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Have you ever been in a conversation where someone has had to ask you to repeat something multiple times? It’s frustrating when you’re trying to tell someone something and they just won’t listen, but what about all the times you’ve been distracted in a conversation? There are a handful of reasons why humans aren’t great at listening, but the benefits to becoming a true listener are off the charts. Better connections, more trust, and happier relationships just to tout a few.

In her book, Listen Like You Mean It, Ximena Vengoechea talks about why listening is so important, and why we often get it wrong. Being a great listener is almost like having a super-power, you’ll be able to tell what a person wants and needs faster and more accurately. This can help in almost any business, but especially in a people-first business like real estate when you’re constantly talking to tenants, management, sellers, buyers, or agents.

Ximena goes through the 3 qualities that are most needed when becoming a great listener and how you can put yourself into “listening mode”. She also walks through how to have difficult conversations or conversations with people who aren’t the best listeners, plus what you can do to make sure that the person talking to you really feels heard. This isn’t just a crucial trait for anyone in real estate, but for anyone who wants successful relationships with the ones they love.

Every real estate investor knows that things don’t always go as well as we’d like. What happens when you’re hit with a $16,000 bill to fix a sewer, or when 20 of your tenants call you all at once with problems? Some things, like those examples, make active real estate investors envy passive investors. This is why Tamar Hermes decided to go on a more passive route for real estate investing.

Tamar started at age 28, working as an executive in the television industry. She realized that she was trading her time for money, and without her job, she wouldn’t be able to pay her bills. So, she put 10% down on a duplex and started house hacking. Over time she bought more and more duplexes, some even out of her 401(k). She was an aspiring landlord, but after being hit with the situations above, she decided to sell all her units in Los Angeles and put her money into more passive income streams.

Now she’s invested in syndications, like Brandon’s Open Door Capital to be exact. This gives her far more freedom to pursue her passions in life, without having to worry about those 2 A.M. toilet calls. Tamar refers to herself as a very cautious investor, and that may be why she feels far more diversified with passive investing than active investing.

She also talks through “finding your tribe” and how Gobundance has helped her meet friends and partners within the real estate space. This doesn’t mean you need to go out and find a group, but having friends and allies within your certain niche can help move you miles ahead of the competition!

The way the housing market moves largely depends on the real estate cycle we’re currently in. We all saw this during the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis as overleveraged homeowners saw their properties foreclosed on and later sold to investors who had cash on hand. We’re currently experiencing dramatic demand coupled with low inventory, so are we at the end of the housing market cycle, ready for a recession to knock down this house of cards?

Whether we are or aren’t close to a housing bubble bursting, smart real estate investors are protecting their wealth regardless of what is to come. This is where today’s guest, Doug Lodmell, has gleaming insight. Doug and his team have worked for decades to protect the wealth of real estate investors. This is commonly known as asset protection but can be thought of as simple risk mitigation for the new real estate investor.

Doug has been through expansion, crashes, corrections, recoveries, and everything in between and has seen what a poor asset protection strategy can do to an investor’s portfolio. He drops some knowledge on today’s show around how real estate investors in 2022 can protect themselves from going through a repeat of 2008. His simple, yet undeniably valuable advice could save you not only money but years worth of work you’ve put into real estate investing.