. I always go there IF I don't have enough trash, I find more in the rental side, a lot more bottles, liquor bottles and cigarette butts, just trash. And what does that mean? Owning something and being all in can change the way you look at things, including yourself and your surroundings. When I rented in my twenties, I didn't buy my first home until 31. I wouldn't pick up trash. I just wouldn't, I was renting. It was kind of on the tour bus. It didn't matter to me. Now as an owner, I will pick it up if it's in front of my house. That's the mindset being an owner, activate something that's hard to describe kind of like being a parent can't you can't do it. Or if you want six pack, abs you can't just read about it. You have to engage.

So our thing is to jump in and say, yes. So here's here are 10 stories real life stories inside the cave that talk about the good and the bad. And they also have a lesson baked into each one. So here we go. We always like to put it in the form of an acronym or I do. So we have this acronym is yes, you can; those are nine letters with an explanation point. So let's dive in.

So, the first one is you are more resourceful than, you know, that's a lesson from inside the cave. A true story is I bought a two story duplex, two units up and down. And one unit up and down another unit up and down, and I was going to remodel it. My contractor called me first day of demo and said, good news or bad news, good news. I said, well, tell me some good news. He said, well, nobody died. And the second part of it, the bad news was the entire third of the property, which was a two story addition collapsed. I didn't sleep for a few days. Inside the cave. I thought, oh my gosh, what have I done? This is a nightmare. And so it turns out that after a couple of weeks of brainstorming, we came up with a new rebuild for that back, half the back third.

And I made even more money. I figured it out. We came up with creative solutions to fix that seemingly devastating problem. So the lesson in that is that the world rallies around you. If you show up authentically and stand in the truth, always in all ways. I didn't turn away from it. I just addressed it. And I brainstormed, we brainstormed and came up with the solution. So you are more resourceful than you know. That's the Y, the first Y.

The second thing is that every situation is a chance to learn. That's the E, here's an example. This is a story from my book. I had a contractor that for four months, wouldn't give me change. Orders just wouldn't give them to me. And so he was recommended from one of my partners, from a guy at church, right from his church and thought, well, he's an okay guy. After four months, he hit me with this huge change order bill. Like, I think it was over $50,000 for something I thought would be $5,000. What do you do with that? So every situation is a chance to learn. So what I learned was I should never do that. I should, on a weekly basis, find out what the new costs are for the job. And here's a lesson that every situation is a chance to learn, that the way we get good judgment, honestly, always comes from using bad judgment. It's kind of doesn't work any other way, right? So I use some bad judgment and letting this thing go, but I was able to develop good judgment and new policies going forward. It was a wonderful chance to learn. So every situation is a chance to learn and grow. So that's a lesson from inside the cave.

The third thing, and yes, you can is the S, that is seeing is believing crazy story. I have a rental property I owned for about 10 years. It was wonderful. And one day I get a call from my banker and she said, Hey, do you still own 13th and Hudson, this property over there in Denver. I said, yes. She said, well, the FBI is in front of it, seizing the property. I'm watching it on the nightly news. That's something crazy. So what happened was we put the property up for rent. My partner, put a for rent sign, was nailing it to the front of the housing on the lawn and a moving truck, an American furniture warehouse truck came in front of it and said, Hey, man, I'm looking to rent a house. Can I rent it? My partner called and said you know, Hey, call me and said, Hey, I got this wonderful guy. He's in khakis. He looks clean cut. We don't have to run a background check. We don't have to run credit, let him rent it.

That was a few months before. So now my banker calls and says the FBI seizing the property. This is a true story. What they did is they escaped from Wallowa Prison and Tacoma, Washington. Were writing bad checks across the country. They pulled up in front of my home in Denver and started opening that some illicit activities, selling drugs, doing awful things in the basement. And Jake jabs, they bought furniture, wrote a bad check. He tracked him down. Thank God that happened. So seeing is believing. I can't even imagine that happening. That was a story, real life story from inside the cave. And boy, did I get my attention? So seeing is believing. So the lesson here is that only by fully engaging in observing the circumstances of life, can you begin to change it?

We missed some things, we should have run a background check. We should have done some things we missed, but what it meant, what a great lesson that was. And I prevailed, we prevailed, thank God. By some of the partners around us, like our banker. So some amazing lessons so far. So yes, you can. So, the next Y is you are more powerful than you realize. Here's an example just recently. We have a student in powerful homes at 20 years old, got sent home from college as a junior going to school in California. What he did is he said, you know, what I’d love to do is make a silver lining out of this nightmare. I'm going to college at home, but how, how can I buy a home? He read the book, took the course, you know, applied the mindset and the tactics.

And he bought a condo for about 170,000, and now he's renting it and making nice cashflow every month has a ton of equity in the property at 20 years old. So you're more powerful than you know. That's a lesson from the cave. the answer to how is always yes. He said yes to it and figured it out. So the big takeaway lesson is that you are never too young or too old to empower your biggest dreams. And this is what this 20 year old did through our program.

So the next thing is in yes, you can is the O, open to all new possibilities. Another Powerful Homes student, immigrant from Mexico purchased three properties in the last 12 months. He purchased a house to get started. He purchased it then. purchased a home for his parents and now he's under contract next week to purchase a duplex through all of the mindset and the tactics that he's learned from Powerful Homes, amazing stuff. He was open to the possibility. And he said to me recently, he said, you know, I always thought I just wanted to be a nice guy and by being a nice guy, my life would work out. He said, now I'm realizing that having the resources I can impact the future, I can make a difference to other people. And he said, so many new possibilities are opening up to me because I leaped and bought my first home and figured it out. Awesome, awesome thing. I'm so proud of him and happy for him.

So the next thing is yes, you can is U, it's understanding yourself is the beginning of wisdom. So for me, this is just a personal story. I've purchased all types of properties throughout my career in the last 20 years. I've always wanted to do a good thing as well as try to make some money and create new resources for myself and my family. So I purchased things like multi-family properties. I purchased assisted living properties, try to help people. I purchased HUD assets who had low income folks in it, and all the while I thought that's what I wanted to do, but understanding yourself is the beginning of wisdom. What I realized is these certain types of assets wasn't rewarding for me, I couldn't make enough of a difference. So I understood that, I kind of took a step back and all of those asset purchases informed my decision to launch Powerful Homes, our brokerage, and our foundation that empowers dreams through real estate.

But it took me going through that process to really learn that about myself and what I wanted for the future, for myself and others. So if it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you. It was very, very challenging, all of those experiences. And it changed me and changed what I wanted to do in the future. So understanding yourself is the beginning of wisdom. That's part of saying yes and leaping and buying your first home or investment property. So the next one is A, in yes, you can is to say and nor or. One of the stories from inside the cave is that another Powerful Home student, a graduate student now, she paid much of her college debt by buying an investment property as a sophomore, selling that in, during COVID to pay for some of that student debt, as well as pay off the debt for her master's degree.

So think about that. She was also saying, well, I'm a student. I have to be a student or a homeowner, you know an employee or this, I can't do both. I don't know who gave us this idea that we have to do things in a certain order, like go to college, then have a job, then get married, maybe then buy a house like there's a chronological order of how our life has to be. I'm here to tell you that it's an or thing, an and not an or thing. Meaning you can be a student and an investor. You can be a student and a homeowner, right? You can be somebody early in your career and an investor and owner of real estate. I don't know what is this idea that you have to choose this or that because it's this certain phase of your life. It's nonsense. That's another myth about real estate.

You can buy real estate. Our goal is to help you buy it as early as possible and hold it as long as possible. That's the truth from inside the cave. So in the end, we only regret the chances we didn't take. Why not take a chance? Why not take a chance as early as possible to buy your first home and or investment property. The N from, yes, you can is that now is the time. So the story I want to tell here is that my parents were married nearly 60 years and they bought their first home in 1957, owned it for over their five 50 year marriage. So now is the time. So they funded their seven kids with that one single decision because they made that decision earlier in their life.

And Steve jobs said, the lesson here is that you can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect the dots looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will connect somehow in the future. So now is the time, if you could just trust and take that leap and say yes to the question of how, dots will connect. And the earlier you do it, I can't stress enough, almost desperate to have you take that chance because my parents buying that home in 1957, changed all of their life and gave them the resources to raise their seven kids. And I'm the last of the seven, so I'm really grateful they did that. That one decision changed everything.

So the final thing is the yes, you can, with an exclamation point, which means to live with passion and courage. To live with passion and courage, to the caves you fear to enter holds the treasure that you seek. I don't know what your treasure is. I don't know what your dreams are, but I am positive that, you know, yes, you can own stocks. Yes, you can own bonds. Yes, you can start your own business. There's lots of ways to create resources, to empower your dreams. But I would say that buying a home, if you're afraid to do it, try to push past that fear. Use some passion and energy to get up the courage, to do it. That's the exclamation point. Do it, because I know that if you buy the right thing at the right price and the right location with the right terms, and take care of it, it will be a fine decision that you will never regret. Ask anybody in their forties and fifties, would they have bought more homes. Everyone just about will tell you, yes and I wish I bought them as early as possible.

So let's stop letting our fears, prevent us from doing the one thing that can change our entire future. Let's stop looking through the key hole of the knob that only lets us see shadows on the wall for a bright future. We all have the opportunity to walk through the door to homeownership, and it begins with a simple decision to run toward that door and stop running away from it. You got what it takes.

If you need any encouragement, you need any help, any support, we would love to be your coach here at Powerful Homes and Powerful Homes Brokerage. And my phone number is (303) 885-1644. If you have any questions about any of the things we just talked about today, please give me a call, send me a text, leave some comments. We have lots of additional resources in the show notes of this message. And we'd love to hear from you. And we'd love to hear how you're running towards the door that opens the key to your dreams. The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek. We would love for you to find that treasure and using real estate to make it happen. We got this to you next time.

Thank you for listening to another episode of the housing literacy podcast. Don't forget to like, comment and hit that subscribe button and stay connected with Matt Guarino by visiting www.powerfulhomes.org.